Air fryer cooking times chart

180C or 360F handles most food. Move up to 200C or 400F for anything you want properly crisp, like chips, wings and roast potatoes. Drop to 160C or 320F for baking, because a fan at high heat sets the outside of a cake before the middle has cooked.

For anything you want crisp, yes, and three minutes is enough. Food that goes into a cold basket sits there releasing steam while the machine heats up, and steam prevents browning. The exception is reheating leftovers, where a cold start does no harm.

12 to 16 minutes at 200C or 400F, with a shake halfway. Skip the oil, since frozen chips already carry a coating. Fresh chips take a little longer at 15 to 18 minutes, and they need soaking and drying first.

Because fan strength and basket shape differ far more than they do in ovens. A powerful fan in a small deep basket moves air past your food faster than a weak fan in a wide one, so the same setting browns at different speeds. Use these times as a starting point and check a few minutes early the first time.

Yes, for anything loose like chips, vegetables or wings. The pieces touching the hot basket brown fastest, so shaking swaps them around and evens things out. For a steak or a fillet of fish, turn once instead of shaking.

In a single basket, only if both want a similar temperature and time. Otherwise one comes out wrong. A dual basket model solves this properly, since each drawer runs its own temperature and a sync setting makes them finish together.

By temperature, not time. 74C or 165F at the thickest part, measured with a probe. Air fryers vary enough between models that a timer alone is a guess, and chicken is the one food where guessing wrong matters.