Had my air fryer smoke alarm moment with frozen fries last night

Tossed a bag of frozen crinkle cuts in at 400F without shaking the basket first and within 3 minutes smoke was pouring out. Opened it up and half the fries were burnt to the bottom while the top ones were still raw. How do you guys get frozen fries crispy without dealing with a smoky mess?

2 comments

2 Comments

wren30714d ago

Air fryers are basically tiny convection ovens that don't have the room for you to be lazy with them. That burnout you had is the same thing that happens when you try to cram too many clothes in a dryer and they come out damp. You gotta give the air room to move around each fry, which means shaking the basket halfway through and not overfilling it. I've noticed this pattern with pretty much every appliance nowadays, they work great but only if you respect their limits instead of trying to shortcut everything. If you want crispy fries without the smoke, do a light spray of oil on them first, then shake them every 5 minutes like your life depends on it. Keep the batch size small too, maybe half a bag at most, because the more you crowd things the more you get that raw on top burnt on bottom mess.

matthewg6310d ago

@wren307 basically wrote the air fryer owner's manual that nobody reads. I learned the hard way that my air fryer is not a magic dump everything in and forget it machine. That smoke alarm serenade hits different when you realize you could have just done half a bag in two batches.