Compared to a conventional fan oven and a deep-fat fryer for frozen chips.
Comparisons
Comparing cooking times between the air fryer and a conventional oven can help you adapt the oven-only instructions to work in the air fryer. While manufacturers of the packaged food we buy are catching on to the air fryer, some are slow to adapt. This can be an issue when you want to air fry some packaged food that doesn’t mention air fryer times on the packaging.
Less time.
The comparison for frozen potato chips uses a shorter cooking time in the air fryer, but you can also reduce the temperature by 50°F (10°C) and still get excellent results. The air fryer cooks food extra crispy and dialling down the temperature and the time can give you outstanding results. You can cook longer if needed but can’t uncook the overcooked food.
Check the basket regularly. Particularly with fries that need a regular basket shake, you can check the colour of the food. This can sometimes be an indicator, but the internal temperature defines when it’s properly cooked.
Crinkle Chips
Iceland, frozen crinkle chips are listed as cooking in a conventional, pre-heated fan oven at 200°C for 18 to 20 minutes.
In the air-fryer, this time is reduced to 16 to 18 minutes at 200°C with a shake halfway through.
Both times are based on a quarter of a bag.
A conventional oven can cook a whole bag simultaneously as a quarter of a bag of chips. A medium-sized air fryer could be overcrowded and take longer to cook than a quarter of a bag, and it will need more shakes during the cooking, and the smaller capacity of the air fryer will need more time for a more significant portion of chips.
Deep fat fryer
As a fair comparison, the deep fat fryer is also listed on the frozen crinkle chips cooking time.
175°C for just 3-4 minutes. You have the oil pre-heating time to add to the overall time, but don’t put the chips in until the deep fat fryer has reached the 175°C.
You don’t need to add fat to cook the frozen chips, so there is no accurate comparison.
Cooking temperature
I regularly reduce the listed cooking temperature, even if this time is shown explicitly for an air fryer. Cooking at 50°F (10°C) less can help to save costs. The quicker heat up time, the lower electricity required to meet the lower temperature and sustain it all help. Only by a small amount, but it begins to add up each time. You still get crispy food, and there is less chance of burning. If reducing the temperature didn’t provide good results, there is no reason to cook it a bit longer or crank the temperature by 10°C/50°F for the final few minutes.
Pre-heat
For frozen potato chips, crinkle, straight, criss-cross, and waffles. These are safe to put in the air fryer from the cold. Use the energy the air-fryer takes to get to its set temperature to cook your food. This head-start on the cooking will mean the overall cooking time will be less. Less cooking time, less temperature, and less warm-up time can all help reduce costs. Don’t be afraid to use the pre-heat time to cook your food if you want to reduce your cooking costs.
Foods such as frozen fries will respond well to using the pre-heat for cooking but bacon would benefit from pre-heating the air fryer before adding the food. Bacon is more sensitive to the air fryer cooking and a pre-heated bottom plate will help the underside cook more evenly.