Cooking tinned Spam in the air fryer is a quick and straightforward midday snack. We like to serve ours between buttered soft white bread slices, and swapping the butter for cheese makes an excellent cheese and spam sandwich.
The most difficult steps to air-frying Spam are:
- Get the tin open
- Get the Spam out of the tin
- Slice the Spam evenly
A 200g standard can of spam slices nicely into six even slices, and not too thick and not too thin. If you need more slices, open another can rather than be tempted to slice the Spam more thinly.
Even Cutting
Cutting the Spam evenly is the key to even cooking in the air fryer. Although the fat in Spam will help keep it moist as it cooks, it is too easy to overcook Spam in the air fryer. Ensuring you have evenly cut slices will ensure all slices cook at the same rate and finish simultaneously.
Cooking the Spam in the air fryer:
Place the six slices in the air fryer basket, evenly spaced, to allow the hot air to circulate. This makes the air fryer cook your Spam more quickly.
Set the air fryer temperature to 180°C (365°F) and the time to five minutes. You can use the pre-heat time to cook the Spam.
Half Time
After half the time has passed on the timer, open the air fryer and use tongs to flip each slice of Spam over. Don’t overlap the slices, as these won’t cook so well.
Replace the air fryer basket and continue the cooking.
After two and a half minutes to cook the other side, you will have air-fried Spam ready to serve however you like.
If you want your Spam on the well-done side, add more time; an extra minute can make a difference to the Spam. Similarly, if you want your spam under-done, then check the doneness after less time. Just open the air fryer basket to check. The cooking process will restart after you close the basket into the machine.
Six slices of Spam cooked in the air-fryer served on a plate.
AirFryer SPAM cooking time
