Overheard my neighbor talking about preheating air fryers and it blew my mind

I was out watering my plants yesterday and my neighbor was on the phone saying she never preheats her air fryer for frozen stuff. She just tosses it in and adds two extra minutes. I always preheat mine for 3 minutes like the manual says, especially for frozen chicken wings. So I tried her method last night with a bag of frozen fries, no preheat just straight in at 400 for 12 minutes instead of 10. They came out way crispier and not dried out at all. I think I was overcooking stuff by preheating and then adding the full time on top. Has anyone else messed around with skipping the preheat step for frozen foods?

3 comments

3 Comments

aaron88010d ago

Wait, you're telling me you've been preheating your air fryer this whole time and it was making your food worse? That's wild because I literally just read the manual cover to cover when I got mine and it said preheat for every single thing. I tried the no preheat method with some frozen mozzarella sticks last night and they actually came out way better, not all dried out and sad looking. Who knew the manual was lying to us all along? Guess I'm never hitting that preheat button again.

susan8110d ago

The manual probably says to preheat for things like chicken or steak, not for frozen items that need to thaw. For mozzarella sticks, you're basically just reheating them, so no preheat makes more sense.

singh.harper10d ago

...and this is exactly the kind of thing that makes me think we're all just following instructions without thinking half the time. Like how everyone tells you to preheat the oven for cookies but I've been doing it without and they come out softer and chewier. It's like every manual is written by someone who never actually uses the thing in real life, you know? Your neighbor's method just proves that sometimes the "right" way is just what works for you, not what the book says. Makes you wonder what else we're doing wrong because someone told us to do it a certain way.