Lightly Coat with Oil Spray your fish fillets or shellfish with a light dust of oil before placing them in the fryer.
Wash the fish fillets in cold running water and pat them dry with paper towels. In a small bowl, add olive or avocado oil, garlic, parsley, ground black pepper, sea salt and chilli flakes (if using) to make the seasoning. Whisk lightly. Preheat your air fryer to 400 F and set the timer to 12 minutes.
I'd wrap it in foil before putting it in the air fryer if you want to keep it moist. The moving air could definitely dry out the surface.
Is an air fryer good for fish? Yes! Air fryers can make excellent breaded fish fillets as well as unbranded fish like salmon.
5.1 Lightly Spraying Oil
This creates a barrier that helps lock in moisture while also promoting a crispy exterior. Even with a focus on healthy eating, a small amount of oil can go a long way in improving the texture and flavor of your air-fried dishes.
Use Minimal Water: A small splash — usually no more than a couple of tablespoons — is sufficient. Avoid adding large amounts, as excess water can interfere with the appliance's performance. Place It Correctly: Pour water at the base of the air fryer, ensuring it doesn't come into contact with the heating element.
Don't overcrowd your air fryer basket. This allows the fish to get crispy all over. If you don't have an air fryer, you can achieve similar results in a convection oven (see directions in the recipe), but I found that the air fryer delivers a crisper finish faster.
Mistake: Forgetting to wrap up your fish
Clare Andrews points out that fish drying out in the air fryer is a common issue, but luckily the solution is easy: Just wrap your fish up.
CAN YOU COOK FISH IN AN AIR FRYER? Yes. Fillets of equal size are the best option, since this will yield the most consistent cooking, but you can also cook fish wrapped in tinfoil. You can also cook fish cakes and fish fingers in an air fryer – especially important if you have young children.
Canola Oil
Canola is a varietal of the rapeseed plant that was developed in the 1960s using natural crossbreeding. It's a great go-to for frying fish since it is a very light oil, has a good smoke point and is not too expensive.
Adding a small amount of water to the bottom of the air fryer basket can help mitigate this issue. The water prevents the fat from burning, thereby reducing smoke and keeping your kitchen air cleaner. Adding water can significantly reduce the amount of smoke produced when cooking fatty foods.
Foil is safe to use in an air fryer so long as you follow three basic rules: never let foil touch the heating element; make sure the foil is weighted so it doesn't blow around the basket; and avoid contact with acidic ingredients, which can cause the foil to leach onto your food.
An air fryer's fast-moving convection heat can cause meat and certain vegetables to dry out. Leafy greens, lean meats and certain seafoods, for instance, are no longer welcome in my air fryer.
Air frying fish requires attention to cooking times. Each type of fish has a recommended cooking time, and ignoring this can result in undercooked or overcooked fish. Use a cooking chart as a guide and check your fish for doneness with a fork. It should flake easily and reach an internal temperature of 145°F (63°C).
Remember, air fryers need a lot less fat than traditional frying pans too. You can fry with water too. Just add a little water to the bottom of your air fryer to use the natural juices that run off from meat, fish and vegetables. You don't need oil to roast meat, fish, and vegetables in your air fryer either.
It's also a more sustainable option than lining your air fryer with aluminum foil. Lining your air fryer basket with a round of parchment paper is the perfect way to keep your air fryer squeaky clean and slash the time it takes to clean up. It just got a whole lot easier to make air fryer chicken drumsticks!
Baked fish in foil is a "no-smell" fish recipe, and the only one I make for my family (I hate fish, they love it!). Take foil packets to the table for service, and keep the packets around for wrapping and discarding bones and skin. Then when dinner's done, haul those babies to the outside trash.
Fish en Papillote | Air Fryer Parchment Fish. Fish en Papillote is just a fancy way of saying fish cooked in parchment paper. It's pretty popular, and that's because how easy it is to make, but really also because of how delicate, flakey, and perfectly it cooks up.
Using oil
Using oil in an air fryer is perfectly fine and helps the meat to remain moist and come out looking golden brown. However, a little oil in an air fryer does go a long way. With most cuts of pork, simply rubbing some oil into the meat will be all you need. You can use either regular olive oil or a spray oil.
Brush fish with olive oil, melted butter, or pesto to keep it moist, and season as desired with snipped fresh or dried herbs, spice blends, minced garlic, and/or salt and pepper.
Coat each fish fillet in the seasoning breadcrumbs, and remove any excess breading before you cook in the air fryer. Cook in the air fryer at 200°C (390°F) for 12-15 minutes, flipping halfway through at 8-10 minutes. Serve hot with tartar sauce and lemon wedges.
You can fry frozen or fresh seafood in an air fryer that tastes like it's straight from your favorite seafood restaurant's kitchen.