Oil or fat has not been used correctly Also, use low-fat snack varieties where possible. It will be difficult to get a crispy result with snacks that have a high-fat percentage. To find out how to use oil in your airfryer correctly, please follow the next tips: Dry the outside of the food properly before you add oil.
Why is my food not crispy in an air fryer? If your food is not crispy when coming out of an air fryer, you may not have patted it dry before putting it in to cook. Meat or proteins, or foods you may have washed, will fry better without the added moisture.
Food needs oil to crisp in an air fryer. The best is oil in a sprayer that you can mist on. These are often available in supermarkets. You can also buy the sprayer, and then fill it with whatever oil you want. I often put my food (veggies, chicken, whatever) in a bowl and mist it with oil.
Spread the food out in the air fryer basket. Set the machine to 375°F on the “air fry” setting and let it rip for three to five minutes. They reheat with surprising speed, so be sure to check on them after about two minutes and give the basket a shake.
"Be careful not to overfill your air fryer basket," says Ailsa. "This can result in uneven cooking and can leave you with soggy food at the bottom. If you want to cook larger portions, look for an air fryer with a bigger capacity."
Firstly, if your potatoes are still wet before being placed into an air fryer, this can cause your potatoes not to crispen up. You can avoid this by thoroughly patting dry your potatoes before you place them in the air fryer. Secondly, you might be putting in too many potato chips so they aren't cooking evenly.
The circulating air cooks the outside of foods first, which creates a crispy brown coating and keeps the inside soft, just like deep-fried foods. As the food cooks, a container below the basket catches any grease that drops. Bottom line: Air fryers create the crispy, chewy foods people love without all the oil.
During the air frying process, if you pull out the chicken and notice any dry flour spots on the chicken, spray those spots lightly with oil. The breading will never crisp up if it doesn't have a tiny bit of oil to hydrate it.
You're Overcrowding the Basket
One of the most common mistakes when it comes to using an air fryer (or roasting food, in general) is overcrowding. When food cooks, it releases moisture; so, when the food items that you're air frying are on top of each other in the basket, the pile-up will cause steam.
I wouldn't bother doing potatoes from the raw state, without soaking. It will take about a half an hour and the texture won't be nearly as rewarding. They just don't get very crispy without that cold soak.
To achieve crispiness, it's key to frying your food at the right temperature. If the oil is too hot, the food will burn and become too crispy. If the oil is too cold, the food will absorb too much oil and become soggy. The ideal frying temperature is between 350°F and 375°F.
For crispy wings, take a little extra time to place the wings in the basket one at a time. It is important that the wings don't overlap and aren't too close together. Air fryers work by circulating hot air all around the surface of the food as it cooks, so you need to be conscious of allowing space for that air flow.
While we wish it were possible to fry without any oil, air fryers do need a little oil to make your food crispy (but you'll use a lot less than a traditional fryer). Toss your food with a small amount of oil (around a tablespoon or less) to coat it evenly, then add it to the air fryer basket.
Place leftovers in a single layer in air fryer basket. Cook for 3-5 minutes at 350 °F, or until food is crispy to liking and reaches safe internal temperature of 165 °F.
Using too much oil, overcrowding the air fryer basket or pulling the fries out before they're ready can lead to poor results. Crisp up soggy fries by evenly distributing the fries into one flat layer in the air fry basket and popping them back into the oven to cook for an additional 3–5 minutes.
The two biggest concerns are potential carcinogens called acrylamides and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) that are created in the process of cooking.
Why are my homemade chips not crispy? It's likely that too many chips were cooked at once (a crowded pan is never a good thing) and doing so means the temperature of the oil decreases, resulting in soggy, greasy chips.
If you try to cook too many French fries at once, they can end up soggy. Ideally, they should be in a single layer in your air fryer basket (a few overlapping is okay). If you need to cook for a crowd, try cooking them in batches. Another reason for soggy fries is that they need a few more minutes.