How to Cook Frozen Food in An Air Fryer (With Cooking Times)

Air fryers are a lifesaver when it comes to preparing fried foods without having to waste a bunch of oil and grease. Not only do they provide a healthier version of fried foods but also save you so much time and energy. But, how to cook frozen food in an air fryer?

It’s possible to directly cook frozen foods in the air fryer just like regular fried foods. Just bring out the frozen dish and let it get to room temperature. Then simply apply oil to it and put it in the air fryer. 

However, a lot of people still mess up this simple process due to lack of knowledge and proper guidelines. So, let’s have a look into frozen foods and air fryers to find out how they complement each other. 

How to Cook Frozen Food in An Air Fryer

Now that you know why an air fryer is better at cooking than the conventional deep-frying pans, it’s time to know how to actually cook in one. Here’s a step-by-step guide that you can follow to cook frozen food in an air fryer. 

Step 1: Take Out the Package & Defrost It

Well, first of all, you’re going to need the frozen foods you’re about to cook in the air fryer. Take out the package from the deep freeze and leave it on the warm counter so that it can settle for a while.

It’s not a wise decision to put completely frozen food inside an air fryer. So, let the package come down to room temperature and get soft before you can actually cook it. 

Step 2: Preheat the Fryer

As I mentioned just a while ago, air fryers work via the process of convection. That means you have to preheat the air fryer before you can put anything in so the air has enough time to get hot first. 

So, depending on the type of food you want to cook, set the temperature and let the air fryer do its thing. Once the fryer has completed the process, it will alert you with a little ping and then you can put in the defrosted food items.

Step 3: Prepare the Tray

Inside an air fryer, you’ll find multiple racks (normally two to three) like a dishwasher, where you have to place the food items. It’s important to make sure you prepare the tray i.e. place the foods correctly so that they can get cooked properly and evenly.

Here you see a NuWave Brio air fryer from Amazon that contains three trays:

Since the food will get cooked only when the hot air has enough room to circulate in and out of them, you cannot fill up the tray to the brim. That way, they will get soggy and only the outer items will get cooked, leaving the middle and bottom ones fully raw and unusable.

Step 4: Set the Time & Temperature

Now that you’re prepped up with everything else, all you need to do is to push the tray in and let it cook inside the fryer. However, you do need to set the correct temperature and cooking time to prevent unwanted burning or overcooking from happening. 

You’ll find the proper cooking time and temperature for some common types of frozen foods below. Once you’ve covered that, cooking frozen foods inside an air fryer will seem easier than ever. 

Best Frozen Foods to Cook in An Air Fryer

Everything that you can normally deep fry using oil, should more or less be compatible with air fryers as well. After all, the internal process is not that different at all. Here’s a list of some of the best-frozen foods that you can cook using an air fryer:

• Hot pockets!
• Pizza rolls
• Chicken Nuggets
• Kebabs (Small ones preferably)
• Fish sticks
• French fries
• Sweet potato fries
• Samosas
• Vegetable rolls
• Spring rolls
• Nachos chips (not the dip though)
• Potato crisps
• Bacon fries
• Chicken wings
• Chicken tenders
• Chicken strips
• Corn dogs
• Meatballs
• Small pizzas
• Burritos
• Egg rolls
• Empanadas
• Jálapéno poppers
• Mozzarella cheese sticks
• Dumplings
• Potstickers (a bit of skill needed)
• Onion rings
• Tater tots
• Waffles
• Cookies

Remember that not all of these can be cooked in the same process. Neither are their cooking time and temperature the same. So before you decide to just plop ’em in the fryer, keep an eye out for the proper instructions in the packet. 

Frozen Foods You Shouldn’t Fry In An Air Fryer

Normally, foods that can melt vigorously after thawing should not be put inside an air fryer at any cost. Don’t go for overly seasoned foods as well since the heat will burn the spices and ruin the overall taste and smell. 

Here’s a list of some of the frozen foods that you should never cook using an air fryer:

• Frozen soup
• Curries
• Dips
• Cheesy foods
• Battered foods
• Dried fruits
• Desserts (like ice cream, pudding, etc.)
• Full chicken or turkey roasts
• Uncooked corn dogs
• Grilled cheese
• Cheesecake
• Burger patties
• Spinach
• Kale
• Salads
• Fresh vegetables
• Dry-rubbed meats/veggies

Not all foods are compatible to go inside an air fryer and one mistake can cause a mess all over your kitchen top. And it’s not easy to deep clean an air fryer, I’ll say that. So, make sure that you’re using an air fryer-friendly food item before plopping the tray in there. 

Cooking Times for Various Frozen Foods in An Air Fryer

Do not treat every food item the same way when it comes to cooking. Whether it’s an air fryer or an oven, time and temperature management is of utmost importance. Here’s a brief cooking time and temperature overview of some of the most common types of frozen food items:  Cooking Temperature

Food Item	Cooking Temperature	Cooking Time
Hot pockets	380-390° F	12-13 minutes
Chicken Nuggets	380-390° F	12-13 minutes
Chicken Wings	350-360° F	14-15 minutes
Chicken Strips	380-390° F	12-13 minutes
Chicken Breasts (Small/Medium)	350-360° F	25 minutes
Chicken Breasts (Large)	350-360° F	30 minutes
Spring Rolls	380-390° F	12-13 minutes
French fries	370-380° F	15 minutes
Corn dogs (Pre-made)	360-390° F	8-10 minutes
Fish sticks	360-370° F	8-12 minutes
Empanadas	380-400° F	8-10 minutes
Mozzarella cheese sticks	370-380° F	7-8 minutes
Dumplings	390-400° F	8-10 minutes
Jálapéno poppers	340-350° F	8-10 minutes
Onion rings	390-400° F	8-10 minutes
Waffles (Pre-made)	390-400° F	15-20 minutes

A gentle reminder that these are estimated values for both cooking time and temperature of the food items. Depending on environmental conditions, size of the portions, rate of convection, etc. the values may vary a bit. 

Precautions to Follow While Cooking Frozen Foods in An Air Fryer

Air fryers are a great addition to the kitchen but they do need extra care and attention to function properly. Have a look into some of the common precautions that go into cooking frozen foods in an air fryer. 

Always Preheat the Air Fryer

Never put any type of food inside the air fryer without preheating it in advance. Doesn’t matter if it’s a pre-made or just-made food item, preheating is a must to start the process of convection in the first place. 

If the air fryer isn’t pre-heated in advance, all the frozen foods will not start to cook right away. There will be a gap in-between and that will mess up the overall cooking time and temperature. So, the chances of undercooking or overcooking will increase by a lot. 

Get Rid Of Extra Bread Crumbs

Many common frozen food items that are cooked in an air fryer usually include bread crumbs on the outside. For example – chicken nuggets, wings, strips, etc. Before you can put these types of items in, you need to get rid of the extra bread crumbs. 

Why? Because, when convection will start inside the air fryer, it will apply to all the items separately at once. As a result, while the nugget itself will continue to cook from within, the dry flakes of bread crumbs will get way overcooked and get burnt in the process. 

The same goes for seasonings and dry-rubs. The spices on the surface will easily get burnt within minutes, leaving a bitter aftertaste to the actual food. That’s why, always season your fries after they are cooked, and not before. 

Use A Baking Sheet Underneath

Most air-fryers will come with a rack system. As in, there will be multiple racks within the fryer that you can put the food on and then push it in to get cooked or fried. This is done so that the hot air can reach the bottom part as well. 

While that’s cool and all, if you are cooking greasy foods, the grease will trickle down the racks and onto the fryer bottom. And that’s pretty annoying to clean so it’s best to just use a baking sheet underneath so that it can trap all the grease and keep the surface clean. 

Prevent Grease Build-Ups

If you have any previous experience with greasy items, you know that grease hardens over time. Even at normal temperature, it will slowly start to toughen up and be even bigger of a nuisance to clean.

So, make sure to keep the racks clean and free of grease after every cooking session. Wipe off the racks to get rid of them while they are still easily removable. If not, a little soap or dishwashing liquid should do the trick.

Read The Instructions Thoroughly

I already provided a list of estimated cooking times and temperatures above. But it’d be foolish of you to just believe them blindly and ignore the actual instructions on the packet. 

Normally, most frozen food packets will remain in the 340-400° F temperature range-wise and 6–35-time range-wise. Do make sure to read all the instructions thoroughly and only then can you proceed as instructed. 

Maintain Proper Spacing 

Finally, proper spacing is a golden rule to follow when it comes to cooking frozen foods in an air fryer. Take dumplings for example. For all the dumplings inside the tray to cook evenly at the same time, you have to make sure that none of the portions are touching each other. 

If you shove a bunch of them in at the same time, only the outer ones will get cooked/burnt. Because the heat will not be able to reach the heart and cook it from within. So, always use small portions and maintain proper spacing whenever you’re using an air fryer. 

Benefits of An Air Fryer in Cooking Frozen Food

Nowadays, an air fryer is nothing short of an absolute necessity in the kitchen area. Take a look into the benefits of an air fryer in cooking frozen food to find out why:

Less Use of Oil or Grease

When you normally cook fried foods, whether it’s deep-fried or shallow-fried, you HAVE to use an entire bucket of oil and grease. And even though they are hella tasty, this large amount of grease isn’t good for anyone. 

Why? For starters, oil costs a lot. And by lot, A LOT. Pure butter often costs a fortune nowadays. Sure, they make the food taste heavenly, but is the price really worth it?

Again, the amount of oil or butter is a huge issue as well. It’s okay if you use a normal amount of such high-in-calorie ingredients in your food, but deep-fried foods like nuggets and fries require five to ten times the usual amount. 

Needless to say, that, that’s a huge waste of both your time and money. 

On the other hand, an air fryer cooks the food by the process of convection. As in, there’s a constant circulation of hot air inside the fryer that cooks i.e., fries the food from within. 

The concept is a bit hard to grasp if you can’t catch how the process of convection works in physics. Which is why a lot of people are still reluctant to use air fryers as a viable mean of frying foods since they cannot acknowledge how it could possibly work. 

But it doesn’t take much to realize that an air fryer doesn’t need much oil or butter AT ALL. And to be honest, that much should be enough to convince someone that an air fryer is a much better option than a gallon of oil or butter. 

Good for Your Health

This is pretty much an extension of the ‘less oil more air’ clause mentioned just a while ago. I mean, the more oil or fat you consume, the more calories are being deposited in your body. Now that cannot possibly be good for your health, can it?

Yup. While carbohydrates and proteins will give you only 4 calories per gram, per gram of fat will provide you with 9! And while that’s good in a limited amount, too much grease will increase the number of calories in your body exponentially. 

And unlike the carbohydrates and proteins, these extra fats will get deposited into places like your lower abdomen and make you chubby. In biology terms, they are known as visceral fat sacks. 

The more visceral fat that you have in your body, the more are your chances of getting obesity-related diseases like diabetes, heartburn, high blood pressure, etc. 

So, by using an air fryer you are using less and less oil which will ultimately reduce the chances of such life-threatening diseases. That’s why when it comes to health and wellness, an air fryer is a much better option. 

Environment-Friendly & Easy to Clean

Did you know that the number of grease people use is one of the leading reasons behind environmental pollution? Just like fat blocks the interior of the arteries and restricts proper blood flow, a huge amount of grease can create blockage in massive drainage canals. 

You have heard the phrase ‘oil and water don’t mix’ before, haven’t you? Now think about all this oil and grease from cooking going down the drains and ultimately falling into lakes, rivers, and oceans. 

The massive wastage creates a thick layer of grease on top of the water surface. Sunlight cannot reach the bottom of the lake and the oxygen cannot circulate within the water. As a result, the BOD of the water decreases drastically and aquatic lives have to pay the price. 

Let’s not even go into all the chemicals that are used as dishwashing detergents and liquids to wash off the grease from your plates and pans. All of them are super basic and thus, highly increase the pH of the water and pollute it. 

You can avoid, or at least, decrease the extent of all these pollutants by using an air fryer. By not using gallons of oil for a single cooking session, you’re automatically cutting down on the wastage and saving so many aquatic lives. 

Again, they are super easy to clean as well. To avoid the grease from getting all over the place, just place a baking sheet or foil on the bottom of the racks. And as for the racks themselves, just wipe the grease off with a cleaning cloth and that’ll do the trick. 

Conclusion

Now you know how to cook frozen food in an air fryer. Turns out, the process is as easy as it possibly gets. Just keep a strict eye on the cooking time and instructions, and the air fryer will take care of all the rest.