17 Unique Foods to Make in Your Air Fryer

Deep-fried chicken wings at a sports bar are delicious, but the homemade ones don’t have to be a downgrade. These air fryer wings come out perfectly crisp, evenly heated, and juicy, even if you overcook them by a few minutes. With a simple blend of dry seasonings, you can make a batch of drums and flats that’ll make you the hero of any Super Bowl watch party. Get the recipe for Air Fryer Chicken Wings here.

For the uninitiated, Korean sausage-ppang (direct translation: sausage bread) is a meat-studded handheld treat sold at Korean Euro-Asian bakeries—think of it as a hot dog all glowed up. This air fryer version is a lazy baker’s dream, as it requires only basic ingredients (including canned biscuit dough, sausage franks, and shredded cheese) to make a wonderful snack or meal that cooks up in 15 minutes. Get the recipe for Air Fryer Sausage Bread here.

Fast food chicken sandwiches use breast meat, not thigh meat—and you can do way better. This recipe for the Ultimate Air Fried Spicy Chicken Sandwich starts with juicy, succulent chicken thighs and a marinade of buttermilk and pickle juice. For the breading, we jazz up regular panko bread crumbs by adding in crushed-up sour cream and onion potato chips. After a few minutes in the air fryer, plop each thigh on a brioche bun with the right condiments, and you’ll have a sandwich that rivals anything you can get at Popeyes or Chick-fil-A. Get the recipe for the Ultimate Air Fried Spicy Chicken Sandwich here.

While a lot has been written about the crispy, snackable vegetables you can achieve with air frying, it turns out mushrooms are an unexpected power player in the fryer basket, too. After 12-15 minutes of cooking time, these spicy harissa mushrooms are combined with bright lemon juice, toasty couscous, and (of course) garlic for surprisingly satisfying—and photogenic—results. Get the recipe for Air Fried Harissa Mushrooms with Toasted Couscous here.

Frozen corn doesn’t exactly feel like a sexy vegetable. So why not use this simple recipe to turn frozen corn into the best thing you eat today? You can whip this dish up in less than 90 seconds, and your trusty air fryer will turn it into something that borders on miraculous. Get the recipe for Air Fried Corn with Scallions & Miso Butter here.

This recipe is the perfect dinnertime solution if you suddenly realize you’ve forgotten to buy groceries. The secret ingredient to these peas is instant mashed potatoes, which have the power to turn your greens into the star of the show. Not only can you apply just about any spices to the mix, but you can also apply this technique to lots of other frozen vegetables, such as broccoli, green beans, or okra. What are you waiting for? Get the recipe for Potato-Crusted Air Fried Peas here.

Cooking with frozen Brussels sprouts often results in mush. That’s because they’re waterlogged from the process of being steamed, blanched, flash-frozen, and thawed. But if you cook them with the fast, intense heat of an air fryer, you’ll get sprouts with a nice crispy shell and tender interior. Add some olive oil, salt, and pepper, and these sprouts will be the best thing you eat all year. Get the recipe for Air Fried Brussels Sprouts here.

Putting vegetables in an air fryer will make you want to eat them all the time—because even when they’re simply prepared, the air fryer makes them into something worth eating. This recipe, which takes its cues from cumin beef, is so simple that once you gather your ingredients, it takes less than 90 seconds to prepare. Get the recipe for Sichuan Cumin Asparagus here.

Anyone who’s been to Red Lobster understands that the Cheddar Bay Biscuits are the best part of the meal. So we’ve taken that winning appetizer and turned it into the main event. These croquettes are golden, crispy, and buttery on the outside, and they’re creamy, oozy, and irresistible on the inside. Best of all, the recipe has a high yield so you can store extra in the freezer to be quickly air fried for future meals. Get the recipe for Cheddar Bay Shrimp Croquettes here.

The convection heat of an air fryer does something wonderful to gnocchi, which is to say, it transforms each piece into crispy little potato nuggets. These crunchy bits can be combined with fresh vegetables for a unique textural contrast that no one typically expects from a pasta dish. Get the recipe for Crispy Gnocchi and Raw Tomato Sauce here.

Baltimore Coddies are something of a budget crab cake, fried and served with yellow mustard on a saltine cracker. This version cooks up the cakes in the air fryer, which not only prevents the splattering of hot oil but will also keep your kitchen from smelling like fried fish, if that’s something you’re looking to avoid. Get the recipe for Baltimore Coddies here.

This recipe is technically two recipes: one for homemade focaccia and one for air fried focaccia. You’re welcome! It’s simple and delicious, and the bread transforms into “fries” when you slice it up and air fry it with oil and spices. It’s a dunkable appetizer that goes great with tomato sauce. Get the recipe for Homemade Focaccia and Garlic Bread Fries here.

This recipe swaps out chicken for tofu in order to satisfy a craving for lemon pepper wings. By starting with the microwave, you can lend the tofu a meatier, McNugget-y texture and then dredge it in a flavorful breading. Once the tofu’s been fried, it’s covered in melted butter, because we said this recipe was vegetarian, not boring. Get the recipe for Lemon Pepper Tofu here.

City Chicken is the most delicious lie we’ll ever tell you. This “chicken” is, in fact, fried breaded pork nuggets. The name comes from the Great Depression, when immigrants living in the Rust Belt could more easily afford pork than chicken and so cooked the former to resemble the latter. It’s typically made on long skewers, but to fit inside the air fryer, individual portions are doled out on toothpicks and served alongside a sweet dipping sauce. Once you drop these into the air fryer, they’re done in under 15 minutes. Get the recipe for City Chicken Nuggets here.

It’s rare that our craving for doughnuts overlaps with our desire to haul a bunch of frying oil onto the stove and hover over its hot surface with a metal spider. So here’s a recipe for air fryer bomboloni, tiny yeast-risen doughnut holes that come out of the convection heat after 5 minutes all sweet and puffy, ready to be slathered in cinnamon sugar, cocoa powder, and Nutella. Get the recipe for Air Fryer Bomboloni Doughnuts here.

This is one of those recipes designed for you to whip up a batch at the start of the week, freeze it, and then drop a portion into the air fryer each morning for a quick breakfast. It’s a play on rellenitos de plátano (stuffed plantain balls) filled with cream cheese and encrusted with sweet, cinnamon-y cornflake crumbs. Traditionally, rellenitos de plátano are fried, but this version lets high convection heat do all the work, leaving you free to enjoy your morning. Get the recipe for Cream-Cheese-Stuffed “Fried” Plantains here.

Frying pickled red onions is one of those “Why the hell didn’t I think of this before?” revelations, and an air fryer makes it simple enough that you’ll want to cook them again and again. It’s a snack or party appetizer you can serve speared on a toothpick, along with some cilantro ranch dressing on the side. And for those who pride themselves on being thrifty and/or resourceful in the kitchen, the pickling brine can be saved and repurposed, either to make more pickles or to use in salad dressings and marinades. Get the recipe for Fried Pickled Red Onions here.