Air fryers are a handy kitchen utensil which many of you may already be using in day to day cooking. Using an air fryer is not only healthier than regular deep frying, but also saves you time and money, while still giving your foods a crispy exterior and a satisfying crunch.
Now you may be tempted to line your air fryer to save on clean up time. This is a great hack, but make sure you’re not using paper towels to do so. There are two main reasons why paper towels are not compatible with air fryers. The first is that they can cause a fire hazard, and the second is that you risk cooking your food unevenly.
Why you shouldn’t use paper towels in your air fryer
One of the reasons that paper towels and air fryers are not friends, is because an air fryer cooks your food very differently to a standard oven. Air fryers rapidly circulate hot air through the small holes in the air frying basket, allowing the hot air to reach every side of your food, the same way hot oil would if you were deep frying. The cooking size of an air fryer is far smaller than a standard oven, which is also why an air fryer can save you time and money as it takes less energy to heat.
Using paper towels in the air fryer would obstruct the holes in the basket, which would affect air flow and cook your food unevenly. And unevenly cooked french fries is the last thing anybody wants. Because the inside of an air fryer heats up quickly and can reach up to 400 degrees Fahrenheit, there is also a risk of your paper towel setting on fire. Paper towels are flammable when they are exposed to very hot temperatures, which also means they are not oven safe either.
What to line your air fryer basket with instead
Although paper towels are a no go, there are other options to keep your air fryer clean up time to a minimum. Parchment paper and aluminium foil, are both air fryer safe and easy to use to line your air fryer basket. If you have a rack in your air fryer, line the rack with foil or parchment paper to make sure that there is proper air flow. If you need to cook your food on the bottom of the basket, poke a few small holes in the paper/foil, or avoid covering the entire basket. Essentially, you never want to be covering all of the basket holes, as this is what makes your food crisp up and cook evenly.
Another tip is to always make sure there is enough food weighing down the aluminium foil or parchment paper, as you want to avoid any chances of the paper flying into the air fryer’s heating coil and setting on fire. If you’re after a reusable liner option, you can also buy air fryer silicone liners which are usually dishwasher save and made specifically for air fryer cooking.
If you want to make sure that your food turns out super crispy, then you may be better off leaving the basket unlined, and cleaning it afterwards with warm soapy water. So, the next time you’re making some honey cinnamon roasted cashews, or crispy tofu balls in your air fryer, make sure you leave the paper towels on the kitchen counter. Your air fryer will thank you for it.
Happy baking! x
