Air fryers come with a broad variety of functions as they are, but with a little bit of creativity, you can broaden the options even more, at least to a certain degree. From there, the absolute best way to further improve the air fryer’s capabilities is to get a couple of accessories.
Ranging from accessories that are strictly made for the air fryer to other helpful tools that complement the air fryer really well. Be it about expanding the
As the owner of an air fryer, you may know how simple the air fryer is once you start cooking. Sometimes, the most time-consuming part of cooking in an air fryer is preparing the food, therefore, I’ve composed a list of accessories that make your life easier and enable you to use a bunch of new techniques when cooking with the air fryer.
Air Fryer Accessory Kits
The most common air fryer accessory has to be the starter kit, composed of 5-10 accessories in a bundle. Online, you’ll be able to find many variations of the kit, however, most of them come with similar tools.
Browsing the market for accessory kits you may come across kits that claim to be “universal” which means that the kit can be used with a wide range of different air fryers. It may be smart to consider a universal kit if you ever plan on upgrading your air fryer. Unless you purchase the same air fryer, your air fryer-specific accessories will be rendered useless.
The accessory kit comes with a deep-dish pizza pan which gives you the possibility to experiment with air-fried pizzas, and
It also includes a cake barrel spacious enough to bake bread, cakes or other delicious baked goods. The design of the cake barrel ensures that whatever it is you’re cooking is cooked evenly. Equipped with a handle, the cake barrel is easy to remove.
Furthermore, the accessory kit hosts an accessory that single-handedly improves the air fryer and that’s the multi-purpose rack. The rack increases the
With the rack, you can prepare both the skewers and anything else you want to accompany them at the same time.
The kit comes with a second accessory that provides the air fryer with even more cooking surface. It’s the metal holder.
Simply place the food you have prepared in the air fryer’s basket and place the metal holder on top of it, kind of like a lid, then place the rest of the food on top of the lid. This way you can cook two different foods or larger batches in one session.
Lastly, the heat-resistant silicone mat which serves as a foundation for the hot accessories to be placed on.
When it comes to accessories, Philips, Cozyna, Power, and GoWISE are dominant. Therefore, the accessories that are produced often fit any air fryer model from any of the three brands. This set fits most brands as long as the model is 3.7 QT or larger.
Parchment Paper Liners
These miracle workers are designed to make
You can make these at home with regular baking paper but it’s a time-consuming endeavor that doesn’t save more than a dollar. Instead, you can purchase a bundle of hundreds of these online. The model I’ve included is suitable for most air fryers, even the larger ones. Furthermore, it’s non-toxic, non-stick and has no fluorescent agents.
Unlike regular parchment paper, the air fryer kind is perforated to allow the air to flow through without hindrance. It may not seem like much but the holes across the parchment paper are crucial to the air fryer’s way of cooking. Without proper air circulation, the air fryer can’t cook foods evenly.
These paper liners can handle the heat of the air fryer. At 400 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the peak of many air fryers, the paper liners can endure for more than 25 minutes.
However, if you decide to make your own perforated parchment papers at home, you can find information on how to do it in this article.
Cake Pans
Using the air fryer to make cakes is still underrated, but it is possible and the results are great. When doing so, it’s imperative to have some sort of cake pan for the air fryer in order to succeed. Cake pans come in different shapes and colors and are great when making cheesecakes, regular cakes, fudge, s’mores, and many other baked goodies.
This set includes 3 non-stick, BPA-free, nontoxic grey pans ranging from 7″ to 11″ in size. With just a little warm water and a sponge, the pans will look as good as new after you’ve used them. They’re armed with a latch on the side which releases the baked goods when you’re done baking.
The pan can handle temperatures up to 445F.
Cake pans are often too big to be used in small air fryers (1-3QT), therefore, make sure your air fryer’s chamber is large enough to host a cake pan. In this case, the set comes with 3 different sizes, so you should be set.
Cooking Rack
The cooking rack was part of the accessory kit we talked about earlier. It’s one of my all-time favorite accessories for the air fryer. It opens up a lot of cooking space, even in a small air fryer. That in itself makes it a great add-on to the air fryer.
Furthermore, the cooking rack allows me to cook a burger and french fries at the same time. When cooking meat, you really want to make sure that each piece of meat gets enough space, they should not overlap. The air fryer cooks by circulating hot air, therefore, everything needs to be exposed to the streams of hot air.
With the cooking rack, there’s enough space and then some. Additionally, this model comes with 4 skewers for kabob style cooking. The double-layered design gives the user much more space than the air fryer initially has.
The best thing about it is that cooking rack is very, very cheap.
Grill Pan
If you’re into the lovely pattern produced by the grill racks on barbecued food, the grill pan might be something for you. The grill pan can be used to make steaks, salmon, chicken, pork, turkey and more! It comes with a wire for easy removal after cooking.
The grill pan is easy to clean, which seems to be a returning characteristic for air fryer components. The high-quality coating doesn’t peel easily, which some users may have faced when using the air fryer’s traditional basket. The grill pan is made of FDA-approved non-stick, free from PFOA, and safe to put in the dishwasher.
Oil Sprayer
The case that the air fryer makes is that it cuts calories by up to 80% and still achieves the crispy surface of fried food. From a health perspective, air fryers are very kind to our bodies. Ok, where do oil sprayers come in? Well, most of us don’t know what we’re putting in our food when we use regular cooking oil sprays that contain propellants or aerosol agents.
Regular oil sprayers don’t contain any of those, making them a much better option for anyone who’s looking to make healthy decisions for themselves and the environment. With the oil sprayer, you can use any oil you desire.
Keep in mind that oils used in the air fryer need to have a smoking point above 400.
Additionally, in comparison to adding oil with a spoon, the oil sprayer restricts you from adding more oil than you want. Each spray uses very little oil, allowing you to keep the calories to a minimum. These come in handy when lightly oiling foods prior to cooking them in the air fryer, seasoning dishes or spritzing salads.
French Fry Cutter
French fries are a staple in the American diet and probably the most common thing to cook in the air fryer. With the french fry cutter, you can cut perfectly sized french fries from fresh produce in a single motion.
It’s as easy as placing the potato in the cutter, then with the help of a lever, you effortlessly press the potato through the cutter and end up with a batch of french fries ready to be cooked in the air fryer. It doesn’t have to be a potato either, you can use anything you desire as long as it fits in the cutter.
Once cut, spritz a little oil on the fries and add your favorite spices. Once cooked, you’ll be enjoying a batch of healthy homemade fries.
Instant-read Food Thermometer
While the air fryer comes with a bunch of presets and features specifically made to cook certain foods, having an instant-read thermometer is great when cooking food that the air fryer doesn’t have an assigned preset for.
Keeping track of internal temperatures is an easy way of making sure that you never overcook or undercook food. In addition to the potentially harmful compounds that may form when you overcook food, you also lose the tender interior full of juices. The texture is key when cooking food.
This model can measure temperatures ranging from -58F to 572F in 2 seconds. The temperature is then shown on the large LCD screen, shining clear and bright. On regular non-digital thermometers, it may be quite hard to decipher the temperature if you’re looking at it from an angle.
Stainless Steel Tongs
Tongs are great when cooking in an air fryer, the basket’s design calls for a longer tool, and while the spoon may work, it does not come close to the convenience of tongs.
I recommend stainless steel tongs with plastic or silicone grips to avoid scratching the non-stick surface on the air fryer’s components, furthermore, both silicone and plastic grips work much better on crispy food than metal grips do.
Mandoline
The mandoline is a great addition to the air fryer, especially if you love making snacks in the air fryer. There’s no easier way to get a batch of precisely cut chips, be it potato, sweet potato, zucchini or whatever you may like.
It’s important to make sure that all chips are similar to each other in size, otherwise, they will require different cooking times to reach the perfect crisp. With the mandoline, you can make them as thin as store-bought chips, then just add a little bit of oil and your favorite herbs and spices.
Boom, as easy as that, now you’ve got a delicious batch of homemade snacks.
The mandoline can make work of most of your vegetables and fruits too. Simply press the food firmly against the grip and start dragging the grip back and forth on the mandoline, each motion produces a perfectly sized slice. The grip protects your fingers from being part of the procedure, thankfully.
This model comes with 5 different ultra-sharp blades, endless possibilities, and a 24-month warranty.
I use the mandoline regularly to make onion rings, apple slices, and chips. However, the mandoline can do more than that. Use your imagination.
Ramekins
Ramekins are smaller in size, making them a suitable option for smaller batches of soup, muffins, cake, mini-lasagnas, souffle, and other single-serving recipes.
The design of the ramekin creates a beautiful pattern anything it cooks, which can be beneficial when making cakes or other desserts.
The ramekin can also double as a serving dish for olives, dipping sauce, toppings or tapas. The ramekin’s small size makes it compatible with the air fryer.
Bundt Pans
Bundt pans are the go-to foundation for visually pleasing cakes, the design of the bundt pan gives the cake a unique shape. The 6-cup bundt pan measures 8,5″ in diameter, therefore, it should fit in medium-large air fryers and instant cookers.
The aluminum evenly distributes the heat to make sure the cake is prepared properly. It comes with a non-stick surface to simplify the cleanup process.
Silicone Baking Cups
This set includes 18 silicone baking cups in three different sizes and 6 different colors. These eco-friendly, non-stick cups are free from BPA, PVC, and phthalate. Additionally, they come without chemical coatings
Silicone baking cups are a great addition to your toolbox when cooking in the air fryer, especially when you’re making bread, muffins, cupcakes, eggs, candy, and more. Every single piece in the set is resistant to high temperatures – they reach their absolute maximum limit at 500F, while the air fryer often reaches its limit at 400F.
These particular cups come with something called OptiBake technology, a property developed by the manufacturers to ensure that any ingredient placed in the dish is cooked properly.
Silicone Baking Tray
Similar to the silicone baking cups, the tray can handle the heat of the air fryer and then some, it can also be used for much more than simply baking. In a kitchen with less storage space, the tray may be a better option.
This specific model measures 10.63″ x 7.08″ but there are a ton of variations available online. It comes with 6 molds for muffins, eggs, mini-pizzas, cakes, and more.
Hasselback Potato Slicing Rack
Greatly reduce the time spent preparing potatoes in the kitchen. With the
Place the potato in the rack, the potato will be held down by the rack’s metal spikes. With the potato in place, take your knife and cut along the openings on the rack to produce a restaurant-like hasselback potato.
Fill the potato’s cuts with your favorite ingredients and place it in the air fryer, top it off with a sauce when it comes out of the air fryer. Enjoy.
Meat Tenderizer
A meat tenderizer is a handheld tool armed with 48 stainless steel blades meant to penetrate the skin of food to help the meat absorb the marinade. It also reduces cooking time by up to 40% in some cases. With the marinade flowing through the small channels in the meat, the interior will be incredibly juicy and tender when finished cooking.
Ccfoud’s meat tenderizer is a high-quality product with long-lasting blades that require very little effort to penetrate most foods. For safety reasons, the blades only deploy when you firmly press the device into foods, otherwise, they won’t come out.
Cooking in the air fryer, I love to marinade my chicken, meat and fish fillets prior to cooking them. The air fryer doesn’t handle wet batters very well, but with the help of the aforementioned parchment papers and the meat tenderizer, I can marinade anything cooked in the air fryer and achieve heavenly results.
Air Fryer Divider
The air fryer divider turns the air fryer’s basket into two compartments, separating the food. This can be useful when cooking two different foods, two portions, or meat that shouldn’t be in contact or overlap when cooking to ensure that it cooks evenly.
The divider is great when cooking meat and sides at the same time, like chicken and french fries or roasted potatoes. Without the divider, the fries or potatoes would stack on top of the chicken, preventing it from being cooked from all angles.
This specific model is made for XL-model air fryers and is compatible with all 9″ air fryer baskets and most 5-liter air fryers.
Air Fryer Cooking Times Sheet
Cooking instructions for air fryers aren’t printed on the packages, unlike cooking instructions for microwave ovens and traditional ovens. Instead, the original recipe must be converted into an air fryer-friendly recipe. When starting out using the air fryer, this can be quite tricky.
The cooking sheet tells you the cooking times and temperatures of 66 of the most commonly cooked foods in the air fryer. This simple sheet drastically shortens the learning curve of the air fryer.
The sheet has magnetic edges and can be mounted on your refrigerator. For the price, this is a great purchase for both beginner and intermediate air fryer users.
Vegetable Chopper
Vegetable choppers cut preparation times by a lot, like the mandoline. The vegetable chopper can turn any vegetable into a batch of small cubes, stripes, slices, and more with a single motion. Place the vegetable or fruit on the chopper, fold the lid and apply pressure (as if you were doing CPR) until the ingredient has been chopped into pieces.
The ingredients are collected in the compartment which you can easily remove from the chopper when done. The chopper comes with 11 different blades, capable of mincing, cutting, dicing, chopping, slicing and more.
Each blade is made of stainless steel and sharp enough to effortlessly cut through vegetables. Other than that, each component is removable to make cleanup a simple task.
This model from Zalik comes with a lifetime warranty. It’s a high-quality product and the company knows it. Still, having a lifetime warranty is incredibly beneficial when you’re handling a product with 11 add-ons.
Air Fryer Cookbook
When starting out with the air fryer, you may lack the creativity to explore the air fryer’s full potential. In that case, a cookbook can act as a helpful guide into the world of the air fryer.
There are cookbooks that cover the most common foods, but also those who are diet-specific.
Here’s a cookbook that I opened up daily for inspiration when starting out, I still use it on a regular basis but I’ve already memorized the recipes so I just retrieve the information from my head rather than reading the book.
It comes with 550 recipes, as you might understand, I haven’t memorized all of them, just the ones I fell in love with straight away. Nevertheless, for such a small price, the book offers great value to anyone using an air fryer regularly.
Silicone Oven Mitts
These mitts will protect you from being burned when operating the air fryer. The air fryer requires you to shake or stir the basket halfway through the cooking process to ensure an even cook, and with the basket reaching quite high temperatures, it’s important to protect your hands from the heat.
What Are Air Fryer Accessories Used For?
It’s hard to say what every accessory does without looking at it individually. Generally speaking, all accessories further improve the capabilities of the air fryer and the convenience offered by the appliance. With an accessory kit, you will broaden your options when working with the air fryer, additionally, some accessories can make your life much easier, such as the mandoline and french fry cutter.
One of the reasons I love using my air fryer is the fact that it takes next to no time to prepare a meal and requires very little of my attention. With accessories that simplify the process of preparing the food, you can reduce the cooking times even more.
You probably don’t need every single accessory in order to enjoy air frying, but I think a couple of the items on the list are highly beneficial for anyone who uses an air fryer on a regular basis.
So, the short answer is that accessories expand your possibilities when cooking in an air fryer. It enables you to use the air fryer to its full potential.
Best Complementary Appliance
The best appliance to accompany the air fryer is the pressure cooker, mainly because of how different they are – having both makes you the master of both worlds.
The air fryer circulates hot air produced by a heating element and then distributed throughout the air fryer’s chamber by the help of a mechanical fan and the convection mechanism. In the midst of all this, a miracle called “The Maillard Reaction” takes place. The reaction occurs between certain amino acids and sugars and creates a light brown surface and a distinct taste and texture unique to air fryers and convection ovens.
The pressure cooker uses an entirely different principle than the air fryer but it does a great job, and it is, in fact, even quicker than the air fryer, thanks to the pressure accumulated in the container.
Pressure cookers are loaded with liquid, preferably water, and all of the ingredients, the container is then sealed shut entirely. When powered on, the heating element in the pressure cooker starts to heat the container.
When the water starts to boil, it produces steam, but because the pressure cookers container is sealed shut, the steam has no outlet and it produces large amounts of pressure which forces the heat into the food, cooking it at a much faster rate than most other methods are capable of.
Sounds interesting? Here’s an article that goes through the differences between the two appliances and what they can be used for, individually.
Related Questions
Can you put silicone in an air fryer? Yes, silicone molds and forms can be used when cooking in the air fryer. You can use any dish that is safe to use in the oven in an air fryer. When using silicone, spray the mold with non-stick cooking spray prior to filling it to make cleanup easier.
Can you use paper muffin cups in an air fryer? If you plan on making muffins in the air fryer, do not use paper muffin cups, instead use the silicone ones as they are safe to use with the air fryer.
Can you use glass bowls in an air fryer? As long as the glass is safe to use in an oven or a microwave, you are safe to use it in an air fryer as well.