How full can you fill an air fryer

Fill an air fryer with an abundance of food for the first time, and you'll soon come to realise it was a bad idea, as it produces a lot of issues in the process.

How full you should fill any air fryer is really just ⅓ of the way. Adding to much food to an air fryer would only result in being unable to properly shake the food. Similarly, the air fryer wouldn't be able to distribute the air flow in and around individual food items, leading to raw and uncooked food.

While its certainly possible to air fry large individual food items like a chicken or roast of some kind, it isn't possible with small food items like fries, onion rings and nuggets.

Air flow can move about a sturdy whole chicken, whereas to fill the basket with too many fries, will cause a dense, compact load; it will be impossible for the air fryer to pass hot air in between the fries and similar items.

Fries sitting on top of this pile will brown for sure, but in fact they will probably over cook due to you being unable to flip fries to the exposed air flow.

I would suggest you only fill the air fryer basket a third of the way up, with any food that is abundant, like fries and nuggets... as they will become too compact.

Another food item this applies to is chicken wings, and while adding too many wings to the basket can lead to raw in appearance wings; you simply wouldn't be able to cook the chicken skin to a crispy texture as expected.

You should air fry chicken wings on a single layer spread out on the bottom of the basket.

I would also add you could think about using an air fryer rack which can be used to cook a double layer of wings, without them being compacted in the bottom only.

Filling an air fryer to high will spoil your food, which could lead to dryness and burning of food, and potentially a fire if food touches the coil situated above the food items.

Maximum of ⅓ full basket only

In the few years I have cooked with an air fryer, I have learnt one crucial element to air frying all kinds of food to perfection.

Which is to air fry as little food inside the basket as possible, in an effort to allow air flow to properly flow in between the individual food items.

Where this relates to most is how many fries you put in an air fryer, and all related items, like onion rings. Truth of the matter is, it would be impossible to air fry all French fries to their very best, if you cook too many at any one time.

Best way to air fry French fries is with only a 5th of fries added to the air fryer basket.

Its possible to go up to as much as ⅓ full, but bear in mind the fries will be heavier, and thus harder to sporadically toss over several times during their cooking time.

Overloading results in uneven cooking

One real concern when filling an air fryer basket too full with fries and other favourite food items, is that the food simply won't cook as it should.

Fill the air fryer basket only a third of the way up for fries, and the fries not exposed to the open air will appear raw, and taste raw. To render that issue, this is where you must flip and shake fries as much as possible.

Another popular food item to cook in an air fryer is chicken wings, be it freshly prepared or the frozen kind.

Cook chicken wings in a single layer on the bottom of the air fryer basket, which will allow for the skin to be directly exposed to the heating element sat above; this will crisp the skin, and cook the wings to a tender, juicy texture.

Overloading an air fryer basket is never a good idea, as it will only lead to your favourite foods not crisping up as they should, with raw chicken skin spots very noticeable.

Fully loading would be hard to toss

Key to successfully air frying anything from French fries, to pastries and chicken bits, is to shake, flip and toss them as frequently as you can.

How you would do that is relying on a light-weight air fryer basket, which will only be weighed down when its filled too high. Keep the food items to a respectable third of the way full - to ensure you can flip food items without weight restrictions.

Fully loading thin fries and their chunkier counterparts will put a lot of weight on the basket, and as a result will be impossible to toss sporadically during cooking.

It can lead to you delaying or avoid flipping the food - which will lead to poorly air fried food items - along with ruining a very nice meal.

Lean to air fry food in small batches for a healthier meal, but do fill the basket up a little higher when you know exactly what you're doing.

Avoid raising food to coil

So you see, while its important to not fill the air fryer too full as it would be hard to properly cook food that is piled in to a small chamber; in fact food risks being raised too high up in the air fryer, bringing it in contact with the heating element fixed above.

Heating element is the coil that goes red hot which is situated on the underside of the basket, internally.

Any food items and accessories that come into contact with this coil, will burn which can cause a fire, but not before causing a plum of smoke throughout the kitchen.

When filling the air fryer basket with enough food to barely cover the bottom of the basket, you'll be in safe hands knowing there isn't a safety hazard cooking inside the air fryer.

As a matter of fact, you can air fry a whole small chicken in an air fryer which does come close to the top of the basket, and only a few inches from the coil.

If you can cook a chicken - be it a small one in your air fryer - then you should be safe to fill the basket a little higher than what is deemed safe.

Summary

How full can you fill an air fryer will depend on how much or little your air fryer model can take, although there is always going to be a cut off for safety reasons.

I believe you should only think about filling your air fryer basket only one-third of the way up, for very good reasons I might add.

Reason one being, if you fill the basket halfway with just French fries, I guarantee you will find it impossible to shake and flip the fries. Shaking and flipping food, fries especially, regularly while cooking is crucial to air frying great fries.

In reality, if you add too many fries to an air fryer basket, up to 50% of the fries won't cook to a crispy golden texture as they should.

In addition, fries that aren't given a chance to be exposed to the heating element above, and the powerful air flow, will be raw in appearance, and won't taste nice at all.

Its not just fries mind you, this applies to all food items that must be flipping and shaken frequently to introduce even cooking.

Chicken wings of all food items must be laid out flat on the bottom of the air fryer basket - and with wings being one of my favourite foods to cook in an air fryer - I will want to crisp up the skin, and ensure there's no raw spots visible.

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