How to fry eggs in air fryer
Can be hard to achieve a runny yolk with air fryer fried egg, where an over easy fried egg is expected, versus the choice of what your frying pan can do.
Making fried eggs in an air fryer will be accessible to everyone; simply use a small ceramic plate out of your cupboard; spray with cooking oil. Get your air fryer hot and sit the plate in the basket. Blast the plate in oil; crack eggs onto the plate; spray oil on top of eggs; air fry for 6 minutes or until egg whites fully set.
DIRECTIONS:
I will admit I am only writing this how to cook fried eggs in an air fryer tutorial because I've finally figured out how to do it as best as possible.
I used to fry eggs in my air fryer similar to how you would fry eggs in a frying pan. How wrong was I to attempt to do it this way. In fact, making runny yolk fried eggs in an air fryer called for containing the eggs in a small area, whilst fully coated in oil.
Finally, I actually air fried a fried egg in an air fryer that not only assembled a pan-fried egg, the taste and texture was just as good.
How to fry eggs in an air fryer will require use of a regular small plate you would normally eat food off, which would ideally be made in ceramic.
Risks exist with the normal small plate breaking under intense heat, but I feel you can get away with.
Secret to frying eggs in an air fryer, is blasting the plate - and what can be a specialty air fry silicone egg cup for example - with spray oil directly on the plate, so the underside can actually be fried in a little oil whilst avoiding eggs sticking to the plate.
With no oil sprayed on top of the eggs, the cooking stage will take longer and thus causing the egg yolk to set long before the egg whites do.
Recipes and personal taste can cause for sunny side to over easy eggs, but on this occasion I want you to at least attempt to air fry to a runny yolk.
Spray oil on the topside of the eggs as well as the underside where the plate is first sprayed, to ensure your air fry eggs as quickly as possible.
Little space will be available to cook additional food items, like making bacon and eggs, yet a larger air fryer basket will benefit you with the additional space.
NOTE: Unfortunately, there will be NO literal sunny side up fried eggs in an air fryer, as the spray oil will produce a white glaze over the yellow egg yolks.
Preparation
Small ceramic plate is ideal for frying eggs in an air fryer, as the shallow depth of the plate will make it easier to get to the eggs. Coat the plate in oil to assist in frying the eggs on the underneath; with eggs sprayed in oil to assist with cooking on the topside.
- STEP 1: Preheat: 5 Minutes - With eggs usually going into a pan of hot oil, its vital you preheat your air fryer thoroughly
- STEP 2: Spray Small Ceramic Plate in Cooking Oil - Spray a small ceramic plate with cooking oil, with the plate already sat in your air fryer basket
- STEP 3: Crack eggs onto plate - Impossible to crack eggs into a deep air fryer basket; first cracks eggs into a small dish, before pouring eggs onto plate
- STEP 4: Spray top of eggs in oil - Oil sprayed on top of the eggs assists in the frying process, thus allowing the fried eggs to quickly cook on top
NOTE: Make sure ceramic plate used has a shallow dip in the centre to help form a rounded fried egg, with plenty of spray oil used to speed up the process of air frying fully.
How to cook fried eggs in air fryer
Air frying what will be something that assembles pan fried eggs, will need to be replicated as best as you can in an air fryer. Get your air fryer as hot as possible whilst pulling out the eggs as soon as the translucent egg whites turn white.
- STEP 1: Set temp to 400°F/205°C; time to 6 Minutes - Six minutes is all its take to air fry fried eggs, but only at a high temperature
- STEP 2: Cook for 4 Minutes - Simply check the eggs at this stage of the air frying process, as you don't want to over-do them
- STEP 3: Sporadically check until egg whites set - Final 1-2 minutes would involve opening the air fryer to check to see if the egg whites are finally set
- STEP 4: Carefully pull out plate; scrape fried egg edges to unstick egg - Plate will be extremely hot and thus you will need help of a silicone spatula. Scrape edges of the fried egg as the crispy edges will likely be baked onto the plate
NOTE: With a race to air fry the fried egg before the yolk is too over easy, ensure you pull out the egg as soon as the translucent egg whites have fully set.
Cautiously air fry fried eggs
Admittedly, making fried eggs in an air fryer while easy to make, it does come with its own set of problems.
How long to fry eggs in an air fryer is unknown, and while I feel six minutes is all it takes, naturally you will be forced to air fry the eggs longer, as you wait until the egg whites set fully - and its this unneeded extra time which will cause you to overcook your eggs.
In addition, frying eggs on a normal small ceramic plate - which isn't labelled as oven proof - does risk cracking under intense heat of the air fryer.
For that reason, you will want to use a small ceramic plate you wouldn't mind if it did break.
Where you may run into difficulty when attempting to fry eggs in your air fryer, is when the time comes to remove the eggs sitting on what is a very very hot plate.
Remove the plate along with the fried eggs by leaning the air fryer basket to one side, whilst using a silicone-tipped spatula to slide out the plate.
With the same spatula, use it to scrape the edges of the eggs which will likely be baked onto the ceramic plate - with not enough oil preventing it so - whilst sliding the spatula fully underneath the fried egg, to slide the eggs on toast or any meal you have waiting.
Summarise
Go into making fried eggs in your air fryer knowing this is your first time, and thus will likely not turn out as expected.
Making fried eggs in an air fryer isn't all that difficult, although you should be able to cook eggs which do at least assemble something that does look like fried eggs.
I can promise you any attempt to fry eggs in an air fryer will call for oil, which will help to make air fried eggs, actually taste like pan fried eggs. Good news is, air fryer fried eggs will be a little healthier than the frying pan.
To fry eggs in an air fryer you will first need something to crack your eggs into.
I choose a regular small ceramic plate out of my cupboard, for the reason the size of the plate is suitable for air frying one or two fried eggs together. With that, plates like these have a dip in the middle which helps to contain the egg.
Get your air fryer really hot for 5 minutes on a preheat, all while you can spray the plate in cooking oil, in an effort to shallow fry the eggs sitting on the plate.
With one or two eggs cracked onto your plate, don't forget to blast the topside of the eggs all over, which will help to cook the topside of the eggs faster.
Cook your air fryer fried eggs until the egg whites turn white, and not a second later.
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