Cooking Sprays Can Ruin Air Fryers. Here's What To Use Instead

Among the kitchen appliances most known for convenience reigns the ever-popular air fryer. From warming up leftovers and frozen food to crafting super crispy chicken wings, air fryers allow you to prepare detectable, mouth-watering food in a matter of minutes. Considering how easy air fryers are to use, one may assume that they work well with another helpful kitchen tool: cooking spray. 

The average cooking spray is made of food-grade lubricants and is intended to quickly and easily grease up kitchenware like cookie sheets, knives, and cheese graters. Cooking spray and air frying may seem like a match made in heaven, but the combination can leave a huge mess in your appliance.

Many cooking sprays contain soy lecithin, an ingredient that emulsifies and stabilizes processed food. Unfortunately, soy lecithin can't reliably stand up to the high temperatures air fryers use. As a result, using a cooking spray can leave behind a sticky residue that fuses to your air fryer basket. This grime can be difficult to remove and can leave lasting damage, so it's best to use another method if whatever you're air frying calls for a little oil. There are plenty of simple alternatives, such as using certain equipment, choosing the right oil, and greasing the food itself.

The next time you're using an air fryer to cook something that would benefit from a bit of extra fat, like french fries or homemade potato chips, start by choosing the best oil for the job. Air fryers can reach very high temperatures (around 400 degrees Fahrenheit). Choose a cooking oil with a high smoke point that can withstand the heat without gunking up your appliance. Peanut, canola, sunflower, avocado oil, and sesame oil all have smoke points above 400 degrees Fahrenheit, making them appropriate choices for use in an air fryer.

When it comes to actually using the oils, a couple of methods will work much better than simply coating the air fryer with an aerosol spray. One option is to grease the basket of your air fryer. Dab a bit of oil onto a paper towel or silicone brush to add a very light layer to the machine. Or, you can add some oil to whatever you're air frying, mix everything thoroughly to coat your ingredients, and then dump everything into the basket. Either way, you only need a small amount of oil to ensure your food gets crispy and delicious.

There are several accessories available for air fryers that can help with the issue of greasy food. If you regularly air fry food that requires a lot of grease, you may want to invest in a cooking rack. Cooking racks or trays raise food off the bottom of the air fryer basket so that it can be cooked from all sides, all without coming into contact with the basket itself and leaving a mess.

To potentially erase the need to clean out your air fryer between each batch of food, you can try lining the air fryer basket with something like an air fryer liner, aluminum foil, or reusable silicone liners. Air fryer liners made of parchment paper are intended to protect your basket from sticky food, but they can only be used once or twice before they get too greasy. Creating a custom liner with a sheet of aluminum foil will similarly cut down on cleaning time, but don't last indefinitely. Silicone liners, on the other hand, can be used indefinitely. They can be easily cleaned in the dishwasher, and don't require the use of oil, so there's no need to reach for cooking spray in the first place.