The Best And Worst Types Of Meat To Cook In The Air Fryer

Air fryers have been a sensation since their popularity skyrocketed in the late 2010s. Offering the ability to cook countless foods in a shorter time span than a deep fryer or conventional oven — and with much less oil — numerous home chefs have discovered the appliance's benefits. Given air fryers can create both convenient and healthy meals, there's an ever-growing list of foods that they can make successfully. In fact, you can use your air fryer to prepare a variety of different meat products, as well.

From lamb chops to sausages, certain meats are an ideal match for the air fryer. But not every animal protein is well-suited for the appliance. Frankly, before you potentially waste any delicious purchases, it's worth knowing which types of meat are the best to cook in an air fryer, and which are the worst.

Whether you're an experienced air fryer user or just starting out, being armed with this knowledge will allow you to put the appliance to its best use. Join us as we explore the best and worst types of meat to cook in the air fryer, and reveal some tips to help you create the tastiest possible meals.

If ever there was a meat that was made for the air fryer, it would be pork belly. Soft, melt-in-your mouth meat with a fantastic, crispy crackling on top, pork belly done right is a magnificent entrée. The air fryer allows you to cook the meat evenly while ensuring the crackling is spot-on, as well.

Before you start the cooking process, it's crucial to score the skin with a sharp knife. You may think this is purely a visual benefit, but it helps make the crackling as crunchy as possible by letting more heat into the skin. Just make sure you don't cut so deeply that you nick the meat itself, as this could cause it to dry out. You can also pat the skin dry as an extra step to help it crisp nicely.

The key to air fryer pork belly is to start it at a higher temperature for the first half of its cooking time, before turning it down for the remainder. This will create a perfect golden crackling on top without overcooking the rest of the meat. Around 30 minutes at each temperature should do the trick. Additionally, cooking pork belly in the air fryer means the excess fat will drain away so you can enjoy the meat to its fullest.

If you were thinking of using your air fryer as a quick way to rustle up some bacon, think again. Cooking bacon in the air fryer can, at best, make a total mess, and, at worst, be downright dangerous. As you no doubt know, bacon is a fatty food. This is where the problem lies, as the high quantities of fat dripping from the meat has the potential to burn and produce smoke.

Beyond the potential smoke hazard, the average size of air fryers makes it tricky to cook large quantities of bacon at once. Stacking the strips on top of each other will prevent them from crisping up, so you'll need to cook your bacon in multiple batches if you want it to be nice and crispy. Given all this, it's best to stick to a traditional oven or frying pan when you're craving bacon and save the air fryer for another day.

A great pork chop can make a delicious mid-week meal. But they can easily dry out, making them less enjoyable to eat. To cook them properly every time, turn to your air fryer, which can help keep the inside moist and the outside beautifully crisp. Plus, air frying pork chops allows you to get the consistent cooking provided by the oven in much less time.

Choosing bone-in chops will reduce the chances of the meat drying out, and increase the odds of a succulent dish. Season the chops beforehand, then preheat your air fryer to around 400 degrees Fahrenheit (if your appliance has that option). Once it's ready, add your pork chops to the air fryer.

Cook them for 12 minutes — flipping the chops halfway through — until a golden crust forms. Let the pork chops rest for a few minutes to allow the juices to absorb back into the meat, then serve with a fresh salad or some veggies dry-roasted without oil.

Though you'll find plenty of recipes that claim roasting a whole chicken in the air fryer is a genius idea, the reality often falls short of expectations. You may be dreaming of a succulent bird with a perfectly golden skin, but in most cases, your air fryer is going to disappoint. The majority of air fryers simply aren't big enough to accommodate a standard-sized chicken, after all.

Even if you do manage to squeeze the poultry into the appliance, removing the piping hot chicken is going to be pretty much impossible without a few burnt fingers. Plus, in the unlikely event that you do manage to find a smaller chicken (or a massive enough air fryer) to fit, there's still going to be an issue with cooking. An air fryer works by circulating hot air, after all, which can't happen effectively if there's a whole bird taking up the entire basket.

Consequently, placing a whole chicken in an air fryer with no extra room will result in it cooking unevenly, and you'll end up with dried-out meat or — much worse — under-cooked poultry. While smaller pieces are well-suited for air frying, a whole chicken simply won't work. Either cut up the chicken first and cook everything separately, or use the oven to cook the chicken whole.

Sausages are a classic summer treat that are best when cooked on the grill. Recreating the same effect on the stove can be difficult, but with the help of your air fryer, you can enjoy sausages that are crisp on the outside and juicy in the middle (even in the rain).

Sausages are notoriously difficult to fry without uneven brown patches, and the air fryer takes that issue out of your hands. The way the appliance circulates hot air allows it to cook sausages consistently, leading the meat's interior to cook without browning the skin too much. You should still turn them a couple of times during cooking to make sure they're nice and golden on all sides.

The sausages will take around 10 minutes to cook and can also be cooked straight from frozen, though they will obviously take longer. The cleanup will not be too bad either, with any excess fat draining into the basket below for you to responsibly dispose of afterward. Once you have tried sausages in the air fryer, you may never cook them in the pan again.

Chuck steak is a cheap and satisfying cut of beef that features in wonderfully comforting dishes such as beef stew, full of rich flavors and satisfying textures. A good stew can take a long time to cook, so you may be thinking that you can use your air fryer to speed things up. Unfortunately, there's no shortcut to cooking stew meat until tender, so the air fryer would not be a suitable option.

The issue with trying to cook chuck steak quickly is related to the part of the animal the meat comes from. Chuck steak, known as braising steak in the U.K., comes from the shoulder of the cow. It is an inexpensive cut that is packed with flavor but is much tougher than the premium cuts such as the sirloin and filet. The muscle fibers in the chuck steak need to break down, which takes time. Stewed beef that has not been cooked for long enough is tough and unpleasant, whereas, after a few hours of slowly bubbling away, it will be soft and succulent.

The simplest way to cook chuck steak, particularly in a stew, is to use a slow cooker. Prepare the meat first thing in the morning, then leave the slow cooker to do its thing while you go about your day. This means you can plate up a warm and comforting dish in the evening and save the air fryer for other types of meat.

Lamb chops make a great meal for a special occasion, with their rich flavor, juicy middle, and crispy outside. Cooking them just right in the pan can be tricky, but with an air fryer, they can become your go-to option when you're in the mood for a satisfying meat course. The hot air circulating in the fryer will keep the juices in the meat where they belong, and create a beautifully browned outside at the same time.

Seasoning is the key to delicious lamb chops, so rub them with salt and some dried herbs before cooking. To make them extra tender, you could marinate them for at least 30 minutes, too. Add the lamb to the fryer in one even layer, ensuring the chops don't overlap, then cook at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for around 10 minutes for medium rare. Serve your succulent lamb chops with a classic side of grilled asparagus or a creamy mash.

Chicken tempura is a wonderfully light Japanese-inspired dish that coats juicy chicken in a delicate batter before deep frying to create an appetizer with a wonderful crunch. If you're wondering if you can recreate this in your air fryer, we're afraid the answer is no. Battered foods do not fare well in an air fryer due to the lack of hot oil.

One of the unique features of an air fryer is its ability to cook foods in very little oil, making it a healthy way of cooking. With battered foods, the hot oil of the deep fryer is needed to quickly cook the batter and create a delicate layer. This is where the air fryer will come up short when cooking food coated in wet batter. The likely result is the light batter will fall off of the chicken and create a soggy mess at the bottom of the fryer, which will be a nightmare to clean up.

If you are looking for a similar effect that will work in the air fryer, breaded chicken is a better option. While some of the coating could still fall off, the air fryer will create a satisfying texture on the outside and keep the interior juicy and delicious.

Meatballs are a family meal staple for many, adding a protein kick to pasta or taking the spotlight covered in a delicious tomato sauce. Meatballs are a great option for the air fryer, as they cook quickly and consistently to give you juicy meat with a thin crust.

Nothing beats homemade meatballs, and they are relatively simple to whip up. Most recipes call for pork or a blend of meats, eggs, cheese, and breadcrumbs, but you could swap out breadcrumbs for oats instead for a tasty alternative. Once the ingredients have been mixed together and rolled into balls, cook them in the air fryer for around 10 minutes. Arrange them in a single layer with space between them to allow the heat to circulate around them and firm up the outside.

Compared to frying meatballs in oil, air fryer meatballs will be a healthier option and don't require you to stand over the stove as they cook, making them the ideal midweek dinner. A family meal that is this easy to make will surely be added to your regular meal plan.

Burgers aren't necessarily the least suitable meat to cook in your air fryer. But depending on how you like them, you may still end up disappointed. Preparing red meat to the proper temperature can be tricky in the air fryer. So if you enjoy your burger medium or rarer — particularly one made with Gordon Ramsay's go-to ground beef burger combo – you may prefer to stick to the grill.

The issue largely lies in the inability to create a delicious brown crust on the outside, like you'd get from the grill. After all, it will take longer for an exterior crust to form than it takes for the inside of the burger to reach the necessary temperature. This means you'll need to compromise between the interior being well-cooked or the exterior having a delicious texture.

Now, if you enjoy your burgers well done? Then the air fryer is more than capable of cooking a burger that's akin to a grilled one (with much less chance of it burning). Ultimately, the success of an air-fried burger comes down to how rare you like it cooked and how particular you are about that chargrilled flavor.

Ribs are a wonderful meal to enjoy on a summer evening in the garden with friends. However, you need plenty time to prepare them, as they tend to take several hours to fully cook. But if you've got a craving for ribs and don't have enough time available, air frying will give you are similar effect in a fraction of the time.

To create the best possible air fryer ribs, make the barbecue sauce yourself. It doesn't take much preparation and can really make a difference to the flavor of the final dish. Arrange the ribs in an even layer in the fryer, then cook for around 30 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove the ribs from the fryer, coat them in barbecue sauce, then return to the air fryer for an additional 10 minutes. The resulting dish will feature delectable ribs with a delicious, sticky glaze that will impress your guests on any occasion.

Air fryers have revolutionized kitchens for home cooks, and are adept at cooking so many foods, including meat. One thing they are not great at getting right is steak, though, and especially rib eye. Rib eye is a premium cut of beef that is known for its rich marbling and the depth of flavor it provides. The high fat content, however, makes rib eye a tricky steak to cook flawlessly, and the way an air fryer works just doesn't suit it.

A beautifully cooked rib eye will be browned on the outside and juicy on the inside, ideally cooked to medium or medium rare (rare is not advised for ribeye as the fat is unlikely to cook properly). Your air fryer is so efficient that the steak will already be cooked before the outside begins to caramelize, meaning the signature crust will not form. Unless you are willing to completely overcook your steak, you will not get the same exterior that you would from the grill. Lower-fat cuts of steak will have more chance of success, but with rib eye, it is definitely better to stick to your usual cooking methods.

Chicken breasts are a staple protein in many households, and their versatility means the list of dishes you can make with them is virtually endless. Some home cooks are nervous at the prospect of undercooking chicken, though, which results in them overcooking it instead. Of course, since chicken breasts are so lean, they can easily dry out and become unpleasant to eat. Thankfully, cooking chicken breasts in the air fryer gives you a much more consistent method than pan frying, so you can prepare the rest of your meal while the appliance takes care of the poultry.

Be sure to season the chicken well with herbs and spices before adding to the fryer so the flavor is as good as the texture will be. Whether you're slicing the chicken to add to a healthy salad or serving it with a delicious creamy sauce, cooking the breasts in an air fryer means you'll end up with delectable and juicy chicken in a short span of time.