Chunky homemade chips in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
200°C (392°F) for 20–24 min
- For
- 1000g in total, about 15mm at the thickest point, At room temperature
- In
- Multicooker with air fry, heaped, shaken during cooking
- Preheat
- Yes, before the food goes in
- Part way
- shake the basket at about 10 min
- Check
- A crisp shell over a floury centre
- Safety
- Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead. Full rule below.
Twenty to twenty-four minutes at 200°C, and thirty minutes of soaking beforehand.
Fresh
The quick answer
200°C (392°F) for 20–24 min
Chip thickness and how dry they were. Two minutes longer than the thin version in the same chart, at the same temperature.
- Assuming
- 1000g in total, about 15mm at the thickest point, At room temperature
- In
- Multicooker with air fry
- Loaded
- Heaped, shaken during cooking
- Preheat
- Yes, before the food goes in
- Result
- Crisp outside, moist inside
Preparation
Hand-cut thick, soaked in cold water for at least thirty minutes, patted thoroughly dry, tossed in half a tablespoon to three tablespoons of vegetable oil.
About 25ml of oil.
How to load the basket
Heaped, shaken during cooking. Substantially slower and uneven unless shaken. Surfaces buried in the pile steam rather than crisp.
While it cooks
At about 10–12 minutes: Shake the basket
Thick chips are heavy and sit where they land; the underside browns and the top does not.
How to tell it is done
- A crisp shell over a floury centre
- Golden rather than brown
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- A published row with a stated quantity, a stated preparation and an oil quantity, from the manufacturer's own guide for this appliance. Quantity is what makes a chart row checkable against the food in front of a reader, and this chart states one for almost every row.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this appliance. It is evidence about this machine and is not general advice.
- This is a lidded cooking pot rather than a shallow drawer. Depth affects how much fits in one layer, and the quantity in the chart assumes the crisper basket.
Sources (1)
Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK — Inspiration Guide and cooking charts (PDF)
SharkNinja Europe Limited — Manufacturer cooking chart (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The temperature, time and quantity for chunky homemade chips.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 735/0124, published alongside the instruction booklet as a second document.
Chilled
No time or temperature for this, and not by accident
Chunky homemade chips is sold and cooked chilled, so the question is a real one. AirfryerHQ holds no published figure for it: not one of the manufacturer manuals read for this catalogue gives a chart row for this food in this state.
We are not going to produce one by adjusting the fresh figure above. A time arrived at that way would appear on this page looking exactly like a time somebody measured, and you would have no way to tell the difference.
What we do hold for chunky homemade chips: fresh. Those are a different question, not a starting point for this one.
What usually goes wrong
Chips that stick to each other and to the basket, and never crisp. Surface starch is the cause of all three, which is what the soaking instruction is for — and drying afterwards matters as much as the soak, because a wet chip steams.
Running the appliance safely
These apply to every food and every air fryer, so they are here once rather than repeated under each state above. They come from Electrical Safety First, from UK product-safety notices and from the manufacturers’ own manuals.
- Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead.
- An unusual smell, an unusual noise, or scorch marks on the plug mean stop using it and contact the manufacturer.
- Do not overfill. Food touching the heating element is a fire risk, not a cooking problem.
- White smoke from fatty food is usually normal. Black smoke means unplug it immediately.
- Do not leave an air fryer running unattended.
- Leave clear space above and around the appliance, and never cover the air intake or the outlet.
- Aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter on starchy foods such as chips and roast potatoes, rather than a darker brown.
- Buy from a reputable retailer rather than a third-party marketplace seller.
- Clean the drawer, the plate and the element after use. Accumulated grease is what smokes, and then what burns.
- Register the appliance with its manufacturer. It is how a recall reaches you.
- Do not rely on the appliance's own thermal protection. A UK recall was issued because it did not operate.
Each links to its own page, with what it means in practice, what to do if it has already happened, and the source it comes from. Every safety rule AirfryerHQ holds.
Why potato behaves this way
A potato is mostly water held in a starch matrix. Heat gelatinises the starch and drives water out of the surface layer; when that dehydrated layer is thin, dry and hot enough it becomes crisp. The whole game is getting water away from the surface faster than it arrives from inside, which is why crowding a basket produces soggy chips — the escaping steam has nowhere to go and condenses back onto the food. Sugar content decides browning speed, which is why some potatoes darken far faster than others at the same setting.
Where to go from here
The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.
- How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
- Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.
Easily confused with
- Homemade chips — A different cooking problem with a different answer.
- Potato wedges — A different cooking problem with a different answer.