Pepper chunks in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
200°C (392°F) for 15 min
- For
- 300g in total, about 25mm at the thickest point, At room temperature
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer, single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Yes, before the food goes in
- Check
- Skins blistered and patchily blackened
- Safety
- Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead. Full rule below.
Inch chunks, fifteen minutes at 200°C. They blister; they do not crisp.
Fresh
The quick answer
200°C (392°F) for 15 min
A single published figure for one-inch chunks.
- Assuming
- 300g in total, about 25mm at the thickest point, At room temperature
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Loaded
- Single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Yes, before the food goes in
- Result
- Browned but not crisp
Preparation
Cut into inch chunks and toss in a little oil.
About 10ml of oil.
How to load the basket
Single layer, pieces not touching. The reference condition. Air reaches every surface, and times are the shortest the food will achieve.
How to tell it is done
- Skins blistered and patchily blackened
- The flesh has collapsed and softened — this is done, not overdone
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- Fifteen minutes is surprisingly long for something this watery, and the reason is the waxy skin, which resists heat until it blisters. Recording the result as browned rather than crisp matters: a reader expecting crispness will read a correct result as a failure.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this model. It is evidence about this appliance and is not general advice.
- A single published figure rather than a range. AirfryerHQ has not invented a tolerance around it.
Sources (1)
Cookworks 9L Dual Air Fryer KDF-5577DTW — Instruction Manual (PDF)
Argos Limited (Cookworks) — Manufacturer manual (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: Peppers, one-inch chunks, 15 minutes at 200°C.
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 148/6630. Cookworks is Argos's own brand; the manual names the manufacturer only by model number KDF-5577DTW.
From frozen
No time or temperature for this, and not by accident
Pepper chunks is sold and cooked from frozen, 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 still governs, figure or no figure
These rules come from national food-safety authorities and apply whether or not anybody has published a cooking time. They are the part of this question we can answer.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Food cooked from frozen must reach the same core temperature as the same food cooked fresh — the frozen centre is the last thing to get there.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- No ice or cold spot at the centre when the thickest piece is cut open
- Steaming hot throughout, tested in the middle rather than the edge
If it has not got there: Reduce the temperature by 10–20°C and give it longer. A lower set point lets the centre catch up before the surface passes the point of no return, and it is the single most useful adjustment for cooking from frozen.
Important: If the packaging says the product must be thawed before cooking, follow it. That instruction exists because the manufacturer has tested cooking it from frozen and it did not reach temperature reliably.
What we do hold for pepper chunks: fresh. Those are a different question, not a starting point for this one.
Leftover (reheating)
No time or temperature for this, and not by accident
Pepper chunks is sold and cooked leftover (reheating), 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.
Same reason as above: a figure adjusted from one we do hold would be indistinguishable from one somebody measured.
What still governs, figure or no figure
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Cool cooked food and get it into the fridge within one to two hours, keep the fridge between 0 and 5°C, and eat leftovers within 48 hours.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- There is no sensory test for this rule, and that is the point: food held too long at the wrong temperature does not necessarily look, smell or taste different
If it has not got there: Throw it away. This is the one rule in this catalogue where the remedy is not 'cook it longer', because cooking does not reverse it.
Important: Cooked rice is the sharpest case: Bacillus cereus toxins form at room temperature and survive reheating. Rice left out for more than an hour goes in the bin.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Reheat leftovers until steaming hot all the way through, and only reheat them once.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part, or an equivalent from the table below.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- Steam rising from the centre, not just the edges
- The middle is hot to the touch, tested after removing it from the appliance
If it has not got there: Keep going, and break dense food up or spread it out so the heat can reach the middle. If it will not heat through evenly, a microwave to get the centre hot followed by the air fryer to crisp the surface is a better tool for the job than the air fryer alone.
Important: Cooked rice and pasta left at room temperature can develop Bacillus cereus toxins that reheating does not destroy. If cooked rice has been out of the fridge for more than an hour, discard it rather than reheating it.
| Temperature | Held for | Measured at |
|---|---|---|
| 70°C | 2 min | the centre of the food |
| 75°C | 30 sec | the centre of the food |
What we do hold for pepper chunks: fresh. Those are a different question, not a starting point for this one.
What usually goes wrong
Everything else in the basket goes soggy. Peppers release a great deal of water in the second half of the cook, and in a small chamber that water has nowhere to go. They are fine alone and destructive alongside anything meant to be crisp.
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 peppers behaves this way
A pepper is a thin wall of high-water flesh behind a waxy cuticle. The cuticle resists moisture loss until it blisters, at which point the flesh collapses and releases a lot of water into a small chamber — which is why peppers alongside something meant to be crisp will sabotage it. The sugars are high, so the blistered patches caramelise fast and the edges go from sweet to bitter quickly at 200°C.
Where to go from here
The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.
- Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. This measures yours — and it is the single change that fixes most dry pepper chunks.
- 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.
- Cooking from frozenUsually cooler and longer than the same food fresh, and never worked out from the fresh figure.
- Reheating leftoversA different question governed by a different rule — steaming hot throughout, and only once.
- Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.
Easily confused with
- Courgette sticks — A different cooking problem with a different answer.