Squash chunks in an air fryer
Fresh — the short answer
200°C (392°F) for 20–25 min
- For
- 500–750g in total
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Published for
- Ninja Foodi Dual Zone AF300UK
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Part way
- shake the basket at about 10 min
- Check
- Deep caramelised colour on the cut faces
Fresh butternut squash in 2.5cm pieces gets sixteen to twenty-five minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; two other figures name no state.
Manufacturer figures with no state given — 2 from named machines, listed further down this page.
Fresh
The quick answer
200°C (392°F) for 20–25 min
Published range for 500–750g of butternut squash cut in 2.5cm pieces.
- Assuming
- 500–750g in total
- In
- Dual-basket air fryer
- Published for
- Ninja Foodi Dual Zone AF300UK
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Crisp outside, moist inside
Preparation
Cut in 2.5cm pieces and tossed in a tablespoon of oil, as the row prints.
About 15ml of oil.
While it cooks
At about 10–13 minutes: Shake the basket
The chart tells the owner to shake or toss the food often, and recommends shaking at least twice during the cooking cycle. It prints that beside the whole chart, not against this row, and gives no moments for it.
How to tell it is done
- Deep caramelised colour on the cut faces
- A fork goes straight through with no resistance
Other figures for this state
Ninja Foodi MAX Dual Zone AF400UK — dual-basket air fryer: 200°C for 16–18 min
Published range for 500–750g of butternut squash cut in 2.5cm pieces.
Where these figures came from — fresh
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- A published row from the manufacturer's own Quick Start Guide for this machine, under a block whose heading names the state. It is held as the chart prints it: its amount, its preparation and its oil where it gives them, and nothing where it does not.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-10-10
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this model. It is evidence about this appliance and is not general advice.
- This machine has two drawers. The chart prints one amount for the row and does not say which drawer it is for, or whether it is for one drawer or both.
- The chart heads this block Fresh Vegetables, and the row is held as fresh on that heading. The word is the block's and not the row's own.
Sources (1)
Ninja Foodi Dual Zone Air Fryer AF300UK — Quick Start Guide and cooking charts
SharkNinja Operating LLC — Manufacturer cooking chart (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The state, amount, temperature and time for squash chunks.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-10-10 from euronics.a.bigcontent.io
Retrieved from a retailer's document store, Euronics, which mirrors the manufacturer's booklet. Argos's manual library holds an earlier revision of the same guide, 200515_Mv1, which differs in a few printed amounts; the later revision is the one held here.
From frozen
No time or temperature for this, and not by accident
From frozen and leftover (reheating) are each a real question for squash chunks. AirfryerHQ holds no published figure for any of them: not one of the manufacturer manuals read for this catalogue gives a chart row for this food in those states.
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 squash chunks: fresh. That is a different question, not a starting point for these.
Leftover (reheating)
No time or temperature for this
No published figure is held for this state either. The reason is given once, under from frozen.
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 |
Manufacturer figures with no state given
Each of these is a published figure for one named machine. The manufacturer does not say whether this is fresh or frozen. So they are kept apart from the figures above, and not used as the answer for any of them.
Cookworks 9L Dual Air Fryer: 200°C for 12 min
A single published figure for half-inch chunks.
Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK: 200°C for 15–18 min
Published range for 1.5kg of butternut squash cut in pieces of 2.5 to 5cm.
What usually goes wrong
Caramelised outside, raw inside — the classic dense-vegetable failure, made worse here because squash browns so readily that it looks finished early. Cutting to the published dimension matters more than anything on the control panel.
Running the appliance safely
The rules for the machine are the same whatever is in it: plug it straight into a wall socket, leave clear space round it, do not overfill it, do not leave it running unattended, and unplug it at black smoke or an electrical smell. They are set out once, each with its source and what to do if it has already happened, and not repeated on every food. Every rule for running an air fryer safely.
Squash in fast-moving hot air
Butternut and its relatives are dense, starchy and high in sugar, so they behave like a slower, sweeter carrot. Heat penetration is the constraint and it scales badly with size, while the sugar means the outside caramelises long before a large chunk is soft in the middle. The flesh holds its shape well until it suddenly does not, so the gap between firm and collapsing is narrow at the end.
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. A probe measures yours, which is what the safety rule on this page asks for.
- 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
- Carrot slices — A different cooking problem with a different answer.