From frozen

Air fryers are unusually good at cooking from frozen, and the technique is counter-intuitive: usually a LOWER temperature than the same food fresh, for longer.

Why cooler, not hotter

A frozen centre absorbs a great deal of energy simply thawing before its temperature starts to rise. The surface, already thawed, carries on cooking throughout — so running hot to save time browns the outside past the point of no return while the middle is still catching up. Dropping 15–20°C and adding time is the single most useful adjustment there is for cooking from frozen.

The safety rule for cooking from frozen.

These links open the frozen view of each cooking page. There is one page per food, not one per state — the numbers change, the page does not.

Sold frozen, and we have no figure for it

These 30 are genuinely sold or cooked from frozen and no manufacturer manual AirfryerHQ has read publishes a chart row for them in that state. The pages say so, and carry the safety rule that applies regardless. We are not going to derive a frozen time from a fresh one.

Chicken
Chicken breast
Lean, tapering and unforgiving: the cut with the narrowest window between cooked and dry.
Chicken
Chicken wings
The cut air fryers do genuinely better than an oven, provided the skin gets long enough to render.
Pork
Sausages
Skins that brown early and centres that finish late — the classic false-done food.
Beef
Steak
Air frying is a compromise for steak, and it is worth knowing which way the compromise runs.
Salmon
Salmon fillet
One of the foods an air fryer does better than the alternatives, and quickly.
Potato
Frozen chips
The single most cooked food in this appliance class, and the one crowding ruins.
Potato
Potato wedges
Thicker than chips, so the inside has to cook while the outside is already crisping.
Breaded poultry products
Frozen chicken nuggets
Follow the packet — and know why the packet is right about this one.
Pork
Pork chop
Fresh chops get fifteen to twenty minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's table and twenty-five to thirty at 220°C in another; most other tables name no state.
Beef
Beef burger
Minced, so it must be cooked through — and the published times run from seven minutes to twenty-four, depending on the machine, the amount and whether the table names a state.
White fish
White fish fillet
Fresh fillets get twenty to thirty-two minutes in the two manufacturers' tables that name a state; shorter figures elsewhere name none.
Prawns
Prawns
Fresh prawns get sixteen to twenty minutes at 180°C in the one table that names a state; other tables print four to ten minutes and name none.
Breaded fish products
Fish fingers
Six to ten minutes from frozen at 180–200°C, and better than the oven method on the box.
Breaded fish products
Breaded scampi
Nine to fifteen minutes from frozen, and the two published figures disagree by a lot.
Pastry products
Spring roll
From frozen, ten to sixteen minutes at 180–200°C in one manufacturer's tables; two others print eight to ten minutes at 200°C without saying frozen or chilled.
Frozen snack products
Frozen hash browns
From frozen, twenty minutes at 180°C for 900g in one manufacturer's chart and eighteen to twenty at 200°C for 600g on racks in another's.
Frozen snack products
Frozen onion rings
Eight to fifteen minutes, at 180°C or 200°C — three charts, three answers.
Frozen snack products
Mozzarella sticks
Eight minutes from frozen in two manufacturers' charts, one at 180°C and one at 200°C, and there is no second attempt.
Frozen snack products
Frozen potato waffles
280g in eight minutes at 200°C.
Chicken
Bone-in chicken thighs
Fresh bone-in thighs get nineteen to twenty-eight minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; its chart for a third names no state.
Duck
Duck legs
Thirty to thirty-five minutes from frozen, and the published instruction is to prick the skin.
Beef
Thick-cut steak
A 3cm steak, which is where this appliance stops being a compromise.
Prawns
Frozen tempura prawns
Nine to ten minutes at 190°C from frozen, which is twice as long as a bare prawn.
Breaded fish products
Battered fish fillets
Eleven minutes at 200°C from frozen, published as a single figure rather than a range.
Breaded poultry products
Chicken goujons
Eight to ten minutes from frozen — the quickest breaded poultry there is.
Breaded poultry products
Chicken Kiev
Sixteen to eighteen minutes at 190°C from frozen, and the temperature is lower on purpose.
Breaded poultry products
Frozen chicken burgers
Fourteen to fifteen minutes at 200°C from frozen for six.
Breaded poultry products
Frozen chicken steaks
Fourteen to fifteen minutes at 200°C, the same as a chicken burger and a different shape.
Potato
Frozen chunky chips
Charted twenty degrees COOLER than thin frozen fries, which surprises everybody.
Potato
Frozen roast potatoes
Fifteen to twenty minutes at 190–200°C from frozen, in one manufacturer's charts for two machines.
Sweet potato
Frozen sweet potato fries
Eighteen to twenty minutes at 190°C — cooler and longer than ordinary frozen chips.
Vegan meat alternatives
Vegan burgers
Seven to nine minutes on one manufacturer's grill plate for fresh ones, and ten minutes at 180°C from frozen in its charts for two other machines.
Vegan meat alternatives
Frozen vegan sausages
Eight minutes at 180°C, against nine to twelve for a frozen pork sausage.
Vegan meat alternatives
Frozen vegan nuggets
Ten minutes at 200°C, less than half the time of chicken nuggets by weight.
Vegan meat alternatives
Frozen veggie burgers
Twelve minutes at 200°C from frozen.
Frozen snack products
Frozen breaded mushrooms
Twelve to fourteen minutes at 170°C — the coolest frozen snack in the chart.