Reheating
This is what an air fryer is unambiguously best at. A microwave cannot re-crisp a pizza base and an oven takes fifteen minutes to warm up to do it.
Reheating is not cooking
The food has already met a cooking standard once. What matters now is whether it has spent time in the range where bacteria multiply, and whether reheating takes it back out of that range completely. An air fryer is excellent at this for anything that should be crisp and poor at it for anything dense, because the surface reaches temperature long before the middle does — which is exactly the failure mode that makes reheating riskier than it looks.
The reheating safety rule, including what to do about rice.
People reheat these, and we have no figure for them
No manufacturer publishes a reheating time for a named food — not one of the 41manuals read for AirfryerHQ does. Where AirfryerHQ publishes a reheat figure at all it is labelled preliminary and built from the manufacturers’ own general reheat positions, and these 18 are the ones where even that was not defensible. Most are high-water vegetables, which behave differently enough that treating them like a pizza slice would be a guess.
Chicken
Chicken breast
Lean, tapering and unforgiving: the cut with the narrowest window between cooked and dry.
Chicken
Chicken thigh
Fattier and far more forgiving than breast, and it wants to be cooked past its safety target rather than to it.
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.
Pork
Bacon
Fast, easy and the commonest cause of a smoking air fryer — rendered fat on a hot surface.
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
Roast potatoes
Parboiling is not optional, and it is what the air fryer cannot do for you.
Potato
Potato wedges
Thicker than chips, so the inside has to cook while the outside is already crisping.
Potato
Jacket potato
Fresh jacket potatoes get sixty minutes at 180°C in one manufacturer's chart and twenty-five to forty minutes at 200°C in another's.
Breaded poultry products
Frozen chicken nuggets
Follow the packet — and know why the packet is right about this one.
Pizza
Pizza (reheating)
The clearest case where an air fryer beats every other tool in the kitchen.
Chicken
Chicken drumsticks
Bone-in, skin-on and slow: the cut where every published time is longer than people expect.
Chicken
Whole chicken
The showpiece cook, and the one where a single thermometer reading is not enough to call it safe.
Chicken
Chicken tenders
One manufacturer prints twenty minutes at 180°C and another grills nine mini fillets for seven to eight; neither says fresh or frozen.
Breaded poultry products
Breaded chicken breast
Two manufacturers print a figure — ten to fifteen minutes at 180°C, and thirty to thirty-five at 200°C — and neither says frozen or chilled.
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.
Pork
Pork loin joint
A fresh 800g boneless loin gets sixty minutes at 180°C on one manufacturer's roast setting; a 1.25kg figure elsewhere names 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.
Beef
Meatballs
Seven minutes at 190°C for inch balls — fast, and minced, so cooked through.
Beef
Roast beef joint
A fresh 750g top rump joint gets forty-five to fifty minutes at 160°C on one manufacturer's roast setting; a 1.8kg figure elsewhere names no state.
Lamb
Lamb chops
Fresh lamb chops get eleven to twelve minutes at 180°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; two grilling figures elsewhere name no state.
Lamb
Rack of lamb
A 650–900g rack at 190°C for around twenty-two minutes.
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.
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.
Potato
Homemade chips
Ten to forty minutes depending on whose chart you read, and the widest published disagreement in the catalogue.
Potato
Baby potatoes
680g whole at 200°C for fifteen minutes — the quickest whole-potato option.
Sweet potato
Sweet potato wedges
Thirty to thirty-five minutes at 200°C for 500–600g of hand-cut fries on oven racks, and they will not crisp like a potato chip.
Sweet potato
Whole sweet potato
Fresh whole sweet potatoes get thirty to forty minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; two other figures name no state.
Pastry products
Sausage roll
Thirteen to fifteen minutes at 200°C in two manufacturers' tables, neither of which says whether the rolls are chilled or frozen.
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
Frozen potato waffles
280g in eight minutes at 200°C.
Cakes and bakes
Muffins
Thirteen to nineteen minutes at 160°C to 200°C, depending on the manufacturer.
Cakes and bakes
Quiche
Twenty to twenty-two minutes at 180°C, in a tin or oven dish.
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.
Chicken
Chicken leg quarters
Thigh and drumstick in one piece, which makes it the largest bone-in cut most people cook.
Chicken
Chicken sausages
One manufacturer grills twelve for nine to twelve minutes on its lowest plate setting, two minutes longer than its pork sausages; it does not say fresh or frozen.
Turkey
Turkey burgers
One manufacturer grills four 125g turkey burgers for ten to thirteen minutes and says there is no need to flip; it does not say fresh or frozen.
Duck
Duck breast
Fresh duck breasts get eighteen to twenty-two minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's chart; its grill chart for another machine names no state.
Pork
Boneless pork chops
Fresh boneless chops get ten to fifteen minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; its chart for a third names no state.
Pork
Pork loin steaks
One manufacturer grills six 120g loin steaks for four to five minutes; it does not say fresh or frozen.
Pork
Pork tenderloin
Fresh tenderloins of 350–500g get twenty to twenty-seven minutes at 190°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; its chart for a third names no state.
Pork
Pork loin ribs
One manufacturer grills two racks weighing 475g for eleven minutes; it does not say fresh or frozen.
Hot dogs
Hot dogs
One manufacturer grills fifteen hot dogs for three to five minutes, and does not say whether they are frozen.
Sea bass
Sea bass fillet
One manufacturer grills four fillets weighing 380g for six to eight minutes; it does not say fresh or frozen.
Fish cakes
Fish cakes
Fresh fish cakes get twelve to fifteen minutes at 200°C in one manufacturer's charts for two machines; its chart for a third names no state.
Breaded poultry products
Chicken goujons
Eight to ten minutes from frozen — the quickest breaded poultry there is.
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
Potato gratin
Fifteen to eighteen minutes at 200°C for a 400g portion — and it must be in a dish, not loose.
Peppers
Stuffed vegetables
Ten minutes at 160°C — the lowest air-fry temperature for anything savoury in the catalogue.
Halloumi
Halloumi slices
One manufacturer grills 3cm slices brushed with oil for two to four minutes, and names no state for the cheese.
Bread
Grilled bread
One manufacturer grills 4cm slices brushed with oil for two to three minutes, and does not say whether the loaf is fresh.
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 veggie burgers
Twelve minutes at 200°C from frozen.
Pizza
Whole frozen pizza
A fit problem before it is a cooking problem, and the answer depends on your appliance.
Mixed vegetables
Mixed vegetables
Several vegetables in one basket, charted by four manufacturers with a wide band and an instruction to use your own judgement.
Beef
Meat loaf
Fifty to sixty minutes at 150°C — the lowest, longest published figure in the catalogue, and it needs a tin.