I hit 100 air fryer recipes saved and it changed my mind about frozen foods

I used to think frozen veggies and pre-made stuff had NO place in an air fryer. But last week I hit 100 recipes saved in my folder and 40 of them were frozen items. Things like frozen brussels sprouts at 400 for 12 minutes come out BETTER than fresh ones I tried. And frozen chicken tenders? I did a side by side taste test and the air fryer version beat my homemade recipe by a lot. Now I keep bags of frozen broccoli and sweet potato fries just for quick meals. Has anyone else found a frozen food that actually works BETTER than fresh in the air fryer?

2 comments

2 Comments

johnson.paul24d ago

Used to be a frozen food snob myself, thought fresh was always the way to go. But air fryer frozen sweet potato fries changed my mind completely - they get way crispier than anything I could do with fresh ones. Turns out the frozen coating and pre-blanching does something magic that home prep just cant match.

christopherwilson23d ago

and it totally lines up with what I read in some cooking blog about how freezing actually breaks down cell walls in veggies, making them crisp up faster in an air fryer. The brussels sprouts thing you mentioned is crazy to me, I had the exact same experience where frozen ones got all caramelized on the outside while fresh ones just stayed kinda wet no matter what I did. That same article said frozen fruit works amazing too, like mango chunks for a quick dessert that gets all jammy on the outside. I guess the ice crystals basically pre-steam the inside while the outside gets that crunch, which you just can't get from starting with raw stuff.