Unpopular opinion: preheating the air fryer is a waste of time

I skipped preheating on a batch of chicken thighs last night and they came out just as crispy as when I wait 5 minutes. Anyone else ditched the preheat step or am I just getting lucky?

3 comments

3 Comments

grant_allen8515d ago

Read something from like Kenji Lopez-Alt or someone where they tested this, and they said the difference is minimal unless you're cooking something super delicate like a single layer of fries. For chicken thighs, the mass of the meat basically evens out any initial temp difference. I've been skipping it for a while now too, just toss stuff in cold and add a couple extra minutes if it needs it.

the_piper15d agoMost Upvoted

Totally get it. I actually did that with a whole chicken once. Forgot to thaw it, just chucked it in the oven frozen. Took forever to cook but honestly turned out fine, skin was a little weird though. Now I just kind of eyeball it with thighs too. Room temp or fridge, whatever.

the_tara15d ago

Man my friend Jen did the same thing with a pork shoulder last month. She forgot to take it out of the fridge and just threw it in the smoker still cold. She was panicking thinking it would ruin the whole thing. But honestly it came out just as good as when she lets it sit out. The outside took a little longer to get that nice crust but the inside was perfect. And yeah @grant_allen85 I've seen that Kenji stuff too, he really tested it and proved it doesn't matter much for bigger cuts. I think people just overthink this step.