Although air fryers are compact and claim to be a healthy alternative to deep-frying, thanks to significantly less oil, there are a couple of downsides to them. Apart from the small size which means cooking in batches for a large family, Some foods don’t cook well in air fryers, like unbreaded cheese or anything that has a wet batter.

However, some foods that are meant to be fried, but come prepared and frozen in a bag like french fries, chicken nuggets, empanadas, and cheese sticks, all do really well in an air fryer. The result still isn't quite what it would be if those foods were deep-fried, but they still come out tasty and very crisp.

Breaded foods tend to do particularly well in the air fryer too, along with things like fried pickles, fish sticks, ravioli, fried shrimp, and more. Homemade battered food, be it breaded or wet batter, should be frozen before being cooked in the air fryer, because when battered foods are not solid, the wet batter or the breading can just fall off into the bottom of the appliance.

Other unusual foods that work are cut-and-bake cookies, and muffins can be made using the appliance. In these cases, the air fryer acts more like a convection oven, but the baked goods will not brown or rise like they would in an oven.