How to make chips in an air fryer

Your first job is to peel and slice the potatoes. How thick you go will depend on the results you want. We find that a slightly thinner cut for fries works best, but go fatter if you prefer the look of a chunky chip. We cut the potato into slices the width we want and then cut down the slices into long chips. Cut up as many potatoes as you need to make the right number of chips.

Air fryers work best when there’s a single layer of food, but don’t go beyond any max fill marks on your air fryer or you’ll get poor results; sometimes you have to cook in batches. That’s the same as using a regular deep-fat fryer at home, so it shouldn’t be an issue.

At the minimum, sliced potatoes should be soaked in water for at least 20 minutes. This removes some of the starch, to give crispier results. At this point, you can save time and just rinse and pat dry the chips with kitchen towel, skipping to the oil stage (step 3). However, we prefer to par-boil our chips first.

Bring a large pan of water to a boil, and then simmer for five minutes before draining the pan. Boiling the chips helps pre-cook them, softening the potatoes up for that fluffy interior.

Around three tablespoons of oil is good for cooking in an air fryer, either measured out or, once you get the hang of it, free-poured. Any regular cooking oil will do, as long as it has a high ignition point. Don’t use olive oil.

Air fryers need evenly coated food to get the best results. We find the best way to do that is to shake the oil-covered chips in the pan, with the lid on. Shaking roughs up the edges, too, giving a better finish to the chips. Don’t be too vigorous, or you can shake your chips to bits.

Let your air fryer pre-heat to 200°C with a timer set for 20 minutes. Once it hits temperature, pour in the chips and spread them out as evenly as possible. At this point, it may look a bit like a soggy mess, but don’t worry, as the cooking process starts, the chips will crisp up and separate. 

Air fryers work best when hot air is circulated evenly around food. This means you need to shake your food through cooking to move it around, or you won’t get even results. Two to three times during the cooking process should do it. If your air fryer has a handle on the basket, shaking is easy; if not, like ours, you can use oven gloves or tongs. 

Make sure the food is cooking evenly, and stop the cook when they look done; if the chips haven’t cooked properly, then up the cooking time. Sometimes, we’ll finish off at our air fryer’s hottest temperature (240°C) for the last couple of minutes.

At the end of the cooking time, you’ll have a delicious portion of chips, crisp on the outside and fluffy on the inside. After serving, add any seasoning and condiments that you want, and enjoy.