Jamie Oliver's 5 air fryer tips - with new recipes to try

Top chef Jamie Oliver made his television debut 26 years ago and has been cooking for the nation ever since. He's now published a new book Easy Air Fryer, to help us all get even more out of the popular kitchen gadgets.

Jamie admitted that he had no plans to write a book about air fryers but got flooded with questions about them on his social channels after the success of his Channel 4 TV show, Jamie's Air Fryer Meals.

He told ITV's Lorraine programme, "Over 50% of households have got an air fryer. They did a survey and they said 80% of what's cooked in them is chips.

"So I think my job is to sort of say, okay, Britain, come on. Let me show you this technology."

His new book explores things we may never have realised you could cook in them.

Jamie explained to Saga Magazine: "I wanted to really analyse the method of cooking in an air fryer, so I could see how I could push things to the next level and use it to its best."

How Jamie Oliver put air fryers to the test

Jamie told us: "I kicked things off by looking at the recipes I thought hot air was going to benefit, so things like crispy skins, dehydrating and caramelising veg in cool ways.

"Once I got the foundations of the book together, then me and my team tested all kinds of different things.

"Can you cook a stew in it? What can you do with the shelf? Can it be raised on a tin so you can cook flatbreads? It was very experimental.

"But we’ve ended up with a user-friendly, modern cookbook. It’s really cool and without question, it’s a super useful piece of cooking equipment.Yes, there’s some things it can’t do, but there’s so much more that it can, and that’s what I’m interested in."

Jamie Oliver's air fryer tips

1. Make your greens great

Jamie said: "Take any green veg, like Brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, mange tout, French beans, asparagus, and hit them hard and fast at a high heat with nothing on them.

"Only once they’re cooked do you dress them with oil, lemon and chopped chilli and they’ll suck up all of that delicious flavour.

"It’s a really dynamic, quick, convenient way to cook veg."

2. Create super soups

Jamie told Lorraine why we should be cooking soup in our air fryers. He said: "Most of the soup that we buy in tins or in Tetra Paks has been essentially simmered and boiled. It's never had caramelisation from frying, because the commercial vessels can't do it, and they've not been roasted.

"When you roast veggies, you get extra, like surround-sound flavour, and then you put the liquid in, and the air fryer can do it. Then you can puree it, or keep it chunky, and you get soups like you've never, ever tasted before."

Try Jamie's broccoli soup and cheesy soldiers in his new book.

3. Get creative with the drawer

On his C4 show Jamie said he loved how versatile an air fryer drawer can be. He said: "You can use them to bake, to roast but also to make beautiful sauces."

He demonstrated by tipping a tin of white beans and their liquid into the drawer with lemon, topped it with a fillet of white fish and then added parmesan when it was cooked.

4. Lift it up for crispy skin

Jamie also explained that an easy way to get crispy skin on a piece of fish or chicken is to lift it closer to the top of the air fryer by packing vegetables, such as potatoes and cauliflower, underneath.

5. Cook a whole chicken

Speaking to Lorraine, Jamie said many people don't believe you can roast a whole chicken in an air fryer.

His tip to avoid the breast catching, is to push down on the chicken to break the back bone and squashing it down, before putting it in the air fryer, adding: "what we want to do is turn the chicken halfway through.

"Okay, that's going to guarantee you not just the most succulent meat, but also really crispy, crispy skin."

Pear and blackberry crumble

• Serves 6
• Hands on: 12 minutes
• Cook: 50 minutes
• 1-drawer air fryer

Ingredients

• 4 ripe pears
• 2 eating apples
• 2 balls of stem ginger in syrup
• 300g blackberries
• 100g cold unsalted butter
• 1 large orange
• 100g porridge oats
• 60g demerara sugar
• 1 pinch of ground cinnamon
• 100g cornflakes

Method

1. Cut the pears and apples into sixths, removing the core. Finely chop the stem ginger. Remove the shelf from the air fryer, then place the pears, apples, blackberries and ginger inside with a knob of the butter, the orange zest and juice, and 2 tablespoons of stem ginger syrup. Mix together and cook for 40minutes at 180ºC, or until the fruit has softened, stirring halfway.

2. Meanwhile, place the oats in a bowl, cube up and add the remaining butter, then rub together with your thumbs and fingertips. Add the sugar and cinnamon, scrunch in the cornflakes, and mix well.

3. Scatter the crumble mixture over the fruit and cook for another 10 minutes at 180ºC, or until golden and bubbling, then dish up straight from the drawer. Great with custard, crème fraîche or ice cream.

(Nutritional information: Energy 378kcal, Fat 15.6g, Sat fat 9g, Proten 4.3g, Carbs 58.7g, Sugars 32.1g Salt 0.2g, Fibre 5.3g)

Posh fish and chips

• Serves 2
• Hands on: 22 minutes
• Cook: 30 minutes
• 2-drawer air fryer

Ingredients

• 500g potatoes
• olive oil
• 1 free-range egg
• ½ tsp smoked paprika10g Parmesan cheese
• 1 thick slice of seeded wholemeal bread (40g)
• 2 x 130g salmon fillets, skin off, scaled, pin-boned, from sustainable sources
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 x 340g jar of baby cornichons
• 160g frozen peas
• 2 sprigs of mint

Method

1. Scrub the potatoes, chop lengthways into 2cm wedges, place in the large air-fryer drawer, toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper and arrange in a single layer. Cook for 30 minutes at 200ºC, or until golden and cooked through, shaking halfway.

2. Beat the egg, paprika and a little seasoning in a shallow bowl. Finely grate the Parmesan into a food processor, tear in the bread, add 1 tablespoon of oil and blitz into fine crumbs, then spread across a plate.

3. Dust the salmon with the flour, then dip into the egg mixture, letting any excess drip off. Coat in the breadcrumbs, spending a bit of time really patting them then evenly space in the small drawer and cook for 10 minutes at 200ºC, or until golden and just cooked through.

4. Meanwhile, to make a gherkin ketchup, empty the jar of cornichons, and half their juice, into the food processor and blitz until smooth. Spoon out two portions, then pour the rest back into the jar and pop it in the fridge for future meals, where it will keep happily for up to 2 weeks.

5. Cook the peas for 4 minutes in boiling salted water, then drain, reserving a little cooking water. Tip them into the food processor (there’s no need to clean it), pick in the mint leaves and blitz, loosening with splashes of reserved water, if needed, hen season to perfection and cover to keep warm.

6. Serve up the fish and chips with the minty peas and gherkin ketchup.

(Nutritional information: Energy 725kcal, Fat 22.4g, Sat fat 4.4g, Protein 64.6g, Carbs 69.8g, Sugars 54g, Salt 0.9g, Fibre 8.9g)