Cooking steak in an air fryer is simple, just set it and forget it, right?
Wrong! Treat your meat right, and keep watching to learn a
simple trick that can prevent your kitchen from becoming a smokehouse!
Your steak is liberally seasoned with salt and ready for some action. Should
you just throw it in the air fryer, set the temperature, and walk away?
Not so fast. Just like your oven, your air fryer should be preheated before cooking.
This is an easy step to miss, but it can make a difference in how your steak ends up cooking.
Here's the good news, however! Because air fryers tend to be significantly smaller than
a convection oven, it shouldn't take too long to reach your desired temperature.
Why is preheating your air fryer so important for cooking your steak?
For dishes like roasts or lasagnas that require a longer cook time,
preheating your oven probably isn't as important. But when it comes to dishes that need to be cooked
quickly, like a 10 to 12-minute steak, it can make a difference in the texture.
If you put your steak in a cold air fryer and set the temperature, it may end up less
juicy while also affecting the overall level of doneness you're aiming for. As Food 52 puts it…
"Cooking times will be lengthened by about
the time it takes to preheat your oven in the first place."
The same notion goes for air fryers! This practice is especially risky with baked goods,
but it can also apply to other dishes that don't require a long time in the oven,
like your steak. The bottom line? Your air fryer shouldn't take too long to warm up,
and your steak is more likely to come out better if you remember to preheat it.
Most steak recipes call for a brush of oil before you season it. Lightly coating your steak in oil
serves two main purposes. One, it gives your seasoning an extra glaze of fat to cling to,
which helps it stick to the meat, allowing the seasoning to permeate the steak more easily.
And two, according to Delish, adding oil to your steak before you cook it will also help you
achieve a nice, even crust. A big part of what makes a steak exceptional is the difference in
texture between the crusty exterior of the beef and the soft, juicy tenderness on the inside.
According to Insider, air fryers work by circulating hot air. So when your steak
is coated in oil, all of that heat bakes the oil, which helps evenly roast the surface of the beef.
Another important thing to consider is the type of oil that you use.
Most people tend to use olive oil universally in just about everything when they cook. While
it's true that olive oil is versatile and has a ton of useful applications, it's not your best
choice for cooking steak. This is because of olive oil's smoke point, which is on the lower side.
This means that olive oil will burn and smoke at a lower temperature compared to some other oils.
Because cooking a steak requires higher temperatures, you should use an oil with a higher
smoke point. That way you can prevent the oil from burning and smoking during the cooking process.
We'd like to recommend refined avocado oil, which has a smoke point of about 520 degrees Fahrenheit.
Kitchen countertops tend to get cluttered, so it's easy to overlook how much room your air fryer has
around it. One common mistake people might make is pushing their air fryer too close to the wall.
Since air fryers tend to be bigger and kind of clunky, people may try to position them out of
the way of their normal food preparation area. While it's fine to store your air fryer like this,
it's important to give your air fryer enough room to vent when it's actually in operation.
Generally, it's recommended to give your air fryer at least five inches
of space around the exhaust vent to prevent it from overheating.
What if your air fryer overheats? A few things can happen, and none of them are good.
At the very least it can flood your kitchen, and possibly the rest of your home,
with smoke. There's also the potential to cause a fire — and we can all agree that
setting your house ablaze probably isn't the best way to cook that steak of yours.
One of the most common ways to cook a steak is to pan-sear and baste it in a cast-iron skillet.
This method truly does produce an amazing steak, but it also leaves you with a bit of
a mess. This also doesn't take into account that soaking beef in sizzling butter isn't
exactly the healthiest way to cook. According to Healthline, air fryers can cut the fat content
of your food because they need significantly less oil than some other methods of cooking.
Eating red meat is already an indulgence, and according to the National Institutes of Health,
it's also risky for your well-being if consumed on a regular basis.
"What a load of bunk! My father ate it every day of his life, he lived to the ripe old age of 38."
Why not scale back on some of the other variables you can control and make it
a little healthier? An air fryer can achieve tasty results with just a fraction of the oil,
which is much better for your heart.
It's easy to sit back and let your air fryer do all the work without thinking about the
particulars of the physics that make its magic possible. According to Insider,
the secret to the air fryer's success is circulation. The circulation of heat
inside of your air fryer triggers the Maillard reaction. This chemical reaction generates the
browning that produces the complex flavors and textures we've all come to love so much.
As it turns out, your air fryer isn't really a fryer at all.
It's really just a mini-convection oven that cooks food through the circulation of fan-powered heat.
The heat circulating in your air fryer around your steak produces a similar result to other
methods like frying and grilling. Because your steak is elevated in a basket, heat can easily
swirl around the entire cut of beef, ensuring that the whole piece of meat is evenly cooked.
Steak is a juicy hunk of meat, so when it's cooking, there is bound
to be some level of grease involved. When you cook over an open flame on the grill,
all of that grease falls into the fire and flares up. In the same way, the grease from
the steak in your air fryer will drip down into the bottom of your air fryer's basket.
Most air fryer steak recipes will usually call for a temperature between 350 F to 400 F. As a result,
you'll be cooking at a higher temperature depending on the level of doneness you're looking
for. At those higher temperatures, the grease can burn and smoke inside of your air fryer.
The good news is that there's an easy way to prevent all that burning and smoking. Adding a few
tablespoons of water to the drawer underneath the basket will cool down the grease from the steak
and stop your air fryer from smoking. "Oooo, that's good news!"
But be sure to only add a few tablespoons — just enough to cool down any grease droplets. Adding
too much water will create a steaming effect, and that's obviously not what we're looking for here.
When you're feeling extra hungry, it's tempting to just mindlessly pack your air fryer so full
that you have a basket bursting to the brim with food waiting for you.
But jamming too much food into your air fryer and overcrowding the basket is a big mistake.
This is because overcrowding your air fryer basket with food can lead to uneven cooking.
Imagine a steak that was well done on one side and medium-rare on another.
This can totally happen if you pack too much steak into your air fryer basket.
If you're cooking more than one steak, be cautious about how they're situated in the basket,
and don't press them up against each other. Depending on the size of your steak,
you may need to cut it in half to assist with airflow and help it cook evenly.
The air fryer is already taking most of the work out for you — all you really
have to do is make sure the steak in your basket isn't overcrowded.
One of the big advantages of using an air fryer is how low-key the cooking process
is. While it's true that using an air fryer is a mostly passive cooking experience, there is still
some level of vigilance and involvement required on your part. Aside from preheating your air fryer
and adding some water to the bottom of the basket, you should also be sure to rotate and flip your
steak about halfway through. This will ensure both sides get evenly cooked. Much like when you grill,
flipping your steak halfway through cooking will allow it to get golden brown on every side.
It's also worth remembering to give the air fryer basket a gentle shake. Shaking your
air fryer basket halfway through the cooking process will help you get a more even result.
Shaking the air fryer basket can also stop your food from sticking to the basket.
We all tend to have specific preferences for how we like our steak cooked,
and missing the mark can end up ruining what would've been an enjoyable meal.
"Rare enough for you?" "Are you out of your mind?"
If you're taking the time to make a steak that you've spent your hard-earned money on,
isn't it always worthwhile to put in a little extra effort to make sure
it's cooked just how you like it? We think so too.
Using a digital meat thermometer will allow you to easily monitor the internal temperature of
your steak in the air fryer so that you can cook it to your exact taste. At that point,
the name of the game is knowing what internal temperature you're looking for.
Certified Angus Beef recommends 125 degrees for rare, 135 degrees for medium-rare, 145 degrees
for medium, 150 degrees for medium-well, and 160 degrees or above for a well-done steak.
In the unlikely event that you end up leaving some delicious steak behind,
how would you normally heat it back up? You may opt for a quick sear in a pan on the stovetop.
But that would require some extra work and a few dirty dishes. And for the love of all that's holy,
we'd like to think you wouldn't dare use your microwave on such a beautiful,
pricey cut of beef. You're also not very likely to fire up the grill again just for leftovers.
"That should just about do it! Man alive,
there's nothing better than a hamburger grilled to perfection…"
Not to mention that the flames from the grill may end up causing
third-degree burns - or at the very least dry out your left-over steak.
The truth is that your trusty air fryer is the perfect vessel to reheat any leftover steak.
Being in a little self-contained sphere of churning heat is a great
way to maintain the texture of your steak while also warming it up enough to eat.
You've just enjoyed a perfect steak, and now it's time to face reality. It's clean-up time!
*Paul Rudd cleans up the floor in a huff.*
Keeping your air fryer in good working condition requires you to give it a proper cleaning after
each use. It's important to properly clean your air fryer to keep it sanitary and ensure the
fans are clean, so air can circulate well during your cooking sessions. A dirty air
fryer can also circulate filthy crumbs around inside, dusting your food with nasty debris.
The good news is that cleaning your air fryer is actually pretty easy work.
The first step is to unplug the air fryer and make sure it's cool before you handle
it to avoid being burned. Remove the basket and wipe out the inside with a paper towel.
Most air fryer baskets can go right into the dishwasher, but be sure to check your instruction
manual to see if your brand is dishwasher safe. To clean the interior, use a wet sponge with
just a little bit of dish soap. If you notice any buildup, put a little elbow grease into it.
A little baking soda paste can help break down any baked-on grease.
After it's been scrubbed, give the interior a wipe with a wet cloth and call it a day.
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