Burnt my fish sticks on the first try and had to scrub for 20 minutes

So I got this air fryer last weekend and thought I'd be a genius by throwing in some frozen fish sticks at 400 degrees for 10 minutes. Big mistake. I live in a small apartment in Denver so the smoke alarm went off at 11pm and my neighbor banged on the wall. The fish sticks came out black on the outside and raw in the middle. I had to soak the basket in hot soapy water for like half an hour to get the burnt bits off. Turns out I didn't preheat the thing and just overloaded it. Does anyone else have a story about a first air fryer fail that made you rethink your whole approach?

2 comments

2 Comments

wesley_grant3320d ago

Oh man I did the exact same thing with frozen chicken wings my first week. The trick is to keep it around 375 and shake the basket halfway through. Also you gotta leave space between the pieces so the hot air can actually circulate. I learned the hard way too, now I always preheat for like 3 minutes before throwing anything in.

mark_hernandez1220d ago

Hold up, I gotta disagree with the whole "preheating is mandatory" crowd. I never preheat my air fryer and my fish sticks come out PERFECT every single time. The key is to not overload it so the cold air can hit everything. People blame the machine when really they just crammed too much food in there and expected magic. Also 400 degrees for 10 minutes is crazy talk for thin little fish sticks. Try 370 for like 8 minutes and flip them halfway. That smoke alarm story is rough but that's on you for not checking until the buzzer went off.