How to cook a pie in an Air Fryer
Air Fryers are becoming an increasingly important bit of kitchen kit and if you’ve already been converted then you’ll know that it makes many meals a doddle. Even our Chef, Marc, says the oven only ever goes on to heat the plates in his household now.
How does it work?
An air fryer has a basket in which you place the food and the heating element near the top of the unit blows hot air all around it, resulting in delicious crispy grub. Just like deep frying but without the oil, making it a healthier choice. And it cooks things quicker than in a conventional oven. This is ideal when you're starving and can't wait to gobble dinner! Coupled with the fact that the smaller size of the appliance results in less preheating time, it also means the air fryer wins hands down in terms of energy consumption. As we're all increasingly aware, in today's tough economic climate, less energy = less money wasted!
What do I cook in it?
Some of the most popular dishes to cook in an Air Fryer include chunky chips, sweet potato fries, baked potato, salmon or other fish, chicken drumsticks and even puddings such as waffles but you can cook just about anything in there and whacky new recipes are emerging every day! We'd recommend popping your pies in (of course!!) 😜
So how long does it take to cook a pie in the air fryer and how does it taste?
We tried cooking several of our favourite pies in Air Fryers and these were the results!
Chunk pies arrive at your door cooked and chilled and usually take 20-25mins in a preheated, good old-fashioned oven. Remove all packaging as you would normally but keep the pie in its foil tin so it stays that lovely oval shape.
13-16mins seems to be the optimum time in an Air Fryer for most of our pies when set to 180 degrees. The pastry was deliciously crisp whilst the filling remained moist – nobody wants dry and gravy-less pies! On these settings, we found the meat was perfectly tender and there wasn’t a hard potato in sight 😅 This timing seems just right for meat pies like the chicken and mushroom pie 👆 and also vegan options, such as the beautifully spiced veggie tagine pie 👆
If you happen to have an air fryer with separate compartments like the Ninja Dual 400 then make sure you prep your chips beforehand, programming both compartments and pressing the SYNC button so you can plate up your dinner all at once. Bosh! Pie and chips night dream.
For the cheese-topped award winning Homity Pie, we suggest a shorter cook time (try 12mins) in the Air Fryer so the bubbling cheese doesn’t scold the roof of your mouth.
Incidentally, a few Chunki Sausage Rolls slipped in during testing and they were equally wonderful! We highly recommend you give that a try (pop a few in with your next order!).
Have you cooked your pies in an Air Fryer? We’d love to know your thoughts and recommendations!
go on - take a Chunk!
Last updated: 15/08/23.
