Home LivingAppliancesKitchenAir FryersCan you cook steak in an air fryer? I can and here’s what you need to knowFor melt-in-the-mouth tenderness, air-fried steak is hard to beat. Here’s how I do it, and how I solved the one big problem with itWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
Home LivingAppliancesKitchenAir FryersCan you cook steak in an air fryer? I can and here’s what you need to knowFor melt-in-the-mouth tenderness, air-fried steak is hard to beat. Here’s how I do it, and how I solved the one big problem with itWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
For melt-in-the-mouth tenderness, air-fried steak is hard to beat. Here’s how I do it, and how I solved the one big problem with it
When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.
(Image credit: Getty)
(Image credit: Getty)
For something that is really quite easy to cook, there sure has been a lot written about steak. The kings of all beef cuts, the various types of steak all suit being fried in a very hot pan or barbecued on a hot grill. But can you air fry a steak? I wasn’t at all convinced you could – not very well, anyway – but it turns out I was wrong. I’ve now made air fried steak 5 times. It is very easy and the results are mouth-watering.
Recently, Meater – makers of theMeater Block, which T3’s Mat Gallagher recently reviewed – sent me one of their excellent wirelessmeat thermometersandtwo steaks to test it out with. So I decided to give it another go.
As ever, I used theNinja Foodi Max SmartLidfor the air frying. Other machines from ourbest air fryerguide may give different results when cooking steak, but given their similar temperature ranges and construction, I doubt it.
While good quality steak is undoubtedly one of thebest things to cook in an air fryer, there is one problem with using this method. For some steak lovers, it will be a big problem, and it all comes down to a fundamental question about these ovens:do air fryers really fry?And the answer to that is ‘no, not really’.
What type of steak is best for air frying?
(Image credit: Getty)
(Image credit: Getty)
To be completely honest, if you want my verdict, therealoptimum steak to air fry is relatively inexpensive, thin cut steak. You almost literally can’t muck it up, and if you do, it’s less of a wrench than if you destroy a £15 lump of fillet. Thin, cheap steak can be cooked in a tiny amount of time and the high, consistent, all-around heat of the air fryer really brings the best out of cheaper meat. That’s especially true if you season it heavily and eat it slathered with a BBQ sauce or hot sauce.
But what we’re looking at in this feature is good-to-excellent quality, aged steak from a butcher. When it comes to the expensive stuff, you want it as thick cut as possible, as that makes it harder to overcook it. In my opinion, the UK classics – rib-eye, sirloin and rump – are preferable for air frying to more expensive or esoteric cuts like filet mignon, skirt steak, bavette, etc.
It’s also essential, unless you are an extremely skilled and confident chef, to use a meat thermometer. So it’s just as well my air fryer has one built in, for steak #1 and Meater sent me a Meater+ for steak #2. I did consider cooking the steaks one at a time, so the air fryer would be less crowded, but this would obviously involve either me or my partner having to wait longer to eat, and we’re both hungry guys. So both at once it was, then.
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What is the best way to air fry steak?
Here’s a reader consulting this very recipe while cooking(Image credit: iStock/Getty)
Here’s a reader consulting this very recipe while cooking
Here’s a reader consulting this very recipe while cooking
(Image credit: iStock/Getty)
Okay, so here is what Iusuallydo.
Stick thermometer into meat, if using a cook-in probe. If I was using something like theThermapen One, I would check the temperature every 2-3 minutes. A lot of air fryers are not really designed to be repeatedly opened during cooking – although my Ninja SmartLid seems fine with this – so a probe that remains inside the closed fryer seems a better bet.
Preheat the air fryer to its highest setting. You want it as hot as it can possibly be, which in most cases is about 200ºC (which is not actually all that hot, but whatevs mate). Interestingly, Ninja insists that my air fryer doesn’t need to be preheated, and certainly it does heat up very fast. However for steak, I ignore their advice and run it for 5 minutes before I start so it is, again, as hot as it can get from the very start of cooking.
Place steak/s in the air fryer, on a rack if your air fryer has one – so it’s off the floor of the fryer. Then add far more salt than you think you need. Some cooks feel that you shouldn’t add pepper at this point, and some feel that you should add about 9 billion seasonings but I generally go with anawfullot of salt andquitea lot of freshly-ground black pepper. Come on, it’s not gonna kill you. In the short term. I don’t think it’s worth adding any oil, but it probably is worth oiling the rack the meat is on, to prevent sticking.
Cook whilst keeping an eye on your thermometer reading/s. With the Meater+, the temperature comes up on your phone, connected via Bluetooth. You can actually use the Meater app to tell you when meat is perfectly done, but steak cooks so quickly that I think doing it manually is probably easier. The Ninja air fryer’s temperature naturally appears on its screen.
When the temperature reaches about 25ºC, turn the steaks and season the other side. You’ll probably be surprised how quickly this happens.
For medium rare, you should then cease cooking when the thermometer hits about 55ºC – that’s about 127-130ºF. The ‘correct’ internal cooked temperature of meat is the one element of steak cookery that is genuinely complex, as the internal temperature will continue to go up after you remove it from the pan, and during resting. However, for reasons I don’t understand, air frying seems to remove the usefulness of resting steak. Oh, and also everyone has a different idea of what the optimum medium rare temperature is, anyway. A lot of chefs would push on to 60ºC or 140ºF but I guess I prefer it more ‘rare’ than ‘medium’.
What I end up with, via this method, is a really delicious, buttery soft and juicy steak, cooked on the outside but with a perfect layer of dark pink at its heart. However, what air fried steak invariably lacks is any kind of outer crust. So while the flavour is almost spot on – better than many pan-fried steaks I’ve cooked over the years, in fact – there’s no searing, meaning the flavour isslightlydifferent, and the texture or mouth feel is not quite right.
So here’s what I did this time…
Now that’s what I’m talking about(Image credit: Getty/iStock)
Now that’s what I’m talking about
Now that’s what I’m talking about
(Image credit: Getty/iStock)
This immediately ceases to be an air fryer recipe at this point, so look away now if you are a purist.
It occurred to me that I couldpartlyair fry my steaks, as that gives such great flavour results, and then sear them in a pan. It’s a similar idea to reverse searing roasts, where you apply the greatest amount of heat last instead of at the beginning of cooking. I think possibly a blow torch might be the best way to do this, but alas, I don’t own a blow torch as I am just not that macho.
So I fired up theinduction hobwhile the air fryer was doing its thang, and got a cast iron pan from Lodge absolutely smoking hot. Now youcouldtry this part of the cook using your air fryer’s ‘sear’ function, if it has one. However in my experience, that setting takes too long to heat up, and never gets hot enough anyway.
Whether you use this step or not, I think there’s a lot to be said for air frying steaks, especially for less experienced chefs, those who are not fans of charring and sear lines – if such people exist – and, of course, anyone whose main cooking device is an air fryer. Not everyone has lots of hob space and a cupboard full of thebest pans. Hopefully you can make great steak every time inyourair fryer too.
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Today’s best deals on T3’s favourite air fryersPhilips Airfryer XXL$112.47ViewSee all pricesInstant Vortex Air Fryer$139.95ViewSee all pricesBreville The Combi Wave 3 in 1$499.95ViewSee all pricesNinja Air Fryer AF100UK$89.99ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
Today’s best deals on T3’s favourite air fryersPhilips Airfryer XXL$112.47ViewSee all pricesInstant Vortex Air Fryer$139.95ViewSee all pricesBreville The Combi Wave 3 in 1$499.95ViewSee all pricesNinja Air Fryer AF100UK$89.99ViewSee all pricesWe check over 250 million products every day for the best prices
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Breville The Combi Wave 3 in 1$499.95ViewSee all prices
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Emolife Store Multipurpose Silicone Mat$13.99ViewSee all pricesInstant Vortex Mini Air Fryer$59.99$48ViewSee all pricesDeal endsMon, Jan 20, 2025Dash DCAF150GBBK02 Compact Air Fryer$44.99ViewSee all pricesDash Compact Air Fryer$49.99ViewSee all pricesCosori Pro LE Air Fryer L501$99.99$79.91ViewSee all pricesDeal endsSun, Jan 26, 2025Gourmia 4-Quart Digital Air Fryer with$49ViewSee all pricesChefman Turbofry 3.5L Analog Air Fryer$62ViewSee all pricesGoWISE USA 3.7-Quart Programmable Air$62.53ViewSee all pricesDreo Air Fryer$89.99$67.45ViewSee all pricesGourmia 6 Quart Digital Air Fryer GAF698$68.99ViewSee all prices
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Deal endsSun, Jan 26, 2025
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GoWISE USA 3.7-Quart Programmable Air$62.53ViewSee all prices
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