Common Air Fryer Mistakes Beginners Make (and Easy Fixes)

So your first few air fryer dinners came out a little soggy, a little uneven, or a lot smokier than you expected. Take a breath. Almost every one of those letdowns traces back to a handful of rookie habits, and every single one is easy to fix once you know what is going on.

Here is the good news up front: you do not need new gear, new recipes, or a culinary degree. You mostly need to stop fighting the way an air fryer actually works. It cooks by whipping super-heated air around your food, so anything that blocks that airflow, traps moisture, or burns where it should not is what stands between you and that crisp, golden result. Below are the most common air fryer mistakes beginners make, why each one trips people up, and the simple fix for each. Sort these out and your next batch will be a different dinner entirely.

Overcrowding the basket

This is the big one, and fixing it alone solves most disappointing results. Air fryers cook by circulating super-heated air around food. When you pile pieces in or stack them, you block that airflow, pieces touch, and moisture gets trapped. Instead of a crisp exterior you get uneven, steamed, soggy food.

The fix: Arrange food in a single layer with space between pieces. Cooks and reviewers suggest leaving about a half inch of breathing room between items, and a good rule is to keep the basket no more than about halfway full. When you have more than fits, cook in batches. It takes a little longer, but the texture is far better, and two proper batches beat one crammed batch every time. If you batch constantly, that is the clearest sign you would be happier with a bigger unit or a second rack that adds a usable layer. Our guide to choosing an air fryer walks through how to size one to the way you actually cook.

Spraying aerosol cooking spray into the basket

It feels harmless, but aerosol nonstick sprays (the PAM-type cans) are quietly tough on your machine. They contain lecithin, anti-foaming agents, and propellants. The lecithin builds up, hardens, and polymerizes onto the nonstick surface as a sticky residue that is nearly impossible to remove, and the additives degrade the coating over time until it is ruined.

The fix: Never spray an aerosol can directly at the basket or rack. Instead, use a refillable pump-style oil mister filled with a high-smoke-point oil such as avocado, sunflower, or light olive, and mist the food rather than the coating. If an aerosol can is genuinely all you have, spray it onto the food well away from the appliance, never into the basket itself.

Putting parchment paper in during preheat

Parchment can be a real help, but loose paper and a powerful fan are a bad combination. That fan can suck a loose sheet upward toward the exposed heating element, where it can char, smoke, or catch fire. The risk is highest when you drop parchment into an empty basket during preheating, with no food to weigh it down.

The fix: Add parchment only after preheating, and always put food on top of it before you start so the weight holds it in place. Use perforated air fryer parchment liners rather than a solid sheet so air can still circulate through the holes, and never let the paper cover the vents or ride up the basket walls.

Not shaking or flipping halfway through

Food sits against the basket and against its neighbors, so only the exposed surfaces meet the hot air. Leave it untouched and the bottom stays pale or soggy while the top browns. Uneven results, every time.

The fix: For bite-sized items like fries, tots, wings, nuggets, and Brussels sprouts, set a timer for the halfway mark and shake the basket, or flip the bigger pieces with tongs, so every side gets its turn in the circulating air. Silicone-tipped tongs let you flip without scratching the nonstick coating.

Skipping the preheat when it actually matters

Drop food into a cold basket and the surface warms up gradually, so it tends to dry out or steam before it sears, and you lose that crispness. Beginners also tend to assume an air fryer preheats as slowly as an oven. It does not.

The fix: For anything you want crisp and seared (fries, wings, breaded items, proteins), run a quick two to three minute preheat at your target temperature before adding food, so cooking starts at full heat. Because it heats in just a couple of minutes, only start the preheat right before you are ready to load. For fast-cooking and frozen items, a cold start is usually fine, so save the preheat for when crunch is the goal.

Using no oil at all, or far too much

Oil is a balancing act. With zero oil, lean foods and fresh vegetables often come out dry, pale, and rubbery, because there is nothing to carry heat to the surface or encourage browning. Too much oil pools, makes food greasy, and drips onto the hot element where it burns and smokes.

The fix: Use a light coating. A teaspoon or two tossed with the food, or a quick mist from a refillable sprayer, is plenty to crisp and brown without sogginess or smoke. Toss to coat evenly rather than drowning the food. One bonus: pre-fried frozen foods like fries and nuggets already contain oil, so they need none added.

Cooking fatty foods without managing the grease

Bacon, sausage, and chicken thighs are air fryer favorites, but they render a lot of grease that drips to the bottom. When that fat hits the superheated drip pan it burns and produces smoke, which can rattle a new owner and leave a burnt taste. Built-up grease is also a genuine fire hazard.

The fix: Add two to three tablespoons of water to the bottom drip pan before cooking greasy foods, so the dripping fat lands in the water instead of charring on the hot surface. You can also drop the temperature by about 25F (cook bacon at 350F instead of 375F) and clean the grease out promptly between cooks. One caveat: the water-in-the-pan trick suits basket-style fryers, so check your model's manual first, since it is not right for every design.

Trying to cook wet-battered food

In a deep fryer, hot oil instantly sets a wet batter. An air fryer has nothing to do that job. The fan simply blows the liquid batter around, it drips off and splatters the inside of the machine, and you never get that puffed, crunchy coating you were picturing.

The fix: Skip liquid batters like beer batter and tempura in the air fryer. Use a dry breading instead: pat the food dry, then dredge it in flour, egg, and breadcrumbs, pressing the crumbs on firmly so they stick. Pre-battered frozen foods are the exception, since their batter was already set during freezing.

Not patting food dry first

Surface moisture is the enemy of crispness. Washed vegetables, marinated meat, and thawed frozen food all carry water that turns to steam in the basket, so the food steams instead of browns and lands on your plate soft or soggy.

The fix: Pat food thoroughly dry with paper towels before tossing it with oil and seasoning. Drain marinades well, and shake the ice crystals off frozen items. The drier the surface, the crispier the result.

Cranking the temperature too high

Air fryers heat aggressively, so beginners who assume hotter means faster end up with a charred exterior and a raw or undercooked center, especially on thicker pieces. Different foods simply want different temperature bands.

The fix: Match the temperature to the food. Thin or frozen items crisp best at higher heat (around 380 to 400F), dense vegetables like a moderate heat (375 to 390F), and delicate proteins prefer it lower (350 to 375F) so they cook through without burning. Cut pieces to a uniform size so they cook evenly, and for thick cuts, lower the temperature and extend the time rather than blasting them.

Trusting color instead of a thermometer

Because the circulating air crisps the surface so fast, food can look golden and finished while the center is still undercooked. With meat and poultry, judging by color alone risks serving something underdone, and that is a food safety issue, not just a texture one.

The fix: Check doneness with an instant-read thermometer in the thickest part rather than relying on color. Cook poultry to 165F, ground meats to 160F, and steak to your target (around 130F for medium-rare). An instant-read pulls a reading in seconds with minimal heat loss, so you are not standing there with the basket open.

Crowding the appliance against a wall

Where you put the machine matters as much as what goes inside it. Air fryers vent hot, moist exhaust from the back or top. Jam the intake or exhaust against a wall, a cabinet, or backsplash clutter and the heat and steam cannot escape: food steams instead of crisping, the unit can overheat, and the hot exhaust can damage the power cord, which is a fire and shock hazard.

The fix: Give the unit clearance on all sides. Consumer Reports recommends at least 5 inches between the back of the air fryer and the wall or any object. Keep towels, paper, and foil away from the vents, and set it on a heat-tolerant surface rather than a plastic mat. Treat the basket exterior and back vent as hot, too, since they can climb past 200F: handle by the handle only, and let it cool before you move it. If counter space is the real problem, our roundup of air fryers for small kitchens leans toward models that fit without crowding.

Never cleaning it, or cleaning it the wrong way

Old oil, grease, and crumbs build up on the basket and the heating element. A dirty fryer smokes heavily, cooks less efficiently, makes food taste off, and in extreme cases the built-up grease can catch fire. Clean it the wrong way, though, with abrasive pads, harsh degreasers, or metal utensils, and you wreck the nonstick coating.

The fix: Soak and wash the basket and tray with mild dish soap and water soon after each use, before the grease dries on, and periodically wipe the heating element with a damp cloth once the unit is unplugged and fully cool. Skip abrasive sponges, harsh chemicals, and metal tools, and do not bother with the viral hot-soapy-water self-clean trick, which can damage the machine.

The cheat sheet

A few things worth keeping nearby

You can cook brilliantly with nothing but the basket your air fryer came with. That said, a few inexpensive extras genuinely make these fixes easier, and none of them are mandatory.

• An oil sprayer or mister is the honest upgrade over aerosol cans. It puts a light, even coat on the food and keeps the gunky propellant residue off your coating. Check price on Amazon.
• Perforated parchment liners make cleanup faster for sticky or saucy foods, and the holes let air keep circulating the way a solid sheet would not. Check price on Amazon.
• An instant-read thermometer is close to essential once you start cooking meat, since it ends the color-guessing game in seconds. Check price on Amazon.

If you are still shopping for the machine itself, our air fryer finder can narrow things down fast, and if it is mostly the two of you eating, the best air fryers for two people are sized so you are not constantly batch-cooking.

FAQ

Do you need to preheat an air fryer?

Usually not, but it helps in the right moments. Most fast-cooking and frozen items (fries, nuggets, leftovers) do fine from a cold start. Preheat for two to three minutes when you want to sear, bake, or get maximum crunch on thin vegetables and denser cuts like chicken breast. If you skip the preheat, just add a couple of minutes to the total cook time. One firm rule: do not preheat with parchment in the basket, since it can blow up into the heating element and burn.

Can you put aluminum foil or parchment paper in an air fryer?

Yes to both, with rules. Foil is safe as long as it never touches the heating element, is weighted down by food so it cannot blow around, and is kept away from acidic ingredients like tomatoes, citrus, and vinegar marinades, which break down the aluminum and cause it to leach into food. Parchment is safe when weighted down by food, but a loose sheet flies up and burns. Either way, do not line the whole basket bottom, since that blocks airflow and makes food soggier and slower to cook. Perforated liners are the safer parchment choice.

Why is my air fryer food not crispy or coming out soggy?

It is almost always one of five things: too much surface moisture (pat the food dry first), overcrowding so hot air cannot circulate (cook in a single layer), no oil at all (a light coat helps it brown), not shaking or flipping halfway, or a cold start when you wanted crunch (preheat for that). A hidden grease film on the basket or crisper plate also chokes airflow, so keep it clean.

Do you need oil in an air fryer, and how much?

You do not strictly need it, but a small amount gives the crispy, golden exterior most people are after and helps prevent sticking. Think a few sprays up to roughly a teaspoon, tossed onto the food itself rather than poured into the basket. Pre-fried frozen foods like fries, nuggets, and spring rolls already contain oil and need none added. Do not drench food, since excess oil traps moisture and turns crisp into greasy.

How full can you fill the air fryer basket?

The golden rule is a single layer with a little breathing room, about half an inch between pieces, and no more than about halfway full. Overcrowding blocks the hot air, so food steams and cooks unevenly. Two proper batches beat one crammed basket every time. As a rough guide, a 5-quart basket holds about three to four bone-in chicken thighs, eight to ten wings, or roughly 8 ounces of fries in a single layer.

How often should you clean an air fryer, and how?

Do a quick clean after every use: let it cool, then wash the basket, tray, and pan in warm soapy water and wipe the interior walls with a damp cloth. Never submerge the main unit, since it holds the electrical components, and skip metal utensils and abrasive scrubbers that scratch the nonstick coating. A deeper clean every week or two is worth it. Leftover grease is not just a hygiene thing, it clogs airflow and quietly hurts your crisping.

How do I avoid burnt or overly browned food?

Aim for golden, not deep brown, especially on starchy foods like potatoes and bread. Beyond looking better, it is the safer call: food safety guidance recommends cooking starchy foods to a golden-yellow color to limit acrylamide, a compound that forms when carb-rich foods are cooked at high heat. Soaking cut potatoes for 15 to 30 minutes and easing off the temperature and time both help.