I made all of my dinners in an air fryer for a week, and there are 4 easy recipes I'd make again (2024)

• I tried seven dinner recipes using my air fryer.
• Though most of the recipes can be made in an air fryer, some shouldn't be cooked this way.
• The chicken thighs were my favorite because they came out with crunchy skin and juicy, tender meat.

I'm obsessed with my air fryer, and I've used it to cook food as varied as chocolate-chip cookies and corn riblets.

I decided to try making all of my dinners, from easy dishes to high-effort ones, in an air fryer for a week. Read on to find out what I will and won't be making again.

I tried the air-fryer eggplant first

This eggplant recipe from the blogger Melanie Cooks couldn't be more straightforward.

First, I began chopping the eggplant into 1-inch cubes. Then I combined it with olive oil, garlic powder, red pepper, paprika, Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.

I placed the seasoned cubes into the preheated air fryer at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, shaking halfway through.

This turned out surprisingly well.

This came out super flavorful and not overly mushy, which can happen with a lot of eggplant dishes.

It had a little crispness to the outsides and a bit of chewiness to the skin. Overall, it was super easy to make and delicious. I will be making it again as a side for a heartier main course.

The next recipe was hot dogs, which seemed weird to me

The blogger Little Sunny Kitchen said these were the "best hot dogs" I would ever make. I was skeptical, but it turns out she's right.

I loved not having to boil and drain the gross hot-dog water.

You literally cannot mess this recipe up

After preheating your air fryer to 390 degrees Fahrenheit, you make a few shallow cuts on the hot dogs to prevent them from inflating or exploding.

Next, you put them in the air fryer for six minutes. Yes, only six minutes.

The toasted buns are the true game changer.

Before this hack, I'd always eat untoasted buns because I had only a traditional toaster. Sticking the buns in there never worked.

After a couple of minutes in the air fryer, you have perfectly toasted buns for your perfectly cooked hot dogs. I will definitely make this again.

The 3rd recipe was air-fryer Margherita pizza, which also seemed odd to me

It's kind of funny to me that the blogger Fabulessly Frugal added that you could make pizza in the oven for 10 minutes and get the same results.

This recipe calls for premade crust, but I bought one that was prepared with cheese. Fortunately, this wasn't an issue.

I cooked my crust in the air fryer for about six to seven minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

The crust cooked quickly and had a nice texture to it. I followed the directions to top it with slices of mozzarella and tomato.

The recipe said to use Campari tomatoes, but I used cherry ones. They were so small that they slid off my pizza while it cooked.

Nevertheless, I popped my pizza slices back into the air fryer baskets and cooked them for five or so minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

The cheese quickly melted, and I topped it with fresh basil and olive oil.

The finished product came out tasty, with good texture and flavor.

Though this was delicious, it was more complicated than just placing a whole pizza in the oven. Air-fryer baskets are small, so I had to cook four slices at a time instead of an entire pie at once.

It seemed unnecessary to use the air fryer instead of the oven.

Next up was the air-fryer chicken, which was my favorite of the recipes

The food blogger Low Carb With Jennifer's recipe requires only bone-in, skin-on chicken (trimmed) and some spices.

Take the chicken and place it in a large bag with kosher salt, smoked paprika, garlic powder, oregano, and onion powder. Then shake to coat.

Once the air fryer is preheated to 380 degrees Fahrenheit, it's time to cook.

First, I sprayed the baskets with oil and placed the thighs skin-side down for 12 minutes. I then flipped them and cooked them for another 10 or so minutes.

They came out with crispy, well-seasoned skin and juicy, tender meat.

The mozzarella sticks were the most fun and strangely satisfying recipe to make

The food blogger Kimspired's quick recipe calls for light string cheese, Italian bread crumbs, an egg, and flour, plus marinara sauce for dipping.

First put your egg, bread crumbs, and flour in three separate containers.

After you unwrap your cheese, coat it in flour, then dip it in egg, and coat in a layer of bread crumbs.

My favorite part was making sure each stick was perfectly coated in crumbles, which felt therapeutic.

The only downside is that you need to freeze the cheese sticks for an hour so they firm up.

Once you take them out of the freezer, pop them into a preheated air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for four minutes. Then flip again for another four minutes.

These came out cheesy, delicious, and addictive.

Some of the cheese ended up oozing out of the breading, especially when I flipped them. But they stayed together for the most part and tasted great with the marinara dipping sauce.

Next up were the vegan air-fryer taquitos, which were more work than I cared for

This taquito recipe from an Allrecipes user named Yoly is vegan, but I would have preferred using meat since it lacked texture on its own. Even so, they weren't hard to make and tasted good enough for a snack.

To make cooking time faster, I microwaved the potato for about four minutes on each side.

While the potato cooked, I made the onion-garlic butter sauce.

I minced the garlic, chopped the onions, and simmered them in butter until they were soft and translucent. Next, I mashed the potato and combined it with salt, pepper, almond milk, and the butter mixture.

Once I had my mashed-potato mixture, I heated the tortillas to roll the taquitos up.

I wasn't a huge fan of this part. I used the grate of a gas stove to heat the tortillas just enough to be easily rollable. This was tedious, and they'll burn fast if you don't pay close attention.

Once I had my tortilla perfectly heated, I put a spoonful of my mashed-potato mixture inside it and rolled it up.

I stuck the rolled taquitos in the preheated air fryer at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

I air-fried them for about seven minutes and then turned them over and sprayed them with oil before cooking them for about three more minutes.

The filling was good and tasted like garlic mashed potatoes.

I would have preferred to eat them without the semi-crunchy tortilla wrapper, which overpowered the flavor of the potatoes.

The last thing I made was the air-fryer grilled cheese

The food blogger This Old Gal makes her grilled cheese with three simple, classic ingredients: bread, cheese, and butter.

Butter one side of each piece of bread, stick cheese inside, and then cook in the preheated air fryer at 370 degrees Fahrenheit for four minutes on each side.

The recipe recommends using toothpicks to hold the bread down. Unfortunately, I didn't have any. Because of this, I had to rearrange the bread midway through cooking, as it had blown off.

Still, these came out cheesy and fabulous — though I could have just as easily made it in a pan.

Each recipe was good enough to try, and I'd probably make all but 2 again

I wouldn't cook the pizza or taquitos in the air fryer next time, but everything else was surprisingly easier to make in the air fryer.

The hot dog, grilled cheese, eggplant, and mozzarella sticks were all winners, with the chicken thighs taking the crown for most filling and worthwhile.