At this level, shopping for an air fryer is virtually a ceremony of passage, and if you happen to’re nonetheless solely utilizing it for frozen fries and buffalo wings, you are critically underestimating what it will possibly do. One of the most effective air fryer hacks I’ve stumbled throughout? Grilled cheese that is crispier, cleaner and one way or the other even higher than the stovetop model.
I used to swear by the skillet methodology, however as soon as I attempted making grilled cheese within the air fryer, there was no going again. It delivers that golden, crunchy exterior with out drowning your bread in butter, and it retains your kitchen cooler-perfect for these sizzling summer season days when firing up the range feels like a foul thought.
If you have not made this swap but, this is why your subsequent grilled cheese ought to begin within the air fryer.
If you are a purist, I salute you, too. The old skool methodology for making grilled cheese is simply wonderful but it surely’s not with out flaws. Pan-fried grilled cheeses additionally are inclined to collapse or keep on with the pan if they don’t seem to be cooked and flipped correctly and if you do not have the warmth up excessive sufficient, you may by no means get that coveted crunch.
If you do not personal an air fryer, I like to recommend Ninja’s new glass-bowl mannequin. It’s the most effective we have examined and makes a imply grilled cheese. Below you may discover suggestions for making the most effective air fryer grilled cheese of your life.
Why the air fryer is an ideal equipment to make grilled cheese
As you possibly can plainly see, the air fryer grilled cheese leaves little mess to cope with after making ready.
An air fryer is mainly a small convection oven with nonstick surfaces, circulating sizzling air round no matter you set in its basket. Unlike your saute pan or skillet, it cooks from all instructions without delay and sometimes in much less time. Unlike your oven, it’s compact and environment friendly, heats up shortly and should not even require preheating.
Your toaster oven might by no means do that. While toasted cheese is a chance (and reheated toaster oven pizza is a revelation), grilled cheese will not be. Your toaster oven will not be designed to assist fats on the underside of no matter you are cooking, and you will find yourself with a large number too sophisticated to wash.
For your grilled cheese, the air fryer is engaged on each of the bread surfaces and the cheese unexpectedly, leading to a faster soften, which adheres the cheese to the bread slices collectively making for a a lot simpler flip. (Flipping continues to be beneficial however with far much less drama.)
The air circulation gives deep crunchiness, not solely to the surfaces that obtained the butter or mayo therapy however to all the crust. Any inclusions past cheese within the inside of the sandwich are additionally reworking due to the ambient warmth. Simply inserting a lid in your saute pan or skillet cannot obtain the identical outcomes, because the elements will develop into steamed and doubtlessly soggy.
Here’s how I make air fryer grilled cheese
Humble components are remodeled into one thing nice inside an air fryer.
- Assemble a grilled cheese as you’d in any other case
- Sliced bread
- Sliced or shredded cheese (I like American cheese for a primary grilled cheese and a combo of gruyere and cheddar for an improve.)
- Butter or mayonnaise for the skin of the bread slices (supplier’s selection)
For a primary grilled cheese, you possibly can assemble the sandwich within the basket of your air fryer: bread with buttered facet down, adopted by sliced or shredded cheese, then topped with the ultimate slice with buttered facet up.
Be it a easy sandwich or a fancier mixture of cheese, bread and fixings, the air fryer makes a crispy, gooey grilled cheese in minutes.
Set the warmth to 400 levels Fahrenheit and cook dinner for 3 to six minutes on all sides, flipping midway via. The already melted cheese will preserve your sandwich properly collectively through the flip. You can get a evenly golden grilled cheese in much less time however I like to recommend hanging on for five to six minutes for a deeply crunchy sandwich.
Another perk of the air fryer is that you could extra simply peek to see the place you are at with out adversely affecting the end result.
The air fryer is finest for making fancy grilled cheese
Add a fruit component and cured meats for a fancier air fryer sammy.
This is the place the air fryer actually shines within the grilled cheese realm. Every component of an upgraded grilled cheese provides a level of problem when making an attempt to cook dinner in a skillet, a lot of which is mitigated within the secure confines of an air fryer. Thicker bread. Thicker cheese, like hunks of camembert or brie.
And consider all the nice grilled cheese components that may be slippery: apple slices, roasted pink peppers, tomatoes, pickles, and so forth. Any grilled cheese with greater than two elements may be difficult to flip gracefully in a skillet, even for educated cooks.
Bag a loaf of excellent bread and stuff your sandwich with upmarket cheese.
To show some extent, I assembled a flowery grilled cheese with camembert, prosciutto and apple slices. (Plus mayonnaise on the outside, as a result of I used to be being fancy, and mayo provides your sandwich a bit of additional tang.) Because of its top, I assembled it totally exterior of the air fryer after which fastidiously positioned it within the drawer.
Et voila!
After 6 minutes of air fryer cooking, the flip was seamless and the subtle final result belies the truth that you spent all of 1 minute assembling the masterpiece. The exterior of the ham even obtained a bit of bonus crisping. So the air fryer invitations you to go to city with no matter you possibly can dream up on your grilled cheese: cured or cooked floor meats, grilled veggies, varied sauces and relishes — you identify it. An epic grilled cheese variation is restricted solely by the confines of your creativeness.
Do I have to preheat an air fryer for grilled cheese?
A grilled cheese is a quick-cooking sandwich regardless of the way you do it so you do not need to add on minutes of extra time for one thing that solely takes minutes to perform. That mentioned, whereas preheating your air fryer could also be a waste of time for sure preparations, I feel placing it on for only a minute to warmth up the nonstick floor that the sandwich sits on is worth it to get that golden crust working immediately.
Are there drawbacks to creating air fryer grilled cheese?
Depending in your mannequin and dimension of air fryer, and the form of bread you select, it may be difficult to make greater than two sandwiches without delay, so it may not be probably the most family-friendly methodology for making grilled cheese. But for a solo meal or date evening, your air fryer is the grilled cheese hack you did not know you wanted.
