Most meats (besides some frozen) do not need oil. This includes if you just need to spray a baking sheet to make it not stick. You can, however, choose to marinate meat with ingredients such as oil, like these Air Fryer Chicken Thighs recipe.
While you would typically add oil to a pan before adding your food, the case is not the same when using an air fryer. In a bowl, toss your food in a few teaspoons of vegetable oil or olive oil along with your seasoning before putting it in the air fryer. This method works best for cooking fresh meats and vegetables.
It is safe to cook raw meat in the air fryer if it is fully defrosted, seasoned, and monitored. Some fully cooked foods, including chicken tenders or fries, can be placed frozen in the air fryer. However, with raw meat, it's recommended to thoroughly defrost to allow more even cooking and a tasty final product.
Prep Work for Air Fryer Ribeye Steak
Just before cooking, brush oil on both sides of the steak, and season the steak with your other choice of seasonings, such as garlic powder and ground black pepper. Then, spray the air fryer tray lightly with cooking oil.
Steam and no oil
It is also possible to cook a steak without using oil at all. Especially if you're using a grill or barbecue. As long as you use a clean, very hot surface, you can easily cook your steak au naturelle without any oil at all.
The high heat of the air fryer cooks the outside of the steak quickly, locking in the juices. It doesn't brown as much as from other methods, but it's still very good. Note that I've added a little bit of sugar to my recipe to aid in getting the outside a bit caramelized, browned, and crisped at least along the edges.
YOU'RE NOT ADDING OIL
With all that air movement, the food starts to lose moisture, which takes away the delicious flavors you love in fried food. You only need 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of oil each time you use your air fryer to help bring that flavor and moisture back.
Place steaks in the air fryer basket. Lightly coat with vegetable oil spray. Set the air fryer to 400°F for 8 minutes, carefully turning steaks and coating other side with vegetable oil spray halfway through the cooking time.
The air fryer is perfect for oil-free cooking. Though manufacturers and recipes often suggest using a little bit of oil, you actually don't need to add any oil to ingredients before tossing them into the fryer basket. The high heat and circulating air will give you crispy texture without any oil.
Hence, always recheck the recipe and ensure the device is set to the right temperature before using an air fryer for preheating. Also, remember that you don't need to take out the basket, and you don't need to add oil for preheating.
The perforations in the air fryer basket are perfect for the fat to drain off of the meat. This means that the meat isn't cooking in fat the entire time. Also, when the meat is finished cooking, you just lift out the basket and the fat is all left behind.
If your air fryer chicken breast is dry, it is mostly likely because you overcooked it. Use an inexpensive instant read thermometer to check for doneness. Chicken is considered cooked at 165 degrees F.
The most likely reason for tough chicken in the air fryer is overcooking. Be sure to cook it to only 160-degrees and then allow it to rest for 5-minutes tented with foil.
As with all dry-heat cooker methods (grilling, broiling, pan frying and oven roasting), tender beef cuts perform best in the air fryer. Those cuts include Top Sirloin, KC Strip, Ribeye, Tenderloin and Tri Tip. Ground beef also can be easily prepared in an air fryer.
Seared outside, juicy inside, and fast, air fried steak is astonishingly easy and tastes phenomenal.
While steaks traditionally get their crisp exterior being seared on a grill or pan, steaks made in the air fryer achieve the same results through the circulation of hot air. This is a particularly helpful method of cooking if your grill is finicky, your stove heats unevenly, or you're just a newbie at cooking steaks.
The secret: Placing the steaks in a cold nonstick skillet with no oil. This counterintuitive technique was developed by former Cook's Illustrated staffer Andrew Janjigian, who discovered a well-marbled cut doesn't need extra oil; enough fat comes out during cooking to help brown the beef.