Thin steaks are prone to overcooking quickly and becoming chewy. To enjoy the best flavor and texture, allow the steaks to come to room temperature at least 30 minutes before cooking them in the air fryer. Don't overcrowd the air fryer basket and leave some space between steaks for airflow to cook evenly.
The best way to ensure a juicy steak is to use high heat to cook the steak quickly, which will bring it to the proper temperature without drying it out. Remember to rest your steak after air frying to allow the meat to reabsorb juices and complete its cooking time without direct heat.
Preheat a 3.5-quart air fryer to 400 degrees F. Season the steak on both sides with a generous pinch of salt and several grinds of black pepper. Place the steak in the center of the air fryer basket and cook until desired doneness, about 10 minutes for medium-rare, 12 minutes for medium and 14 minutes for medium-well.
High heat is the best for cooking steak, because the less time it spends cooking, the more tender it will be. That makes the air fryer GREAT for cooking steak. The air fryer cooks food by blowing intensely hot air down and around it—an ideal way to make juicy, tender steak that will have your family oohing and ahhing.
When exposed to too much heat, the fat within the muscles gets rendered out completely, ridding the steak of the moisture that makes it tender. On the other hand, if that fat doesn't have enough time to break down, the resulting steak will be as tough as it would be if it were adequately cooked.
Undercooked. If a steak hasn't been cooked long enough, it can become chewy or tough as there hasn't been enough time for the heat to fully penetrate and melt the fat and any connective tissue.
Yes, there are scientific reasons to back up the fact that slow cooked meat is better. Tenderness in meat comes from the melting of collagen – the connective tissue protein present in meat. When collagen melts, it turns into gelatin, a rich liquid that gives meat a lot of flavour as well as a silky texture.
Does an air fryer make meat tender? Yes, meat cooked in the air fryer will always be more tender and cook evenly.
Start by rubbing the steak all over with the olive oil. This isn't a necessary step when cooking a steak on the grill or in a cast-iron pan, but in an air fryer, the steak's surface has the best chance of caramelizing and creating a crust if it's coated in oil.
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.
This ensures that the outside of the steaks get nice and brown — similar to searing. If you were to skip this step, the steaks could end up grey and overcooked by the time the outside browns, so be patient and let the air fryer heat up.
It is absolutely safe to use aluminum foil in your air fryer. In fact, it can make cooking with the air fryer easier.
Place cooked steak in preheated air fryer * basket and air fry 5-6 minutes at 360°F (180°C) (2-3 minutes if using sliced steak). For best results, wrap in aluminium foil when almost heated through, and rest 5 minutes.
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 steak in air fryer basket. If you are cooking more than one, make sure they are not touching. Air fry at 400°F / 200°C for 7 minutes for medium-rare (12 minutes for well-done).
Using a meat mallet (or kitchen mallet) to pound steaks helps soften and tenderize the meat. Simply place the meat in between pieces of plastic wrap or wax paper and pound it prior to cooking. If you don't have a meat mallet, you can also use a heavy kitchen tool such as a skillet, saucepan or rolling pin.
To reduce the amount of smoke, start with oil, rather than butter. We recommend around 1/2 cup for a 12-inch skillet. A few minutes before you finish cooking your steak, add butter and aromatics.
Butter is ideal for continually basting a steak and lends itself perfectly to some cuts and for those who like to be there tenderly managing the cooking. Being there and continually basting means the butter is less likely to burn and mar the flavour.
An air fryer is simply a small oven that runs on convection heat. The heat is circulated around a tight space by a powerful fan that lies just below or behind the heating element. Just as in a standard oven, it is perfectly safe to use aluminum foil in the air fryer.
Covering your overcooked steak with a thick sauce or gravy will help balance out the dryness and make up for its lack of flavor. Preferably, the sauce is also warm. Serving the steak warm is important, as cold steak gets even tougher. Warm some water or broth in a pan with some barbeque sauce and let your steak simmer.
To minimize chewiness in a steak when cooking, apply salt to the steak for an hour before cooking and slice it against the grain about 5 minutes after removing it from the heat. But for tough cuts, cook it low and slow, marinate it, beat it with a mallet before cooking, or braise the meat.
Most fine restaurants age their beef to intensify the flavor and improve the tenderness of the cut. Wet aging is done by vacuum packing the meat and letting it age in its own juices. Wet aging is done by more than 90% of fine steakhouses.
The more collagen there is in a piece of meat, the tougher it is to cut and to chew. Skin is mostly collagen, as are the tendons that connect muscles to bones. For cuts that are high in collagen, cooking with methods that use slow, moist heat, such as stewing or braising, are the best.