Eleanore Park

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Bacon crisps up in the air fryer in a fraction of the time it would need on the stovetop or in the oven — and air-fryer bacon is ideal for a quick, solo breakfast, or when you need just a small batch. (If you’re cooking bacon for a crowd, we’ve still got you covered with our oven bacon recipe.) Cooking bacon in the air fryer results in extracrisp slices, since the excess bacon fat drains as the bacon cooks. The quantity of bacon here will depend on the size of your air fryer basket (or really, how hungry you are) and won’t affect the time or temperature called out below. To add to this recipe’s convenience, you can even start with frozen bacon without needing to adjust the cook time or temperature.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Cooking baked potatoes in an air fryer is an excellent option when it’s too hot to turn on the oven, or when you’re cooking for a smaller group. The machine’s circulating heat evenly crisps potato skins to perfection. Though simply delicious with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of chopped chives or scallions, these spuds also make perfect vessels for leftovers; add chopped, roasted broccoli, crispy crumbled bacon or a mound of chili for a heartier meal.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Broccoli roasts beautifully in the air fryer, and in record time with minimal effort. The air fryer is especially adept at producing the Maillard reaction — the chemical processes that transform sugars and proteins in food when browned and caramelized, deepening their flavor — because the controlled, high heat draws out moisture, creating a lovely char while keeping vegetables tender and flavorful. This recipe gives the broccoli a hit of umami from soy sauce, which is bolstered in the high heat, resulting in nutty, sweet and salty notes. If you’d like more umami, a drizzle of fish sauce or chile crisp will stretch these flavors even further. A sprinkle of sesame seeds adds nuttiness, and some fresh lemon zest provides a jolt of brightness.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

By some kind of magic, an air fryer can transform a chicken breast into an easy, flavorful dinner with minimal effort. Part of this sorcery takes a cue from Eric Kim’s dry-brined chicken breast recipe, which calls for cutting the chicken breast in half, allowing you to pluck the smaller piece from the air fryer as soon as it’s done, leaving the thicker part to remain in the air fryer longer and preventing any overcooked bites. Paired with vinegar, soy sauce acts less as a salt and more as a marinating agent in this recipe. The circulating heat and compact space of the air fryer allows the ingredients to reduce into a sweet and slightly sticky sauce as they collect at the bottom, emboldening their flavors.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

There are many different ways to cook chicken tenders, but for feeding a smaller group, the air fryer is a convenient method for super-crispy and juicy results. A simple combination of panko bread crumbs, paprika, salt and pepper make up the coating, but that can just be the beginning: Try adding nutritional yeast for a boost of umami, shichimi togarashi or crushed red pepper for heat, or a sprinkle of oregano for a more classic flavor profile. Turn this recipe into a full meal by adding half of the recipe for air-fryer broccoli or air-fryer green beans to the basket when flipping the chicken tenders.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Simple and satisfying, chicken thighs brown beautifully in the air fryer, maintaining moisture thanks to their fat content. A quick, vinegar-spiked sour cream marinade adds oomph and helps tenderize the chicken. Despite being tossed and coated in a quick wet marinade (or overnight, if time permits), the skin still comes out deeply golden-brown and shatteringly crisp without leaving the meat lackluster. Because thighs vary in size, and air fryers range in size and power, make sure to take the internal temperature before removing your chicken from the air fryer, or pierce the chicken to check that the juices run clear rather than pink to ensure doneness.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Tossed simply with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, red-pepper flakes and grated garlic, green beans in the air fryer blister beautifully in a fraction of the time without heating up the oven. Equally tasty hot or at room temperature, these green beans can be made ahead and set aside if you want to cook a main dish in the air fryer after they’ve crisped. Green beans will crisp up nicely if left undisturbed in the air fryer, but like an oven, an air fryer can contain hot spots, so it’s worth shaking the green beans at least once for even cooking.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

This easy air-fryer grilled cheese recipe yields an evenly toasted exterior, crisped frico edges and a perfectly melted middle — in record time. As Julia Moskin points out in her stovetop recipe, some patience and attention are required to ensure that the outside doesn’t burn before the cheese melts. But the air fryer’s convection heat results in the ideal grilled cheese with minimum effort. Like Ali Slagle’s sheet-pan recipe, this version is flexible: You can use any sliced bread or melting cheese. A schmear of your favorite condiment is also welcome here; try gochujang, kimchi or sauerkraut. If you have a larger air fryer, this recipe can easily be doubled to fit more than one sandwich.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

This easy air-fryer recipe creates tasty, effortless pork chops, with the flexibility to season ahead of time or with no notice at all. The sugar-and-spice blend performs double duty, injecting a jolt of seasoning all over while also caramelizing as the pork cooks, forming a delightfully crackly crust that keeps the meat moist. Depending on the size of your air-fryer basket, you may be able to fit more than two pork chops, but the temperature and cook time will stay the same.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

The air fryer creates crispy, tender potatoes without having to parboil beforehand, cutting much of the cooking time. Thanks to the compact space of the air fryer, the circulated high heat blisters the skins, creating crunchy edges, but also steams the potatoes, resulting in creamy centers. These potatoes taste as if they had been slow roasted over a long period of time, but cook in about 15 minutes. If dried parsley is unavailable, or you prefer fresh herbs, the recipe works just as well by tossing the potatoes with a tablespoon of freshly chopped parsley along with the lemon zest before serving.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Salmon cooks perfectly in the air fryer because the device’s circulating high heat keeps the fish moist and crisps skin-on fillets. Here, tomatoes and lemon slices provide a bright boost to the dish, but feel free to forgo or vary the recipe with seasonings like brown sugar and mustard or simply try out other salmon recipes.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

A classic cast-iron steak recipe is hard to beat, but cooking steak in the air fryer is a reliable way to nail the perfect internal temperature in a fraction of the time thanks to the machine’s circulating high heat. Both the steak seasoning and herb butter work well for other occasions and can be easily scaled up, stored and saved for future use. The small amount of brown sugar doesn’t add much sweetness, instead, it helps encourage caramelization. Fast and dependable, this may become your new go-to way to cook steak on a weeknight. Why You Should Trust This Recipe In creating this recipe, Eleanore Park tried cooking more than five different cuts of steak in the air fryer to reach the ideal result. The recipe tester then tried another cut and also helped adjust the timing to make sure the steak comes out perfectly medium-rare every time.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Like air-fryer French fries, air-fryer sweet potatoes achieve similar success, utilizing less oil and requiring less time than deep-fried versions. While sweet potato fries won’t crisp up as much as their potato counterparts, that’s part of the appeal, offering textural contrast of creamy centers and charred tips. Oomph from any of your favorite spices would work well here, along with the paprika. Sumac could add a punch of brightness or a dash of cayenne can impart some heat. If your air fryer basket is larger, try a bigger sweet potato for a higher serving — but don’t overfill it with sweet potatoes, or they’ll steam rather than crisping in spots.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Much like air-fryer French fries, tofu becomes perfectly crunchy in the air fryer without the need for deep-frying or an abundance of oil. This recipe takes a cue from Eric Kim’s crispy tofu nuggets, using potato starch to create a crackly exterior. The potato starch and salt coating, as well as the circulating high heat, helps evenly draw out the moisture. Similar to many air fryer recipes, the tofu benefits from being tossed or shaken halfway through to ensure even cooking. If using a smaller air fryer, cooking spray helps prevent the cubes from clumping when piled into the basket. For a full meal, serve with rice and a squeeze of lime for an extra shot of brightness.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

There’s a decadence to red bean nian gao that might lead you to assume there’s labor behind the richness. Instead, this butter mochi cake couldn’t be simpler. This recipe is as easy as it is riffable, and the snack invites different nuts and seeds as additions or substitutions for toppings. Mochiko (sweet rice flour) results in a lovely, paradoxical cake crumb that’s both chewy and springy. Jessica Wang, who runs Gu Grocery, a Chinese Taiwanese online store, in Los Angeles, has collaborated with her mother, Peggy Wang, teaching cooking classes and baking pastries at pop-ups where they sell lemon-honey nian gao and other variations of her mother’s baked nian gao (red bean butter mochi cake). For added caramelization and even more textural contrast, Ms. Wang recommends briefly broiling the top or lightly searing any leftover pieces in a cast-iron skillet. Eleanore Park

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Garlic butter is so simple to make and a small luxury to have on hand to add oomph to many dishes. It can be made (and even frozen) ahead of time, so recipes like garlic bread are ready to deploy at a moment’s notice. Add a dollop to steak as it rests, or to melt into plain pasta for a luscious sauce. The herbs and lemon zest here are optional, but they do add a jolt of freshness and help balance the butter’s richness. Garlic cloves can vary in size, so add as many or little to suit your taste.

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Jessica Wang, who runs Gu’s Grocery, a Chinese Taiwanese online store, in Los Angeles, always sells a variation of her mother’s mochi cake at her pop-ups. Subtly sweet, this honey-lemon variation gets a double jolt of moisture from a blend of honey and macerated lemon that gets stirred into the batter and then drizzled on top after baking. Mochiko (sweet rice flour) multitasks here, bolstering the hints of the cake’s sweetness and imparting this gluten-free treat with a unique textural crumb that’s both bouncy and light. Though this dessert is well-suited for a crowd, it also makes for a lovely snacking cake as it keeps well too, since the soaking liquid softens the cake over the first day and into the second. Eleanore Park

Eleanore Park · NYT Cooking

Tteok (oval rice cakes) partner up with spring’s abundance of greens to produce an easy, lightning-fast weeknight dinner. The firm, precooked rice cakes often found in soups and stews become amazingly absorbent after a quick soak, drinking in the surrounding miso sauce, becoming glossy and rich with umami. Spring offers ample opportunity for substitutions: Fragrant green garlic can swap in for the usual garlic cloves, magenta spring onions for red onions, fresh peas instead of frozen, and twirly pea shoots for baby spinach. This dish welcomes scallions, chives, parsley or any tender herbs that may need to be used up. Quick-cooking or already-cooked proteins such as shrimp, white beans or tofu are happily accommodated here, if a protein boost is desired to top off this very vegetable-forward vegan meal.