From-Frozen Onion Rings

The standard question of which side dish to throw in the air fryer—“potatoes or onion rings?”—is a no-contest answer in our house. Onion rings every time! We love how the air fryer makes them super crunchy with almost no effort. We’ve tested all sorts of frozen onion rings in an air fryer. The ones with a crumb coating, like the Alexia brand, work best. They yield the most amount of crunch per bite. But all frozen onion rings work fine, even those that are batter coated. Yes, we add cheese. You don’t have to. If you’d like to skip the cheese, just air fry the frozen rings for about 15 minutes to get the proper crunch. But honestly, you’ve come this far. You might as well have a little cheese, too, no? Author © Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough Photograph © Eric Medsker

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Set the machine to "Air Fry". Set the temperature to 400°F / 205°C and the timer to 18 minutes (which will be a little more than you need). Press Start.
2. When the machine beeps, indicates "Add Food", or is heated to the proper temperature, pour the frozen onion rings into the basket or onto the tray in as close to a single layer as possible. You can put small rings inside larger ones. Some can overlap, but they shouldn’t be stacked two and three deep. Use separate trays or work in batches as necessary.
3. Air-fry, undisturbed and ignoring any "Turn Food" indicator, until the rings are hot and visibly crunchy, about 13 minutes. If you’ve used multiple trays, swap them top to bottom at about the halfway point of the cooking process.
4. Gently toss or rearrange the onion rings and sprinkle the cheese over the top of them. Continue air-frying undisturbed until the cheese has melted and even browned in spots, about 2 minutes.
5. Select Cancel and use a nonstick-safe spatula to pick up bunches of the onion rings, transferring them to a serving platter. (Or to a fine-mesh wire rack if you’re intent on preserving every molecule of crunch.) Cool for a couple of minutes before serving hot.
6. Toss the frozen rings with almost any dried spice blend in a medium bowl before putting them in the air fryer. Our favorite is a dried Italian seasoning blend. Pluck the rings out of the bowl with nonstick-safe kitchen tongs to get them into the machine as directed. Before you add the grated cheese, toss it with the remaining dried seasoning blend left in the bowl.