What made you decide to do an air-fryer book?
It was a few things, really. When I knew lots of families in the UK had an air fryer, that was when I knew I had to listen, then my Channel 4 TV show, Jamie’s Air Fryer Meals, did really well, not to mention the fact I was being flooded with questions about them on my socials! A book seemed like the next natural step. I wanted to really analyse the method of cooking in an air fryer, so I could see how I could push things to the next level and use it to its best. As you’ll see in the book, it’s a real mix of comfort dishes, healthy dishes, contemporary recipes, even side dishes and desserts. It’s exciting that this is the next generation of cooking in the kitchen.
It wasn’t what it couldn’t do, but what it could do and push that. That was my aim. Oven chips are magnificent in the air fryer, but there’s so much more to it than that. I wanted to go beyond the usual.
How did you approach making this cookbook?
I kicked things off by looking at the recipes I thought hot air was going to benefit, so things like crispy skins, dehydrating and caramelising veg in cool ways. Once I got the foundations of the book together, then me and my team tested all kinds of different things. Can you cook a stew in it? What can you do with the shelf? Can it be raised on a tin so you can cook flatbreads? It was very experimental. But we’ve ended up with a user-friendly, modern cookbook. It’s really cool and without question, it’s a super useful piece of cooking equipment.
Yes, there’s some things it can’t do, but there’s so much more that it can, and that’s what I’m interested in.
How often do you use your air fryer?
The air fryer is really useful if you have a family, with kids turning up at different times of the day. Because, let’s face it, the idea of the whole family sitting together at the table only happens about twice a week – so, when you have children coming back from after-school clubs hungry, you can bang something in the air fryer and have it on the table in no time at all. I also use it at those big feasting times, like Christmas and Easter, when the hob and oven are both full – it makes the best roast parsnips and carrots! I’m also getting more and more requests for recipes for one and two [people] these days, so the air fryer is perfect for when you don’t want or need to turn on the whole oven.
It can cook a small chicken for two and roast potatoes in the same drawer. And I love the fact the manual mode means you have total control over the times and temperatures, so you can cook so much in it.
What is your favourite air fryer hack?
Being able to use the drawer in cool ways. Like, cooking chickpeas underneath the tray, which has a chicken leg that you’ve flavoured up with spices and curry paste on top. They’ll slowly reheat and bubble while the chicken is getting tender and crispy, all of that spiced rendered fat flavouring the chickpeas. Then, once you’ve plated up the chicken on top of the chickpeas, you can quickly put a bag of washed spinach in the drawer for 1 minute to wilt it down in the flavours, before serving up, finishing off with a sprinkling of bashed-up roasted cashews that you’d cooked earlier. It’s a holistic way of cooking. You can also raise it on a heatproof ramekin or two cookie cutters, so you can get the crispiest duck skin. Or roast veg with stock in it to make a soup.
I also have a great way of cooking veges in the air fryer: Take any green veg, like Brussels sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, French beans, asparagus, and hit them hard and fast at a high heat with nothing on them.
Only once they’re cooked do you dress them with oil, lemon and chopped chilli and they’ll suck up all of that delicious flavour. It’s a really dynamic, quick, convenient way to cook veg.
Mint choc chip whoopie pies
Serve 8
Hands on: 10 minutes, plus chilling
Cook: 37 minutes
1-drawer air fryer
1 x 145g bar of mint Aero
150g full-fat cream cheese
85g unsalted butter
200g self-raising flour
100g caster sugar
3 Tbsp cocoa powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g milk or dark chocolate chips
2 medium free-range eggs
Method
1. To make the filling, snap 120g of Aero into a heat-proof bowl and melt in the air fryer for 3 minutes at 170°C, then stir until smooth and mix in the cream cheese. Cover and leave to firm up in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
2. Melt the butter in a heat-proof bowl for 4 minutes at 170°C. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa and bicarb, then stir through the chocolate chips, mix in the melted butter, then the eggs, until the mixture is well combined. With wet hands, roll into 16 balls and place on a lined baking sheet, pushing them down slightly to flatten.
3. Line the air-fryer shelf with grease-proof paper. Transfer 4 to 6 cookies into the drawer, making sure there’s a 1cm gap between them. Cook for 10 minutes at 170°C (12 minutes from chilled or 15 minutes from frozen) then, using the paper to help you, transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool, and repeat.
4. Once the cookies are completely cool, sandwich them with the filling, crumbling up the leftover Aero to sprinkle into each one, before sandwiching.
Get ahead:
If not cooking straight away, cover the raw cookies and keep in the fridge for up to 2 days, or the freezer for up to 3 months, ready to cook to order! Or, once cooked, keep them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, stashing the filling in the fridge, ready to assemble.
Chilli con carne meatballs
Serves 2
Hands on: 18 minutes
Cook: 25 minutes
1-drawer air fryer
1 sweet potato (250g)
2 tsp smoked paprika
olive oil
1 x 400g tin of black beans
2 tsp cumin seeds
1 fresh red chilli
½ a bunch of coriander (15g)
250g higher-welfare beef mince
1 lime
200g ripe cherry tomatoes
chipotle chilli sauce
Method
1. Wash the sweet potato, chop into 2cm chunks, then, in a bowl, toss with the paprika, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, and a pinch of sea salt and black pepper.
2. Remove the shelf from the air-fryer drawer, tip in the beans, juice and all, add 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, and season well. Replace the shelf, add the sweet potato, keeping the bowl for later, and cook for 15 minutes at 180degC.
3. To make the balls, finely chop the chilli (deseed, if you like) and most of the coriander, stalks and all, reserving a few nice leaves. Scrape into the empty bowl with the remaining cumin seeds and the mince, finely grate in the lime zest, season, then scrunch together with clean hands.
4. Divide the mixture into 10 equal-sized balls, then add to the drawer with the tomatoes, shake into an even layer, and cook for 10 minutes at 180oC, or until lightly golden and cooked through, shaking halfway.
5. Remove the balls, sweet potato and tomatoes to a plate and use tongs to carefully remove the shelf. Squeeze half the lime juice into the beans, add a few shakes of chilli sauce, then mash half the beans to create a creamier texture.
Divide between your plates, pile the balls, sweet potato and tomatoes on top and sprinkle over the reserved coriander leaves. Serve with lime wedges, and extra chilli sauce, if you like.
Herby cheese soda bread
Serves 8-10
Hands on: 16 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes
1-drawer air fryer
250g plain wholemeal flour
200g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
50g porridge oats, plus extra for sprinkling
1 heaped tsp bicarbonate of soda
4 sprigs of rosemary
1 large free-range egg
300g buttermilk or natural yoghurt
100g Red Leicester or Cheddar cheese
olive oil
Method
1. In a large bowl, mix together both flours, the oats, bicarb and 1 level teaspoon of sea salt. Pick and finely chop the rosemary leaves and stir most of them into the mixture, reserving the remainder.
2. Make a well in the middle, crack in the egg and add the buttermilk, then mix thoroughly with a fork. Gradually bring in the flour from the outside, then use your clean lightly floured hands to pat and bring the dough together.
3. Chop the cheese into chunks, mix in, then shape the dough into a ball, using your clean oiled hands to flatten it into a disc, roughly 3cm deep. Sprinkle over a few extra oats and a little sea salt, patting them on to the dough. Score a deep criss-cross pattern into the top, then carefully place in the air-fryer drawer and cook for 20 minutes at 180°C.
4. Rub the reserved chopped rosemary with 1 teaspoon of olive oil, sprinkle over the bread and cook for another 10 minutes at 180°C, or until a firm crust has formed and the bread sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.
5. Transfer to a wire cooling rack and serve warm.
THE BOOK
Easy Air Fryer by Jamie Oliver is published by Penguin Michael Joseph © Jamie Oliver Enterprises Limited (2025, Easy Air Fryer). Recipe photography: © David Loftus, 2025.
TOP TIPS
Tips from Jamie’s air-fryer experts:
• Pay attention to air circulation
• Treat it like a mini-grill
• Keep checking on food, don’t set and forget
• Buy the best machine you can afford
• Invest in a spray bottle for oil to spritz food
• After washing your drawer, put it back into the air fryer and give it a quick blast to dry
