Took me 3 months and about 40 batches to figure out why my air fryer wings kept coming out dry
Okay so I got my air fryer last Christmas and the first thing I wanted to nail was wings. Every single batch came out dry and rubbery and I could not figure out why. I tried brining them, I tried marinating overnight, I tried cooking them at 350 instead of 400, nothing worked and I probably went through 40 batches over 3 months. Then my buddy Dave came over and watched me toss them in and said the basket was way too crowded, like they were basically steaming each other. I started doing them in two smaller batches with space between each wing and it fixed everything in one afternoon. Now I'm wondering if I've been making the same crowding mistake with other stuff, has anyone else had a recipe completely change just from batch size?
Crowding is real but I don't think it's the whole story here. Air fryers blast hot air from one spot on top, so if wings are touching, the ones underneath never get that dry heat and just sit in their own moisture. That's why spacing them out works, it's not about batch size so much as airflow getting to every surface. Dave was right but the fix isn't always smaller batches, sometimes it's just shaking the basket halfway and patting the wings totally dry before they go in. Wet skin is the real killer, it steams before it crisps no matter how much room they have. Try drying them on a rack in the fridge for an hour and you can fit more in without the rubbery thing happening.