Pizza ranks as one of the most popular snacks, giving you a unique flavor of the breading and generous toppings. With leftover pizza or one you don’t want to eat immediately, refrigeration is the way to go. The problem comes when you want to reheat the frozen pizza.
This is a hurdle you can overcome if you have an air fryer. The air fryer is one of the kitchen utilities gaining much popularity due to its oil-less cooking nature. Let us look at how to cook frozen pizza in an air fryer.
What Is an Air Fryer?
Before getting to cook the pizza using the air fryer, we should understand this cooker. It is a fantastic kitchen addition that cooks your food through convection currents, similar to a convectional microwave.
One of the things behind the air fryers’ popularity as a kitchen utility is that it does not need oil in preparing your meals. It instead uses the Maillard reaction to cook your food, achieving the much-desired browning of your food and the perfect consistency.
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When it comes to preparing your frozen pizza, the air fryer assures you of well-prepared pizza with an excellent crust.
Steps in Preparing Your Frozen Pizza in An Air Fryer
- Remove your pizza from the refrigerator and let it thaw for around an hour. You can put it in your kitchen counter after you remove its wrappings. This step also involves you inspecting the meal to be sure that it is fit for the table. Be keen on the thawing process to prevent your pizza from becoming too soggy.
- You should prepare the air fryer to cook the frozen pizza. It should be clean, and you can add some parchment paper on the pan if you don’t want it to get messy, especially if you have too much sauce or toppings. In preparation, you should also preheat the air fryer to make it ready for the incoming meal. For 2-3 minutes, let it warm up to a reading of around 392-degrees Fahrenheit.
- As the air fryer heats up, you may add extra topping to your pizza. There are several toppings you can add to the existing ones if you want to improve its taste. You can start with a generous serving of pizza sauce, followed by shredded cheese, mushrooms, sliced sausages, and many more.
- You can wrap up the pizza with an aluminum foil to secure the toppings or to cook faster. The use of an aluminum foil is optional. If you do not use aluminum foil or parchment paper in the cooker, you should spray the pan with non-stick.
- Carefully put the pizza in the fryer’s pan, ensuring it does not break or have the toppings fall off. Let it cook in medium heat for 6-8 minutes until you get an aroma of freshly baked bread. The crust should be well-done at this moment, having a golden-brown color.
- The pizza is now ready for the table; you can slice it if it wasn’t and maybe add some herbs such as basil or freshly chopped coriander leaves.
Why You Should Use the Air Fryer for Cooking Frozen Pizza
- The fryer is easy to use, with simple steps that a beginner can hack.
- It cooks fast, and in a matter of minutes, you will have your meals ready.
- Uniform cooking where the pizza defrosts evenly, which ensures every bite has an excellent taste.
Tips of Cooking Your Frozen Pizza in An Air Fryer
If you want to achieve the best pizza serving straight from the fridge, you can check on the following tips.
1. Refrigeration Time
You should pay attention to the time the pizza stays on the fridge. If it has servings of meat or cheese, it should not stay for more than four days in the refrigerator if you want to have a tasty snack. It should also be put in the fridge not more than 3 hours after baking to preserve its taste.
When freezing the pizza, follow the number one rule of refrigeration; do not store cooked foods next to raw meat to avoid an infection. You can wrap the pizza in an aluminum foil, plastic wrapper, or leave it in its box to keep the toppings and sauce intact.
2. Thawing the Pizza
In cooking a frozen pizza, the thawing part has many confused and wondering if they should or shouldn’t do it. Well, it is not necessary, but it has advantages like making the crust soft. However, if your pizza has not been in the fridge for too long, you don’t have to thaw it.
Thawing comes with the risk of a soggy pizza, something that is not friendly. If you ordered your pizza, try checking on its label to be sure of the recommended thawing process.
3. Use of Oil
The use of oil might seem a no-no to many, especially with the air fryer being famous as an oil-less cooker. However, you can still brush some olive oil on the surface of the pizza. With the little olive oil, the toppings will come to life, assuring you of an excellent taste. If you have sausages as your toppings or any other meat, the oil will help make them tender.
4. Be Creative with Toppings
The toppings are the key determiners of the flavor, and without them, the pizza is just plain bread. When cooking your frozen meal, you can get all creative with the topping to boost its taste.
In most cases, pizza lovers add more toppings to the ones from fast food joints. Some of the toppings to add include mushrooms, shredded cheese, more sauce, vegetables, and many more. Be keen not to overdo it, where you can’t even feel the crust when you take a bite of the cooked pizza.
5. Be Keen with Aluminum Foil
Aluminum foil comes to your aid when wrapping your food to store it in the fridge. You can use it in the air fryer to prevent the pan from being messy or generate uniform heat to cook the pizza evenly.
However, if you have acidic toppings such as pineapple, you may want to exercise caution when using this wrapping material. Aluminum will leach into your food on exposure to heat and acids. This increases your body’s composition of this metal, which can have adverse health effects such as increase susceptibility to Alzheimer’s disease and infertility.
The foil can be a fire and electrical danger if it has pointed edges that may touch the air fryer’s heating element. A parchment paper is an excellent option for the aluminum foil as it is a bad electricity conductor.
6. Cleanliness in Food Preparation
Cleanliness is a must in the kitchen to curb the spread of diseases. You can ensure this by keeping the air fryer clean. This way, it won’t have food remnants that can make you sick or affect other meals’ taste and smell. Try cleaning it after every meal preparation.
The pizza should be fit for the table, and that is why you need to inspect it before cooking it. If anything feels abnormal from taste, color, or texture, you immediately dispose of it.
Are There Any Health Implications of Cooking Frozen Pizza in An Air Fryer?
As with many other kitchens and household utilities, the air fryer attracts the scrutiny of whether it is safe for use. Yes, the air fryer is safe to use when cooking your frozen pizza. Its radiation levels are low; hence it has minimal chances of causing cancer.
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Talking of cancer, can air fryer cooked pizza cause it? This is a valid question when you consider that acrylamide is a by-product of cooking starches in high temperatures, and it is carcinogenic. The cooker has controls that allow you to set the right cooking temperature. Also, it cooks frozen food in a short time, meaning there is no high exposure to heat, meaning it won’t cause cancer.
Between the Microwave And Air Fryer, Which Is The Best?
An option to using the air fryer in preparing your frozen pizza in the microwave. You may ask, between the two, which is the best? It is a tough duel, with each of the cookers majoring in select areas. For example, air fryer is easy to use and is fast in preparing your food.
On the other hand, the microwave is easy to clean and can accommodate pizza of different sizes. You can summarize it as a tie, though you pick the available one or which suits your preference.
In Summary
The air fryer is gradually becoming a standard utility in several kitchens. It is easy to use and does not require oil in food preparation, making it an idea; addition, if you are watching your body mass.
The fryer brings its best in preparing frozen pizza, where in a short while, you will have it ready. When reheating it, you can add some toppings and let it rest for a while to cool down before serving it.