You Should Cook Steak In Your Air Fryer. Here's Why
Cooking steak on the grill may be the best way to prepare it, but as it turns out, the air fryer is a close second. According to Taste of Home, air fryers are great at cooking steak because of how consistently they heat food. While steaks traditionally get their crisp exterior being seared on a grill or pan, steaks made in the air fryer achieve the same results through the circulation of hot air. This is a particularly helpful method of cooking if your grill is finicky, your stove heats unevenly, or you're just a newbie at cooking steaks.
Insider points out that it's also a lot more convenient because an air fryer is essentially a tabletop oven with very controlled settings. So if it's raining outside and you can't use the grill, or you don't want to fill your kitchen with oil splatters and smoke, cooking your steak in an air fryer is as easy as it gets. And depending on what air fryer you have, it could be as simple as pushing a button or a little more complicated.
How to cook steak in the air fryer
Some air fryers have a built-in steak setting, but it's best to just customize the temperature and timer on your own since this will vary depending on the cut of meat, whether it's bone-in or bone-out, as well your preferred doneness. Taste of Home suggests a standard of seven to nine minutes for medium-rare, and 10 to 14 minutes for medium. As for the temperature, 400 degrees Fahrenheit is the sweet spot for air frying steaks.
YouTuber Fabulessly Frugal also notes that it's important to cook the steak as you would in a pan or grill, not as you would with other foods in an air fryer, meaning you don't have to line it with any parchment paper or foil. Because the steaks get their sear from the circulating air, you definitely don't want to cover up the bottom. For the same reason, overcrowding your air fryer with too many steaks isn't a good idea, either.
Once the steak is cooked to perfection, make sure to let it rest for a good 10 minutes before you cut into it.