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CNET
29-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- CNET
Ready for the Best Grilled Cheese Ever? Ditch the Pan and Use Your Air Fryer
We all have an air fryer now -- it's just the way of the world. If you're only using it to make wings and fries you are missing out on some deliciously crispy eats without all the oil that comes with deep- and pan-frying. Making a grilled cheese in a frying pan has always been my way but since I discovered air fryer grilled cheese, I've swapped the skillet out for the countertop oven and I'm not going back. The almighty air fryer gives the classic sandwich an even crispier outer layer without butter-logging the bread. It also keeps the kitchen cooler than turning on a stovetop burner and there's almost no mess to clean up after. If you're a purist, I salute you, too. The old school method for making grilled cheese is just fine but it's not without flaws. Pan-fried grilled cheeses also tend to fall apart or stick to the pan if they're not cooked and flipped properly and if you don't have the heat up high enough, you'll never get that coveted crunch. If you don't own an air fryer, I recommend Ninja's new glass-bowl model. It's the best we've tested and makes a mean grilled cheese. Below you'll find tips for making the best air fryer grilled cheese of your life. Why the air fryer is a perfect appliance to make grilled cheese As you can plainly see, the air fryer grilled cheese leaves little mess to contend with after preparing. Pamela Vachon/CNET An air fryer is basically a small convection oven with nonstick surfaces, circulating hot air around whatever you put in its basket. Unlike your saute pan or skillet, it cooks from all directions at once and typically in less time. Unlike your oven, it is compact and efficient, heats up quickly and may not even require preheating. Your toaster oven could never do this. While toasted cheese is a possibility (and reheated toaster oven pizza is a revelation), grilled cheese is not. Your toaster oven is not designed to support fat on the underside of whatever you're cooking, and you'll end up with a mess too complicated to clean. For your grilled cheese, the air fryer is working on both of the bread surfaces and the cheese all at once, resulting in a quicker melt, which adheres the cheese to the bread slices together making for a much easier flip. (Flipping is still recommended but with far less drama.) The air circulation provides deep crunchiness, not only to the surfaces that received the butter or mayo treatment but to the entire crust. Any inclusions beyond cheese in the interior of the sandwich are also transforming because of the ambient heat. Simply placing a lid on your saute pan or skillet can't achieve the same results, as the components will become steamed and potentially soggy. Here's how I make air fryer grilled cheese Humble ingredients are transformed into something great inside an air fryer. Pamela Vachon/CNET Assemble a grilled cheese as you would otherwise Sliced bread Sliced or shredded cheese (I like American cheese for a basic grilled cheese and a combo of gruyere and cheddar for an upgrade.) Butter or mayonnaise for the outside of the bread slices (dealer's choice) For a basic grilled cheese, you can assemble the sandwich in the basket of your air fryer: bread with buttered side down, followed by sliced or shredded cheese, then topped with the final slice with buttered side up. Be it a simple sandwich or a fancier combination of cheese, bread and fixings, the air fryer makes a crispy, gooey grilled cheese in minutes. Pamela Vachon/CNET Set the heat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 3 to 6 minutes on each side, flipping halfway through. The already melted cheese will keep your sandwich nicely together during the flip. You can get a lightly golden grilled cheese in less time but I recommend hanging on for 5 to 6 minutes for a deeply crunchy sandwich. Another perk of the air fryer is that you can more easily peek to see where you're at without adversely affecting the outcome. The air fryer is best for making fancy grilled cheese Add a fruit element and cured meats for a fancier air fryer sammy. Pamela Vachon/CNET This is where the air fryer really shines in the grilled cheese realm. Every element of an upgraded grilled cheese adds a degree of difficulty when trying to cook in a skillet, much of which is mitigated in the safe confines of an air fryer. Thicker bread. Thicker cheese, like hunks of camembert or brie. And think of all the great grilled cheese ingredients that can be slippery: apple slices, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, pickles, etc. Any grilled cheese with more than two components can be challenging to flip gracefully in a skillet, even for trained cooks. Bag a loaf of good bread and stuff your sandwich with upmarket cheese. Pamela Vachon/CNET To prove a point, I assembled a fancy grilled cheese with camembert, prosciutto and apple slices. (Plus mayonnaise on the exterior, because I was being fancy, and mayo gives your sandwich a little extra tang.) Because of its height, I assembled it fully outside of the air fryer and then carefully placed it in the drawer. Et voila! Pamela Vachon/CNET After 6 minutes of air fryer cooking, the flip was seamless and the sophisticated outcome belies the fact that you spent all of one minute assembling the masterpiece. The exterior of the ham even got a little bonus crisping. So the air fryer invites you to go to town with whatever you can dream up for your grilled cheese: cured or cooked ground meats, grilled veggies, various sauces and relishes -- you name it. An epic grilled cheese variation is limited only by the confines of your imagination. Do I need to preheat an air fryer for grilled cheese? A grilled cheese is a quick-cooking sandwich no matter how you do it so you don't want to add on minutes of additional time for something that only takes minutes to accomplish. That said, while preheating your air fryer may be a waste of time for certain preparations, I think putting it on for just a minute to heat up the nonstick surface that the sandwich sits on is worthwhile to get that golden crust working right away. Are there drawbacks to making air fryer grilled cheese? Depending on your model and size of air fryer, and the shape of bread you choose, it can be tricky to make more than two sandwiches at once, so it might not be the most family-friendly method for making grilled cheese. But for a solo meal or date night, your air fryer is the grilled cheese hack you didn't know you needed.
CNET
13-05-2025
- General
- CNET
I Found the Best Way to Make a Grilled Cheese and It's Not in a Frying Pan
Making a grilled cheese in a skillet isn't a complicated affair but innovation is innovation and I recently discovered a better way. The air fryer, which is my preffered method for making many things, gives the griddled version of the classic sandwich a run for it's money. If you prefer a truly crispy sandwich without butter-logged bread and no mess to clean up, the air fryer is where you want to be. Before I come down to hard on the skillet grilled cheese, I'll say that the old school method works fine but it's not without has flaws, not least of which is a greasy, cheesy pan to clean after. Pan-fried grilled cheeses also tend to fall apart or stick to the pan if they're not cooked and flipped properly. If you don't own an air fryer, a new Ninja glass-bowl model is our favorite for 2025. If you do have one but haven't fired it up for grilled cheese yet, allow me to explain how it's done. Once you give a grilled cheese sandwich a spin in your air fryer, you may never look back. Why the air fryer is a perfect appliance to make grilled cheese As you can plainly see, the air fryer grilled cheese leaves little mess to contend with after. Pamela Vachon/CNET An air fryer is basically a small convection oven with nonstick surfaces, circulating hot air around whatever you put in its basket. Unlike your saute pan or skillet, it cooks from all directions at once and typically in less time. Unlike your oven, it is compact and efficient, heats up quickly, and may not even require pre-heating. Your toaster oven could never: while toasted cheese is a possibility, (and reheated toaster oven pizza is a revelation,) grilled cheese is not. Your toaster oven is not designed to support fat on the underside of whatever you're cooking, and you'll end up with a mess too complicated to clean. For your grilled cheese, the air fryer is working on both of the bread surfaces and the cheese all at once, resulting in a quicker melt, which adheres the cheese to the bread slices together making for a much easier flip. (Flipping is still recommended, but with far less drama.) The air circulation provides deep crunchiness, not only to the surfaces that received the butter or mayo treatment but to the entire crust. Any inclusions beyond cheese in the interior of the sandwich are also transforming due to the ambient heat. Simply placing a lid on your saute pan or skillet can't achieve the same results, as the components will become steamed and potentially soggy. Here how I make air fryer grilled cheese Humble ingredients are transformed into something great inside an air fryer. Pamela Vachon/CNET Assemble a grilled cheese as you would otherwise Sliced bread Sliced or shredded cheese (I like American cheese for a basic grilled cheese and a combo of gruyere and cheddar for an upgrade.) Butter or mayonnaise for the outside of the bread slices (dealer's choice) For a basic grilled cheese, you can assemble the sandwich in the basket of your air fryer: bread with buttered side down, followed by sliced or shredded cheese, then topped with the final slice with buttered side up. Be it a simple sandwich or a fancier combination of cheese, bread and fixings, the air fryer makes a crispy, gooey grilled cheese in minutes. Pamela Vachon/CNET Set the heat to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 3 to 6 minutes on each side, flipping halfway through. The already melted cheese will keep your sandwich nicely together during the flip. You can get a lightly golden grilled cheese in less time, but I recommend hanging on for 5 to 6 minutes for a deeply crunchy sandwich. Another perk of the air fryer is that you can more easily peek to see where you're at without adversely affecting the outcome. The air fryer is best for making grilled cheese with Add a fruit element and cured meats for was fancier air fryer sammy. Pamela Vachon/CNET This is where the air fryer really shines in the grilled cheese realm. Every element of an upgraded grilled cheese adds a degree of difficulty when trying to cook in a skillet, much of which is mitigated in the safe confines of an air fryer. Thicker bread. Thicker cheese, like hunks of camembert or brie. And think of all the great grilled cheese ingredients that can be slippery: apple slices, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, pickles, etc. Any grilled cheese with more than two components can be challenging to flip gracefully in a skillet, even for trained cooks. Bag a loaf of good bread and stuff your sandwich with upmarket cheese. Pamela Vachon/CNET To prove a point, I assembled a fancy grilled cheese with camembert, prosciutto, and apple slices. (Plus mayonnaise on the exterior, because I was being fancy, and mayo gives your sandwich a little extra tang.) Because of its height, I assembled it fully outside of the air fryer and then carefully placed it in the drawer. Et voila! Pamela Vachon/CNET After 6 minutes of air fryer cooking, the flip was seamless, and the sophisticated outcome belies the fact that you spent all of one minute assembling the masterpiece. The exterior of the ham even got a little bonus crisping. So the air fryer invites you to go to town with whatever you can dream up for your grilled cheese: cured or cooked ground meats, grilled veggies, various sauces and relishes -- you name it. An epic grilled cheese variation is limited only by the confines of your imagination. Do I need to preheat an air fryer for grilled cheese? A grilled cheese is a quick-cooking sandwich no matter how you do it, so you don't want to add on minutes of additional time for something that only takes minutes to accomplish. That said, while preheating your air fryer may be a waste of time for certain preparations, I think putting it on for just a minute to heat up the nonstick surface that the sandwich sits on is worthwhile to get that golden crust working right away. Are there drawbacks to making air fryer grilled cheese? Depending on your model and size of air fryer, and the shape of bread you choose, it can be tricky to make more than two sandwiches at once, so it might not be the most family-friendly method for making grilled cheese. But for a solo meal or date night, your air fryer is the grilled cheese hack you didn't know you needed.
CNET
12-05-2025
- General
- CNET
This Is the Easiest Way to Make a Bacon Cheeseburger
Grilling season is officially here, but if you don't have a grill, don't fret. There are still ways to make delicious cheeseburgers, turkey burgers and veggies burgers without firing up the Weber. One of my favorite ways? By using the air fryer. I'm no stranger to the trendy countertop oven. I make loads of things in the air fryer, but resisted making burgers out of fear that I wouldn't be able to hit that coveted medium rare internal temp as I can with cast-iron skillet or gas grill. But after trying it out, I am happy to report that making a bacon cheeseburger in an apartment-friendly air fryer is fast, clean and, as I found out recently, nets an equally juicy burger. Plus, you can easily get your air fryer burger medium rare via the super-convection heat that crisps the outside of food quickly without overcooking the inside. If there's one drawback to cooking a cheeseburger in the air fryer it's that you can't get the exact same caramelization on the crust of the meat. But you can easily cook bacon and toast your bun without risking them falling through the grates of a grill. Here's how to make a bacon cheeseburger in your air fryer at home. How to make a cheeseburger in your air fryer Even a small air fryer can handle a full-sized burger patty and a few slices of bacon at once. Pamela Vachon/CNET I consulted a variety of different sources for timings and temperatures, but the process is about what you'd expect and similar to that which you'd experience cooking a burger in any manner: flipping the patty about halfway through for even results, with different timings depending on the size of your desired doneness. Read more: How to Tell When Steak Is Perfectly Cooked Without a Thermometer The air fryer works by circulating hot air in its contained chamber, so as a matter of interest, your air fryer burger will cook opposite to what you'd see on a sauté pan, with the exposed side of the burger cooking more quickly and becoming browner than the underside of the patty. Best Air Fryers: Cheap vs. Expensive Best Air Fryers: Cheap vs. Expensive Click to unmute Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Skip Backward Skip Forward Next playlist item Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration 19:24 Loaded : 1.55% 00:00 Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 19:24 Share Fullscreen This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Best Air Fryers: Cheap vs. Expensive I tried two different approaches, both with a quarter pound of lean ground beef, seasoned simply with salt and pepper. Air fryer cheeseburger recipe Shaped a single patty of beef about three-quarters of an inch in thickness. Place in a greased air fryer basket and cooked at 370 degrees F for 10 minutes, flipping at the halfway mark. With about 2 minutes to go, add cheese to top of burger patty and place bun into air fryer basket to toast. Remove all ingredients and build burger on bun with toppings of your choice. Serve. I also tried the same amount of meat shaped into two, thin, smash-style patties for a total cooking time of about six minutes. (Double your cheeseburger, double your fun.) Making a great burger in an air fryer takes almost no skill and requires very little cleanup afterward. Pamela Vachon/CNET Air fryers require very little cleanup You can cook a burger to that perfect medium or medium rare with an air fryer. Pamela Vachon/CNET Well, that was easy. In both cases the patties cooked evenly, with an outcome that was medium in doneness. (You can easily experiment with your model and ideal burger patty size to find the precise timings for your preferred degree of doneness.) The hot air circulation even managed to produce a bit of caramelized crust on one side. Because I could, even with a small, single-household air fryer, I put in a couple of strips of bacon with the single burger patty, since crispy, spatter-free bacon is another excellent use for an air fryer -- not to mention an exceptional burger topping. Speaking of spatter-free, this is the single most compelling reason to employ the air fryer for burger prep. Your clothing, skin and stovetop all avoid the sizzling oil droplets that -- safely contained within the air fryer drawer -- like to escape the pan during regular skillet cooking. The smoky, greasy, meaty aroma, which is otherwise appealing at a burger dive, but not so much in a studio apartment, is also minimized. Cleanup was limited only to the nonstick, air fryer drawer. Read more: I've Been Making Bacon Wrong. Here's the Best (and Cleanest) Way to Cook it There are drawbacks to air fryer burgers With an air fryer, you can't smash the patties down as easily as you can on a grill or griddle. Pamela Vachon/CNET The air fryer isn't perfect when it comes to burgers, and the drawbacks as I experienced are twofold. First, since you can't really access the patty while it cooks, you're unable to smash it down in such a way that it doesn't shrink up significantly while cooking. Since an English muffin is the best burger containment method -- I will not be considering opposing viewpoints at this time -- this didn't bother me so much, since the resulting patty fits the intended vessel perfectly. Expect shrinkage when considering the size of your patty before cooking. Second, if you're like me and believe that a burger without cheese isn't worth eating, things get a little more complicated. Because of the air circulation action of the air fryer, it's hard to anchor cheese on top for a quick melt at the end of the process. My first attempt with a sliced single, an ideal burger cheese -- and I am a cheese pro, so don't come at me -- flew off and unhelpfully adhered to the surface of the air fryer drawer. Am I seeing double? Pamela Vachon/CNET My second attempt where a slice was halved and layered for extra heft was more successful, even more so when I moved the patties to the back edge of the fryer basket which gets less aggressive air circulation. This may just be a quirk of my model, but I'd be prepared to experiment. I wouldn't even consider shredded cheese on top of a patty, but I absolutely would consider a cheese-stuffed burger, which should work nicely.
