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Rule of thumb: reduce the temperature by 20C and the time by about 20 percent. Always check food is piping hot and cooked through, especially meat; use a thermometer for joints and poultry.
What The Air Fryer Converter Works Out
- Air fryer temperature: the recipe's conventional oven temperature minus 20C. Air fryers are small fan ovens with very fast air circulation, so they brown better at lower settings; 200C in the oven becomes 180C in the basket.
- Air fryer time: the oven time multiplied by 0.8, so 30 minutes becomes about 24. The time cut matters more than the temperature cut, and you should always check a few minutes before the new time is up.
- Recipe temperature is for (advanced): if the recipe already quotes a fan figure, the converter adds the 20C back before reducing, so a 180C fan recipe still lands at 180C in the air fryer rather than an under-powered 160C.
- Temperature entered in (advanced): switch to Fahrenheit for American recipes; the result is shown in Fahrenheit with the Celsius equivalent in the extra card.
- Basket (advanced): a crowded basket or food frozen solid needs about 15% longer, while a small single item is done about 10% sooner. Two smaller batches beat one crowded one, and a shake or turn halfway (the card shows when) evens the browning.
- Reduction and time share (advanced): override the 20C and 80% defaults for your own machine. Air fryer wattage and basket size vary between models, so treat the first attempt at any recipe as calibration and note what worked.
- Running cost (advanced): wattage x minutes, as kilowatt-hours at the current Ofgem price cap unit rate. A 1,500W air fryer for 24 minutes uses about 0.6 kWh; an oven averaging 2,000W for the recipe time plus a 10 minute preheat uses roughly double, so the saving per meal is typically 10p to 20p.
- Food safety: unchanged by the appliance. Meat and poultry must be cooked through (74C in the thickest part for chicken) and reheated food should be piping hot throughout. Wet batters do not work and very light items can blow around, but most breaded, roasted and baked things convert well.
Source and further reading: Food Standards Agency: cooking safely.