Why does everyone crowd the basket with frozen chicken wings?

I keep seeing people post pictures of their air fryer wings and they're basically piled on top of each other (like a mountain of frozen chicken). That kills the crispiness completely because the hot air can't circulate. I did a test last week with two bags of frozen wings, one batch I did in a single layer (about 8 wings) and the other I stacked up to the rim. The single layer ones came out perfectly golden and crunchy in 22 minutes at 380, while the crowded ones were soggy and took 35 minutes. Anyone else notice this or am I being too picky about it?

2 comments

2 Comments

andrew_jackson1mo ago

Is it just me or do people actually want their wings to come out sad and floppy? I've definitely been guilty of overloading the basket myself though, cause my kids act like they haven't eaten in a week and I'm trying to get dinner on the table fast.

allen.amy1mo ago

Gotta push back a little on the 380 degrees thing. Most air fryers cook better around 400 for frozen wings because the extra heat helps the skin crisp up faster before the inside gets too done. I ran the same test you did and the 380 batch took way longer and still wasn't as crunchy as the 400 batch. The single layer thing is spot on though, you're definitely not being picky. Overcrowding makes the wings steam instead of fry, which is why they come out sad. Your kids might be hungry but honestly, doing two batches of single layer wings takes the same total time as one overloaded batch because the heat works better and you don't have to babysit soggy wings. The texture difference is night and day, it's worth the extra few minutes.