The air fryer is currently one of the most sought-after kitchen appliances. You could be asking why such a piece of equipment should be so attractive to cooking enthusiasts.
Well, I guess you know that deep-fried food isn’t good for your health, especially if we decide to go along with the advice from health professionals.
The air fryer cooks healthier food since it allows you to cook with little to no oil. The Power XL air fryer is one of the popular air fryer models that change the narrative in the kitchen.
Would you like to know how to preheat it, or if it needs preheating? Stick around because, after deep research, we have prepared all the answers you need for your questions.
To preheat a PowerXL air fryer grill, connect the device to power and press the preheat button. The grill heats up instantly, so you will save time with this appliance.
What’s Preheating and Its Benefits
Preheating an air fryer involves letting it heat up for a few minutes before loading the basket or the grill. In other words, it involves switching on the preheat button of an empty air fryer for some time.
Some air fryer models don’t have preheat buttons, and hence, they require manual preheating. However, the PowerXL air fryer has a preheat button that lets you heat your appliance before actually putting your food inside.
While preheating your Power XL air fryer grill is optional, it comes with several benefits, which include, among others: –
- Relatively shortens the cooking time
- It makes your food crispier and crunchier
- Enables your food to brown faster
For instance, if you were to air fryer your chicken wings for 20 minutes, a preheated air fryer would cook them in about 15 minutes or less. By the time you place your kitchen wings in the cooking basket, the temperature will already be high.
This means that food will start cooking immediately, unlike a preheated air fryer which will start cooking by heating the air.
Do You Have to Preheat the PowerXL Air Fryer?
As mentioned earlier, it is optional to preheat a Power XL air fryer grill. Even without preheating, your food will still come out perfectly cooked. The only downside is that you will not be able to enjoy the benefits of preheating an air fryer before loading your food.
For example, the food that comes out may not be as crunchy. Even so, this will be just fine if your aim is not to produce crunchy food. Also, failure to preheat means that your food will take a little longer to cook thoroughly.
If patience is your other name, you don’t have to worry about time, and hence, you don’t have to preheat your air fryer. Take note that if you choose to skip the preheating part, consider adding about 3 to 5 minutes to your cooking time. Doing this compensates for the time lost when your food was in the air fryer but not cooking due to low temperature.
In other words, if you want to decide between preheating your air fryer and loading your basket directly, you should consider factors such as the type of food, recipe instructions, and cooking time. Whatever works for you is the option you should embrace for your subsequent cooking episodes.
How to Preheat a Power XL Air Fryer Grill
The Power XL air fryer grill manual contains all the instructions you need to operate the air fryer, including the preheating procedure. Therefore, have the manual close to you before starting the cooking process until you fully master the technique. Follow these steps to preheat the Power XL air fryer grill.
Step 1: Connect it to the power
The Power XL air fryer is an electrical appliance. Therefore, before you start preheating, you should, first of all, connect it to power. Once you confirm that electricity is reaching the machine, you can proceed to the next step.
Step 2: Press the preheat button
The Power XL air fryer comes with a preheat button, making it easy for you to preheat the unit. Keeping this in mind, ensure you locate this button first. This is because different Power XL air fryers models have varying types and locations of the preheating button on the unit.
Once you spot the preheat button, go ahead and press it like you would press any other button. Pressing this button will immediately start the preheating process.
The preheating process takes anywhere from 3 to 5 minutes. However, feel free to take shorter or even longer depending on how you want your food to come out.
Once the air fryer attains the temperature you want, you can now load it with food and commence the cooking process. With preheating comes benefits such as a shorter cooking time and crunchier foods. So, it’s a win at the end of the day.
How Do You Know Your Power XL Air Fryer Grill is Preheated?
By now, you likely know that preheating is a 3 to 5-minute process. So, you would expect your appliance to be ready for loading once the time elapses. However, you may notice that 5 minutes of preheating didn’t yield the temperature you wanted.
In such a case, you may opt to add the preheating time to about 7 minutes or even more until you achieve your goal temperature.
That’s why it’s important always to check whether the air fryer is fully preheated once the preheating session is over. There are about three ways you can tell if an air fryer has been preheated.
- Open the air fryer door and place your hand inside the appliance’s open space. Your hand will feel some warmth, and depending on the heat intensity inside the air fryer, you will tell whether or not the preheating process was successful and satisfactory.
- Cautiously touch the interior parts of the air fryer and feel the heat. Remember, this method is somewhat risky, so we don’t recommend it.
- Use an oven thermometer to read the internal temperature.
Final Words
Preheating a Power XL air fryer is beneficial since it dramatically improves cooking. However, it is optional, so always preheat it when you are comfortable. Whatever option you choose is still perfect.
