Air fryer Super Bowl recipes: Wings, pigs in a blanket, fries, and more

Super Bowl 2024 weekend is nearly here, so you better get prepared. No, you don’t need to research the teams or even Taylor Swift’s entire discography. But you do need to plan a menu.

Forget commercials. Football is fun enough. For my money, the best thing about the Super Bowl is the excuse to engorge yourself with game-day food.

The beauty of tailgate-esque food is that it doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, much of its deliciousness lies in its simplicity. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to make Super Bowl snacks, then we here at Mashable have you covered. Through our long-running series AirFryDay, we tried many recipes to determine which to add to your gameday menu.

And the air fryer might be the perfect tool for an event like the Super Bowl. It’s effectively a compact, easy-to-clean convection oven. That means your food will get crispy fast, while also not leaving a mess. When making a lot of food — as you might be on Super Bowl Sunday — you can also use the air fryer to open up space in your oven or on your stovetop.

So here are some of our favorite air fryer recipes that could work on Super Bowl Sunday, and you can check out the entire series for more options.

Chicken wings

As an extreme wing enthusiast, I was surprised that the air fryer could make wings about 90 percent as tasty as the deep fryer with about 10 percent of the hassle.

This AirFryDay recipe calls for a few steps that make a difference: two cooks (low and high heat), a rest period, and some flour for added crispiness.

Wings, in my humble opinion, are an absolute must-have for the Super Bowl. And you’d be hard-pressed to find a better recipe that doesn’t involve a huge vat of oil.

Pigs in a blanket

Mini glizzies are a fantastic choice for the Big Game. You can eat a dozen of these things and not even notice it.

This AirFryDay recipe will give you a great quality appetizer in less time and with less mess than using the oven.

Fried chicken

Yes, we made fake fried chicken in the air fryer. I created this recipe and, frankly, I’m proud of it. It’s not as good as actually deep-frying chicken. (Sorry, nothing is.) But it’ll give you a really tasty result.

If you shrink the AirFryDay recipe by cutting thighs in half, then you could make perfect little sliders for the Super Bowl.

French fries

Fries rule. I’m sorry, but if you can’t agree with that, then you’re just dead inside. Fries are delicious and should be welcome at any Super Bowl party. You could always just chuck a bag of frozen fries in your air fryer — it’s a great tool for cooking frozen food — but our AirFryDay recipe for homemade French fries is tasty as well.

Burgers

Let’s face it: For a lot of the country, it’s pretty chilly outside, and you might not want to grill. Our AirFryDay recipe for cheeseburgers will give you a nice final product without needing to wear a jacket. It uses soy sauce to keep the meat moist and add a bit of flavor. And, much like the fried chicken recipe, you could always shrink the patties down for sliders.

Pizza rolls

Listen: You could just chuck a frozen bag of pizza rolls in the air fryer, and it’s going to be wonderful. But if you want to ramp things up, a TikTokker came up with this AirFryDay recipe for making pizza rolls inside a wonton.

Mozzarella sticks

I love mozz sticks. Even a bad mozzarella stick is pretty good. Again, frozen mozzarella sticks would work here. But you could also make the homemade version that might just be a bit crispier and flavorful. We have an AirFryDay recipe for traditional sticks and an AirFryDay recipe for Babybel wheels. You can’t go wrong with either.