Photo: Claire Lower, Graphic: Ian Moore
I love a good air fried party snack, like these sweet and salty devils, but I mostly use my air fryer to turbo roast vegetables. The little tabletop convection oven gets incredible results in a short amount of time without heating up my kitchen; it’s rare that I have to air fry carrots or broccoli for more than 15 minutes. Now I’ve added corn to my easy vegetable repertoire: frozen corn, to be exact.
Sweet corn is in season right now, and I plan to eat a lot of it, but I always have a bag of kernels in my freezer, for tossing into ramen, pasta, and rice dishes. A few days ago, I found myself with a meager cup of kernels left in the bag, and decided to go ahead and air fry them, to see what that was like. (It was good.)
Top-Rated Air Fryers:
I tossed the corn in a little melted ghee, seasoned it with a few shakes of garlic salt, and dumped it in the basket of my air fryer (without the tray). I cooked it at 400℉ for 5 minutes, just until the kernels started to take on a little color.
The corn that came out of that basket was delicious—buttery, toasty, and a little chewy on the ends, yet somehow still juicy. I ate the whole bowl in about three minutes. The garlic salt was lovely—I’ve been a on real Lawry’s garlic salt kick recently—but any spice blend would work. (I’m working my way through the Trader Joe’s line of seasoning blends. The elote blend is next.) Is air fried corn groundbreaking? No, but it is fast, delicious, and cheap, and sometimes that’s more than enough.
Easy Toasty Air Fried Corn
Ingredients:
1 cup frozen corn kernels1 teaspoon melted ghee (or bacon fat, or olive oil)5-6 shakes of your favorite seasoning blendDump the kernels into a colander and rinse them with warm water to knock off any ice crystals. Dry them on paper towels, then transfer them to a bowl and toss with ghee. Season with your favorite seasoning blend.
Remove the tray from your air fryer basket—the kernels will just fall through and get caught—and heat the air fryer to 400℉. Add the kernels to the basket and cook for 5-6 minutes, until they begin to take on color at the edges. Serve immediately.
