You Must Make Crispy Air Fryer Kielbasa Right Now
As much as I love cooking on the stovetop—with spices, heat, and patience—you’ll also find me turning on the air fryer at least three times a week. It’s quick and makes the food crispy. And damn, I love the texture. While I may be completely and embarrassingly behind on this, I just started air frying sausage and have had some truly stellar and crisp results. All you have to do is make sure you get the correct score.
I have fond memories of snacking on child-sized sausages at my neighbor’s house when I was growing up. They must have liked it too because it always seemed to end up on the table. Lately I can only eat a few slices because I have heartburn like an adult and the sausage can be too fatty. Although wealth can be a pleasure, I quickly grew tired of it. But as soon as I threw it in the fryer, everything changed.
Kielbasa, like most sausages, is a seasoned meat mixture enclosed in a casing. The casing gives the sausage its shape and also retains fats and juices when heated. Leaving the casing intact will keep it juicy and you will end up with a plump sausage. My method is to methodically cut holes in the shell to release some of the fat while creating some crispy edges. Anyone who likes juicy sausage probably won’t like this method very much. But if you like a little texture, come on over.
To judge the sausage “correctly”, you really just need to cut it a lot and regularly so that it crisps evenly. This increased surface area will be exposed to the high-speed winds of the fryer’s convection heating system , removing excess fat from the meat and rewarding you with beautifully browned and crispy edges. Make no mistake, the inside of the sausage will still be very juicy and flavorful, and the outside will be perfectly crispy.
How to cook air fried sausage
I tried two different scoring methods: spiral and X-shaped. The kielbasa is already cooked, so it can be easily cut any way you want and you won’t have to worry about raw meat. To cut the sausage in a spiral, use a sharp paring knife to cut a diagonal line down the length of the sausage. Only cut about a quarter inch, you don’t want to cut all the way through. The width of this first cut should be an inch to an inch and a half between the next parallel line on the sausage. Once you have completed this line, repeat another spiral along the entire length of the sausage in the same direction, next to the first cut.
To cut the sausage (my favorite), use a sharp paring knife and cut several x-shapes next to each other in a straight line down one side. Go only a quarter inch deep. You will do this three times. Turn the sausage over a third. Repeat with another series of cross cuts. Flip the sausage over again and repeat the same series of cuts. There will be something like an argyle pattern on the surface of the sausage.
Place the scored sausage in the air fryer basket and set to air fry at 400°F for 10 to 12 minutes. I used my Ninja DoubleStack for this batch and they turned out perfect, but if you notice that your air fryer is browning faster than others, check it early. My Instant Vortex browns a little faster, so I’ll check it after about eight minutes. Turn the sausage halfway through cooking. The sausage should separate at the marks on the slices, brown around the edges and sizzle throughout.
Since the sausage is essentially a giant hot dog, I decided that the popular spiral cut would be a clear winner, but in the end I went with the cross-cut pattern. I would say that cutting the sausage in a spiral gives you a nice middle ground between the unscored sausage and the crispy crispy bark of the x-cut version. Rest assured, there are no wrong choices here.