POV: You have guests coming over, so you haphazardly toss everything into the junk drawer and pray they don’t open it. Much like the chaos living in your sock drawer, there are a few spots in our homes that some of us would rather keep away from the public eye. For me, it’s my embarrassingly dirty air fryer with remnants of god-knows-when’s dinner. Ick.

That said, removing the food particles that have “become one” with the bottom of my appliance, like bubble gum on the bottom of a shoe, is no joke. In the past, the task has required a lot of frustrating arm work and heavy scrubbing. But before you send me straight to jail, we’ve recently discovered a genius hands-free cleaning trick to finally get all of the food gunk off your air fryer, and all you need is a little patience before you start rinsing.

How to clean an air fryer so it looks brand spanking new

As we enter the new year tackling our most ambitious meal-prepping goals, the air fryer tends to be front and center when it comes to pretty much every meal. This also means it’s constantly accumulating bits and pieces of leftover food until we get around to actually cleaning the appliance out… until now. In a recent Instagram video by @feelgoodfoodie, we learned that the missing step in your frustrating air-frying cleaning technique is a little patience.

Chances are, you when you go to clean your air fryer, you take a sponge directly to your dirty air fryer and silently curse to yourself as you chip your manicure, trying to remove the layer of crusty cheese. However, according to Yumna Jawad of Feel Good Foodie, that shouldn’t be a problem anymore. Why? She uses a mostly hands-free approach to cleaning this appliance. To do so, she first removes as many loose bits of food as possible, then adds a few squirts of soap and fills the cooking compartment with warm water.

Then the most important part: You leave the fryer basket alone for about five to ten minutes. During this time, the tough-to-scrub grime begins to loosen—like a cake pan you forgot to grease before baking, soaking it in soapy water is the magic solution. After just a few minutes, Jawad easily washes away all of the now-floating particles and has a squeaky-clean appliance ready for the next meal. TBH, even if your air fryer container is dishwasher safe, this method guarantees you get every last bit off the first time around.

Then the most important part: You leave the fryer basket alone for about five to ten minutes. During this time, the tough-to-scrub grime begins to loosen—like a cake pan you forgot to grease before baking, soaking it in soapy water is the magic solution.

Pro tip: In the video’s comments section, we also learned that you don’t need to fully dry the inside of the air fryer before using it—you can simply pop it back into the machine and let it run for a few minutes. The fans inside the air fryer will help dry the air fryer thoroughly. And, if the top of the air fryer (the non-removable section) is also sporting a layer of grit, Jawad recommends wiping it down with a damp cloth when cool enough to handle.

What to do if you have a severely dirty air fryer with grit that won’t budge

For day-to-day messes, a little sudsy water can definitely go a long way when it comes to the best ways to clean an air fryer. However, if you’re dealing with a level ten air fryer disaster, we also discovered in a TikTok video by @kingbcouve that you can use a little steam action to help loosen the particles even more.

To do so, fill the air fryer receptacle with about an inch of soapy water, then set it to 370°F and let it cook for three minutes. After the time is up, dump out the liquid and repeat the process if necessary. The steam and moisture build helps remove the grease more easily. Then, all you have to do is rinse off the soap, and you’ll have a perfectly clean air fryer once again.

That said, if you’re dealing with a dirty and stinky air fryer, you might want to add a splash of vinegar (like apple cider vinegar) into the mix while cleaning it to help mitigate the scent. We’ve come to find out that vinegar isn’t just great for making salad dressings. On the contrary, it’s a naturally antibacterial liquid that helps disinfect meanwhile deodorizing and removing grit while cleaning. Win-win.

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