Expert consulted: 
We’re constantly talking about—and using—air fryers in the Good Housekeeping Kitchen & Cooking Lab. Whether we’re testing the latest models, recommending products to our friends and colleagues, or trying new recipes, we’re big fans of the powerful countertop ovens. And since we started testing air fryers in 2017, our staff has developed some pretty strong opinions about the best ways to use them.
You probably already know air fryers make crispy fries and golden chicken wings. But Nicole Papantoniou, senior director of Kitchen & Cooking and our resident air fryer guru, swears that it’s the best way to cook salmon. In fact, she refuses to make salmon in any other appliance (and trust me, she has plenty of options).
Admittedly, I’ve been making salmon in my oven for years. So I tested the methods side by side, and here’s why (to no one’s surprise) Papantoniou is absolutely right.
Results: Oven-roasted salmon
I started with my tried-and-true method, the oven. I heated my oven to 400°F. Meanwhile, I coated a 6-ounce, 1-inch-thick fillet of Atlantic salmon with olive oil on both sides and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I placed it on a baking sheet and roasted it for 10 minutes.
The fish came out flaky and evenly cooked, but on the pale side. Most annoyingly, the skin stuck to my baking sheet around the edges and was soggy and flabby in the center. In short: not appetizing and a pain to clean.
Results: Air fryer salmon
Next, I followed Papantoniou’s method and cooked a second identically sized fillet in my Ninja Air Fryer XL (our top-tested pick in the Lab) at 400°F for eight minutes. Before cooking, I brushed the skin and top of the fillet with olive oil and seasoned it with salt and pepper. I placed it directly on the rack in the air fryer basket.
The fillet was perfectly flaky and evenly cooked with more color than the oven version, and the skin was beautifully crisp and didn’t stick. It had the restaurant-style sear you might think is only achievable by pan-searing, but I’d skipped the mess and smell of stovetop salmon.
The fish cooked faster in the air fryer, and the entire process took a fraction of the time. My air fryer doesn’t need preheating, while my oven took 10 minutes to reach temperature. Best of all, I wasn’t left scrubbing stinky fish skin off a baking sheet after dinner. Instead, I popped the whole air fryer basket into the dishwasher.
The bottom line
Air frying my salmon got dinner on the table faster, made it taste and look better, and made cleanup a breeze. It’s safe to say I won’t be reaching for my baking sheet next time I’m craving salmon.
And according to Papantoniou, the air fryer method is also great for wild-caught salmon and leaner fish, which have less fat and can dry out more easily. I’ll be trying cod next.
Why trust Good Housekeeping?
Lizzy Briskin is a contributing analyst in the GH Kitchen Lab, where she conducted the most recent round of air fryer testing. She uses her air fryer several times a week for dinner, reheating leftovers, and making toast in the morning.
Nicole Papantoniou is the senior director of the Kitchen & Cooking Lab at Good Housekeeping. She’s an air fryer expert who refuses to cook salmon any other way.
Nicole (she/her) is the senior director of the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen & Cooking Lab. She oversees all content and testing related to kitchen products, food, and recipes. She has worked at GH since 2019, and is a trained cook, published recipe developer, and seasoned product tester with nearly 15 years of experience. She has worked in test kitchens for national magazines and kitchen appliances brands, where she also helped develop products for the home cook. She earned a degree in journalism from SUNY New Paltz, graduated with a Grand Diplome in Classic Culinary Arts from the French Culinary Institute, and studied culinary nutrition at the Natural Gourmet Institute (both now part of the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City.)
