14 Canned Foods You Should Be Cooking In Your Air Fryer

You've probably heard people talk about how air fryers can cook literally anything, but for some reason, canned foods tend to get forgotten about in those discussions. We can understand why, too. Air fryers cook using rapidly circulating hot air to develop a browned, crispy texture on your food. This textural improvement is most obvious when you're cooking food that's already pretty dry. Canned foods, though, come packed in water and brine, meaning that folks tend to tip them into stews and soups before flinging them into the air fryer.

Well, that tendency ends here. The super-quick convection action of your air fryer helps to dry the surface of certain canned foods rapidly, meaning that they're capable of developing that much-desired crispiness in no time at all, while still keeping a juicy, moist interior. Cooking canned foods in your air fryer can also help you mix up how you serve them, turning staples like chickpeas and cannellini beans into snacks you can munch on with a cold beer, or canned fruits like pineapple and peaches into a dessert fit for a king. The best part? All you need to do is open a can, tip it into the basket, and tap a button.

Chickpeas are kind of a miracle ingredient, people. These humble legumes have an incredible amount of textural possibilities up their sleeve, turning silky-smooth when blended into hummus or retaining a satisfying bite when popped into a curry. Our favorite way to cook them, though, is using dry heat to turn them into a crunchy, nutritious snack — and if you want perfectly crisp chickpeas, you should be using your air fryer.

Your air fryer hits your chickpeas with immediate high heat, drying them out way more effectively than an oven can. This is helped by the traditional design of air fryer baskets, which have perforated sides, allowing the air to circulate around each chickpea fully. To get the best out of your garbanzos, it's a good idea to pat them dry before popping them in your appliance. This will give them a head start and prevent your air fryer from having to evaporate too much liquid, which may lead to them steaming slightly. Dousing them with a little cooking spray can also help them brown and crisp up more easily. While you can season your chickpeas before they go in your air fryer, it might be best to wait until after they're cooked, to avoid having to scrape dried herbs or spices off your fry basket.

Canned potatoes are one of those foods that feels like a good idea to grab just in case you ever need them — and then, lo and behold, you never need them. Well, if you have a forgotten can of potatoes, use your air fryer to make them unexpectedly delicious. Air fryers can give canned potatoes a new lease of life and turn them from their soggy, pallid state to something golden and crispy. You can use them to make roast potatoes in half the time it'd take in your oven: Just coat drained, canned potatoes in oil, salt, and pepper, and cook them at 375 degrees F for roughly 20 minutes. Because canned potatoes are already partially cooked, you won't have to worry about them still being chalky and hard on the inside.

You can also make some surprisingly delicious potato chips from canned potatoes using your air fryer. The key is in the slicing. Cut each potato into thin circles, ensuring that you're using a really sharp knife to do so. Then, as with roasted canned potatoes, coat them in oil and seasoning and pop them in the fryer, checking them every few minutes to ensure they're not burning. Make sure you only cook one layer at a time to prevent them from steaming.

What to do with canned artichokes is an age-old question. Luckily, if you have an air fryer, you can turn your artichoke hearts from pale and wan to browned and bursting with flavor. Cooking canned artichokes in the air fryer takes just six to eight minutes at 375 degrees F, and you're left with a golden hue on the surface of each vegetable and a noticeably nuttier, sweeter, almost caramelized flavor.

From there, the world's your oyster. Cooked canned artichoke hearts can give deep flavor to a veggie-based pizza, or serve as an exciting addition to a salad. They can also be tossed into a pasta dish or enjoyed more simply, with a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkling of flaky sea salt. Our favorite use for them, though, is in an artichoke dip. The deeper flavor provided by your air fryer gives dip so much more complexity, and helps to offset the rich, creamy notes provided by the dairy-based ingredients. Their slightly squidgy texture also gives your dip a more exciting, dynamic mouthfeel, especially if you chop them roughly by hand instead of blending them.

When was the last time you did anything different with your canned corn? If you're anything like us, you tend to use it in the same ways each time, tipping it into a casserole or a tuna salad. However, your new favorite way to cook it is staring you in the face: Pop your kernels into your air fryer and transform them into golden, nutty nuggets of flavor. Canned corn's natural sugar level gives it an incredible capacity to caramelize, making it perfect for cooking in the dry heat. The amount you cook it is up to you: Blasting it for a few minutes can develop a lightly golden color while keeping the kernels moist, while cooking it for 15 to 20 minutes can make your corn ultra-crispy, turning it into a perfect bar snack.

When cooking corn in the air fryer, you need to consider your basket. Some air fryers may have slats that are larger than your kernels, leaving them at risk of falling through. To prevent this from happening, you can use an air fryer sheet or some foil. As with other canned goods, try to dry your corn thoroughly before cooking it.

Look, we're gonna say it: Canned carrots are boring. They're limp, tasteless, and usually have a fairly unimpressive orange-yellow color that's a far cry from their usual vibrant tones. However, by using your air fryer, you can turn them from dull to delicious, by intensifying their flavor and giving them a newly-acquired sweetness and depth. Because canned carrots are par-cooked, blasting them in the air fryer also gives them an impressive textural boost, with a juicy, soft interior and a lightly firm outside.

Canned carrots are versatile, too. Their natural sweet notes means that you can pair them with more sugary additions like honey, balsamic glaze, or maple syrup. Conversely, that inherent sweetness can work as a contrast to savory tastes provided by soy or Parmesan. Whatever you choose to coat them with, just make sure that it's not too loose, thin, or wet. Doing this can leave your carrots underdressed, as your coating can simply fall off of them and through the slats of your air fryer basket.

Caramelized, sticky-sweet pineapple can feel pretty luxurious. However, there's no reason for it to be something you only eat every now and again, particularly if you have an air fryer and a can of pineapple rings to hand. You can easily boost fruit by roasting it in your air fryer, giving your morning oatmeal or after-dinner treat some extra zing. Pineapples, with their high sugar content and sharp sweetness, are especially well-suited to air frying. Cooking them in this way can emulate the effect of barbecuing them, giving them a charred, smoky note that's balanced by their acidity.

Unlike some other fruits, pineapples are particularly good when paired with spices and a little heat. Sprinkling some paprika, nutmeg, and red pepper flakes over them can give them a piquancy that somehow highlights their sweetness. Adding a sprinkling of sugar can help to intensify all these flavors, but if your pineapple is especially sweet it may not be necessary. Cooking pineapple rings takes roughly 12 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees F. Once they're cooked, serve them warm over some vanilla ice cream. ‌

Grilled peaches are a thing of beauty, but they can be a lot of work. Firing up your barbecue, waiting for it to heat up, and then having to ensure that your peaches don't stick to the grill as they caramelize — who has time for all that? Thankfully, if you have an air fryer and some canned peaches, you can achieve the same effect in no time. All you need to do is place your canned peach halves upside down in your fry basket (preferably on an air fryer sheet or some lightly greased foil), and then sprinkle them with cinnamon and brown sugar. Air fry them at 350 degrees F for 6 minutes, flip them and sprinkle them with another layer of spice and sugar, and cook for a final 10 minutes.

The result is soft, golden-brown peaches that rival the best grilled version you've ever had. Sink your fork into them, and you'll find that their inside is soft and almost jammy, but with an unmistakable firmness that stops them from turning to mush. If you want to amp up the luxury, add a pat of butter to each peach before popping them back in the fryer for the last blast of heat.

If you're anything like us, you'll have a can of jackfruit sitting in your pantry, likely bought when you planned to cook some vegan tacos or chili (and then, y'know, never quite got round to it). Your air fryer is the key to turning that unused can into something delicious. Jackfruit, with its neutral flavor and meaty texture, is an astonishingly effective substitute for beef, pork, and chicken, and it can be turned into chicken nuggets in a matter of minutes.

To do this, simply drain some canned jackfruit (making sure you don't use jackfruit canned in syrup, as this will be too sweet), and marinate it in milk, apple cider vinegar, and hot sauce. If you want to keep things vegan, you can use oat or soy milk here. Then, cover your marinated jackfruit in spiced breadcrumbs. To increase the coverage of your crumbs, you can first dip your jackfruit pieces in a simple batter made by mixing all-purpose flour with your leftover marinade.

Finally, throw your nuggets in the air fryer, spraying them with a little cooking spray, and cook until crispy and golden. We promise you, these nuggets will be virtually indistinguishable from the real thing. They're perfect served with some buffalo or barbecue sauce, or even just some ketchup and mayo.

Canned tamales can be a little challenging to cook. If you're not careful, they can quickly descend into mush and lack any texture whatsoever. This can be easily avoided by using your air fryer. Instead of cooking them as per the instructions on the back of the can, instead you can roll them in breadcrumbs and a seasoning blend of your choice, before popping them in your appliance. After being cooked at 390 degrees F for 20 minutes, they come out crispy on the outside and soft and flavorful within.

When cooking tamales in your air fryer, make sure to remove the paper each one is wrapped in. This can be easy to miss (especially if you're not used to cooking with canned tamales). Once you've cooked your tamales, you can serve them with a simple dipping sauce. If you want to amp things up even further, though, sprinkle them with some shredded cheese and pop them under the broiler.

Anyone who's ever air fried raw green beans will know how good they are. When cooked in the convection action of your air fryer, green beans turn crispy and almost intensely flavorful. Even a novice cook can probably figure out that you won't get the same result with canned green beans, which are softer and moist — and while that may be true, air frying them can still yield excellent results. You might not get the crunch and snap that you'd get from raw green beans, but canned green beans can still develop a deeper color and flavor and a lightly firm exterior, making them far more interesting than if you just tipped them into the microwave.

When you're cooking canned green beans (or any canned vegetable, for that matter), you'll want to follow a few crucial steps. Avoid using wet ingredients to season them, as any additional moisture can prevent them from becoming as firm as possible. For green beans, you're best off sticking with salt and pepper, and any herbs or spices you like. You may also want to cook them for slightly longer than you think. Don't worry about them drying out: Because canned green beans are usually pretty wet, they remain soft and juicy on the inside.

When handled incorrectly, canned mushrooms can destroy any love you once had for the vegetable. These spongy, unpleasant-looking bites are lacking in flavor when served straight out of the can. Luckily, a quick trip to the air fryer can turn them into a side dish you come back to again and again. It sounds too good to be true, but mushrooms can actually turn crispy in the air fryer, and all it takes is 8 to 10 minutes at 400 degrees F.

One word of warning before you put them in your air fryer, though: You'll need to dry them really well. Mushrooms are very absorbent and will soak up any water they've been canned in, so make sure you pat out as much as possible. You should also avoid adding extra liquid to season them. While this seems like a logical step, especially if you're craving the flavors of soy or Worcestershire sauce, it'll mean they steam instead of crisp up. Make sure you flip your mushrooms halfway through cooking so they get the same amount of heat on both sides.

We wouldn't blame you if you didn't know what to do with canned sardines: These things can be pretty tough to cook if you're not used to using them. By using your air fryer, though, you can turn canned sardines into fish nuggets that rival your favorite chicken version. All you need to do is fish your sardines (get it? Fish your sard– okay, yeah, you got it) out of the can, and dip them in a seasoned egg wash. Then, coat them in some crispy Panko breadcrumbs, pop them in your air fryer, and spray them with cooking spray before blasting with heat.

As canned sardines are already cooked, you don't need to worry about them being raw inside. The egg wash, meanwhile, helps to seal in their moisture, preventing them from drying out in the circulating heat of your air fryer. To make them as flavorful as possible, spray your sardines with cooking oil once more after flipping them halfway through cooking. This will not only ensure an even color on both sides, but it will give them a deeper, more developed taste. You can serve these sardine nuggets with pretty much anything you like, but a simple dipping sauce and some fries are our favorite accompaniments.

Air frying canned peas? Yes, we know, it sounds pretty wild. Once you give it a go, though, we promise you won't go back. Air frying canned peas can turn them from those green-gray, mushy bullets that tumble out of the tin, to a pile of crispy, flavorful morsels that you can munch with a beer or add to a salad. All it takes is 10 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees F, and your peas will shrivel up and turn ultra-crunchy.

Because some canned peas are packed in a sodium-rich brine, you may not even need to season them much before cooking. Adding a little bit of oil will help them crisp up, though, so make sure you apply some of your favorite fat. One thing to bear in mind is that if you want your peas to be as crispy as possible, you may need to cook them in batches. If you pile them on top of each other, they won't cook evenly, and some of them will remain soft and mushy. Only cook one layer at a time, making sure to shake them halfway through the cooking cycle.

There are a lot of things you can do with canned cannellini beans, from turning them into a cannellini bean dip to bulking up a chili, to giving your salads a boost of protein and fiber. One thing you probably haven't done with them, though, is pop them in the air fryer. By doing so, though, you can turn them into a crispy, nutritious snack.

It's as simple as tipping your cannellini beans into the air fryer, seasoning them and coating them in oil, and then cooking for 10 to 12 minutes at 400 degrees F. The beans will blister, with some of them bursting, giving them extra surface area to crisp upon. When you're cooking them, you'll want to shake the basket every few minutes, to ensure that each bean is getting as much access to heat as possible. While these beans are perfect for snacking on before dinner, we'd also recommend using them in place of croutons on your soup.