At some point, everyone who has an air fryer will need to clean it. Frying foods, such as chicken wings, can leave a lot of mess and grease that needs to be removed.

We have a Cuisinart TOA-65 air fryer and we are taking a look at how to clean it. You can use this same basic process for any air fryer, though.

Let’s dive in. Here’s our video demoing the process on our own air fryer.

Step 1: Remove the Tray and Rack

The first step is to take out the air fryer tray and rack. This tray typically catches the food drips, so it will need to be cleaned. Note that if you make cleaner foods like tofu, you only need to clean the tray even few times you use your fryer.

We like to put some soap on the tray on it and let it soak for a bit. Next, we take the rack out and let it soak in the soapy water. We also use a paper towel with a bit of soap to clean the inside of the fryer, while the tray and rack are soaking.

Grease can splatter on the glass surface, so it is important to get that off.

Step 2: Clean off Grease

We do not want to pour the grease down the drain, so we use a paper towel to soak up the grease from the tray and throw it in the trash can or composting bin.

Any stuck on bits on the tray can be removed with a sponge with an abrasive, natural cleaner. We like to pour some coarse salt on the tray and rub it in with a sponge to remove stuck-on dirt. The salt is gentle on the tray, but adds some abrasive action to scrub off stuck-on grease.

We don’t have to be perfect–it’s an air fryer, not a trophy in need of polishing!

Once the tray and rack are good enough, we put them back into the air fryer.

Step 3: Clean the Outside

The final step is to clean off the outside of the air fryer. This is especially important if we have been handling food and touching the outside. Residues, stains and streaks can build up.

You can use a gentle cleaner like Windex on the outside of the fryer. We don’t suggest using anything other than food-safe cleaners on the inside.

We use a wet cloth to wipe down the outside and that leaves us with a nice clean air fryer.

Conclusion

Cleaning your air fryer can be a simple process and it is important to make sure that the fryer is clean and free from grease. A dirty air fryer is unsightly, and it’s also a fire risk.

Following these steps can help you keep your air fryer in good condition.

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Video Transcript

Let’s take a look at how to clean your air fryer. I got my Cuisinart air fryer and I fried some chicken wings in there, which means you get a lot of stuff you want to get off.

First, we’re going to take out the air fryer tray, which will catch all those drips. I like to put some soap and soak it for a little bit. Then we’ll just wipe off the inside here too with a paper towel with a bit of soap on it to get the glass clean from the inside of the fryer. Things tend to splatter, so that glass surface or any part of the inside of your air fryer tends to get that grease on it. Let’s clean that off; it looks a lot better now.

Next, we’ll take the rack out too and throw that in to let it soak a bit as well. We’re not going to pour this down the drain – you don’t want to pour that grease down the drain. So, instead, I’m going to take a paper towel once it’s gotten off of there a bit, and I’m going to soak up that grease and throw it into the trash can or the composting bin. That just leaves these stuck-on bits, so I like to take a sponge with a nice abrasive surface to really try to clear a bit of that off. You can put a little salt on there (pro-tip!) and that helps to get some abrasion going on to clean that off in a natural way.

Now, you don’t have to be perfect – it’s an air fryer tray, and it’s going to have some little bits of burned-on parts that might stay or discoloration, but that’s much, much better. We’re going to do the same thing with the rack on here, take that sponge to it. Again, don’t worry about perfection – get that clean so that when you use the fryer again, nothing’s going to burn on there.

You can see most of that is off. We’re going to slide that back into our air fryer, close it up, and then the final step: clean off the outside. For touching this with hands after handling the chicken wings, it’s going to need to be wiped down.

And there we go: our nice clean air fryer!