Can I Cook The Coxinhas In An Air Fryer?

Our answer

Nigella's recipe for Coxinha is quite traditional as it was passed on by a friend. The coxinha dough is formed in a teardrop-sheapd ball around cooked chicken then each coxinha is coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried. In theory the coxinhas could be cooked in an air fryer, but the results will never be exatly the same as for deep frying.

Home-made breadcrumb-coated foods that are air fried will not have quite the same crust as a deep fried version as there is a lack of fat and this will make the coating a little on the dry side. It can also mean that the coxinhas will not be quite as deeply or evenly coloured in an air fryer. You can partly offset this by brushing or spraying the coxinhas with vegetable oil just before air frying. Try to make the oil coating as even as possible. If you are freezing the coxinhas then it is probably easier to brush them with oil just before cooking from frozen, as they will be firm and this will make it slightly easier to brush the oil on to them. In terms of air fryer temperature, you sometimes need to increase the air fryer temperature in comparison with oil temperature, so we would suggest cooking a test batch by preheating the air fryer to 200c/350F and cooking the coxinha for 5 minutes. If the coxinhas are golden and piping hot in the centre then this will be the correct setting. If the coxinhas are becoming too dark on the outside before the centre is hot then you may need to reduce the air fryer temperature slightly. Cook for about 2 minutes longer if the coxinhas are not hot in the centre and allow extra time if cooking from frozen. Cook the coxinhas in batches and do not overcrowd the air fryer basket as the hot air needs to circulate freely around each coxinha. You can keep the cooked coxinhas hot in an oven preheated to 120c/250F while you cook the rest. Please note that as we have not tried air frying the coxinhas ourselves, we are unable to guarantee the results.