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Air Fryer Calamari Rings. How to make air fryer calamari rings from scratch in your air fryer basket. Easy to prep and cook and whether you call them air fryer calamari rings or air fryer squid rings, they are delicious.
This air fryer calamari was originally posted in early 2017, but we are bringing you the updated version today with new pictures and new ideas as well as my calamari rings secret ingredient!
Table of Contents
- Air Fryer Calamari Rings
- Can You Air Fry Calamari?
- Best Air Fryer For Calamari
- Air Fryer Crispy Calamari
- Air Fryer Calamari Variations
- How Do You Air Fry Calamari?
- How Long To Air Fry Calamari?
- What Temperature To Air Fry Calamari?
- Reheating Fried Calamari In Air Fryer
- Air Fryer Calamari Rings Recipe
- Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
Air Fryer Calamari Rings
Yesterday we showed you how to cook air fryer frozen calamari rings and today, we wanted to go back to three years ago when we showed you for the first time how to make air fryer calamari rings from scratch.
Sometimes it feels like I forget how much fun and how delicious it is to bread food in the air fryer.
We don’t do it for a couple of months, and I get a big craving for getting out my large blue bowls and setting up an air fryer breading production line.
Depending on what I am breading, we will have a bowl for the beaten eggs, a bowl for the flour and a bowl for the breadcrumbs.
Dip your favourite food in each and air fry it.
Then afterwards, me and Dominic will have a deep discussion about why we don’t eat air fryer breaded food more often when it tastes this good.
Then argue over whether our air fryer breaded drumsticks in the air fryer oven are better than our air fryer breaded pork chops.
If you are new to the air fryer, I would recommend that you start with breading some calamari rings as there is a LOT less prep and its one of the easiest methods. Then work your way through Recipe This and see what else you want to bread.
Can You Air Fry Calamari?
Yes you can. Think of any of your favourite ways of enjoying calamari and know that the air fryer is perfect for them.
Of course, my favourite way to air fry calamari is breaded calamari rings, but you can also do it other ways such as in an air fryer stir fry.
Or if you prefer check out our air fryer frozen calamari rings recipe.
Best Air Fryer For Calamari
The best air fryer for calamari is any classic air fryer basket. By basket I am referring to an air fryer like the Philips Air Fryer XL or Cosori Air Fryer that us Milners own.
Air fryer baskets produce much better crispy calamari compared to the Power Air Fryer Oven or the Tefal Actifry.
Air Fryer Crispy Calamari
Would you like air fryer crispy calamari like the crispy calamari that you get served at a restaurant?
If so, you need my number #1 secret tip.
That is to use the breadcrumbs from a stale pita bread rather than from traditional sliced bread. Then blend it into coarse breadcrumbs rather than fine. It will give a much thicker breadcrumb layer making it perfect for air fryer crispy calamari.
You see with standard breadcrumbs you are often breading chicken and it is not as wet as calamari.
Air Fryer Calamari Variations
You can also mix and match ingredients to make your own perfect air fryer calamari. For example, I have made several rounds of air fryer calamari using gluten free oats instead of breadcrumbs and it has worked well.
Perfect if you want to make gluten free air fryer calamari rings. You can also follow a similar system for a keto version.
Or if you would like air fryer calamari made from panko swap the pitta bread for panko.
How Do You Air Fry Calamari?
Making breaded calamari in the air fryer is EASY. In fact, as a partially sighted person I am not very good at breading food, well compared to my chef husband Dominic and even with me breading it, it came out almost PERFECT.
- Set up bowls for beaten egg, flour, and breadcrumbs.
- Load thawed calamari into egg, flour and then breadcrumbs.
- Cook in the air fryer and serve.
How Long To Air Fry Calamari?
The cook time for air fryer breaded calamari rings is JUST 4 minutes. Can you believe that for a breaded food in the air fryer? It’s a quick cook to get the breading to stick to the calamari and go a wonderful shade of golden brown.
What Temperature To Air Fry Calamari?
The best temperature to air fry calamari is 200c/400f. Just like if you deep fried calamari rings you want to go the hotter the better. This will ensure an amazing tasty crunch on the rings.
Reheating Fried Calamari In Air Fryer
The truth about food blogging is that you are often left with a LOT of food leftovers. Often when we have been recipe testing, we will fill the fridge with leftovers.
Well the day we breaded our calamari we did other breading. We updated our air fryer cordon bleu and our air fryer chicken schnitzel, and it felt we were drowning in breaded food.
What we did was eat some as we breaded, then the rest went into the fridge and we reheated it later.
Reheating the fried calamari in the air fryer is easy and doesn’t take long at all. 5 minutes at a temperature of 160c/320f was PERFECT.
After all, you don’t want to cook your calamari rings more, instead you want to reheat through. Plain recipe image
Air Fryer Calamari Rings
Ingredients
Air Fryer Calamari Rings Ingredients:
- 300 g Calamari
- 3 Eggs, beaten
- 1 Pitta Bread
- 200 g Plain Flour
- 1 Tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1 Tbsp Parsley
- ½ Tsp Dill
- Salt & Pepper
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil Spray, optional
Instructions
- Beat eggs in a bowl and stir in lemon juice.
- Load flour into another bowl and season with salt and pepper.
- Break up a pitta bread and load into the blender. Blend until you have coarse breadcrumbs.
- Add breadcrumbs to a bowl with salt, pepper, parsley, and dill.
- Dry your thawed calamari rings with kitchen towel.
- Load calamari rings into beaten egg bowl, then flour and then breadcrumbs making sure each layer is well coated.
- Load into an air fryer basket only doing a single layer and not overcrowding the air fryer basket.
- Air fry for 8 minutes at 180c/360f.
- Spray with extra virgin olive oil and cook for the same time and temp again.
- Serve.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!
I pre-ordered Airfryer easy everyday. How do I get a copy of Mealprep 101?
Thanks
Hi Marg,
If you fill in the form on this page:
https://recipethis.com/air-fryer-meal-prep/
And attach your pre order from amazon, if you take a screenshot of it then upload it on the form on that page and when the book goes live you will receive the course for free. 🙂
OK, did this today.
Quite big Calamari so did it for a bit longer.
Used wholemeal flour because that’s what I had, Lime in pla ce of lemon, (Lime Tree had ripe fruit on it), used mixed herbs for the same reason. Drizzled oil as I had no spray.
Wholemeal breadcrumbs.
Not sure I followed it exactly but, really good, so wonderfully tender like they should be:
In a Halogen oven.
Thanks for the recipe, without this I would have never tried and enjoyed.
OK mouth is watering, this looks so amazing Samantha! The crispy coating! Will be making this asap.
your recipes are amazing!! thanks for inspiring and sharing…please keep up the great work.
They are so crispy. Thank you for showing me how to make them.