Air Fryer Calamari Rings

This Post Contains Affiliate Links. Click Here To Read Our Full Disclosure.

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!

air fryer calamari rings recipe
air fryer calamari rings

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?

air fryer calamari rings step by step

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.

  1. Set up bowls for beaten egg, flour, and breadcrumbs.
  2. Load thawed calamari into egg, flour and then breadcrumbs.
  3. 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
air fryer calamari rings
Print Recipe
5 from 2 votes

Air Fryer Calamari Rings

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.
Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time8 minutes
Total Time23 minutes
Course: Side Dish, Snack
Cuisine: Air Fryer
Servings: 4
Calories: 338kcal

Ingredients

Kitchen Gadgets:

Air Fryer Calamari Rings Ingredients:

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

Its important that the calamari rings are not on top of each other as otherwise they will stick together and not cook properly and you will have a sticky mess.
Depending which air fryer, we use, our air fryers can do between 9-12 calamari rings at once.
Don’t want to measure out your flour? Load enough flour into the bowl to bread your calamari and if you don’t have enough just add a little more in during the breading process.

Nutrition

Calories: 338kcal | Carbohydrates: 49g | Protein: 22g | Fat: 5g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 298mg | Sodium: 156mg | Potassium: 300mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 283IU | Vitamin C: 6mg | Calcium: 62mg | Iron: 4mg
Nutrition InfoPlease Note: Nutrition values are our best estimate based on the software we use at Recipe This and are meant as a guide. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
Did You Know We Have A Sunday Times Bestselling Air Fryer Cookbook?It has sold 100,000+ copies worldwide and is called The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook, gets you started with air frying with step by step pictures and it uses everyday ingredients. It is JUST £10 on Amazon in the UK and $15 in the USA.!
We Are Making You Another Air Fryer Cookbook!You can also pre-order Air Fryer Easy Everyday which is just how it sounds. Easy everyday recipes for those that want to learn the air fryer and have easy meals rather than fancy food you would never cook. Pre-order your copy here.!
Are We Friends On Pinterest?If we are not and you use Pinterest then follow us @RecipeThisBlog for more delicious recipes.
Fancy A Video?Subscribe to the Recipe This YouTube Channel for full length recipe videos. Don’t forget to click the bell icon to be notified when we upload a new video. Subscribe Here!
Copyright Notice© RecipeThis.com. ALL content including photos are copyright protected. Sharing of our recipes is both encouraged and appreciated via the social share buttons. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media channel or onto your own website is strictly prohibited.

Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!

air fryer calamari rings at recipethis.com
Recipe This

Hi! I am Sam and along with my chef hubby Dom we love sharing with you easy everyday recipes using kitchen gadgets. We are also the authors of The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook, an amazing air fryer cookbook filled with 140+ everyday air fryer recipes. Beyond the air fryer we also love the instant pot, slow cooker, soup maker, ninja foodi, pie marker and several other kitchen gadgets. CLICKING HERE →

4 thoughts on “Air Fryer Calamari Rings”

  1. 5 stars
    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.

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Daniel Cancel reply

Recipe Rating