How to Make Homemade Frozen Foods for Your Air Fryer

Wa, that looks so much better than I thought. So, today I'm combining two of the most influential elements to the success of my weekly meal prep, air frying and freezing foods. Because I personally believe one of the most underrated aspects to the air fryer is how well it actually handles frozen foods. So today I decided to experiment a bit and basically create my own line of homemade freezer foods designed specifically to go straight from the freezer directly into your air fryer. And like always, if you want to make any of the dishes featured in today's video, all of the ingredients and recipes are linked below in a completely free Google doc. We're going to start things off with homemade tater tots. And when you

look up tater tot recipes on the internet, 90% of the recipes do the same exact thing. They pregrate the potatoes, then cook them before forming them, which is exactly what I did in a recent air fryer video. And you get a fantastic hash brown type texture with this method. But a classic tater tot has a much fluffier interior. And I've been trying to figure out how to do that for years. And I think I finally nailed down the homemade tater tot conundrum. So, the first step is to fill up a pot with water. And I've got some rusted potatoes here, which I'm going to cut in half so they cook evenly. Then I'll drop those right in the cold water, which is going to help them cook more evenly as they

come up to temperature. And they're going to need about 10 to 15 minutes until they are cooked through. You should be able to pierce them smoothly with a knife, but you still want a little resistance so they're not falling apart when you grate them. I'll let them completely cool and then I'll slice off the skin and start grating them up. And by cooking the potatoes whole and letting them cool, they're going to stay nice and dry. And when you go to grate them, you're going to get that texture you're looking for. Wow, look at that. That is amazing. It's like dry and fluffy at the same time.

Now, instead of forming these tater tots by hand, it's way easier to use an ice cube mold. And this mold right here makes the perfect little cubes. So, I'll just pack the grated potatoes in the molds and send them off to the freezer. If you were an alien that came down from out of someone and someone gave you ketchup and you were at like a super fancy restaurant and you never tasted ketchup before in your life, you would think it was like the greatest thing I could say. What is this sauce? M right away. Perfect. The initial bite you just feel the tater tot. I can't explain it. It's the fluffy crunchy combo. the super crunchy outside and then the like cooked potato inside which is like different. So different

than a hash brown which is like shredded potato texture all the way through. Yes, you're right. This is like a pillow inside. I think what's so fun was not hard at all to just tater tots for weeks. A bag of tots. Come on. That to me because this was our goal was a tater tot. A perfect tater tot. That's a 10 out of 10. Oh, I'll go nine. There's some slight improvements I think that could be made. Now, in my opinion, a proper freezer stash must have some breakfast items in there for convenience. And depending on your childhood, this next one might hit pretty hard. For me,

frozen French toast sticks were a big deal. Very nostalgic and just very tasty. So, I wanted to try to recreate them from scratch. And I'm starting off with a medium loaf of holo, which is basically just a braided bio. So, we already have a ton of incredible buttery egg flavor built right in from the start. I'll chop the entire loaf up into small little cubes. Then in a mixing bowl, I'll crack in some eggs, add some whole milk, some maple syrup, some cinnamon, and a pinch of salt. And since I won't actually be cooking the French toast and butter, I figured I'd add the melted butter right into this liquid for extra flavor and moisture. Now, once that's all mixed together, I'll add my

holo cubes right into the bowl and mix everything up until it's evenly distributed. And the bread basically turns into a nice homogeneous mess. Then the mixture gets packed right into these half cup silicone molds, which are about the closest thing I'm going to get to a French toast stick form. And I did have a little extra mixture, so I figured I'd also try some French toast bites in these two tablespoon molds. Oo yeah, the smell is just coming off the air fryer is nuts. Oh, look at that. These came out better than expected and I haven't even tasted it.

M. That's one of the better things I've ever made in the air fryer. Wow. Damn. That worked. That's like a 10 out of 10. Because it's it was so easy to make. It's like a bowl dump recipe basically. It's kind of shocking how good it is. It tastes exactly like French toast. Yeah. I'll give it a nine two. All right. So, breakfast is handled and now it's time to tackle the king of frozen foods. And I have been trying to crack the code on the frozen chicken nugget for years now. I've got the chicken tender version completely dialed in. You can find that in my top 20 air fryer cookbook. And when I've tried to freeze

them, because they're so lean, they tend to come out a little dry after reheating them from frozen. Now, the gold standard in the frozen nugget, in my opinion, right here, this is what I'm trying to recreate. The Applegate chicken nug. And my friends, after years of attempts, everything changes today in the world of homemade chicken nuggets. So to make these nugs, I'm going to use my food processor. And I've got two chicken thighs and two chicken breasts with the skin off, which in my opinion is the perfect combo for this frozen nugget. And I'll cut the chicken into smaller pieces for more even processing. and I'll pop them right into the food processor along with a little garlic

powder, a good amount of salt, and a few tablespoons of olive oil just to increase the fat levels to make sure these nuggets stay nice and moist when they come out of the air fryer. And I'll process this mixture up until everything is nice and smooth. Now, after a few tests, the key to the perfect nugget size is using a one tablespoon scoop. You could absolutely use a spoon, but this little ice cream scooper right here makes the job super easy, which is the goal, of course, if you're actually going to do this at home. I'll scoop those right into a tray lined with parchment paper. Then I'll spray my hand with a little bit of oil, and I'll just press them down, and boom, you have perfectly shaped nuggets, which go

straight into the freezer overnight. Then the next day, I'll set up my breading assembly line. And doing these in containers like these plastic cambros is really going to speed up this process. To the second bin, I'm going to crack in two eggs and whisk those together. The first bin will be my flour, and the third bin is going to be equal parts corn flakes that I blended up and plain breadrumbs. And I would suggest letting the frozen nuggets defrost at room temperature for about 30 minutes, which will help them grab onto that flour much better. I'm breading these in batches of three. So, I'll dump a full mini tray of nuggets into the flour. I'll give them a shake. I'll dust them off, drop them right into the egg,

and then finally, they go straight into the corn flakes and breadcrumbs. I'll give them another shake. And it's honestly amazing how well these bread up in batches like this. And once all the nuggets are coated, they're off to the freezer. That is unbelievable. I'm so happy about these. I've been trying to crack this code for years. Look. Oh, look at the juiciness in there. Not only are my kids absolutely loving these. I've been eating a lot of these as well. They're just really good little breaded nuggets. They really Wait, they really look like the other ones.

They're so good. These are so good. They're so good. Oh, I could eat like a thousand. This whole video is just so nostalgic because it's it's like making all the unhealthy things from my childhood healthier. Homemade. Yeah. And now I'm eating them. What I'm most happy about is that we created a system that like works to make a bunch. It's so easy. Like I'll do this. I wasn't going to create this recipe unless it was doable. 10 out of 10 for me. Oh man.

I can't do another 10. So, I'm going to give it a 9.5. So, I just want to take a minute to tell you about today's sponsor, which is Tasty and their ceramic coated smart air fryer, which has been powering all of the recipes you see in this video. And finally, after years of searching and asking, I finally have a non-toxic air fryer basket. This entire basket and tray is coated with a PAS free ceramic coating, which is not only non-toxic, but also insanely non-stick. But the feature that I didn't expect to love that is a total gamecher is this little builtin smart probe on the side which actually uses a smart algorithm designed for different cuts of meat. So for example, I cook a ton of chicken

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Now, not everything you freeze has to be well thought out. Of course, the freezer is just a fantastic tool to be less wasteful, which is the point of these frozen burritos. And the other day, I made some absolutely beautiful skirt steak on the grill, and I had a nice chunk left over. So, what I did is I sliced it up into small cubes, which I threw into a mixing bowl. And I also had some frozen black beans and some corn, which we froze a while ago, and honestly, they needed to go just to free up some more room in the freezer. So, I'm dumping those in as well. And finally, I added some grated cheddar cheese that I had lying around. And I gave everything a good mix. And for the burritos, I'm using 8 in flour

tortillas, which fits perfectly into my one cup molds. And having these molds is the key because when I pack up my burritos and fold them up, once I stuff them in the molds and they get frozen, I don't have to worry about anything falling apart. That's Just going to karate chop this. Oh, cheesy. We got a little fermented salsa here. Very excited for this. M. Oh, hell yeah. The outside like slowcooked it. It almost tastes like pastry a little bit. Like flaky. So flaky. Because it's frozen, you do have to kind of cook it a little low and slow so you don't burn the outside. But it that just means you're going to get like a pretty crispy exterior.

Give it like a seven. Oh yeah. I just wish it was beans and cheese and egg. I want this to be a breakfast burrito. If I had these in my freezer and they were breakfast burritos, I would eat a lot of them. I'm going to give it I really like this. I'll give it an 8.5. Nice. All right, so next up is a classic freezer option, the Takito. But I wanted to just make an absolutely delicious homemade version. And these are going to blow your mind. I'm going to start by making a shredded chicken filling. And I've got some chicken legs here, the thighs and the drumsticks, which I'm going to season up with some salt and pepper. And I'll just let those sit for a minute. And in the meantime, I'll get

a pan on a medium heat. And I'm toasting a few dried Mexican chilies along with some whole cumin seeds. And once those start smelling really fragrant, I'll dump them straight into my blender. Then I'll take that same pan, I'll add my chicken, skin side down, and just let that get nice and crispy. Now, back to the blender. Along with these chilies, I'm going to add in some fresh onion, garlic, some homemade canned tomatoes, and some chicken stock. Then I'll blend everything together until it's nice and smooth. And once the chicken is crispy on that skin side, I'll flip it over and cook it for just a few more minutes to get brown. Then I'll dump over that chili rojo sauce. And I'll cover the pan

up with a lid and let it cook for about 45 minutes until that chicken is just fully falling apart tender. Then I'll pull the chicken out and I'll let that sauce reduce until it's nice and thick. And once the chicken has fully cooled, I'll shred it up. I'll mix back in some of that thickened sauce. And we've got our taquito filling. And because I'm going to be using these half cup molds, I do need to first trim off a little bit of the edges of the corn tortillas so they fit nicely. Then I'll add my filling. I'll roll them up and then I'll pack them right into the molds. And since I had a little extra space, I'm able to fit in two tortillas per slot. And these are headed straight to the freezer.

All right. So, we have this beautiful avocado crema, which I think is the perfect It needs a creamy sauce cuz this is just spicy goodness. Very excited for these. M. Oh my god. Now, that's good. That's better than the frozen you'll buy. Holy crap. Wow. You like that better than the burrito? Yeah. Much better than It definitely It cooks better because it's smaller. I get why the Tito is like a popular frozen item.

I have no words. It's so good. I'll give it a nine cuz I think it could be a little crunchier. I was just going to say the cooking could be improved a little bit. Yeah. All right. Now, another one of my favorite recipes for my air fryer book are crispy airfried falafel. But I really was interested in freezing these for two specific reasons, which I'm going to get into in a second. But first, let's make these falafel, which start by soaking chickpeas overnight. The next day, I drain them and dry them off really well. Then they go straight into the food processor along with some onion, garlic, a ton of parsley, a

little squeeze of some lemon juice, and some salt and pepper. And I'll process that up until I get a texture just like this. Now, the first reason I wanted to try freezing these is the molds. Being able to pop them right into these ice cube molds takes a lot of the hassle out of forming the falafel with either a press or your hands. And once they're frozen, you certainly don't have to worry about them falling apart. Now, the second reason I wanted to try these is, of course, to see how well they would reheat in the air fryer straight from frozen. We got a little cream sauce to sample these.

Can't have falafel without cream sauce. Hot. No, I just ate it too fast. M. Okay. All right. Well, that answers my question. Direct from frozen is like perfect. Perfect. I would be so happy to have these in my freezer. Mhm. M. They're so moist. Better than I expected from me, too. Nine. I would give it a nine, too. Oh, yeah. All right. So, we're moving on. And I have been absolutely loving anything crispy palenta related in the air fryer. But these stuffed crispy palenta cubes take things to an entirely new place.

And the first thing I need to do is make a super concentrated tomato sauce, which I'm also going to be using for the next and final recipe. I'll add some olive oil to a pot. I'll toss in some onions, garlic, and salt and cook those down until they're nice and soft. Then I'm adding in some tomatoes. These were homegrown and then frozen, but you can just use some canned tomatoes. And I want to reduce this down by about 70%, so it's super thick and concentrated. We want very little water, and we want a whole lot of flavor. Now, to make crispy palenta, you want to use a 1:3 ratio. So, 1 cup palenta to three cups liquid. And for the liquid, I'm using water with a frozen stock cube to bump up the

flavor. And I'll cook that down for about 15 minutes until it gets nice and thick like this. Now, to bring together these frozen cubes, I've got some low moisture mozzarella, which I'm just going to chop into little chunks. And I'm using my half cup molds. And I'll dump about 2/3 of the palenta mixture into these half cup molds. And with a little spatula, I'm going to spread the palenta on the bottom. Then I'm going to start spreading it up each of the sidewalls. I did need to remove one section just so I had a little more palenta to top these off. Then I'll add a spoonful of that concentrated tomato sauce. Then I'll nestle a chunk of that low moisture mozzarella right into the

middle of the palenta. And I seal these babies up with the remaining palenta like you're cementing a patio. Yum. It's so much better than a mozzarella stick. It's cool because it's so flavorful and everything's in there. You don't need to dip it in anything. Like that is complete. I want to give this an 8.5. I'm going to go nine. Like, there's really no improvement. It's so good. Now, of course, as a kid, any type of frozen pizza item is just going to be a huge hit. In my house, it was Hot Pockets. I ate a lot of pizza hot pockets. I also had a lot of heartburn from that. I also love Tostino pizza rolls. And when you look at all of the

pizza roll copycat recipes out there, most of them use dumpling or want to wrappers and then they fry them up, which personally I wasn't very interested in. I wanted to see if I could make real pizza rolls with actual pizza dough. So, I'm using my overnight pizza dough recipe that has been proofing overnight. And I'm going to divide it into two pieces. And I'll roll them out separately just like I'm making some ravioli. And I did have to let my dough rest a bit after that initial roll, just so the gluten could relax before I finished rolling two sheets nice and thin. I trimmed up the edges on one sheet so it's nice and even. Then I lightly scored out a grid for my pizza rolls. Then I layered on some shredded

low moisture mozzarella. I spooned on some of that concentrated tomato sauce, which is super important if you want a lot of flavor in these pizza rolls. And then I added in some chopped pepperoni to half of them. Half pap, half plain. I brushed all of the seams with some egg wash. And I laid that second sheet over and just pressed everything down just like you're making ravioli. I added a few steam vents so they wouldn't explode in the air fryer. And then I used my pizza cutter to slice out my little pizza pie. Then these got transferred onto a baking sheet stacked up with parchment paper in between and they went straight to the freezer. And I wasn't about to waste those scraps. So I just

kind of tied them up into these little knots. I threw them into a little baking dish, topped them with a bunch of that sauce, a bunch of cheese, and I air fried them into a little pizza casserole. Oh my. Oh, I didn't even have to flip it. Wow, those look like Tostino pizza rolls. All right, this might be like the most impressive one. I understand why people use the wonton dough because it gives you that bubbliness when you deep fry it somehow. That's the exact texture I replicated in my air fryer with pizza dough. Like I can't believe that it works.

Smells like pizza. Oh, I forgot that there's some pepperoni. Oh, yeah. Did you get a pep? This is m yum. I just think that it's like needs to be a little bit more stuffed. More stuffed and like smaller, which is so hard to do without Yeah. machinery. This one more than any of the other ones. I'm happy I pulled it off, but it's not something I'd be doing a lot. So, I got to go down in points for that. I'll give it a Yeah. 75. I'm going to give it like a seven. I just wish it was like a little more bready, airy. Yeah. It's just a kind of a hard thing to make. So, if you haven't yet, check out my air fryer cookbook, Top 20 Recipes, for more air fryer

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