The Best Temperature For Tender Air Fryer Butternut Squash Every Time

Some days, it seems like the air fryer is the greatest home kitchen invention since the refrigerator replaced the icebox, and sometimes it feels like we're still learning how to optimize the novel countertop appliance. See, for all of the air fryer hacks that we wish we knew sooner, there always seems to be one more time or temperature setting that we're still trying to perfect. So Chowhound circulated one such question with Jessica Rice, senior test kitchen editor at Budget Bytes, in the pursuit of improved air fryer butternut squash.

Rice says that she preheats the air fryer to 400 degrees Fahrenheit for four minutes before cooking her butternut squash in batches for the best chance at a crisp exterior and tender interior. Batching prevents the squash from overcrowding, which will also help to keep it from steaming to a softer finish. Each batch gets 10 to 15 minutes of cook time before she loads the next one up. How many batches are required will depend on both your squash and your air fryer's size. You don't want the pieces of veg canoodling like they're on the dance floor; you want to give the hot air room to swirl around and slap a little crunch on the squash's surface areas. 

Now, if steaming, not crisping, were your objective, you'd want to take another, easily adapted, tack. "If steaming is okay with you, load it up," Rice says. But if you want a bit of a snap that gives way to a yielding center, both Rice's cooking method and the way you slice and season your squash can also have an impact.

Jessica Rice says that a uniform cut is key to even cooking, just like it would be in any of your other appliances. "I like a large dice to keep the inside tender while giving enough surface area on the outside to provide a little texture," she says. You can achieve these uniform bits by cutting your squash into bricks, then sticks, before ultimately eyeballing what will be a pretty consistent final size that closely approximates actual dice.

You should also season your butternut squash to taste at the end to further stave off steaming, Rice says. (The device is called an air fryer, not an air steamer, after all.) "The salt will draw out moisture from the squash during the air frying process and can cause the squash to steam instead of air fry," she says. You can add additional seasonings like black pepper, paprika, and garlic powder when the squash is still hot from the basket but done cooking, too.

This versatile botanical is ultimately fairly hard to mess up, Rice says. "Overall, butternut squash is pretty forgiving in general, so even if yours gets a little too crispy, or it ends up being mostly steamed, you probably won't waste it." If you do want to obscure your less-than-perfect handiwork but still enjoy that winter veggie taste, you can always blend your squash into a simple butternut squash soup like that's what you intended all along. Sometimes a little culinary zag such as this is the best tip of them all.