One thing I love about air fryers is the ease of cooking frozen foods. These Air Fryer Frozen Onion Rings are no exception.
They’re the perfect addition in the summer to a grill night and even complement a nice quick winter meal as well.
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You can cook them in less time than it takes to preheat your oven! Oh, and did I mention there is no oil needed? They’re right up there with air frying Hot Pockets (which are amazing, by the way).
The first time I made these frozen onion rings, I started them about 20 minutes before dinner was ready. You know, the amount of time it takes for an oven to preheat then bake them.
Thankfully, I like to keep an eye on my food as it cooks in my air fryer and 4 minutes later they were done!
I was amazed at how fast they cooked, but then they were ready 15 minutes too early. I ended sticking them back in the air fryer to reheat right before dinner and they were cooked to perfection.
I’ve included both original cooking time and reheating time for cooking these delicious air fryer frozen onion rings.
Try These Other Air Fryer Recipes:
- Air Fried Oreos
- Air Fryer Crispy Bacon
- Air Fryer Onion Rings (homemade)
- Air Fried Frozen Mozzarella Sticks
How to Make Air Fryer Frozen Onion Rings
Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees. Preheating allows your air fryer to cook evenly, which is even more important when cooking from frozen.
Grab your favorite brand of onion rings out of the freezer. Place 6 to 7 ounces of frozen onion rings right into your air fryer. This ended up being half a bag of the Alexia Onion Rings.
I made this recipe right in my Cosori Air Fryer. It has a square basket and is great for cooking more than enough food for my family of 4. You can read more about the Cosori air fryer here.
Cook the onion rings for 4-5 minutes, shaking the basket halfway through.
Remove from air fryer and enjoy immediately by themselves or with your favorite dipping sauce (hello ketchup!).
What Are the Best Frozen Onion Rings?
I personally love cooking with the Alexia Frozen Onion Rings. They don’t require any oil and crisp up to perfection inside the air fryer.
If you have another favorite brand, feel free to drop it in the comments below!
I Used a Different Brand and They Look A Little Dry While Cooking. What Do I Do?
Not all brands are created equal.
Most frozen foods (in the US) are cooked with oil already included. The oils already cooked into the food are all that is typically needed for air frying.
While most frozen foods do not need added oil in an air fryer, sometimes they need a little boost.
Simply spray the onion rings with vegetable or olive oil using an EVO Oil Sprayer. You can use this at the beginning of cooking or even in the middle.
Please stay away from any PAM-like sprays as they can actually ruin your air fryer.
How Do I Reheat Onion Rings in an Air Fryer?
If you’re anything like me, you had a huge appetite going into dinner or just overestimated how much your family could eat.
I do it all the time.
Thankfully, air fryers are amazing at heating up food while keeping it crispy.
Preheat your air fryer 350 degrees then place the onion rings inside and cook for 2-3 minutes until warmed.
Reheating them at a lower temperature allows the insides to reheat while making sure the outside doesn’t get too crispy or burnt.
If you notice the onion rings are starting to get a little dry while reheating, just spray them with a few sprays using your EVO Oil Sprayer (this thing is amazing) and it will bring the moisture right back.
Other Air Fryer Recipes You’ll Love:
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Air Fryer Frozen Onion Rings
Ingredients
- 6 ounces of frozen onion rings about 1/2 a bag of Alexia onion rings
Instructions
- Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees for about 3 minutes.
- Place onion rings in the air fryer, stacking if needed.*
- Cook air fryer onion rings for 4 minutes, shaking the basket halfway through.**
- Remove from the air fryer and enjoy immediately.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
This nutrition information is based on the exact products I used in this recipe. Brands and sizes of products could alter exact nutrition and should always be calculated independently.
A very simple recipe to follow, no oil necessary. It looks wonderful and tastes yummy.
Yes, Karens! It’s amazing how they taste so great with absolutely no oil included.
I tried making it last week. Fabulous! It worked. More appetizing if dip with Bloomin Onion Sauce.
Dipping the onion rings in Bloomin Onion Sauce sounds amazing! I will be trying that next time, Rachel! So glad you enjoyed them!
Great recipe for frozen onion rings.
One of your comments to answer questions of “too crisp” was to reduce the temperature to 350F
That seems to be the temperature you’re recommending for the recipe. I use 390F and some recipes recommend 400F.
Second point is how good your rings look! Almost like the end product was a different brand of frozen onion ring OR…. did you happen to dust them with a seasoned salt or Cajun spice? The red flecks look very appetizing!
Thanks again for the recipe
Doug
Hi Doug, thanks for pointing that out about the dropping to 350 degrees. I misspoke and meant lower than 350 degrees for that reader as it sounds like their air fryer may have cooked a little faster on them. I do recommend 350 degrees for frozen onion rings since they do not take much time and can crisp up too quickly if cooked too high. A lot of sites will cook most things at 400 degrees, and that is not how an air fryer works. Lower temperatures can frequently help keep food moist, tender, and still crispy.
As for the onion rings in the pictures, it’s just the onion rings! I never do anything special or different than shown in the recipe to give a true representation of the food after it’s cooked. These are Alexia onion rings if that helps!
Whole foods 364 brand were great in 5 mins. No oil.
Schwan’s frozen onion rings are my favorites and turn out perfect and delicious in my air fryer.
i use nathan brand. do i need to do anything other than follow recipe?
Hi Jeff, I would check the Nathan onion rings after the 4 minutes and see if they need any more time. But 4 minutes in a preheated air fryer should be enough depending on how many you cook at once!
Am I missing something here. Is this a recipe on how to open a bag of pre-made onion rings and heating them up.
Yes, this is a post to show directions on how to cook frozen onion rings in the air fryer since the directions for cooking them in the oven are different.
I love Onion Rings…but would like to cut up my own onions and dip in batter then air fry. But don’t know if that would work right in air fry mode. I’m thinking maybe on bake mode. What do you think?
Hi Steve, I don’t recommend dipping them in a wet batter and air frying them, but you can dip them in a batter and coat them with breading and cook them! They come out nice and crispy that way! I always use my air fryer function.
Just tried this and the onion rings came out perfect. Thanks for sharing!!!
My stove has an air fryer option. I used a chrome basket and the same brand of frozen onion rings.
They didn’t crisp up.
Do you recommend a higher temp ? Thanks
Hi Ingrid, since the oven is larger than the basket air fryer, I find things take slightly longer to cook. I would let them cook a few extra minutes and if they’re still not crispy, crank the heat up for a minute or so to help.
Cosori has been recalled. Get a Ninja. ANY Ninja. Your convection oven has trouble bcuz of its size. The countertop air fryer has the advantage of being SMALL. Thats one thing that helps it get hot and dry quickly, which is what you want when air frying.
I recommend educating yourself on air fryers. Only some Cosoris are recalled and I still recommend the Cosoris that are currently out on the market. I honestly use my Cosori more than my Ninja for a reason. I do agree with the convection oven part as I stated above.
I tried it and it took 12 minutes at 350. Next time I might try a higher temp.
Hi Pat, do you happen to have an air fryer oven? I find it takes a bit longer for frozen food to crisp up in the ovens, so I would recommend 400 degrees and check around 4-5 minutes.
Alexia is my favorite, too