What Accessories Do I Need For Air Fryer? | Must-Have Extras

If you’ve just bought an air fryer, it’s easy to fall into the accessory rabbit hole. Shops pile up trays, pans, cups, racks, mats, liners, and mystery gadgets that look handy at first glance. Then you get home and realize half of them won’t fit your basket, and the other half don’t do much.

The good news is that air fryers don’t need a huge add-on pile. A small set of well-chosen pieces can make your machine more flexible, easier to clean, and better at cooking full meals. The rest is often shelf clutter.

This article strips it down to what earns its spot in your kitchen, what you can skip, and what to check before you buy anything.

What To Buy First For An Air Fryer

If you want the short shopping list, start with these:

• A metal rack for cooking in layers
• A small baking pan that fits your basket or drawer
• Reusable silicone liners or perforated parchment liners
• Skewers for kebabs and compact grilled items
• Silicone-tipped tongs for turning food without scratching the coating
• A food thermometer for meat, fish, and leftovers

That set covers most real cooking jobs. You can roast chicken pieces, bake a small cake, heat leftovers, crisp vegetables, make kebabs, and handle food safely without tearing up the nonstick surface.

A thermometer deserves a spot on the list even though many people don’t think of it as an “air fryer accessory.” Air fryers cook fast. They brown food well. That can trick you into pulling meat too early. FoodSafety.gov’s safe minimum temperature chart is a good benchmark for chicken, burgers, fish, casseroles, and leftovers.

Taking Air Fryer Accessories From Useful To Useless

The best add-ons do one of three things: add cooking space, help with cleanup, or let you cook foods that would be awkward in an open basket. If an accessory doesn’t do one of those jobs, it’s usually not worth your money.

Racks Give You More Room

A rack is one of the few extras that changes how much you can cook. It lets you stack food in a second layer, raise food closer to the heat, or separate delicate items from drippings below. That’s handy for wings, toast, vegetables, or reheating pizza slices.

Just don’t pack the basket too tightly. Air fryers work by moving hot air around the food. Crowding the basket or blocking vents can hurt browning and leave soft patches.

Liners Cut Down The Mess

Linters are popular for a reason: they catch grease and sticky sauces before they bake onto the basket. Reusable silicone liners last longer. Perforated parchment liners feel lighter and are easy to toss after dinner.

Pick liners with holes, or ones shaped for your model, so air can still move. A solid sheet that covers too much of the base can make fries pale and chicken skin less crisp. COSORI’s cleaning notes warn against covering vents or the heating area with foil because blocked airflow leads to uneven cooking. The same idea applies to liners and pans. You can read that on COSORI’s air fryer cleaning page.

Small Pans Make The Basket More Flexible

A small cake pan, pizza pan, or shallow baking dish turns an air fryer into a tiny countertop oven. That opens the door to brownies, baked oats, frittatas, stuffed peppers, and mini casseroles. It’s one of the smartest buys if you like cooking for one or two people.

Measure before you buy. The right pan is not “close enough.” It should slide in and out without scraping the sides, and it should leave room around the edges for air to move.

Skewers Are Better Than They Look

Skewers sound niche, but they’re handy for shrimp, paneer, chicken bites, sausage coins, mushrooms, and mixed vegetables. They keep small food pieces together and make flipping easier. A skewer rack can lift food off the base, which helps heat reach more surface area.

That said, this one makes sense only if you cook bite-size items often. If your air fryer life is mostly fries, nuggets, and reheated leftovers, skewers can wait.

Accessory	What It Helps With	Worth Buying?
Metal rack	Adds a second layer, lifts food, improves batch cooking	Yes for most kitchens
Reusable silicone liner	Catches grease, helps with sticky foods, cuts scrubbing	Yes if cleanup annoys you
Perforated parchment liner	Quick cleanup for messy meals	Yes, if sized well
Small baking pan	Cakes, eggs, pasta bakes, saucy dishes	Yes for wider meal range
Skewers or skewer rack	Kebabs, shrimp, vegetables, small meat pieces	Yes for frequent use
Silicone-tipped tongs	Turning food without scratching coating	Yes
Oil sprayer	Light, even coating on vegetables and breaded food	Nice to have
Food thermometer	Checks doneness for meat and leftovers	Yes, especially for safety
Egg bite mold or silicone cups	Mini muffins, egg bites, portioned snacks	Only if you’ll use them often

What Accessories Do I Need For Air Fryer? Match Them To What You Cook

The right answer depends less on the machine and more on your habits. A person who reheats frozen snacks needs fewer extras than someone who cooks fish, vegetables, breakfast items, and small bakes each week.

If You Mostly Cook Frozen Food

Keep it simple. You’ll get the most value from silicone-tipped tongs, a liner, and maybe a rack. Frozen fries, nuggets, mozzarella sticks, and hash browns don’t need much help.

If You Cook Meat Often

Add a thermometer and a rack. Chicken thighs, drumsticks, burgers, kebabs, and pork chops all benefit from better airflow and a doneness check. Browning is nice. Safe cooking matters more.

If You Want To Bake In It

Buy a pan that fits well. Round pans work nicely in basket models. Rectangular pans fit many drawer-style machines. Silicone cups can be useful for muffins or egg bites, though they’re not a must unless you make those often.

If Cleanup Drives You Crazy

Go with perforated parchment liners or a washable silicone liner. Both cut down on stuck-on glaze, melted cheese, and oily crumbs. Just leave airflow room and never let loose paper fly up toward the heating element.

Manufacturers sell many of these pieces in starter bundles. COSORI’s accessory set, for one, includes a cake pan, pizza pan, metal rack, and skewer rack, which gives a good snapshot of the items brands think people use most in real kitchens. You can see that on COSORI’s air fryer accessories page.

What You Can Skip At First

Not every accessory deserves a place in your drawer. Some are fun. Fewer are worth buying right away.

• Pizza pans with high rims: They can block airflow if they sit too deep in a small basket.
• Bulky grill plates: Many are heavy, awkward to clean, and don’t beat a simple rack.
• Multi-piece bundle sets: They often include molds and cups you’ll barely touch.
• Cheap metal tools: Rough edges and poor coatings can wear out fast.
• Anything that barely fits: Tight accessories reduce airflow and make removal annoying.

A good rule is to buy for a cooking problem you already have. Don’t buy for a meal you might make someday.

If You Want To Cook…	Best Accessory	Why It Works
Wings or vegetables in bigger batches	Rack	Adds space and lifts food for better browning
Sticky glazed foods	Silicone liner	Makes cleanup easier
Small cakes or baked oats	Cake pan	Turns the basket into a small oven cavity
Kebabs or shrimp	Skewers	Keeps small pieces together and easier to turn
Chicken, burgers, fish	Food thermometer	Checks doneness without guesswork
Muffins or egg bites	Silicone cups	Portions food neatly

How To Choose Accessories That Actually Fit

Before you order anything, measure the cooking basket. Check the width, depth, and height. Then compare those numbers with the accessory, not just the air fryer capacity written on the box. A “fits 5 to 7 quart models” claim can still be off.

Shape matters too. Round baskets do best with round pans and liners. Dual-drawer models need pieces sized for each side, not one big insert. Wire racks need enough clearance so food doesn’t hit the heating area above.

Materials matter as well. Stainless steel, food-grade silicone, and oven-safe parchment are the usual safe picks. Skip anything flimsy, strongly scented out of the package, or vague about heat tolerance.

A Smart Starter Set For Most Homes

If you want one simple answer to What Accessories Do I Need For Air Fryer?, buy this five-piece starter set:

1. Metal rack
2. Reusable silicone liner
3. Small baking pan
4. Silicone-tipped tongs
5. Food thermometer

That setup covers day-to-day cooking without wasting money on novelty pieces. Add skewers later if you cook kebabs or bite-size foods often. Add parchment liners if you want easier cleanup on busy weeknights.

That’s the sweet spot: not bare-bones, not overstuffed, just enough to make the machine work harder for you.