Air Fryer Pizza Recipe
Craving a fresh-baked pizza with perfect oozy, melted cheese? Forget the oven! The air fryer is the perfect appliance for making any a personal-sized pizza. The hardest part will be picking out your favorite pizza recipe.
While leftover pizza is good, biting into a freshly baked one where the cheese remains hot even until the last bite is one of the best things in life IMHO. But, if I had to preheat my oven and wait for it to cook every time, I might not enjoy delectably melty pizza as often as I’d like (especially in hot summer months).
Although I’m not a gadget person, I love my air fryer. It yields crispy yet tender vegetables that my toddler eats by the handful. It filled the void of an oven during our 6 month long kitchen renovation. Unlike an oven, there is no preheating time, and it’s stupidly simple to use.
My latest reason to love this appliance even more is that it’s perfect for making pizza for one, or in my case, a snack pizza to feed me and my 2 kids.
Why you’ll love air fryer pizza
What’s the benefit of using an air fryer instead of an oven? Like I mentioned before, there is no preheating time. Plus, because the air fryer is a much smaller space, the hot air is much more concentrated and really hits every piece of surface area, creating beautifully browned and crisp food, and in the case of pizza, super melty cheese too.
The best air fryer to use for pizza
However because an air fryer is much smaller than an oven, you won’t be making large 16” pizzas in it. The basket in my Philips Air Fryer is just the right size to fit a personal-sized, one-sitting pizza, which is just fine by me. There are other great large air fryers out there, too, like this glass Big Boss one.
How long to cook an air fryer pizza
Most pizza recipes (including ours below) should bake it in the air fryer at 375F / 191C for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cheese is all melted.
If you don’t have fresh dough on hand, you can easily use substitutes like a bagel, naan, pita, or French bread. But keep in mind that when you use one of these unconventional pizza crusts, you may need to reduce the cooking time by 2 to 3 minutes to prevent burning.
If you’re working with a frozen pizza, I would recommend air frying for an additional 3 to 5 minutes.
Then kick back and enjoy one of life’s greatest pleasures.
Tips for Air Fryer Pizza
Our recipe is below but here are a few more tips on how to create the perfect pizza with your air fryer:
- Air fryer basket sizes vary. Make sure you roll out your dough to fit into your basket.
- Most air fryer baskets are very non-stick but if you’re worried, just brush some oil onto the bottom of your dough.
- Transfer the rolled out pizza dough into the air fryer basket before putting on the toppings. Otherwise, it’ll be very difficult to do it without items falling off or your dough tearing.
- While pre-shredded cheese is so convenient to use, I much prefer to shred my own cheese. It’s worth the extra few minutes because it’ll melt more evenly. Pre-shredded cheese usually has additional ingredients to keep it separated in the bag, which is why it’ll melt differently. Less ooze, more gak-like in my opinion.
- You could assemble these ahead of time, freeze, and then pop them into the air fryer at a moment’s notice. I would recommend air frying for an additional 3 to 5 minutes. Par-bake the pizza dough, meaning just bake them in the oven for 400F / 204C for about 3 minutes and then top with sauce, cheese, and toppings. The Kitchn also has some other tips here.
Equipment Smarts
- Air Fryer — this is all the equipment you need!
For more kitchen and equipment and tool smarts, visit our Essential Kitchen Cookware and Tools
Ingredients
- Pizza dough - 5 oz
- Flour, for dusting
- Mozzarella cheese or other good melting cheese - 3 oz, shredded
- Favorite pizza toppings
- Oil, for brushing
- Tomato sauce - 4 Tbsp
Instructions
Prep
- Pizza dough – Cover in some flour and let rest for at least 30 minutes outside of fridge before rolling out. (Resting dough gives gluten time to chill out, which makes the dough much more pliable.)
- Cheese – Shred. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Pizza toppings – Prep as needed.
Make
- Roll out dough to the size of the air fryer basket. Brush with some oil and transfer to the air fryer’s basket.
- Brush on tomato sauce. Then top with cheese and toppings.
- Air fry at 375F / 191C for 10 to 12 minutes until cheese has melted and crust is a golden brown. Enjoy!
A little note: Some of the above links are Amazon affiliate links, which means we earn a small percentage from those sales. We use this affiliate revenue to support the continued growth of Cook Smarts. Thank you!
More resources and recipes for your air fryer
If you love this recipe and want more ideas for your air fryer, check out our 13 Best Air-Fried Foods article and get our Air Fryer Cooking Cheat Sheet for dozens of different foods.
Also, consider joining our meal plan members who love getting exciting, healthy, and smart weekly menus that always indicate when recipes work well in an air fryer!
