How To Cook Frozen Corn Dogs In An Air Fryer (With Recipe)

Corn dogs are best served deep-fried. But when the craving hits and you want to keep things healthy, will frying corn dogs in an air fryer work? 

Air fryers are great for “frying” food using convection heating but some believe that these fryers produce inferior-quality meals. Add the factor of the corn dogs being frozen and things may seem even more complicated! 

Luckily, there is a way out! 

How do you cook frozen corn dogs in an air fryer? Corn dogs can be cooked in an air fryer by placing a few of them (3-4) at a time at 370°F for about 12-15 minutes. You can also increase the temperature to 400°F and lower the cooking time to 10-12 minutes.

There is more to air frying frozen corn dogs, though! Read below to learn more about how to air fry them properly, some great tips, and an excellent air-fry recipe that will replicate the color, texture, and flavor of deep-fried corn dogs! 

Air Fried Vs. Deep-Fried Corn Dogs

When it comes to this delicious fair food, there is no better way to cook corn dogs than to deep fry them in fat until they turn golden brown and crispy.

Cooking the corn dogs in hot oil helps them achieve low-moisture and a crispy exterior, while the interior remains juicy and thoroughly delicious. The oil also lends a bit of flavor to the corn dogs too! 

Deep frying also quickly cooks the corn dogs and heats them from the outside-in efficiently. Frozen corn dogs require a bit more attention, though. 

Since the corn dogs are frozen solid, you will have to be careful when adding them to the hot oil as they might easily splatter! This can cause serious burns and may create a mess too. 

This is where air fryers have the advantage. 

Air fryers take away the laborious work of manually frying food. There are 2 benefits of frying frozen corn dogs in air fryers:

1. You don’t have to deal with the mess or worry about spills or splatters. 
2. You don’t have to worry about cooking with inaccurate temperatures. 

The frozen corn dogs will be kept away safely inside the cooking chamber and since there is no abundance of oil, you don’t have to worry about creating a mess or dealing with hot splatters. 

If you were making fresh corn dogs, then of course there would be some mess when trying to cook them in an air fryer.

But, since we are dealing with frozen corn dogs, you will just need to oil the cooking chamber, place in the dogs and cook them on high heat! 

Frozen corn dogs are usually already pre-cooked so they take away from all the preparation work that you would normally require when making them in the air fryer. 

Furthermore, the best advantage air fryers have over deep-frying is that you don’t have to manually adjust the temperature while frying food.

Typically, you would require a cooking thermometer to accurately check the temperature of oil, especially when working with frozen corn dogs. 

The cold corn dogs would drastically drop the temperature of the oil and then you would have to wait until it reached back to 360-380°F. 

Here is a summary of the difference between air fried and deep-fried corn dogs:

Frozen Corn Dogs	Air Fried	Deep-Fried
Color	Light golden-brown or darker depending on cooking time and temperature	Evenly brown or golden-brown color
Texture	Crispy but slightly chewy	Very crispy
Flavor	Exact flavor of corn dogs	Exact flavor of corn dogs with a hint of flavor from the oil
Cooking Time	10-15 minutes	5-10 minutes
Cooking Temperature	380-400°F	360-380°F

As you can see, the preferred way of cooking corn dogs is to deep fry them in hot oil but since both methods have very few discrepancies, it is better to just air fry the frozen corn dogs to shave off the excess calories! 

Also, air frying technology has improved a lot over the years. These appliances were once glorified convection ovens that were miniaturized to fit any tabletop. 

Air fryers were generally loud and clunky but were a huge improvement over deep-fried food when it came to nutrition. 

Nowadays they are designed better and have better internal systems that help cook food more accurately. This allows the food to reach deep-fried-esque levels like never before! 

Before we explain how to cook frozen corn dogs in air fryers, let’s first go through a short refresher on how these things work and how they have improved. 

Air Frying Frozen Corn Dogs

Convection cooking is an indirect way of cooking food. It works by using powerful fans that circulate hot air around a cooking chamber. Since the air covers the food from every side, it mimics how hot oil cooks food in deep fryers. 

Previously, old air fryers had a simple circulation design where hot air flowed uni-directionally over the food, and you had to flip food more often so that it cooked better. But now you can find different types of air fryers with various capabilities! 

In terms of cooking corn dogs, you will need to pick an air fryer that has excellent coverage because of how the corn dogs are shaped.

Food with more surface area is generally easier to cook in air fryers and since corn dogs are aerodynamically shaped, the air will pass around them easily. 

In theory, any air fryer should be able to cook corn dogs but you may get varying success depending on how old your appliance is.

For example, newer air fryers have better-designed fins and air vents that allow the air to circulate in a spinning motion. This tornado effect fully encapsulates the food and reduces the chance of cold spots.

Cold spots are fairly common with frozen food and they can also occur in inadequately deep-fried food as well.

To minimize their occurrence when air frying, it is important that you flip the corn dogs while baking them in the air fryer. 

This will allow the corn dogs to fully cook on each side and will also keep them from getting an uneven color too!

How Many Corn Dogs Should You Air Fry At A Time?

The number of corn dogs that you can fry at a time matters more when you are using frozen corn dogs. Why? As mentioned above, frozen corn dogs are likely to affect the temperature of any heating appliance. 

This will result in longer cooking times and may even inadequately cook food! 

To counter this issue, we recommend that you only add no more than 3-4 large corn dogs at a time. You can also eyeball and figure out how many would be appropriate for your particular air fryer with a little guesswork. 

In general, a large cooking chamber should comfortably fit 3-4 corndogs without overcrowding the fryer basket. This number is ideal because it will allow decent space between the corn dogs.

Remember, the more space the frozen corn dogs have, the better the air circulation. 

Cooking 3-4 corn dogs will take approximately 10-12 minutes at 400°F. You can also try cooking the corn dog at the highest temperature (usually, 450°F) for 8-10 minutes. 

But there are a few things that you need to keep in mind!

Corn dogs must be adequately cooked before consumption. So, you shouldn’t sacrifice quality just to save a few minutes. The ideal way to cook the corn dogs would be to let them slowly cook until they become crisp (more on this below).

Cooking a lot of corn dogs at higher temperatures will result in them burning and having multiple cold spots, they will not adequately get a nice golden-brown color too. 

Here’s the right way to cook corn dogs with a fool-proof frozen corn dog recipe:

Step-By-Step Guide For Air Frying Corn Dogs

Corn dogs are available in several varieties. The ones available in most supermarkets are already pre-cooked or half-cooked. 

The precooked corn dogs are sold in several batter-flavors and contain many stabilizers to help keep the corn dogs fresh and crisp. These types of corn dogs require further processing at home. 

They are usually deep-fried at the factory for several minutes before they are flash-frozen to extend their shelf-life and to maintain their quality. 

Once the corn dogs are packaged, they are kept frozen and can be stored for several months. These corn dogs don’t usually require a lot of time and can be cooked within 10-12 minutes at 370°F in an air fryer.

On the other hand, you can also opt for an even healthier treat at home and make this famous state-fair food using readily available ingredients. 

Let’s first look at how commercial frozen corn dogs are cooked at home:

Commercial Frozen Corn Dogs

1. Open the pack and take out 3-4 large-size corn dogs and place them on a plate, keep the rest of the corn dogs in the freezer.
2. Lightly oil the frying basket of the air fryer using PAM or any other cooking oil.
3. Place 3-4 frozen corn dogs inside the cooking basket. Make sure that you don’t overcrowd the basket! For most air fryers, three corn dogs are more than enough but if you have a larger air fryer then you may be able to get away with adding four corn dogs at a time.
4. Set the temperature of the air fryer to 380°F and the timer at 12 minutes and begin cooking the corn dogs. 
5. At the halfway mark, take out the frying basket and flip the corn dogs over to cook the other side and to get a nice, equal color. 
6. Carefully take out the corn dogs (they will be super-hot!) and place them on a plate and let them sit for about 2-3 minutes.
7. Enjoy with your favorite dip! 

Pro Tip: You can also preheat the air fryer for 5-8 minutes at 400°F and then cook the corn dog. This may provide a better cooking experience and may help reduce the chances of cold spots too.

Homemade Corn Dogs

Using simple ingredients, you can replicate the same flavor that you’d find in state fairs. Corn dogs at home hit differently and with this simple recipe, you can either freeze them or enjoy them fresh whenever you want! 

Dry Ingredients

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup flour
• 1/4^th teaspoon salt
• 1/8^th teaspoon black pepper
• ¼ cup sugar
• 4 teaspoon baking powder

Wet Ingredients

• 1 large egg (room temperature)
• 1 cup of milk (room temperature, non-skimmed milk recommended)

This recipe will yield around 15 large corn dogs.

1. Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk well.
2. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until you get a thick consistency batter. Let this mixture rest in the fridge for 15 minutes.
3. Add oil to a large heavy-bottomed pot and heat it to 370°F. 
4. Prepare the franks by placing a BBQ stick or any other long stick in the middle of the hot dog. 
5. Pour the corn dog batter in a tall cylindrical jar (or glass) and dip in the corn dogs while slowly rotating the jar to cover the hotdog completely. 
6. Dip the battered corn dogs in the oil and let them cook undisturbed for 4-5 minutes or until the corn dogs have a golden-brown color. 
7. Lay them out on a paper towel to drain off excess oil and immediately shift to a clean plate.
8. Serve with dips and enjoy! 

Pro Tip: You can cook these corn dogs in air fryers too! Just add orange bread crumbs on the wet batter-coated corn dogs to keep them together and place them in the air fryer at 380°F for 8-10 minutes!

Do not try to overcoat or double coat the corn dogs as they might not cook properly.

Remember, the corn dog batter has baking powder in it which will help expand the dogs as they cook so you wouldn’t want an overly large and undercooked corn dog!

If the corndog batter doesn’t stick to the hotdogs, then you may want to dry them using a paper towel before attempting to dip them again.

You can also lightly dust some flour on the hot dogs and then dip them in the batter. Twist the corn dogs in the batter to cover them nicely. 

Related Questions

Corn dogs make for a balanced meal and cooking them in air fryers will help you shave off unnecessary calories – without sacrificing much on their flavor! 

Now that you know how to cook frozen corn dogs here are some related questions!

Can you freeze homemade corn dogs?

Yes, you can freeze homemade corn dogs using two methods. The first method involves cooking the corn dogs in hot oil for 2 minutes and then storing them in an airtight container and freezing them. 

The second method will require you to add bread crumbs to the wet batter and then store the corn dogs in the freezer. Both methods will keep the corn dogs fresh and will extend their shelf life by about 2-3 months. 

To cook them, simply place them in the air fryer or deep-fryer without thawing them. 

Can you add oil to frozen corn dogs before air frying? 

Yes, apart from the oil that you add to the surface of the air fryer basket, you can also spray extra cooking oil directly on the corn dogs too.

This technique will give them a deeper color and will also help them achieve a crispier texture.

Spray PAM directly on the corn dogs and cook for about 5-6 minutes, then flip and spray again before continuing to cook for the remaining time. 

Are frozen corn dogs cooked in air fryers healthier?

Homemade frozen corn dogs can be way healthier than commercial varieties since most frozen corn dog brands pre-cook their hotdogs by deep-frying them in fatty oils. 

While yes, you can reduce the total number of calories by air frying commercial corn dogs, you can get even better nutritional figures if you air fry homemade corn dogs! 

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