How to Air Fry Mackerel Fillets

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This guide for How to Air Fry Mackerel Fillets offers a quick way to enjoy this fabulous oily fish. The air fryer ensures the fillets have perfectly cooked skin and beautifully tender flesh - perfect for serving hot or cold.

5 from 3 votes

Prep Time: 10

Cook Time: 8

Total Time: 18

Servings fillets

Author Chloe

Equipment

Silicone Pastry Brush

Ingredients

4 Mackerel Fillets - roughly 90g each
2 tbsp Salted Butter - see notes
½ tsp Sea Salt Flakes - see notes

Instructions

If your air fryer requires pre-heating, Start this setting now.
Melt 2 tbsp Salted Butter in a small bowl. I do this in the microwave but you could use a small heatproof bowl in the air fryer if you like. The preheat setting will likely do the trick.
Thoroughly dry 4 Mackerel Fillets.
Use your fingers to check for any bones - it is likely there are lots all down the centre seam. Use tweezers to remove them all. If you're short on time or patience, you can use a sharp knife to cut a v shaped section of the seam out taking the bones with it.
Keep going and triple check, especially towards the head end where they can be quite buried. It is worth spending time being thorough rather than risk getting a bone in the cooked fillets.
Use a pastry brush to coat the flesh side of the fillets with the melted butter.
Sprinkle over half of the ½ tsp Sea Salt Flakes. Crush them between your fingers as your sprinkle for a thinner even coverage.
Repeat with the melted butter and salt on the skin side.
Place the fillets into the air fryer basket skin side up. Leave a little space between each fillet so the air can circulate.
Cook for 8 minutes at 200c/390f. There is no need to turn the fillets.
Be careful removing the fillets from the fryer as they will be delicate. Serve hot straight away.

To Air Fry From Frozen

Cook for 9 minutes at 200c/390f.

Notes

Butter - You can use an oil instead of butter but I do find that butter helps the fish skin crisp a little more and adds a nice flavour.
Salt/Seasoning - You can use any seasoning mix or sauce instead of just salt but make sure that salt is included in the mix. You can also add a little citrus juice. If you use a sauce with a high sugar content, you may want to brush this on halfway through cooking so it doesn't catch and burn.
The air fryer version of this recipe is tested in a Cosori Lite (‎CAF-LI401S) with a 3.8 litre capacity. The square(ish) shaped basket is 21cm x 21cm and 24cm on the diagonal.
Not all models advise preheating is required. Please follow the recommended instructions for your model. Mine has a specific preheat setting which is 4 minutes at 205c.
For this recipe, I can just fit 4 fillets in the basket at a time. This gives just enough room to allow air to circulate.
As all air fryer models are a little different, you may find that you can fit more or less in at a time. Some models include stacking shelves which will increase capacity.
Required cooking times and temperatures can also vary between models and brands. If you know that your air fryer runs a little hotter than most recipes suggest, use a lower temperature. And vice versa. Equally if you find that food cooks more quickly in your machine than instructions usually state, reduce the cooking time (or check it earlier) and vice versa.

Nutrition (Approx)