Air Fryer Game Day Recipes: 5 Crowd-Pleasing Favorites from the Air Fryer Queen

Super Bowl Air Fryer Recipes That’ll Have ‘em Hungering for More

We LOVE our air fryer. Ours gets more use than any other appliance in the house. It’s not just that cooking with it is quicker, but cleanup is a snap as well. But, we tend to make the same things over and over and over again. So, when we heard about Cathy Yoder, the QUEEN OF AIR FRYERS, we had to check out her site AND her recipes. We’re excited to see her new cookbook because by the looks of these 5, we’ll be air frying every night of the week.

1. Air Fryer Loaded Potato Fries

Quick and easy loaded fries made in the air fryer is one of Cathy’s favorite party appetizers!

Ingredients

• 14 oz frozen French fries of choice
• 1 tbsp taco seasoning
• avocado oil
• 4 oz cotija cheese grated, or see recipe note
• ½ tomato diced
• ½ avocado diced
• 2 green onions sliced

Sauce

• ? cup sour cream see note
• ½ teaspoon taco seasoning
• ½ teaspoon sriracha sauce

Instructions

1. Preheat the air fryer at 400°F/200°C for 5 minutes.
2. Place the fries in the air fryer basket. Lightly spray with avocado oil and toss with taco seasoning.
3. Cook at 400°F/200°C for 12-15 minutes, shaking the basket every 4-5 minutes.
4. While the fries are cooking, grate the cotija cheese, whisk together the sauce ingredients, and chop the tomato, avocado, and green onions.
5. Once the fries are finished, remove them from the air fryer basket and line the basket with air fryer parchment paper.
6. Place the fries back into the air fryer basket and top the fries with the cheese.
7. Cook for an additional 3-4 minutes at 350°F/175°C , or until the cheese is melted to your liking.
8. Carefully remove the fries. Leaving them on the parchment paper makes clean-up a snap!
9. Top the fries with tomatoes, avocados, and green onions, and sauce.

Recipe Notes

Cheese option: You can substitute for Colby Jack cheese if you want your fries to stick together more with that “cheese pull”.

Sauce option: You can use mayo instead of sour cream here if you want less of a sour cream sauce and more of a spicy fry sauce.

2. Air Fryer Ham & Cheese Sliders

Score with these easy, delicious, and crowd-pleasing ham and cheese sliders! Perfectly toasted in the air fryer with a delicious sweet and savory poppyseed glaze. 

 Ingredients

• 1 dozen Sweet Rolls or Hawaiian Rolls
• 3/4-1 pound honey ham sliced
• 8 slices swiss cheese or favorite cheese of your choice

Poppyseed Glaze Ingredients (see Recipe notes)

• ½ cup butter unsalted (if using salted omit the salt below)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• ¼ teaspoon salt *omit if using salted butter
• 1 pinch black pepper

Instructions

1. Lightly spray the air fryer basket with a little cooking oil such as avocado oil, olive oil, or vegetable oil. I like to use oil in my reusable oil sprayer. If you don’t have an oil sprayer (don’t use PAM), brush oil onto the air fryer basket or use a piece of parchment paper.
2. Take the sweet rolls and cut them in half. Make sure to not break them apart.
3. Place the bottom layer into the air fryer basket. If your air fryer basket is smaller, then break apart the rolls until they fit in your air fryer basket.
4. Add a layer of half of the cheese to the bottom half of the sweet rolls.
5. Add a layer of the ham, the rest of the cheese, and then top the sandwiches with the top half of the sweet rolls.
6. In a small microwave-safe bowl, add the butter and melt in the microwave. Add the brown sugar, Dijon mustard, poppy seeds, onion powder, Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper. Mix until combined.
7. With a baster brush, brush the tops of the rolls with the butter and seasoning mixture glaze. Pour any excess glaze in-between the nooks and crannies of the rolls.
8. Air fry for 12-15 minutes at 330 °F, or until cheese is melted and tops are browned to your liking.

Recipe Notes

Sub the poppy seeds for sesame seeds or dried onion and the ham for roast beef for a different flavor!

3. Bacon Pineapple Air Fryer Appetizer

This bacon and pineapple appetizer made in the air fryer is everything you didn’t know you needed. It is simple, quick and delicious!

Ingredients

• 1 pineapple, cubed or use canned/jarred, drained pineapple cubes.
• 1 pound bacon
• ½ cup brown sugar optional

Instructions

1. Roll and cover the pineapple in brown sugar if desired.
2. Wrap the pineapple in bacon and secure with a toothpick.
3. Place in a lightly sprayed air fryer basket.
4. Cook at 400?F/200?C for 10 minutes, flipping at the halfway point.

4. Perfect Air Fryer Pork Tenderloin with Balsamic Marinade

This air-fried pork tenderloin with balsamic marinade makes sliders, tacos, or serve as a standalone dish—all with minimal prep and cleanup for your Super Bowl spread.

Ingredients

• 1 pork tenderloin 1 to 1 1/2 pounds

Marinade Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoons pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
• ½ teaspoon onion powder
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder

Instructions

1. Remove excess fat and silver skin from the tenderloin.
2. Add balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, pepper, kosher salt, rosemary, onion powder, and garlic powder to a gallon-size, resealable bag. Shake to mix. Add the tenderloin to the bag, roll up to keep marinade on pork, and seal. Let it marinate refrigerated for at least 30 minutes, or as long as overnight for even better flavor.
3. Preheat the air fryer to 400 °F. Line the air fryer with air fryer parchment paper or spray with avocado oil. Place tenderloin on parchment and air fry at 400 °F for 10 minutes. Flip tenderloin, then cook for another 5-10 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 145 °F. Cooking time will vary depending on your air fryer and size of tenderloin.
4. Remove tenderloin when done and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Cut into 1/2-inch slices and serve.

5. Simple and Easy Air Fryer Maple Bars

Air fryer maple bars are ready in just 15 minutes with a handful of simple ingredients. A fluffy texture and homemade maple glaze make them a crowd-pleasing addition to any celebration!

Ingredients

• 1 Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits 8-count package

Maple Glaze

• ¼ cup butter
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 3 tbsp milk
• 1 tablespoon corn syrup
• 2 teaspoons maple extract
• 2 cups powdered sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the air fryer at 400 °F for 5 minutes.
2. Stretch out the dough into an oblong/donut bar shape. You can stretch it out a lot further than you think, especially if you want more crunchy donuts. But if you want more biscuit donuts, only stretch it out a little.
3. Place the biscuits (about 4) in the air fryer basket- no need to spray the basket.
4. Air fry for 5 minutes at 350 °F. You do not need to flip the donuts.
5. Let the donuts rest in the air fryer basket for about a minute or two. Then, transfer the donuts to a cooling rack or plate and let cool for 3-5 minutes.
6. Dip the donuts in the maple glaze. Let the glaze cool on the donuts for a couple of minutes or so. Then, enjoy!

Maple Glaze

1. In a small saucepan, add the butter and brown sugar until mostly melted and combined.
2. Whisk in the milk and heat for about 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring often, until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.
3. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add in corn syrup and maple extract.
4. Add the powdered sugar a 1/2 cup at a time to the saucepan. Whisk with each addition, until it is smooth. Keep adding powdered sugar until it reaches the desired consistency.
5. Once all powdered sugar is added, keep the maple glaze warm on the stove, whisking occasionally because it will begin to harden if you leave it sitting (but we do want it to get thick). Add 1-2 tsp more milk if needed to help thin it out if it gets too thick and hard.
6. Whisk the maple glaze a little before you dip the donuts in it.

Recipe Notes

You can replace the corn syrup with honey.

Widely regarded as the “Queen of Air Fryers,” Cathy Yoder—a mother of eight—wanted to prove that air fryers could do more than reheat frozen foods and leftovers. So, she documented her journey on YouTube. Today she boasts over 742,000 YouTube followers and yet more across other socials, over 6 million video views and tens of thousands of cookbooks sold.

At Yoder’s EmpoweredCooks.com multimedia platform, users have access to numerous resources: her “Air Fryer Recipes” cookbook filled with over 150 recipes; an array of specialized digital download air fryer recipe e-cookbooks; an air fryer cooking catalog with over 300 video recipes; cooking accessories; a transformative video course; and interactive “Cooking with Cathy” class sessions that happen live, in real time. 

Yoder also offers a curated selection of budget-friendly tools and resources through her online store, PineandPepper.co that provides an array of video instruction and other resources specific to the joy of air fryer cooking.

Her FabulesslyFrugal.com platform is rife with recipes and tips on how to live a healthy, wealthy, wise life full of independence and confidence.