Air Fryer Reference
Frozen Pizza in an Air Fryer
Frozen · straight from the bag
- Temperature
- 380 °F
- 193 °C
- Total time
- 8 min
- Flipping
- Not needed
- Serving
- 1 personal pizza (5–7 inch) or 2 slices from a larger frozen pizza
- from frozen
Doneness
Cheese is fully melted and bubbling at the edges with a few darker spots; crust bottom is golden and rigid when picked up by one edge; pepperoni or other meat toppings have cupped slightly and rendered fat.
Technique
Place the pizza directly on the basket grate, cheese-side up, straight from the freezer. Do not preheat — a cold start gives the crust a few seconds to thaw before the heat starts crisping. No flip; flipping pours toppings into the basket. For larger 11–12 inch pizzas that won't fit a 5-quart basket, cut into single-slice wedges and cook in two batches.
Oil & seasoning
None — the cheese provides all the fat needed; extra oil pools on the surface and scorches the toppings.
Watch out for
- Do not exceed 9 minutes — the cheese will scorch and the crust will burn before any longer cook is justified. If the centre is still cold at 9 minutes, the pizza was probably too thick for the air fryer (use the oven instead).
- Pizzas with raw dough (rare in frozen, but check the box) need 2–3 minutes longer. Most major frozen pizzas use par-baked or pre-cooked crust.
- Skip the air fryer for rising-crust pizzas (DiGiorno Rising Crust full size) — the dough does not rise properly in the smaller cavity and the centre stays gummy. The thin-crust DiGiorno line is fine.