Air Fryer Pigs in Blankets

Crisp bacon and juicy chipolatas in 12 minutes, and the oven stays free. Why they go in seam side down, and why it has to be streaky bacon rather than back.

Prep

10 min

Cook

12 min

Total

22 min

Serves

6

Ingredients

• 12 chipolata sausages
• 6 rashers of streaky bacon

Method

1. Cut each rasher of streaky bacon in half across the middle, so you have 12 short pieces.
2. Lay a piece of bacon across a chipolata and roll the sausage along the board so the bacon winds round it in a spiral.
3. Put them in the air fryer basket in a single layer, each one SEAM SIDE DOWN so the bacon cannot unwrap, with space between them.
4. Air fry at 180°C (355°F) for 12 minutes, until the bacon is crisp and deep reddish-brown.
5. Check a sausage is cooked through before serving. Give them 2-3 minutes more if you want the bacon crisper.

Notes

• Seam side down is the whole trick. Lay them seam up and the fan lifts the loose end and unwraps them.
• Streaky bacon, not back. Streaky has the fat to crisp and it is thin enough to wind round a chipolata without tearing.
• Space between them decides how crisp the bacon gets. Crowd the basket and they steam. Do two batches rather than stacking.
• Sources range from 180°C (355°F) for 8 minutes to 190°C (375°F) for 15. Start checking at 10 — thin chipolatas cook fast.
• Shop-bought ready-made pigs in blankets cook the same way, straight from chilled, at the same temperature and time.
• Air fryer models vary. Treat the times as a guide, go by colour and crispness, and adjust the seasoning to your taste.

Watch it

More Air Fryer Pork & Bacon

• Perfect Air Fryer Bacon10 min · serves 2
• Air Fryer Gammon Steak15 min · serves 2
• Air Fryer Pork Belly Bites30 min · serves 3
• Air Fryer Pork Chops18 min · serves 2
• Air Fryer Pork Ribs50 min · serves 2
• Air Fryer Sausage Rolls27 min · serves 4

Air fryer models vary in power and basket size, so treat the times here as a guide — go by colour and crispness rather than the clock, and adjust the seasoning and glaze to your taste.

Recipe source: Method corroborated across published UK air-fryer recipes: Daisies and Pie (daisiesandpie.co.uk), Effortless Foodie (effortlessfoodie.com) and Instant Pot UK (instantpot.co.uk). Streaky bacon rashers halved and wrapped around chipolatas, air fried seam side down. Sources range from 180°C (355°F) for 8-12 minutes to 190°C (375°F) for 15; 180°C (355°F) for 12 minutes sits in the middle. The seam-side-down instruction — so the bacon does not unwrap in the fan — is from Daisies and Pie, who also specify 12 chipolatas to 6 rashers.