Spicy air fryer nuts are a tasty snack and super easy to make

I love anything spicy. If it were feasible — barring health issues, practicality, and social norms — I would eat hot wings for every meal.

So when I bumbled into this air fryer recipe for air-fried, spicy peanuts on, I thought it’d be perfect to test out. Why? Well, half my working life involves an air fryer and I love spicy things. Match made in heaven.

Now, a quick caveat before we dive into this thing. My local grocery stores, for on reason or another, had only raw cashews, not raw peanuts — so I had to make those instead. Frankly, I like cashews more than peanuts anyway, and cashews are large enough that they wouldn’t slip through the holes in the grate of my air fryer. Win-win.

The TL;DR on the recipe? It’s a fantastic idea but you better watch the cooking process carefully. Maybe it was substituting cashews for peanuts, but my snack got a little too charred. But more on that later, for now, here’s what you need to know.

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons of oil

• 3 tablespoons (or as much as your heart desires) or Old Bay seasoning or similar seafood seasoning

• 1/2 teaspoon (or way more, if you’re like me) of cayenne pepper

• 8 ounces of raw peanuts (or cashews, or whatever raw nut)

• Salt

Directions

1. Whisk together the oil, Old Bay, and cayenne

2. Toss nuts in the oil and season mixture

3. Air fry at 320 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes, tossing halfway through

4. Salt, then air fry for five minutes more

5. Salt again, if needed, and enjoy

The details

OK, so here was my final product. Let’s just get this out of the way.

OK, a bit well done. But we can fix that.
Credit: Mashable

To be clear, while the cashews were overcooked, they look worse than they tasted. They were still pretty spicy and tasty, but definitely cooked for too long.

I’m uncertain if the cooking issue was a result of swapping peanuts for cashews, or if it was just an issue with the recipe in general. To be honest, air frying any nut for 25 minutes total feels like… a lot. For instance, here were my cashews as they went into the air fryer and after about 10 minutes of cook time, respectively.

Doesn’t that look promising?
Credit: Mashable

I should have stopped cooking here.
Credit: Mashable

They look…so much better, right? To be honest, I should have just pulled them at 10 minutes, but I wanted to see how the recipe turned out, if followed exactly. I wanted to heed the recipe as best I could, but next time I’ll probably cook the nuts for 15 minutes or so. If you’re cooking cashews like me, 15 minutes might be the max.

But there’s the catch: I’ll most likely make this recipe again. The promise was there, if my execution was a little off. The spicy, salty combo was tasty in the less-charred cashews. It had that addictive quality you look for in a great snack. I also think you could mix things up if you so desired. A little honey for sweetness? Sure. Cumin for complexity? Why not. Go buck wild.

So, spicy air fryer nuts? They’re good. Just watch them carefully.

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