Air Fryer Roast Beef

Perfect roast beef every time when you make it in the air fryer!

The Workhorse Air Fryer

Anyone who has an air fryer knows that it’s capable of doing so much more than “frying.”

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What it really is is a super-powerful convection oven so it will cook most things very quickly. As a rule of thumb, it cooks 30 percent faster than a conventional oven. If you are pressed for time and/or extremely hungry, this can be a real boon.

Reheating food is great when it’s done in an air fryer as well. Have leftover pizza? Just pop it in the air fryer and voila, it’s almost as good as when it was fresh!

But the one thing I love making in my air fryer are roasts. Chicken is fabulous and so is roast beef.

Have It On The Table Fast

I’m sure you all have your favorite rubs and seasonings for roast beef and I give my simple one in the recipe card.

However, this post is more about technique than a recipe per se. I always cook my roast beef to rare because it can always be cooked further to a desired doneness once it’s sliced . Of course if your whole family likes it one way, for instance medium or well, then you cook the whole thing for a longer time. I often serve friends with differing tastes, hence the rare doneness level. Remember you can make rare meat well done but not the reverse.

I made this roast in my air fryer oven. That’s the one with the built-in rotisserie. That makes this an easy process, however, it can be done in models with a basket. All you have to do is turn it midway in the cook time. If you have the basket model, always start the roast fat side down.

The roast pictured was 3.5 pounds and it was done to rare in 35 minutes. Cooked conventionally, this would have taken about one hour.

With any roast, I usually start by rubbing the exterior with a bit of olive oil. Do this before you season the meat.

Yummy With Potatoes

See those potatoes in the pic? They go wonderfully with a roast beef.

They’re called Melting Potatoes and you can get the recipe by clicking on the link in this sentence.

I didn’t make the potatoes in the air fryer, but I suppose you can. However, I wouldn’t recommend doing that and you will see why if you look at the recipe.

The Recipe

Air Fryer Roast Beef

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Author: Judith Hannemann

Recipe type: Main

Cuisine: American

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 - 3 lb beef roast (top round or eye of round is best)
• oil for spraying
• Rub:
• 1 tbs kosher salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1 tsp summer savory -OR- thyme

Instructions

1. Mix all rub ingredients and rub into roast.
2. Place fat side down in the basket of the air fryer (or set up for rotisserie if your air fryer is so equipped)
3. Lightly spray with oil.
4. Set fryer to 400 degrees F and air fry for 20 minutes; turn fat-side up and spray lightly with oil. Continue cooking for 15 additional minutes at 400 degrees F.
5. Remove the roast from the fryer, tent with foil and let the meat rest for 10 minutes.
6. The time given should produce a rare roast which should be 125 degrees F on a meat thermometer. Additional time will be needed for medium, medium-well and well. Always use a meat thermometer to test the temperature.
7. Approximate times for medium and well respectively are 40 minutes and 45 minutes. Remember to always use a meat thermometer as times are approximate and fryers differ by wattage.

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