I absolutely love fried calamari and couldn’t wait to try cooking it in an air fryer. If you’ve ever made calamari, you know it has to be cooked perfectly like lobster or it will taste like rubber.

I was very concerned that my calamari rings would come out of the air fryer tasting like a rubber sole. But, that wasn’t the case.

Are calamari and squid the same thing?

It depends on who you ask. Some marine experts say that the calamari is the food and the squid is the animal. But, biologically speaking, they’re the same.

Squids and/or calamari and octopus belong to the cephalopods family. From what I understand, squid is much tougher than calamari and should be eaten when cooked hot and fast.

Is fried calamari bad for you?

Well, it’s not the most healthy of foods. There are foods that are most certainly worst than fried calamari, but cooking it in the air fryer saves a lot of fat calories.

The only reason why one should be concerned about fried calamari being bad for you is because of the breading and oil. But, that’s not the case when cooking calamari in the air fryer.

How to cook fried calamari?

Calamari is very easy to prepare and cook. I like to keep the batter on my calamari very light. There are some recipes that call for a full-on panko breading, but I like my calamari lightly breaded with seasoned flour and a little egg and milk.

Air Fryer Calamari

This is a very easy way to enjoy calamari without the oil and fuss of deep frying.

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Prep Time 3

Cook Time 5

Total Time 8

Course Appetizer

Cuisine Italian

Servings 2

Ingredients

1 lb calamari rings thawed
1 tbsp seafood seasoning
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 cup flour
1 large egg
1/4 cup milk

Instructions

Preheat an air fryer to 400 degrees.
Start by adding the flour, seafood seasoning, and pepper to a medium-sized mixing bowl and mix. In another bowl, whisk the egg and milk together. Put a few of the calamari rings into the flour mixture, into the egg and milk, and back into the flour mixture. Do this for all of the calamari rings.
Spray the air fryer basket with cooking spray and place one layer of the calamari rings into the air fryer. Spray with cooking oil and cook for 4-6 minutes. I check them after a few minutes and sometimes flip and spray the other sides. They're very tasty with a marinara, cocktail, and chipotle mayo.