Savory air fryer croutons are a crispy-crunchy addition to your next bowl of soup or salad. There’s no better way to use up stale bread!
Recipe Overview
Why you’ll love it: These easy air fryer croutons taste miles better than store-bought and they are super easy to make.
How long it takes: 10 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: air fryer
Servings: makes 2 cups
Stale bread is truly the gift that keeps on giving. It may not be suitable for sandwiches, but who cares?! You can use it for French toast, blueberry bread pudding, apple stuffing, and these fabulous air fryer croutons.
Like homemade bread crumbs, this is an incredibly simple recipe, one of the kind of recipes that will make you wonder why you haven’t always been DIYing it versus buying it. Plus, the results are incredible: crisp but not hard, perfectly seasoned but not overly salty.
Float these bad boys in a bowl of smoky roasted tomato soup or scatter them over a bed of greens with your favorite vinaigrette (raspberry vinaigrette, perhaps?). I won’t even blame you if you just eat a handful as a snack.
Reasons to Love Air Fryer Croutons
- Ridiculously easy. Bread, oil, seasoning, air fryer. Boom! That’s all you need to be on your way to air fryer crouton town, population YOU. There’s really nothing to this recipe and you can easily make these croutons just before assembling a salad or while you wait for soup to warm up.
- Instant upgrade. Bagged salads and canned soups go from ho-hum to high-end when you add air fryer croutons.
- Highly customizable. I use a simple garlicky herb seasoning blend for these homemade croutons, but you can switch things up with your favorite herbs and spices.
- So much better than store-bought. Crispy air fryer croutons will ruin you for all other croutons, especially those hard, dried-out, super salty store-bought ones.
What you’ll need
- Olive Oil: If you like, substitute melted butter for an even richer flavor.
- Kosher Salt and Black Pepper: Simple seasonings, yet the bits of kosher salt and coarsely ground black pepper add so much flavor.
- Garlic Powder: An easy pantry add-in, garlic powder gives your croutons savory goodness without the bite of fresh garlic. Don’t confuse garlic powder with garlic salt, or the croutons will be too salty.
- Italian Seasoning: Another pantry item, Italian seasoning is a blend of herbs which makes it easy to bring lots of flavor to the table without having to haul out a half dozen jars of herbs.
- Cubed Day-Old Bread: You can cut the bread as large or as small as you like, or tear the bread into pieces for a more rustic appearance. Just make sure the pieces are all roughly the same size for even cooking.
Cooking Tip
While some air fryer recipes let you get away with a little spritz of oil, I don’t recommend using any less than 1 tablespoon for a batch of croutons. The oil helps the seasonings stick and gives the croutons just the right crunch factor.
How to make Air Fryer Croutons
Stir together the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning in a large bowl.
Add the bread to the bowl. Toss the bread with the seasoned oil mixture until it’s evenly coated.
Arrange the bread cubes in an even layer in the air fryer basket.
Air fry at 380ºF for 5 to 8 minutes, shaking the basket or tossing the croutons every couple of minutes. (If your air fryer basket is roomy and there’s lots of space for the hot air to circulate, you can skip the shaking.)
Cook until the air fryer croutons are golden brown and crisp.
Best Bread for Croutons
You can really use any kind of bread you like, from sourdough to rye and rustic country loaves. Even everyday white sandwich bread is just fine! Dry bread works better than fresh bread.
How to make these Air Fryer Croutons your own
- Experiment with different breads. We love everything bagels made into croutons. Whole grain breads with lots of seeds make amazing croutons.
- Make them unseasoned. If you’re making croutons for a recipe that already has lots of big, bold flavors, you may want to leave the croutons unseasoned. If you’re starting with a delicious bread, you can even leave out the salt.
- Add cheese. After you toss the bread with the oil and seasonings, add 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese and stir to coat all the bread with cheese. Air fry as directed.
- Switch up the seasonings. Minced fresh herbs; thyme, sage, rosemary or chives; spices like smoked paprika or even curry powder. There are endless options for air fryer croutons!
- Oven method: I’ve been baking croutons in my oven for ages. If you don’t have an air fryer, try oven-baked homemade croutons.
How To Use Air Fryer Croutons
Salads: Croutons are an essential part of panzanella salads. Try this classic panzanella salad with tomatoes or asparagus panzanella salad. Croutons play a large role in an Italian-style salad, with romaine, tomatoes, kalamata olives, sliced red onion, and tangy Italian dressing. A Caesar salad with homemade caesar dressing and air fryer croutons is amazing!
Soups: A classic tomato soup topped with croutons is the best! Pasta e fagioli is another soup that goes well with croutons, or a creamy carrot soup. Substitute air fryer croutons for the toasted bread on French onion soup.
Make Ahead Ideas
You can make air fryer croutons up to 2 weeks in advance.
Storage Suggestions
Store your homemade croutons in an airtight container at room temperature. Make sure they are completely cool before storing. If they’re still warm when you seal them up, condensation will form on the inside of the container and make your croutons soft.
Did you make this? Be sure to leave a review below and tag me @rachelcooksblog on Facebook, Instagram, or Pinterest!
servings
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Savory air fryer croutons are a crispy-crunchy addition to your next bowl of soup or salad. There’s no better way to use up stale bread!
Instructions
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In a large bowl, stir together the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic powder, Italian seasoning.
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Add the cubed bread and stir to coat the bread with the oil and seasoning mixture. Place the seasoned bread cubes in the air fryer basket in an even layer.
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Air fry at 380ºF for 5 to 8 minutes, shaking the basket or tossing the croutons every couple of minutes (see note). Cook until they are golden brown and crisp. Keep a close eye on them, as cooking times can vary based on your specific air fryer and the size of the bread cubes.
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Once the croutons are golden and crisp, remove them from the air fryer. Serve as a topping for salads or soups, or cool completely and store in an airtight container.
Notes
- Seasoning: Salt, pepper, and seasonings are optional in this recipe. If you want the recipe to be lower in sodium, omit the salt. Other seasonings of your choice may be substituted.
- Oil: If you like, the oil can be reduced to 1 tablespoon. The croutons won’t be exactly the same but they are still crunchy and very tasty. If you’re looking to reduce calorie content, this may be a great option. Melted butter can be substituted for olive oil
- The size of the croutons: The bread can be torn rather than diced for more rustic croutons. Make sure the bread cubes are roughly the same size so they cook evenly. If you make them smaller, they’ll cook a little more quickly; larger croutons will take a little longer to cook.
- Add cheese: After you toss the bread with the oil and seasonings, add 2 tablespoons of grated Parmesan cheese and stir to coat all the bread with cheese. Cook as directed.
- If you make a single batch of these and have a decent sized air fryer, you might not have to shake the basket while they cook. If they’re not in a single layer and/or don’t have much room around them, you’ll want to shake the basket a couple of times so that they cook evenly.
Nutrition Information
Serving: 0.5cup, Calories: 139kcal, Carbohydrates: 13g, Protein: 3g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 5g, Trans Fat: 0.01g, Sodium: 205mg, Potassium: 42mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 2g, Vitamin A: 2IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 36mg, Iron: 1mg
This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.
