We may earn a commission from links on this page.If you wanted soggy food, you’d put it in a pot of water. You didn’t buy an Instant Vortex air fryer for mushy results. But if time and again, you’re getting unbrowned, not crisp, floppy food, you might be making a critical mistake. If this soggy reality has been messing with your crunchy dreams of leftover fries and flaky phyllo wraps, don’t panic. There’s an easy fix. Here’s how I ensure perfectly crispy results in my Instant Vortex air fryer every time. Don’t crowd the basketThe Instant Vortex is my go-to daily air fryer, and I’ve found its browning capabilities and even cooking to be better than most other brands. (Read my full review here if you’re considering purchasing, and compare it to these other models.) However, I know there are still folks out there churning out flopping fries. I blame crowded baskets. This is THE biggest problem I’ve seen with friends and family using their air fryers. I’d wager that 90% of the time soggy or overcooked food results from crowding the air fryer basket. My partner is a chronic offender of this when he makes roasted vegetables. The result? Sloppy steamed vegetables. Observe: I bought some Nasoya tofu veggie dumplings and made two separate batches—one with plenty of space between each dumpling, and one where they’re piled together and overlapping in some cases. Both batches were cooked at 375°F and air fried for four minutes. Moisture was able to evaporate easily and make way for the Maillard reaction to occur quicker. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann Moisture becomes trapped when items are crowded into the Instant Vortex air fryer basket, leaving the dumplings pale and soft. Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann The batch with plenty of room in the basket browned evenly and the entire surface was pleasantly crisp with full-on crunchy edges. The second batch—crowded, edges touching or overlapping—cooked, but the surface was comparatively pale, soft, and only one or two exhibited any browning. They happened to be on the outskirts of the pile.What tends to happen next when folks overcrowd the Instant Vortex (or any air fryer with a basket) is they’re unsatisfied with the crisp or color, so they throw it back in to continue cooking. This is how overcooking occurs. Your steak bites, roasted vegetables, or chicken strips look pale or soggy. Even though they’ve reached their optimal temperature, you’ve put them back in for another five to ten minutes, which leads to dryness, broken down plant cell structure (read: mushy), or tougher protein strands if you’re cooking meat.Steam is the enemyPrevent this from ever happening and eliminate Crisp’s worst enemy: steam. Instead, give everything enough room so steam can escape and the Maillard Reaction (responsible for the browning on cooked food and added flavor) can occur. The Instant Vortex and other air fryers have a high-powered fan running so you don’t have to be extreme with spacing. I usually leave an inch of space between bigger items, or keep smaller cut veggies, frozen French fries or pierogi in a single layer (no overlapping, folks). This allows moisture to escape and get swept out the air fryer vent immediately, rather than moisture getting trapped under other items and creating a sweaty steam chamber. Consider a spritz of oil Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann The other 10% of the time food doesn’t crisp and brown to utter perfection might be a simple lack of conductivity. Searing encourages browning because it’s pressed directly against the hot metal of a pan, but in an air fryer, you’re mostly dealing with indirect heat via circulating hot air. Adding a thin layer of oil to your food can help conduct the indirect heat more efficiently, crisping up and browning the surface. You can do this by tossing the food with a bit of cooking oil before adding it to the basket or by applying it with an oil sprayer.It might seem like you’re wasting time—cooking two batches of food when you could smash it all into one batch—but you'll benefit in the long run. The food will be cooked to perfection, and you’ll probably end up saving time if you think of how you’ll inevitably add another 10 minutes, and then another 10 minutes just to try and work all the steam out of that over-packed basket.