Homemade Air Fryer Croutons

overhead shot of a glass jar containing croutons

5 from 3 votes

Homemade croutons are one of the easiest things to make at home, and making homemade air fryer croutons makes them that little bit quicker and healthier as you can use less oil, win! For these basic croutons, I like to keep the flavor pretty simple so they can be paired with most flavor profiles, but feel free to switch it up for the flavors you love! The perfect way to use up leftover bread and make sure you aren't contributing to food waste.

Prep Time5

Cook Time6

Course: Basic

Cuisine: Anytime

Keyword: air fryer croutons

Servings: serves

Calories: 144kcal

Equipment

Air Fryer

Ingredients

4 cups bread cut into even-sized cubes (see notes)
2 tbsp olive oil (see notes)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon dried parsley or basil
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ teaspoon ground pepper

Instructions

Put the cut bread into a large bowl.
Pour over the olive oil, garlic powder, dried parsely and salt and pepper.
Mix everything well to combine.
Add the mixture to the basket of an airfryer and cook at 180C (350F) and cook for 6 -8 minutes (see notes).
Remove from the air fryer and either use straight away or allow to cool and store in a glass jar with a lid until ready to serve. See notes for longer storage options.

Notes

Bread:

Fresh bread: you will just need to add one or two minutes to your cooking time or leave out on the bench for an hour or two after cutting into chunks if you have the time for that.
Sandwich bread: although this is a lot thinner it can definitely work. Just chop it up into smaller chunks and remove a minute or two from your cooking time. You may also need less oil, as there is less fluffy bread to absorb it. These will just be mini-croutons, which work really well when drinking soup from a cup or a mug.
Stale bread: as long as it isn't going moldy this will work perfectly.

How Much Oil:

How much oil you use is going to depend on the type of bread you are using (see above).

If you are using relatively fresh, big chunks of bread like what you see in the photos, then you are going to need more oil, as it absorbs it pretty easily.

If you are using more stale/less fresh bread or thin slices from a sandwich loaf etc, then you will need less as it doesn’t absorb the oil as much.

You can’t go wrong as long as you don’t add so much oil that the bread becomes soggy. Just add a bit at a time and see what works for you.

To make these in the oven:

Increase the amount of oil used to about 5 tbsp
Increase the cooking time to 15-20 minutes

Nutrition