I love my air fryer, and will probably bookmark this, but seeing a steak as one of the top recipes is blasphemy.
If your steak is about 1.5" thick, you can airfry at 260ºF for 18 minutes, flip once. This raises the internal temperature uniformly to around 130ºF.
Then sear 1 minute per side and 30 secs on the sides, to get a crust. That's it.
(no resting needed because it's a reverse sear, the internal temperature is already where it's supposed to be for medium rare).
Tip: remember to pre-heat your air fryer per the instructions in the manual. A 260ºF pre-heat should only take 2 minutes.
How do you not have the entire house smell like sautéed steak / have oil + fat droplets splatter everywhere on the stove/floor?
The reverse sear technique produces little oil splatter. My air quality monitor barely spikes.
Also how do you get a thin crust?
When I first started cooking in the air fryer I did flip it at half way though. I just forgot once and found it didn't make any perceptible difference, so gave up on it and it's just that one less task to do. My partner and I both agree it comes out awesome pretty much every time, and I'd say we are reasonably fussy steak eaters.
I don't worry about crust I guess? I don't think I even try to do that when I'm cooking them in a pan. I'm more interested in trying to get the fat right - it tends to crust over pretty nicely in the air fryer. It works better on thicker bits so it has longer in the heat.
But to me steak cooking is an art of sorts that means searing the outside while minimally cooking the inside(I'm a rare steak guy). That usually means letting it thaw completely, then just searing the sides at super high heat, for me on a griddle or cast iron pan.
I've never tried to oven or air fry a steak, but I have to imagine you can't get anything close to a seared steak that's rare inside. We want to retain moisture, so blowing hot air at it seems like a bad idea.
Yes, the oven dries the outer part of the steak, but that means you get your desired crust in less time in the pan. That results in a clearer distinction between the crust and the juicy interior without the gray band in between.