How Long to Cook Air Fryer Pigs in a Blanket

Air fryer pigs in a blanket are my kids favorite snacks! Easy air fryer hot dogs wrapped with crescent rolls so the outsides are crunchy with a tender center to dip in all the things. Cooked with whole wieners or smokies for a family favorite meal.

Air Fryer Crescent Dogs

Who doesn’t remember these as a child. I mean you can use small smokies to make them or regular sizes like we did. Either way everyone loves every bite when I bring these out for lunch time. Use your Ninja Foodi to make these just the same.

We are using refrigerated crescent dough which makes things so easy. You could use a tube of rolls too but those are more dense so this is what we prefer. Make whole or slice in half to make mini pigs in a blanket for kids too.

Air Fryer Mini Pigs in a Blanket

If you were making these for little hands you will be the hero of the day, seriously. You can slice your wieners in half or even thirds. Cut your dough into strips so it just wraps around them enough to cover them and air fry! You won’t need quite as long as the cook time listed below and can make more at a time.

You could even use a Ninja Foodi Grill to make the best pigs in a blanket recipe ever. Even my teens have made them all by themselves which I love. It gives them an opportunity to “cook” when they want a snack. As for the best weiners I love Hebrew National personally.

They have a great snap on the outside and are made from quality meats. I mean go for what type you like but we have done alot of testing and there is a difference.

Air Fryer Pigs in a Blanket Crescent Rolls

You could add cheese too but just know that it will be messier in the basket. If you don’t care then go for it. Use kraft slices cut into strips and wrap on before your dough. It will melt in between the two and add another layer of yum. Now let’s talk about the pigs in a blanket ingredients you’ll need:

Ingredients

1. Can of refrigerated crescent rolls or sheet
   1. occasionally you can find what says sheet on the outside, this is better because there are no perforations
2. Hot dogs
   1. my favorite is Hebrew National or any brand that offers uncured meat
3. Non stick cooking spray
   1. olive oil spray is my jam
4. Knife to score the wieners

What is a crescent roll?

Well, it’s pretty much a crescent shaped puff pastry. Pillsbury makes this type of pre made puff pastry dough you see here. It was invented in the United States in the 1960’s and is used for a multitude of recipes such as this one.

Can you make pigs in a blanket with homemade dough?

Of course you can if you have the time. If you want to make homemade pretzel dough and wrap that around instead you can try that. Pizza dough would work too but won’t be as fluffy as crescents. Since they didn’t have crescent sheets at my local grocery store I just pinched all of the perforations together so it was pretty smooth.

• Then I made it easier on myself by using a pizza cutter to create strips width wise to wrap around my hot dogs.
• This worked pretty well and start to finish they were done in less than 10 minutes!

I suppose you might be able to use puff pastry too but I haven’t tried that. You just don’t want a dough that is really thick or else the inside will remain doughy while the meat is overcooked.

Ninja Air Fryer Pigs in a Blanket

If you are using the Foodi pot, use the lid that is attached to make these. Now to ensure your hot dogs get warm inside too I scored one side three times with a knife as you see here. That was key to not ending up with perfection outside and cold meat inside.

• Leaving them inside your air fryer basket for a few minutes once the cook time is up is an important step in the process too. 
• Yes you could use cocktail franks instead but to me that would be really labor intensive so I used whole weiners instead.

If you wanted to make this into an air fryer appetizer of sorts you could very easily use lil’ smokies and follow these same instructions. I might take off a minute though and test to see how brown they got.

Easy Pigs in a Blanket Air Fryer

Now just roll ’em up! Since the crescents are a bit sticky when they’re raw I decided to spray the inside of my basket with olive oil spray, that helped a lot.

• I also think preheating your air fryer is an important step too. This step ensures that you’ll get an even cook throughout your cook time.
  • If you forget don’t freak out, it just will take an extra minute or so.
• In just 3 minutes the outsides were a golden brown BUT I made sure to leave them in for another three minutes in order for the insides to warm.
  • I used this same technique when making air fryer corn dogs.
  • This step was very important, otherwise the hot dog inside ended up being slightly cold. NO good.

Including preheating time these pigs in a blanket in an air fryer only take 10 minutes flat to cook to perfection!

Want to make just plain air fried hot dogs or corn dogs? We have done that too and they’re great! Now of course you can serve these with ketchup and regular yellow mustard BUT our 4 ingredient mustard pretzel dip is our favorite dipping sauce! Looking for other easy air fryer recipes your kids will love?

How to cook frozen pigs in a blanket in air fryer

If you want a quick snack you can find these already made in the freezer section of your grocery store. Typically they are made with tiny smokies. In that case you would want to follow the bake time on the back which should be around 375 degrees F. Preheat before adding into the basket and cook for 10 minutes or until browned.

Now you could make these with something else inside, like Air fryer SPAM!! It’s also great cooked with potatoes is an easy recipe and always a winner in our house. Serve with frozen french fries in an air fryer, they’re better than in the oven!

Other recipes using refrigerated dough you’ll love

Frozen pizza in air fryer is always fun for them to make themselves, they even love my baked brie! Without your air fryer cook pull apart pigs in a blanket in the oven is here now too! Jump to recipe and get started with your crescent roll dough tonight.

• We’ve used them to make air fryer sticky buns and a sweet treat we called apple dumplings.
• Craving a feel good appetizer? You can make baked brie in air fryer with this as the outer wrap too.

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