While I love cooking on the stovetop—with spices, fire, and patience—you’ll also find me firing up my air fryer at least three times a week. It’s fast and it makes food crispy. And damn, I love texture. While I may be completely, embarrassingly behind the curve in this area, I just started air frying kielbasa and have had some seriously fantastic, crispy results. All you have to do is make sure you give it a good score.

I have fond memories of eating kid-sized rounds of kielbasa at my neighbors’ house when I was a kid. They must have loved it too, because it always seemed to end up on the table. Lately, I can only eat a few slices because I suffer from adult heartburn and kielbasa can be too greasy. While the richness can be a treat, I quickly grew tired of it. But once I put it in the air fryer, everything changed.

Kielbasa, like most sausages, is a seasoned meat mixture that is coated in a casing. The casing gives the sausage its shape and also traps the fats and juices when it is cooked. By keeping the casing intact, you keep that juiciness in and you end up with a thick kielbasa. My method is to methodically cut openings in the casing to release some of that fat and create multiple crispy edges. Anyone who likes their kielbasa juicy will probably not like this method. But if you like a little texture, go for it.

Scoring kielbasa "properly" is really just scoring it regularly and often so that it crisps evenly. This increased surface area is exposed to the high-speed winds of the air fryer's convection heating system, which draws out excess fat and rewards you with beautifully browned and crispy edges. Make no mistake, the inside of the kielbasa will still be juicy and flavorful, you'll just end up with a deliciously charred crust on the outside.