How To Use Air Fryer For Chicken: Healthy Cooking Guide

In this article, we will teach you how to use air fryer for chicken. We will show you easy-to-follow steps that will leave you with the crispiest and juiciest fried chicken you’ve ever tried. An air fryer is one of the best investments you can get for your kitchen. It allows you to cook a variety of meals that will surely make your family asking for more.

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And the fact that you can enjoy fried food without submerging it in oil makes it a healthier alternative. One of the most popular dishes you can cook with an air fryer is fried chicken. While most air fryers come with cooking presets that take all the stress from guessing the right cooking settings, the result is not the same as keying in your own chicken recipe. And this is what we’re here to teach you. 

How To Use Air Fryer For Chicken  

When it comes to learning something new, we always tend to ask a lot of questions. Learning how to use air fryer for chicken is no exception. For this reason, we have gathered the most common questions and decided to answer them in this article. We have arranged them in the order of cooking fried chicken to make sure that you’re properly guided through every step of the process.

Step 1: What You Will Need to Make Fried Chicken in the Air Fryer

Before anything else, it’s important to gather all the ingredients you need to cook fried chicken with your air fryer. You will need the same things as you would if you were to deep-fry fried chicken, which includes the following:

• Chicken cuts of your choice
• Egg, scrambled
• Flour
• Salt
• Other seasonings or spices of your choice like pepper and garlic powder.
• Cooking oil of your choice, placed in a spray bottle.

Once you have all of these ingredients ready, we can now proceed with the next step. 

Step 2: How to Bread the Chicken 

Breading the chicken for air frying is the same as when you’re deep-frying it. To do so, simply, mix your bowl, salt, and seasonings into one bowl. As for the ratio, it largely depends on the taste you want to achieve. But make sure that it will be enough to coat all the chicken pieces if you dip them in it twice. Now that you’ve thoroughly mixed the flour with the seasoning, set it aside and get a new bowl. Here, simply break one egg and scramble it. This will help the flour mixture to stick to the chicken evenly. At this point, you’re now ready to bread the chicken.

Take one piece of chicken and coat it with the flour mixture. After this first layer, dip it in the scrambled egg to seal the first layer while also serving as a sticky layer to prepare the chicken piece for the next layer. Once the chicken is coated in the egg, dip it again in the bowl of the flour mixture until it is evenly coated with the second layer. Set that piece aside and proceed to do the same with the remaining chicken pieces. 

Step 3: How to Make Crispy Fried Chicken in the Air Fryer 

Now, we can finally proceed to how to use an air fryer for chicken. To make sure that you end up with the crispiest and most flavorful fried chicken, you must observe the following steps. As a tip, we recommend preheating the fryer at 390 degrees Fahrenheit for 3 minutes for the best results. 

Step 3.1: Can I Stack Chicken in an Air Fryer?

With your chicken pieces beautifully coated, you can now place them on the air fryer basket. In doing so, make sure not to overcrowd the basket. In doing so, you make sure that every part of the chicken is thoroughly cooked, leaving no part of it undercooked. This will also make it easier for you to flip it halfway through your cooking. With this in mind, it is strongly discouraged to stack chicken in an air fryer. It may be tempting to do so if you don’t want to cook in separate batches. But trust us, doing so will only lead you to cook them again due to undercooked areas. And that’s also quite troublesome. 

Step 3.2: How Long Do I Cook Air Fryer Chicken?

With the air fryer preheated and the chicken pieces properly arranged inside the basket, we can now begin cooking the fried chicken. To do so, begin by lightly spraying the chicken with the cooking oil of your choice. Then, close the cooking cabinet and set the timer for 20 minutes, and the temperature to 390 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re using an air fryer with cooking presets, you can simply press on the fried chicken preset. Halfway through the cooking process, open the cooking drawer, and carefully flip the chicken pieces to the other side with a pair of tongs.

Then, similarly, spray this side with the cooking oil of your choice and close the cabinet. After this, we wait for the timer to end so we enjoy our crispy and delicious air fryer fried chicken. As a tip, if you’re using an air fryer that allows you to set the timer mid-cooking, set it to 10 minutes to make sure that one side won’t get overcooked. Also, we must note that this works for chopped chicken pieces – not if you’re planning to air fry a whole chicken. To do so, we recommend cooking it at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 minutes on each side for a total cooking time of 40 minutes.

Step 3.3: How Long Do You Cook Chicken Tenders in the Air Fryer?

We must note that the instructions we’ve detailed above refer to cooking fried chicken pieces involving larger cuts. If you want to cook smaller cuts like chicken tenders, you have to observe different cooking settings. In the case of frozen chicken tenders, we also recommend preheating the air fryer for 2 minutes. After doing so, arrange the chicken tenders into the basket while making sure that it doesn’t overlap. Then, lightly spray it with cooking or olive oil and close the drawer. 

Since chicken tenders are smaller in size, you should cook them at 30 degrees Fahrenheit and for only 6 minutes on each side. This ensures a beautiful golden brown and crisp exterior and that juicy interior. You can do the same for chicken breasts, but cook it for around 8 to 10 minutes on each side – depending on your preferred texture. And that’s it – you now know how to use an air fryer for chicken. The next step? Serve the chicken with your favorite hot sauce and enjoy.