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Why You’ll Love My Recipe
This recipe is perfect for those days when you’re craving the crunch of fried chicken without the grease. Made in your air fryer, it’s also incredibly easy to clean up afterward.
You’ll love this crispy-skinned air fryer chicken, it’s incredibly satisfying and the recipe is super simple! Why not also try this Air Fryer Fish recipe? Or, for something totally different, try some Air Fryer Hard Boiled Eggs.
Reader Review
This recipe is just the easiest, quickest and best fried chicken recipe ever! So much flavor from so few ingredients. Comes out juicy and with a nice crust! You’ll never go back to KFC once you make this! Thanks Karlyn! Go Oilers!
Karlynn’s Recipe Notes
- Skill Level: This is an easy recipe.
- Total Time: This chicken will take approximately 25-30 minutes to make, depending on the exact thickness of your chicken.
- Variations: Play with the seasoning levels to make the coating more or less spicy. Try replacing part of the flour with cornstarch for a lighter taste, or mix in some breadcrumbs for extra crunch. Make a batch of Baba Ganoush to use as dip, and set out a platter of veggies or some Biscuits and Gravy to round out the meal.
- Tools Needed: For this recipe, you’ll need two medium bowls, a whisk, an air fryer, a large plate, some tongs, cooking spray, and a food thermometer.
What You’ll Need For Ingredients
Chicken: This recipe is optimized for chicken thighs but you can use it for any cut of chicken. You’ll need to adjust your cooking time accordingly. Boneless pieces will take significantly less time, while large pieces with bones will take longer. Skin or no skin is entirely up to you. Make sure to keep an eye on the chicken as you cook it, since specific times can vary significantly.
Coating: The coating for this chicken is a simple blend of flour and seasoning. All purpose or whole wheat flour are both fine. This recipe calls for Old Bay Seasoning in particular. If you don’t enjoy those flavours, or can’t find any in stores, feel free to use whatever seasonings you enjoy best on chicken. You can even try making your own Homemade Cajun Seasoning or Chicken Seasoning to use instead.
How to Make Air Fryer Fried Chicken
This is a brief overview of the recipe. The full list of ingredients and step-by-step instructions are in the recipe card below.
- Preheat air fryer to 390°F and spray the basket with cooking oil.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients. Set aside.
- In another medium bowl, beat the eggs. Set aside.
- Dredge chicken thighs though the dry mixture, shaking off the excess, and then dip into the egg. Let excess egg drip off and then dredge in the flour mixture a second time.
- Spray the tops of the chicken thighs with cooking oil and then place them into the air fryer basket.
- Cook for 15 minutes and then turn the pieces over.
- Cook for 8-10 more minutes, or until chicken reaches the internal temperature of 185°F.
Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for Making Air Fryer Fried Chicken
Perfect Companions: This tasty fried chicken will pair well with many different side dishes. Try serving it with a Classic German Potato Salad or this Dill Pickle Pasta Salad. Serve it with some Air Fryer French Fries or change it up and make some Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries instead. Or simply make your favourite mashed potatoes and gravy. There are so many wonderful options.
Other Cuts of Chicken: If you are using boneless, skinless chicken breasts for this recipe, you only need to cook them to an internal temperature of 165°F. The same applies to other boneless pieces, such as boneless skinless chicken thighs. Thinner cuts like chicken tenders will need significantly less cooking time, while drumsticks would likely take nearly as much time as bone-in thighs. As always, exact cooking times will vary based on the size of the pieces you are cooking.
Storage Instructions
Fridge: Once the fried chicken is fully cooled, you can store it in a sealed container in the fridge for 2-3 days. You may want to add a piece of paper towel to the container to help absorb extra moisture and keep the chicken from getting soggy. reheat in the air fryer for a few minutes to get it crispy again.
Freezer: For the sake of easier defrosting and reheating, spread this chicken out on a platter or plate and freeze it until solid. Then, put the leftover chicken in a freeze safe container and freeze it for 3-4 months. Reheat in an oven or air fryer.
More Delicious Chicken Recipes
Looking for more easy dishes to make with chicken?
Try this amazing Butter Roasted Chicken.
Or if you’re craving that classic flavour combination of lemon and rosemary, make some Better-Than-A-Restaurant Rosemary Lemon Butter Chicken.
For a full meal, check out Creamy Garlic Parmesan Chicken & Potatoes.
Slow Cooker Chicken Stew is another great, one pot meal.
There you go, everyone. Another fabulous way to make use of your air fryer. Try this recipe and let me know what you think.
Happy Cooking!
Karlynn
Air Fryer Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs, well beaten
- 4 large chicken thighs, skin on
- 1 ½ tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
- ½ teaspoon seasoning salt
- neutral cooking oil, avocado, canola, vegetable
Instructions
- Pre-heat your air fryer to 390°F. Spray the interior basket lightly with the cooking oil.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, seasoning salt, and Old Bay seasoning.
- Dredge a chicken thigh through the flour mixture until well coated. Shake off any excess, then dredge the chicken thigh in the egg mixture, coating completely. Return the chicken thigh to the flour mixture and dredge it again until completely coated. Shake off any large excess of flour.
- Place the chicken thigh on a plate, then repeat the process with the other three thighs.
- Once done, spray the tops of the chicken thighs with cooking oil until they are evenly coated to prevent any dry spots of flour.
- Place the chicken thighs in the basket, skin side down (top side down), leaving enough room between them for air to circulate. Spray the bottom of the chicken thighs with the cooking spray.
- Cook the chicken for 15 minutes, then open it and with a pair of tongs. Turn each piece of chicken over. If desired, you can spray the top again with cooking oil for extra crispness. Continue cooking the thighs for another 8-10 minutes or until the chicken is 185°F when tested with a meat thermometer.
- Remove to a platter and serve hot.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Renée H says
Nervous as heck! This’ll be my first air fry recipe, but have been dying to try air fried chicken drumsticks. Based on the majority of comments being very good…I’m hopeful for a happy and tastey outcome! Will post my results.
Nena says
How did the drumsticks turn out?
Leah says
I was so excited to try this recipe and followed it exactly, but neither my husband nor I were impressed at all. In fact, we ate about half of one piece each and threw the rest away. The Old Bay seasoning just didn’t work well at all. I guess technically it’s fried chicken, but it isn’t GOOD fried chicken IMO.
JennainCO says
This recipe is amazing! Aside from my own mistake or using boneless chicken tenders and cooking as the directions… just an FYI chicken tenders shouldn’t go to 180… that was my bad and realized it when I took it out. The flavor of the breading is delicious and simple! Will try again and make sure I pay attention to the meat temp for what I’m cooking. Thank you so much!!
Dave says
My family is “Boneless Breasts Only” !!! I agree…They’re wierd! They don’t understand that the flavor is in the bones. Will this recipe work with boneless skinless breasts as well? Just got my air fryer last week and all we’ve made was Kabobs and cheesesticks and egg rolls. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeease help!!! Hoping to make the chicken this weekend.
Gayla Jaworowicz says
Do pass a review once you’re done reading this book.
Emma says
This is a great recipe. We actually used skinless boneless thighs and sprayed them with oil prior to putting them in the air fryer. Worked great at 390 for 22 minutes. No drips or messes. The instructions are straight forward and easy to follow.
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
Great idea!
Laurel says
I’d really appreciate if the recipe was fixed to be clearer. I looked everywhere online for Old Bay Cajun seasoning, and apparently, it doesn’t exist. If the author simply meant regular Old Bay, that should be stated clearly! (Original Old Bay is NOT a Cajun seasoning, so that is not a reason.) I’m guessing maybe they meant the blackened Old Bay seasoning? It’s crazy expensive online, so I doubt I’ll splurge for that. Apologies if I offended, please make it clear what specific ingredients you mean. I ended up trying to make my own cajun seasoning and followed the recipe otherwise, and I can’t say I was super impressed…
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
It is standard old bay, I’ve updated the recipe to reflect this.
lisha says
Flour was in cooked on the surface even after I had sprayed inside and chi ken with spray? And turned midway and resprayed
Alisha
Jerry pearson says
Just now finished the chicken, awesome recipe, easy for this single guy to prepare. You don’t happen to have a single sister do ya? Lol
Thank you.
Mike says
Makes perfect fried chicken!
Tina says
I tried this recipe with chicken tenders and changed the spices a bit since I didn’t have old bay. This turned out amazing and I will definitely make this again.
Betty Jo says
Made this last night! It was so good! Crispy skin, well seasoned and so tender and juicy! Won’t have to get takeout fried chicken anymore! Thank you Karlynn!
Martha Christian says
Delicious…used chicken drumsticks and there were NO leftovers. Highly recommend.
Kelli R Schobelock says
My batter burned and was very dry — the chicken was moist though. I used skinless/boneless thighs and added extra cayenne pepper to the flour. Flour was black and burnt in large patches. 390 for 25 minutes
Mary says
First recipe I have tried in my new air fryer and followed instructions exactly. It was great! Crispy skin, succulent chicken thighs. A bit different seasoning than we’re used to…We only used Old Bay previously for clam chowder and crab cakes, but it worked well here and had a great taste. Change your seasoning as you see fit, but keep the flour/egg breading. It works! Follow instructions. Try it. It’s good “fried” chicken, and isn’t that what we’re using the air fryer for? Way healthier than frying.
brooklyn grill says
That’s so great!!! Your share is very awesome. I love cooking too. Thank you.
backbeat says
Wow, it looks so tasty . I love your recipe very much. I think your dish is very delicious. I will make this recipe for my family and my friend. I hope you have more recipe like this. Thank you for sharing.
Jerry pearson says
Just now finished the chicken, awesome recipe, easy for this single guy to prepare. You don’t happen to have a single sister do ya? Lol
Thank you.
bistro sk says
Wow, your recipe is so amazing. I have never known this recipe. Thank for sharing. I will share this recipe for my friends and my family. I think they love it too.
Mrs. Howell says
I followed the instructions exactly how it is and my chicken thighs came out AMAZING! Nice golden brown and crunchy! Thank you for this.
I used my Ninja duel zone double basket air fryer everything was perfect.
Kelly Schindler says
Help my chicken still has dry flour all over after cooking. What should I do differently next time? I followed the recipe.
Tamara Keene says
Hi Kelly, you need to spray with cooking spray if there is still flour on your chicken. I even spray mine as it’s cooking to ensure it gets crispy with no “flour” spots. Hope this helps!
Amanda says
I loved this so much! I used a tray that came with my dryer instead of the basket and it still came out great. I’m of Irish aka can’t handle spicy decent so i only used a tbs of old bay and 1tsp garlic salt (mainly because i couldn’t locate my salt)
I loved it! I think i needed less time but I’m sure that’s just one air fryer to the next 🙂 thanks for sharing
havannah says
HI! is the nutritional info for 1piece or all 4?
Quinton says
It came out to be a complete dumpster fire.
Farm raised in Dallas Texas says
I bought an air fryer/convection oven with rotisserie and this is the first “fry” recipe I tried.
I made this according to the recipe but concerned with using Old Bay for seasoning and an air fryer for cooking. Unfortunately my concerns were confirmed. IMHO this would have been better with salt, pepper, garlic/onion powder and maybe some parsley and a thinner coating.
Born in Texas to a Southern Father and New York Mother (who knew how to cook) I had a good mix of cooking styles and learned how to cook pretty well. This recipe is definitely a Northern construct. If you like it I’m happy for you but it doesn’t taste or give you the mouth feel like (Southern) fried chicken.
BTW, Old Bay IS Cajun. You won’t find it on the bottle.
Another point. If you don’t cook in some type of oil, how are you going to make the gravy…
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
Thanks for the suggestions. To be fair, however, we’ve never claimed that this was going to be southern fried chicken, simply air fried so the intent was never there to have anyone assume otherwise. Our preference is Old Bay and always has been but I’m glad to see other suggestions too!
Porter says
We also live in Tx but are originally from NH. Old Bay is from Maryland and doesn’t make a “Cajun” seasoning, only original, Hot & Blackened. I agree with you and only used granulated onion & garlic (HATE the powder) and salt & pepper. I also lightly sprayed with oil and it was great.
Les says
I am looking forward to trying this recipe. Born and raised in Maryland so suggest correction to recipe. No such thing as Old Bay Cajun seasoning and I am not aware of a hot and blackened version.
Think Travel Eat says
Crispy breading and tender chicken as promised! I prepped this recipe as stated using chicken drumsticks and standard Old Bay seasoning. I opted to spray my drumsticks with cooking spray, and I’m glad I did. A small spot that I missed with the spray actually turned out powdery. I also sprayed the fryer basket. I didn’t find the recipe to be all that messy in my air fryer as others have commented. A little breading dropped through, but not enough to matter. I’m looking forward to trying this again with chicken breast for sandwiches. Very tasty!
Marilyn says
I don’t think Old Bay makes a CAJUN seasoning. I’ve looked everywhere for it….
Think Travel Eat says
I’m pretty sure there’s only one type of Old Bay Seasoning, which is what I used here in conjunction with Lawry’s seasoned salt. I’m a huge fan of Old Bay, and I thought it flavored the breading beautifully. That said, I also think Cajun seasoning would work very here as a substitute.
Kylie says
I’m actually from the mid Atlantic and I put old Bay on everything and yes matter fact they do have a blackening old Bay seasoning along with a hot sauce that comes in a glass bottle
Doug Depp says
Just Old Bay seasoning use a lot on the Atlantic coast
Darlena Dement says
I have made this recipe several times now in my air fryer and in oil to get dinner cooked faster and so far it’s absolutely delicious!!! We use skinless chicken thighs and just make sure that the basket is sprayed well and both sides of the thighs are sprayed. When I originally made the recipe I didn’t use Cajun because my tummy says no to spicy food but I had 30% less sodium old bay on hand but tonight were using regular old bay. To my family it tastes a lot like KFC but better because it’s not greasy!!! Thank You for the Amazing Recipe!!!
Jayne says
Well said Mr. Kitchen Magpie, Karlynn’s recipes are always fantastic and I look forward to seeing what new recipes appear. Always a great job!!!! Perhaps some of these negative nellies should start their own recipe blog!
Julianne says
Wow. This was absolutely amazing! I used different seasonings, but followed the recipe otherwise, and it resulted in a super crispy skin and the most tender chicken thigh I’ve ever eaten. My only complaint would be that the bottom part was a little soft, so next time I will flip midway, but this is definitely the best recipe I’ve tried with my air fryer yet! I don’t have a basket fryer, which may be why my didn’t crisp on the bottom.
Angel says
Just made this and ate it all up! Delicious! Crispy on the outside, tender and juicy meat underneath! Will make again a thousand times I’m sure!
Brender22 says
This chicken was AMAZING! I followed the recipe except for some minor changes. Along with the Old Bay, I added a little garlic powder, salt, and pepper to the flour. Then, I dredged egg – flour – egg – flour, and I did spray the tops with olive oil cooking spray. HOLY YUMMY FRIED CHICKEN! My husband was skeptical it would come out well, but he, my 5 year old, and I LOVED it! Thank you for this brilliant recipe!
Shanell says
Ok, first time leaving a recipe review, but just had to come back and give you mad props! This chicken was so easy and turned out PERFECT! Omg I’m obsessed and my kids loved it! Thank you!!
Mary Curtis says
This is not Popeye’s chicken. Most disappointing.
Mr. Kitchen Magpie says
Sorry but of course not? We didn’t claim it was?
Marsha says
I don’t think they have Popeyes chicken on the Canadian Prairie where Karlynn is from.😁
Lily Q says
Ha! You’re right, Popeye’s is greasy and so-so quality.
S.D. Ladnier says
Lol !!!I Why would you even think it would be ?!
Dave says
Lmaooooo..you want greasy Ass Popeyes….go to Popeyes…🤦♂️🤦♂️
Julie says
Can you use bone-in chicken breasts and thighs?
Karlynn says
That’s all I ever use is bone in!