Yield: 4

Adapted from: https://www.jocooks.com/recipes/air-fryer-fried-chicken/

Air Fryer Fried Chicken recipe is a game changer! Provides the same crunchy and tangy buttermilk coating we all know and love minus the excess grease. Time to put that air fryer to good use!

Notes: It did get crunchy and had a good taste. Needs more salt though. Using a 5lb chicken, it definitely needed to be done in two batches and took 35 minutes per batch. Doing it in a regular oven in one batch would probably work as well.

• 2lb chicken wings (chicken legs, thighs or chicken breast)
• 2cups buttermilk (½ cup Saco Buttermilk powder & 2 cups water or milk)
• 2large eggs
• 1tsp paprika
• 1tsp hot sauce (optional)
• 1tsp salt (or to taste)
• 1tsp pepper (or to taste)
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1½tsp baking soda
• 1cup AP flour
• 1-2tsp paprika (sweet or smoked)
• 1tsp garlic powder
• 1tsp onion powder

Special equipment:

• 3.5-quart air fryer

Prep the chicken:  Pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Breast pieces should be cut in half.

Prepare the buttermilk mixture: To a large bowl add the buttermilk, eggs, paprika, hot sauce (optional), salt, pepper and whisk until combined. Whisk in the baking powder and baking soda. In a shallow dish mix the flour with the paprika, garlic powder and onion powder.

Dredge the chicken:

First dredge the chicken in flour on all sides.

Then dip pieces into the buttermilk mixture.

Dredge the chicken in flour one more time, then place the chicken on a plate or rack, and repeat with all chicken pieces.

Cook the chicken:

Preheat air fryer and basket to 375°F,

When preheated, carefully remove the basket and place the chicken in the air fryer basket, allowing enough room between each piece to flow around. Spray the chicken with a bit of cooking spray or brush with oil.

Return basket with chicken to air fryer and cook on 375°F for about 20 minutes, flip over, spray with more cooking oil or brush with oil, and cook for another 10 minutes.

Check the temperature of the chicken:

Dark meat and wings should be at 180°F or higher in the thickest part.

Breast pieces should be 160°F. They may be done before legs and thighs.

Remove to a plate or rack and cover loosely with foil.

Repeat with remaining chicken if doing in batches. Cooking time may vary depending on your air fryer.

Notes:

It took me about 30 minutes to cook the chicken in the air fryer, but each air fryer is different, so read your air fryer’s manual to see how long you should cook it for.

I also only added enough chicken to the air fryer so that it’s in one layer and not stack any chicken pieces on top of each other. This way you’ll get evenly cooked chicken and crispy all around. This means that you might have to do this in batches, depending how big your air fryer is.

The total time is based on 2 batches.