Air Fryer Fried Chicken Breast

Crispy air fryer fried chicken breast with buttermilk is a copycat Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe you’ll love. Tender meat with light crunchy breading outside.

All you need to throw this together you already have in your pantry though I am sure. As far as seasonings go in your flour use what you like but the mixture below is close to your favorite fast food joint.

Ingredients

1. All purpose flour is the base with seasonings added like;
   • Celery seeds add a pop of flavor you will love
   • Salt and pepper are the basics, you may want more to taste when done too
   • Garlic powder and onion powder is good too if you have it
   • Ground ginger is optional but a nice add in
   • Paprika gives this a warm taste we love
   • Thyme provides a bit of Italian seasonings
   • Basil does too along with a bit of color
2. Egg whisked is used for soaking purposes
3. Buttermilk we will discuss below the importance and how it makes this more tender

with Buttermilk

If you’ve ever made any sort of breasts or air fryer fried chicken thighs you know that it is best to soak it for a while in buttermilk first. Not only does it give it a bit more flavor but it tenderizes the meat too. An easy step to do and makes a big difference. Beyond that it is all about the seasonings in your flour coating mixture. If you want a quicker method we share one below.

Fried Chicken Seasoning

You can buy this boxed mix if you want to go super simple. It doesn’t take long to make what we list below in the printable recipe card but on busy nights I get it.

Generally I don’t recommend anything that is wet sorta’ speak. Tempura batter definitely is a hot mess but with the flour this is a good in between.

Oh yeah, do NOT forget to spray that basket first! You will surely regret it if you don’t. The coating is a bit sticky and wet as opposed to making something like our air fryer popcorn chicken.

If you love the flavors and texture of this you could easily use chicken thighs as well. Those tend to be a bit thinner so timing may decrease by 2 minutes or so.

I kid you not if you haven’t tried this method of cooking thin chicken breasts it will be a game changer for you too. Betting you’ll never bake it or fry it ever again and wonder why you didn’t try this sooner.

How to cook air fryer fried chicken breast with flour

1. Mix together the seasonings and your flour in a bowl to create your breading.
2. In another bowl whisk egg and buttermilk so you can put your chicken pieces inside and let them sit inside to tenderize the poultry. You always want to refrigerate during this time.
3. When done, dredge in flour mixture and then place coated pieces on a piece of parchment paper to sit and rest for a few minutes.
4. Preheat air fryer so the temperature is hot and even the entire time it is cooking for best results.
5. Spray air fryer basket with cooking spray and lay chicken down in an even layer without overlapping to crisp nicely. Spray tops with olive oil spray to create a crispy texture.
6. Air fry and halfway thru the time, flip the chicken and spray with olive oil again.
7. Air fryer chicken breast timing will vary depending on thickness of your meat and how brown you want outsides. In general it will take 8 minutes for one batch.

Check internal temperature to ensure middle of thickest piece is 165 F. You don’t want to overcook them, they’re tender and juicy right at that temp. Many times I will serve this with white rice, or just a few different sauces. Fry sauce and bang bang sauce are probably our favorite followed by this mustard dip.

If they are quite large just slice in half to create chicken cutlets in air fryer. It is best practice to flip halfway thru the time to crisp all the way around.

Other air fryer chicken recipes

Looking to cook other pieces of the bird too? We have them all!! From air fryer wings to air fryer frozen chicken breast you can find directions on our site.

• Frozen chicken wings in air fryer make for a great side dish or main dinner really.
• Cooking Ninja Foodi chicken breast with bbq sauce is easy as ever. I love that pot I tell you.
• If you want a really cheap meal you could try air fryer leg quarters. These get overlooked a lot but really you get tons of meat and the brown meat has a lot more flavor than white really.

Of course Ninja foodi chicken legs are my kids’ favorite and yours probably too. You can make them the traditional way with packaged poultry or if you have heard of mock chicken legs we talk about those here too.

As far as nutritional information, calories and saturated fat, that is going to vary depending on the cuts you chose. Refer to the package for that and then add what it says on the back of the buttermilk container etc. You can reheat chicken in air fryer if you have leftovers