Air Fryer Fried Chicken Recipe without Buttermilk

Easy air fryer fried chicken recipes! With a light breading these chicken drumsticks, wings, breasts or air fryer fried chicken thighs will have moist meat but a nice crispy outside. 

Air Fryer Fried Chicken Drumsticks

Like I said, you can use the same method to make air fried drumsticks, thighs, wings, or even chicken breasts. Just adjust the cooking time for thicker or larger pieces. A meat thermometer will help ensure that each piece is cooked perfectly and safe to consume.

I assure you this and our air fryer fried chicken breast pieces will become your favorite dinners too. Coated with a breading so it will remind you of KFC, your favorite fast food joint that cooks just the bird, but way healthier. We call it fried but you know it’s the cheater version here. 😉

Ninja Foodi Fried Chicken

Have you tried our other easy Ninja air fryer recipes or used the pressure cooker yet? I bet you loved it and want more. Maybe you have another brand and are ready for some crispy chicken in the air fryer for dinner. Whatever style you might have will work for this throw-together meal.

If you want an even cheaper meal you can use this same coating but the timing for our air fryer leg quarters which have the thigh attached as well which means more meat!

“Frying” chicken in an air fryer has never been easier using this method!

Air Fryer Fried Chicken without Buttermilk

Yes you can add a thick breading dredging each piece in flour with seasonings after marinating in buttermilk, but you don’t have to. In order to keep this on the healthy side of things you can just use olive oil. We have a few other methods of breading chicken without eggs to choose from too. This is what I used, literally 3 ingredients is it!

1. Chicken legs – medium size, don’t buy the HUGE jumbo ones
2. Olive oil – and olive oil spray
3. Louisiana chicken fry mix
4. Gallon storage bag – if you just wanna shake the coating on

Fried chicken coating

• Other ideas you could use to create a crunch on the outside would be the following;
  • Pork rinds
    • Dredge legs in whisked eggs
    • Roll chicken pieces in smashed pork rinds – use food processor to get them fine 
  • Shake n Bake mix

If you did want more of a thicker coating you could dip in whisked eggs, then in a flour mixture with some seasonings mixed in. You will want to spray the outside well with olive oil when they’re in the basket though to crisp the outside. I coated these two different ways.

How to Make Fried Chicken in Air Fryer with Flour

• First you must rub a generous amount of olive oil on your drumsticks
• Then you can either roll them in the mix on a plate like you see here
• Or at the end it was easier to throw a few legs into a gallon Ziploc filled with coating and shake the mix on
• Either way works, just make sure you have plenty of olive oil on each one so it sticks well
• The skins will crisp up themselves too so it isn’t just the coating

The chicken breading fry mix we used was great because it already had a bit of spice and spices inside. That way I didn’t have to add anything. Just rub on olive oil, shake on mix, air fry.

We love this method because as much as we love fried foods sometimes, deep frying isn’t good for us. Then you can make a side dish like our air fryer tater tots to go with this!

Note: Timing below works well for medium-sized chicken legs. If cooking chicken breasts, I would recommend using medium-sized breasts and cutting them in half so the middle cooks as evenly as the edges. Breasts will take longer than any other chicken pieces, dry rub air fryer chicken wings will take the least amount of time.

You can easily make delicious chicken legs in the air fryer using this method. Whether you call them air fryer chicken legs or air fryer drumsticks, they’ll come out perfectly cooked every time! Use this printable air fryer cook times sheet (linked above) for reference.

How to Cook air fryer fried chicken

1. The first thing you want to do is make sure the skin is dry so the oil will stick. Use paper towels to do this for best results.
2. Generously rub olive oil on each piece of chicken
   1. Ensure all pieces are the same size 
   2. Important when cooking chicken so they get done at the same time
3. Roll in coating of your choosing in a large bowl or plate
4. Lay in your air fryer basket or on to a trivet
   • Make sure they’re in a single layer and not overlapping. If you stack chicken they won’t cook evenly or crispy all the way around.
5. Turn on air fryer (or use air crisp button on Ninja Foodi).
   1. Timing will depend on how thick your meat is but should be done in 30 minutes or less.
6. Flip pieces about half way through
7. Before last 2-4 minutes spray chicken pieces with olive oil to really crisp up the outsides.
8. Check internal temperature when done with a meat thermometer
   1. Needs to reach 165 degrees or more in thickest part of meat
9. Eat or drizzle barbecue or hot sauce on top.

Using this method you can have crispy chicken pieces in about 25 minutes! If you don’t have an air fryer, here’s how to bake crispy chicken wings in the oven. You can make this copycat Kentucky fried chicken recipe too.

Ninja Foodi Fried Chicken Recipe

• Our air fryer chicken thighs above.
  • or an air fryer whole chicken 
• Sweet potatoes in the air fryer are a great side dish
• For breakfast make a batch of air fryer hard boiled eggs

If you want crispy chicken legs in air fryer with a thicker batter soaked in buttermilk beforehand, try this one too.

You can find more air fryer dinner recipes here like our homemade chicken tenders, and print directions below to keep them handy.