Air Fryer Teriyaki Chicken Recipe

Air fryer teriyaki chicken turns out delicious! With a thick flavorful sauce, you can now make tender marinated chicken in no time at all.

Honey Teriyaki Chicken Air Fryer

Yes I air fry everything nowadays. No, seriously like I use this one and my Ninja Foodi pot daily. It just makes everything that much more delicious and with an easier cleanup than keeping an eye on it on the stovetop.

I tried Veri Veri I used in my Instant Pot teriyaki chicken and it wasn’t as thick as I’d like it to be. This one below was perfect.

There are a few choices you can make, and substitutions as well. I add a bit of minced garlic and ginger sometimes. You can leave one or both of these out and it will still be totally delish.

The brand of teriyaki sauce you use is your choice too but thicker is better in this case. Since I cook it directly inside the air fryer basket you want it to really adhere to the meat. You can make your own spicy teriyaki sauce too, recipe for that is in this post.

Teriyaki Chicken Air Fryer

This is really all you need. To enhance the flavors to be stronger and more intense, just marinate chicken longer. I only let it sit coated well for about 15 minutes and it was still great. Depends on how much time you have.

1. Teriyaki marinade – This one is best, I use it for baked teriyaki chicken thighs too
   • If you are looking for a low carb teriyaki chicken sauce I found this one (but haven’t tried it myself).
   • There’s gluten free sauce available too.
2. Chicken thighs – or cubed breasts work too, I feel thighs are more tender
3. Onion if you want to add that
4. You could add a tbsp of diced fresh or jarred garlic if you love all things garlic

We love serving this on a bed of rice or quinoa. For a low carb version you could skip these and serve as is.

Like I said, I use chicken thighs whenever possible. I feel like they turn out more tender than chicken breasts and are less expensive too.

Here are a few questions you might have before getting started making your teriyaki chicken:

You could easily coat the meat and refrigerate for a good hour to get bolder flavors. Only have a few minutes, no problem. The thicker the better in that case.

I tested this out a few times. First I used a thin chicken marinade and it was yummy (kids agreed). Then I used this one and it was more “teriyakiy” if you know what I mean. 😉 I have also made a homemade version with our air fryer sesame chicken that was dynamite.

I thought about using a springform pan but mine was leaking so I opted to not do that but you could so the sauce wouldn’t leak thru the basket at all. It would likely take a bit more time to cook this way though.

How do you make teriyaki chicken from scratch?

This is pretty close to it other than using jarred sauce. I have made homemade teriyaki sauce with brown sugar, rice wine vinegar and a few other ingredients before. You could too. With some hoisin the sauce is thickened nicely and a great consistency for this.

Air Fryer Chicken

Here are quick step by step directions, there is a printable recipe card at the bottom too.

If you’ve only used a pan or slow cooker to make this, I would suggest you try this version next time. Then decide for yourself which you love best. You’ll be surprised how well this turns out.

Air Fryer Chicken Teriyaki

We have a bunch of other easy Ninja Foodi chicken recipes you can make too. Any brand works though…

1. If you’re forgetful, like me, our frozen chicken wings in air fryer post may save dinnertime for you too.
2. Want to make air fryer barbecue chicken breasts or Cornish hen in air fryer, we have done those too.
3. Make a one pot meal like our Instant Pot teriyaki chicken and rice next.

Try it tonight! When reheating chicken in air fryer there are a few tips you should remember too, we go over them in the above post.

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