Air Fryer turkey breast is incredibly easy, and the perfect home-style meal for all occasions. Marinated in a homemade sauce leaves an inviting flavor the entire family will love.
This turkey is so tender you can cut it with a fork, and it practically melts in your mouth. You shouldn’t have any trouble talking the kids into eating it either! Be sure to check out some other easy Air Fryer recipes too. (affiliate links present, originally published 12/20)
Turkey Breast in Air Fryer
You’ve probably made an air fryer fried chicken breast before, but wait it gets better! If it is the holidays you might want a larger piece, but not the whole bird. You can totally use your countertop appliance and not even turn on your oven for this main dish.
I recently made Instant Pot turkey tenderloin, and it was delicious and so easy. Now it was time to make it in our Ninja Foodi and Cosori too. It was so good we decided to share it with all of you. 😉
FIRST – You should sign up for my free newsletter so you get new posts emailed to you twice a week and never miss out on anything! If you love air fryer recipes too, here are some resources to start with:
- My Favorite Air Fryer is a Cosori or for a dual machine, the Foodi.
- You can find more easy air fryer recipes here, we have Ninja Foodi recipes as well; bookmark them both!
- This is the best air fryer cookbook. It’s important to know and remember how to preheat air fryer for best results.
- Here’s a printable free air fryer cooking time chart here for your fridge.
- It has temp. and times for making the best frozen foods for air fryer too.
- Then join our Facebook page below where you can share and find more ideas you’ll love.
Ninja Air Fryer Turkey Breast
Making Air Fryer turkey breast is going to save you oven space, and you don’t have to worry about bones like my whole Instant Pot turkey recipe.
If you love turkey breast, you will be happy to know the flavors in this are lovely any time of year. It really comes down to the ingredients that are rubbed all over the outside. Of course you can just opt for a ready made sauce but trust me, you’ll want to give this creation a whirl.
Costco Turkey Breast in Air Fryer
You can find this type of raw boneless breast at this popular big box store during the holiday seasons. Occasionally you may find one other times of the year but typically at Thanksgiving and Christmas.
What turkey do I need to look for?
I used a boneless skinless turkey breast. It comes wrapped in a netting, which I removed. You can leave the net in place while cooking it, but you will need to add around 10-15 minutes to the cooking time.
If you take the net off as I did, be super gentle with it because the point of the net is to hold the meat together.
Turkey Breast in Air Fryer
You can buy bone-in turkey breast or turkey crown at your local butcher or supermarket as well. Bone-in turkey does take about an hour to cook, so it just depends on your preference.
Here are a few questions you might have before you get started. If you have others let me know below and I will try to answer them.
Air Fryer Boneless Turkey Breast
To make turkey breast in air fryer you should defrost it overnight or up to 2 days before you cook it. If you attempt to cook it from frozen the outside will cook way faster than the interior and end up very dry.
You can try our Instant Pot frozen turkey breast recipe though, that works quite well.
Yep! Cooking turkey in the air fryer is a great way to lock in the moisture and keep it from drying out. Plus, the outside gets yummy crispiness to it, which is perfection.
Using a marinade or dry rub will take it over the top though.
Typically stores will only offer 1-2 types so you may be limited. Bell and Evans tops the list followed by Eberly Organics.
Do I have to marinade turkey?
No, it’s not required, but I will tell you that if you rub it on all sides of the turkey it really locks in that flavor and gives you the ultimate results. If you want to skip it, you can make this smoked turkey rub, or use ingredients in the recipe below.
Rub them all over the turkey breast. You may need to double the spices to ensure the entire turkey breast gets covered with the rub.
Take a look at these quick step by step instructions to get you started. You can also conveniently print off the recipe card at the bottom too.
Of course timing will depend on the size of your piece of meat. You’ll want to try and find one that is close to 4 pounds with a bone, or 3 boneless. That way it will fit inside your air fryer basket well, and remain juicy and tender.
This is what you will need to pick up to make this:
Turkey Breast Air Fryer Recipe
- 3 lb. boneless turkey breast or about 4 pounds bone in size works well
- for less meat, try our air fryer turkey wings timing
- Olive oil spray will ensure a crispy outside layer or crispy skin if it’s not skinless
- Maple syrup
- Spicy mustard
- Cumin
- Paprika
- Oregano
- Salt and pepper can be added too
I promise you’ll get that same deep fried crispiness but without all of the extra calories. Great low carb recipe if you’re looking for that.
Here are quick step by step instructions, there is a printable recipe card below too though.
Marinated Turkey Breast Air Fryer
- Combine all rub ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Put turkey breast inside bowl and flip over so meat is coated well. Put into fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour to marinate.
- Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees F for 5 minutes.
- Open air fryer basket and spray meat with olive oil cooking spray.
- Place turkey breast inside basket and close. Cook for 25 minutes. Flip over to the other side, spray oil all over the turkey breast, and continue to cook for 25-30 minutes.
- Cook until middle thickest part registers 165 degrees F using an instant read thermometer.
- Remove and allow to rest for 15 to 20 minutes before slicing to maintain juiciness.
THAT is how to cook a turkey breast so it comes out over the top incredible like you see here.
When served you can sprinkle sides with salt and pepper if you want but there should be quite enough flavor as is.
How long should I let my turkey rest?
Did you know that you should do this? Like every time you make any type of sheet pan turkey, or smoked turkey… It is so important or you’ll lose a lot of the juices inside.
Yeah, they’ll leak out with every slice, but waiting at least 15 minutes will eliminate this issue.
If you always just roast turkey, try something new this year!! You won’t regret it.
What do you serve with turkey?
Well you must have some gravy of course with a side of dinner rolls. For a change the other night I made a batch of air fryer cornbread that was really good too though. If I want to cook everything at the same time I’ll pop in some cornmeal muffins into the oven though. I tend to serve air fryer vegetables with every meal as well.
Mixed together with some seasonings is healthy, and the kids now expect it and love them.
Ninja Foodi Turkey Breast
We love to serve this or air fryer turkey legs for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Using boneless skinless turkey makes a wonderful lunch or dinner idea year-round too though.
It is really cheap, feeds quite a few people, and if you don’t finish the whole thing you can make a ton of other meals with what’s left. We honestly look forward to the days after so we can make all of these:
Check out a few of our favorite ideas for using up leftover turkey recipe here, there are more below too:
Want to see a few of my favorite things that I am totally obsessed with?? Take a peek and see how many you might already have…twinsies!
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***** If you LOVED this recipe give it 5 Stars below and let everyone know what you thought about it. 😉
You can also pressure cook and air fry it using our pressure cooker turkey breast recipe here. You can use this method with an Instant Pot air fryer lid and CrispLid, or if you have a Foodi.
Happy holidays if this is the end of the year, and if not we hope this becomes a family favorite and it’s now made year round. 😉
Air Fryer Turkey Breast
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3-4 pound turkey breast 3 lb. boneless, skinless was used
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp spicy mustard
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp oregano
Instructions
- Combine all rub ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Put turkey breast inside bowl and flip over so meat is coated well. Put into fridge for 30 minutes to 1 hour to marinate.
- Preheat air fryer to 350 degrees F for 5 minutes.
- Open basket and spray with olive oil cooking spray.
- Place turkey breast inside basket and close. Cook for 25 minutes, then flip, spray top with olive oil, and continue to cook for 25-30 minutes or until middle thickest part registers 165 degrees F using an instant read thermometer.
- Remove and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing to maintain juiciness.
christine.
Saturday 19th of November 2022
can i roast a whole small chicken in my air fryer ? how long would it take ?
christine.
Saturday 19th of November 2022
@christine.,
Patricia
Saturday 12th of December 2020
How do you make your turkey gravy in the air fryer or even stove top? I only see your recipe for instant pot. This looks delicious and I want to try this. Thank you
The Typical Mom
Monday 14th of December 2020
I have only shared an IP gravy recipe. This will yield a bit of turkey juices under the air fryer basket. You could use that, dump into a pan on stovetop and thicken with some cornstarch. If there isn't enough, add a bit of stock.