Homemade Chicken Nuggets Air Fryer

This is how to make and cook homemade chicken nuggets in air fryer with no egg. It’s a great Chick Fil A copycat recipe, lightly breaded like air fryer frozen chicken nuggets but made from scratch.

Ingredient Notes

Cubed boneless skinless chicken breasts are what we used here, I imagine you could use thighs. I like medium sizes, organic and free range for the best texture and flavor. You want the pieces to be of equal size and large bite sizes. For larger air fryer chicken breasts they would take more time of course. If you want to use ground turkey or chicken, follow our homemade chicken nuggets with ground chicken recipe.

All purpose flour and some Powdered sugar aka confectioners sugar will coat the outside to make a sort of light breading without breadcrumbs used at all. For seasonings we are going to use some Salt and pepper and Paprika.

Your marinade to make the meat super tender and flavorful is actually Pickle juice (dill)! You could skip this step but it won’t taste like your favorite fast food chain if you do. You can use what’s in your jar at home and have a snack at the same time with a few dills while you’re at it. 😉

You are going to get the coating to stick nicely with egg or this is How to Bread Chicken Without Eggs. I prefer using mayonnaise if I am making a batch without them because it sticks flour or breadcrumbs well with some added tenderness and flavor too.

Olive oil cooking spray is needed for most chicken in air fryer recipes to get the outside nice and crispy. BUT they use peanut oil so if you want that authentic taste you’d need to add that to a kitchen spray bottle.

How Long to Cook Homemade Chicken Nuggets in Air Fryer

You are looking at about 8 minutes total but you will want to flip them over to get the ultimate crunchy texture. Time will vary lightly depending on how large your chunks are of course but I’d check at 6 if small and every minute after that. When cut in the middle juices should run clear with no pink color. If starting with frozen chicken breast in air fryer you would need to cook halfway, cut into chunks and follow these steps.

Tips

Tips to remember when making this Cosori air fryer recipe or with any other hot air machine is to always preheat your machine, this will make it cook more evenly. Make pieces the same size so they’re all done at the same time and don’t get too done. Lay meat on paper towels so the outsides are dry before breading so it sticks.

What does soaking chicken in pickle juice do?

It will add flavor and more importantly will make it more tender. You can drain some of the liquid out of your Vlasic or Claussen jar or this is how to make pickles at home to use. Then use some of that. Once you have your meat cut into about 1″ pieces you’ll start by marinating it for just a bit. I mean you can let it sit longer than 30 minutes if you want a much stronger dill flavor.

How to cut chicken breast into nuggets

This is easy, easier if you freeze them for about 1 hours. They will get stiffer so using a sharp knife it will slide right thru so the edges are straight. Hold one hand on one side and slice into thick strips. Then rotate all of those the other way and cut into 1×1″ cubes.

You’ll need two shallow bowls so you can create the coating for the outside. This will create crispy chicken nuggets air frying style. Ensure that each piece of chicken is in 1″ size pieces and all are the same so they cook evenly.

If you are making a large batch have a sheet pan handy. Then you can bread them, set them on the pan and lay a single layer of pieces in each time. Cook, remove from air fryer basket, and add another batch and bake chicken nuggets again until they’re all done. If you serve it with a batch of frozen waffle fries air fryer style you’ll get the full restaurant affect.

FAQ

What goes best with chicken nuggets?

Super kid friendly if you serve them with all sorts of different dipping sauces on the side! I’m telling you that you’ll be the coolest mom if you serve it this way for dinner some night. Plate for everyone with chicken divided up. Then put some of each sauce in a small dixie cup to dip away!

You could just sprinkle parmesan cheese on top if you wanted a less messy option. Honey mustard dip is easy and you can get it ready made in a jar. Our bang bang shrimp sauce is incredible, or Qdoba salsa verde for a bit of spice. The most popular would be ketchup or how to make fry sauce around here.

How do you make leftover chicken nuggets crunchy?

The only way to go is reheating chicken in air fryer, hands down, don’t microwave or the breading will just slide right off. In the fridge the texture on the outside will become gooey and not great. It needs a flash of hot air to crisp it up for a few minutes.

It all comes down to spraying oil on the outsides. Spray coated chicken pieces with peanut or olive oil spray. When full but pieces are not overlapping cook for 8 minutes flipping pieces over halfway through. For extra crispy pieces spray with olive oil again after flipping over at minute 4. To make homemade air fryer fish nuggets follow this recipe too!!