Air Fryer Chicken Strips
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Homemade air fryer chicken strips are a game changer! There’s no reason to buy them frozen or take-out. It’s quick and easy to make fresh air fried chicken strips in under 30 minutes.
Air Fryer Chicken Strips
Making your own air fryer chicken strips costs less and more wholesome when they’re homemade. If you buy organic chicken breasts, then they’re even better. By air frying them, they are way healthier than deep frying. Even if you made a baked batch, we found that they don’t get as crispy in the regular oven as they do in the air fryer.
Video: How to Make Homemade Air Fried Chicken Strips
How to Air Fry Chicken Strips (Fresh, Homemade)
- Choose your breading: regular bread crumbs, panko, low carb almond flour or keto friendly crushed pork finds. What ever you use, don’t let it burn in the air fryer! The hot circulating air will blow around the dry breading, which will touch the heating coils and burn. So it’s important that you spray enough oil on the bread to hold it to the chicken.
- Spray enough oil to cover the breading evenly so it doesn’t blow around and burn. You need enough oil spray to make chicken crispy. If you miss oiling any breading spots, they will cook dry and hard, not crispy.
- Cut your chicken strips smaller for a more crunchy bite.
- Refer to the recipe box below for all recipe details and instructions.
Better Than Frozen. We have a recipe/time/temps here for frozen chicken tenders and frozen chicken nuggets, but if you can make these fresh, even better! You can season the chicken the way you want and cook it to your personal liking.
Can You Freeze These?
Yes, you totally can! Just make sure they are cooked through and completely cooked. Then freeze them in air tight freezer safe containers or bags. When it comes time to re-heating follow the time and temp here.
Air Fryer Chicken Strips {Crispy}
Ingredients
- 1 pound (454 g) chicken tenders , or boneless skinless chicken breast, tenders, or thighs
- 1-2 cups (240-480 ml) Panko – or breading of choice-breadcrumbs, crushed pork rinds, almond flour, etc
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt , or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) black pepper , or to taste
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon (5 ml) paprika
- Cooking Spray
Equipment
- Perforated Silicone Mats (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the Air Fryer at 370°F/188°C for 4 minutes.
- If not using tenders, cut the chicken into strips. Make sure they are evenly sized. The thicker they are, the longer they will take to cook.
- Combine the seasonings (salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika). Season the chicken strips with the spices. Put the Panko (or breading of choice) in a bowl large enough to dredge the chicken. In another bowl, beat the eggs until smooth.
- Coat the chicken cutlets strips in egg, then in the Panko (or breading of choice). Press chicken strips into the Panko so that it sticks and completely coats the chicken. Repeat for all chicken pieces.
- Generously spray both all sides of all the coated chicken with oil spray to coat all dry spots. If you have air fryer parchment sheets or a perforated silicone mat, lay one in the air fryer basket. Lay the coated chicken strips in a single layer, don’t overlap them.
- Air Fry at 370°F/190°C for 6 minutes. Gently flip the tenders and lightly spray any dry spots. Continue to air fry for another 2-8 minutes (depending on the size and thickness of your tenders), or until they are crispy brown or internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F/74°C. ??Serve chicken strips with your favorite dip: ketchup, mustard, bbq sauce, etc.
Notes
- Make sure to spray with oil to completely coat the breading.
- Shake or turn if needed.
- Don’t overcrowd the air fryer basket. Cook in batches if needed.
- If you don’t want to pre-heat the air fryer, just add a couple minutes to your first batch.
- Adjust cooking time as needed for your make/model of air fryer.
- Remember to set a timer to shake/flip/toss as directed in recipe.
If your air fryer is preheated or if you are cooking multiple batches, you may need to reduce timing by a few minutes (unless preheating is called for in the recipe).
Video
Nutrition Information per Serving
Try different dips with crispy chicken strips
We love dipping chicken strips in sauces. There’s so many delicious options beyond the ketchup and mustard! Try our homemade easy honey mustard sauce recipe. BBQ sauce, ranch, sriracha, chili crisp and spicy mayo are just a few ideas. The delicious possibilities are endless.
Different Boxed Chicken Coatings and Breadings
There’s some great prepared chicken breadings and coatings. Here’s some delicious ones to try if you want something different .
More Easy Recipes
- Craving more chicken recipes? check out all our air fryer chicken recipes here.
- Frozen chicken tenders in the air fryer
- Air Fryer frozen chicken nuggets
- Doritos Crusted Chicken strips
8 Comments on “Air Fryer Chicken Strips”
I love how the air fryer makes the chicken tenders perfectly crispy. It’s a really great recipe.
These are definitely my favorite chicken tenders recipe by far. Your steps were really easy and the air fryer did all the work. Loved that.
I couldn’t believe how easy it was to make my own chicken tenders at home. Loved how easy it was.
Cooking these tenders are the best in the air fryer. Loved that I’m not using as much oil as when frying them.
These look amazing, simple, and delicious. I like doing big batch cooking and the family pack of tenders is always less expensive. Could you freeze these and if so, would you freeze before or after they are cooked?
I’m in love with these crispy tenders. I’m definitely bookmarking this recipe.
The kids are absolutely in love with these. I’ll be making them from now on.
First time making these and they turned out great! I didn’t have the panko and used regular Italian bread crumbs. These are a keeper!