12 June, 2025
Air Fryer Chicken Tenders
This is easier than you think, and it is healthier than store-bought. I used ChatGPT to base my recipe and then I added my own pizazz.
Ingredients:
Whole chicken breast – as much as you want to make
The Wet- I prefer to use 2-3 Eggs. That is mostly because I usually don’t have milk in the house and certainly not buttermilk. Ideally you soak the chicken in buttermilk with a little Tabasco or hot sauce in the fridge for an hour. If you plan you can do it overnight. On the fly, if you have milk and a little bit of vinegar, that does a similar flavor profile.
The Dry – Breading of your choice. This can be Stove Top stuffing, Panko crumbs, tortilla chips, cornflakes, or anything else you can think of. The pictured chicken used Stove Top Stuffing, which was a little harder than I expected to smash and grind, but so tasty!
Spices- salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, and whatever else you wish.
Directions
Cut your raw chicken breast into strips that have a maximum width of one inch. Trim all of the fat off of it in the process. Spice the chicken as you see fit. ChatGPT had salt, pepper, paprika, and garlic powder. Depending on your breading you should add more because there’s a lot of good stuff out there to add to these things.
Make a bowl with your wet, in the picture case it was beaten eggs. Then make a bowl or use a Ziploc bag or paper bag for your dry. If you’re using something like Stove Top stuffing or tortilla chips, you want it to be broken up well but not a fine powder. The food processor used moderately can help make this faster. I’m usually banging things on the counter.
Place your spiced chicken in the wet for a minute. Then transfer it to your dry. Do your best to get the most coating you can to stick. Use a canola oil spray for the bottom of the air fryer. Also, do your best to spray each side of the chicken when placing it in the fryer. This will help make it crispy.
Place in air fryer in one layer. I am at high altitude and set the air fryer at 380 to 390 for 13 minutes, flipping once. In the last 3 to 4 minutes you should check the cook with a digital thermometer. Your smaller chickens might be done and your bigger chickens might need to remain for the last minutes. Minimum cooking temperature for chicken is 165 degrees.
My process is to cook in batches. There is always more chicken than space in the air fryer. A small tip I use is to set the timer for more than I need. When one batch is done I will add more time to the cook timer for the next batch. That way I’m not doing the cycle down and restart time each go around. I do empty all the dry bits that fall off the chicken in between every batch.
Now in this picture, you will know it is on a plate and that is a mistake. Laying this hot chicken on a plate makes the underside immediately get soggy after a few minutes. You should put this on a tray with a wire rack. Enjoy!!
