Why It Works
- Using bone-in chicken breasts protects the meat from drying out and allows for higher-temperature cooking.
- A dry brine seasons the chicken thoroughly and effectively dries the skin, resulting in juicy, flavorful meat with well-browned skin.
If you have an air fryer, chicken is likely one of the first things you cooked in the device. There’s no doubt that the air fryer is a quick and easy way to make chicken, but all too often that chicken is dry and bland, especially when you’re dealing with lean breasts. We know from testing recipes that you can’t simply throw meat into an air fryer and expect it to come out juicy and flavorful, so we asked our test kitchen colleague and veteran recipe developer Julia Levy to come up with what we described as a basic method for air-fryer chicken breasts that are perfectly cooked, flavorful, and juicy—juiciness being key. Through numerous tests and tweaks, Levy did just that. Read on for the basic recipe, tips for getting the moistest, most flavorful chicken in the air fryer, and five variations on the basic recipe, including miso-ginger, chipotle-lime, and Dijon-thyme.
3 Simple Tips for the Best Air-Fryer Chicken Breasts
Choose bone-in, skin-on breasts. While boneless, skinless chicken breasts are convenient, we recommend using bone-in skin-on chicken breasts for the most succulent results. With a device that cooks things as quickly as an air fryer, the tiny bit of extra cooking time doesn’t make enough of a difference to forgo the bones and the pay-off in terms of tendernessand beautifully browned chicken is high. Plus, you get crispy skin! If that’s not your thing, first, we need to talk… And, second, you can always remove the skin after cooking.
Dry-brine the breasts for juicier, more flavorful meat. We’re longtime proponents of dry brining—it’s a simple process that makes for much juicier, more flavorful meat, and, unlike wet brining, it doesn’t involve a vat of liquid sloshing around in your fridge. In this recipe, we call for simply rubbing the meat with a combination of kosher salt and baking powder, then letting it sit for a minimum of four hours in the fridge.
Add some baking powder to the dry brine for crispy skin. As we’ve noted before (see Niki Achitoff-Gray’s article about crispy chicken and turkey skin), baking powder is slightly alkaline and raises the pH level in the chicken skin. This allows proteins to break down more efficiently, leading to crispier, evenly browned skin. Achitoff-Gray notes that as the baking powder comes together with the bird’s natural juices, carbon dioxide gases form, producing « a layer of tiny bubbles » that « increase the skin’s surface area, allowing it to develop a crunchy texture once cooked. »
Save the schmaltz. If you have drippings in the bottom of the air fryer after cooking, save it for roasting potatoes, making matzo balls, and any other recipe where you want some tasty chicken-y flavor.
Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze
Editor’s Note
This recipe was developed by Julia Levy; the headnote was written by Megan Steintrager.
