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An air fryer is the secret to this juicy but lower-fat fried chicken.
Yes, You Do Need An Air Fryer!
I hesitated buying an air fryer for a long time. It was an appliance I didn’t think I needed since I had a rather nice deep-fat flash fryer.
However, what I found was I was approaching the air fryer thinking that it would more or less duplicate what I already had. Since I don’t make fried food that often–and it’s not for health reasons it’s just that deep frying tends to make your house, well, smell!
What an air fryer actually is is a small, super-powerful convection oven. Once I learned the way it operated, I took the plunge and bought one. And you’d be amazed at all the things you can prepare in this. Generally speaking, if you can cook it in your oven, you can cook it in an air fryer. Just remember that space is pretty limited so you can’t do sheet cakes or turkeys or stuff such as that.
Now Let’s Talk About Chicken
Chicken is one of my favorite things to eat and it just so happens it’s one of my favorite things to make in the air fryer.
I find chicken does not dry out and it cooks in less time than a regular oven. I wanted to put some air fried chicken to the test mainly because I love the stuff and people said it was awesome made in this appliance.
The recipe is pretty basic. One thing I did do was soak the chicken in a buttermilk mixture for about an hour. This will make the chicken a lot more juicy. This air fried chicken also has the crispiest coating I’ve ever tasted. And remember, I’m comparing it to traditional deep fried.
Seasoned Flour And A Pump Spray Oil Bottle
If you have a great-tasting seasoned flour recipe, by all means use it here. I have a good one too but lots of folks on one of my Facebook groups love the flavor of Kentucky Kernel. I figured what the heck and that I could try it. One caveat is it’s a bit pricy for what it actually is but it does save time and it tastes great.
Of course you can cook this oil free, but you’ll get a much better result if you lightly spray with a bit of oil. This is the oil sprayer I use. Basically it’s easy to clean and it was highly rated. I have Mistos but I really don’t like them since they are hard to clean and remember any oil residue will get rancid…YUK. One or two quick sprays on both sides is all you’ll need.
Crispy Low-Fat Fried Chicken
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken cut up, or equivalent parts
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 tbs hot sauce
- 1 cup seasoned flour such as Kentucky Kernel flour
- oil for spraying
Instructions
- Mix buttermilk and hot sauce.
- Place chicken in a large bowl and pour the buttermilk mixture over it. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
- Put the seasoned flour either in a large bowl or plastic bag. Dredge chicken in the flour.
- Place chicken in the air fryer basket; spray with oil and cook at 380 degrees F for 30 minutes, turning the chicken half way through the cook time and spraying the turned side with oil.
Nutrition
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Helen says
Not sure what I did wrong … just got our Air Fryer … my chicken was skin free but followed the recipe completely. Most if not all breading stuck to fryer or fell off. Could you help me as to what I might have done wrong?
Judith Hanneman says
Hi Helen–I would try oiling the basket of the fryer but brush it with regular oil and don’t use Pam. I didn’t have to do this with this chicken, but a good method for getting breading to stick to whatever you’re cooking is to make sure that the flour is almost like paste–which should happen here because of the buttermilk soak, but if you refrigerate the breaded pieces for about an hour, the breading will adhere. This is messy, I won’t lie, but it does work. Only other thing I can think of is you may have crowded the basket. Many people swear by the parchment rounds they sell to line the fryer basket. I bought them off Amazon but to be honest, I find them more trouble than they’re worth, but your mileage may vary.
Ron says
When you say drain the chicken, do you also rinse it or do you just drain and leave what buttermilk that clings to the chicken pieces?
Judith Hanneman says
Just drain off the excess buttermilk–and leave what clings.
Baxter says
This was amazing! Kids and i ate it and everyone loved it.
Judith Hanneman says
Love my air fryer!!! And this chicken is the bomb!!!