Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Thighs
Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Thighs – quick to make, juicy, flavorful and delicious. Perfect for lunch or dinner. Pair with your favorite salad, vegetables or potatoes. Use in sandwiches, grain bowls or wraps. Ready in 20 minutes with minimal ingredients and prep work. Low carb, Keto and Paleo friendly.
This is seriously the easiest way to cook boneless skinless chicken thighs. I’ve already shared with you my love for chicken thighs. I use these very often in my recipes. Love the fact that they are easy to find and cook fast. Still a healthy option, not breaded, made with minimal amount of oil. In fact you can skip the oil in this recipe, if you’d like.
Boneless skinless chicken thighs
You can never go wrong with these – juicy, flavorful “dark” chicken meat. Harder to overcook than chicken breast meat. Thighs have three times the amount of fat that chicken breasts have. They are still my preferred option for most of my recipes.
I usually purchase a big batch at Costco and keep them in the freezer. This way, when I’m ready to cook them, I defrost in the fridge overnight.
An average skinless boneless chicken thigh is usually around 3 oz (85 grams) and I usually plan on serving 2 of these per person.
You can easily cook and store this chicken in air tight containers in the fridge for up to 1 week. This way you can pack for lunch or reheat for dinner, add to sandwiches or salads.
Why cook chicken thighs in the Air Fryer? Can’t you just bake them? I do have a recipe for baked chicken thighs, but it takes way longer than 15 minutes to cook them in the oven.
The Air Fryer is more like a Fancy/Small Convection Oven (“On Steroids”)! It is more like an oven, than a fryer. Hot air circulates inside and created even and perfectly cooked foods, like these thighs. The foods stay crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
Seasoning
Any chicken seasoning of your choice can be used in this recipe.
My “to to” seasoning for these is salt, black pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika (or regular paprika) and oregano. Cajun, lemon pepper, garlic, spicy or any combination of spices that you like on chicken can be added to these boneless thighs.
You can even marinate the chicken. You can see my favorite chicken marinade in this Grilled Chicken Thighs Recipe.
I personally don’t think there is any need to marinate the thighs for air frying. They will remain perfectly juicy when seasoned with the dry spices.
If you decide to marinate them, make sure you pat dry them well, before placing in the air fryer.
How long to cook boneless chicken thighs in the air fryer for?
After seasoning the boneless skinless chicken thighs, turn the Air Fryer on.
There is no need to preheat it. Make sure the basket is clean. You can spray the bottom with cooking spray.
Cook boneless skinless chicken thighs at 360 F (180 C) for 15 minutes, until the chicken reaches temperature of 165 F. Take out of the Air Fryer and let the meat rest for 2-3 minutes, before serving.
For bone in skin on chicken thighs, cook at 360 F (180 C) for 25 minutes (or longer, until the chicken meat reaches a temperature of 165 F (74 C).
What to serve with?
I like serving these with Cabbage Salad or Roasted potatoes.
More serving suggestions:
More recipes with chicken thighs:
- Baked Caprese chicken thighs
- Top 10 boneless skinless chicken thigh recipes
- Bacon wrapped chicken thighs
Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 4 Boneless skinless chicken thighs — 3-4 ounces each
- 1 tsp Salt
- 1/4 tsp Black pepper
- 1/2 tsp Smoked paprika
- 1 tsp Garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp Oregano
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil — coconut oil for Keto
- Cooking spray with vegetable oil
Instructions
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In a small bowl combine the ingredients for the seasoning.
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Rub the chicken thighs with oil then coat in seasoning.
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Cook in the air fryer for 15 minutes (or a little longer) at 360 F (180 C). You can spray with oil every 5 minutes (optional).
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Towards the 12 minute mark, start checking the temperature of the thighs, they need to reach a temperature of 165 F (75 C)in order to be safe to consume.
The recipe says “keto friendly” but keto opposes the use of vegetable oil as it is unhealthy and causes inflammation. Macadamia oil or coconut oil would be safe to cook at high temperatures and are healthier and keto friendly.
I followed this recipe to the letter. It came out delicious and awesome. Thank you for the fantastic recipe using the air fryer. I’m still learning how to use it and tonight was a great night to try it. Too hot for the oven and too rainy to grill this August day. LOL.
I love serving them with chili
The seasoning is delicious but the cook time was way off. Maybe it was a difference in air fryers but it was nowhere near done in the stated cook time. I had to more than double the cook time. It was probably still better than if I had done it in the oven.
Hi,
I have no idea what Air Fryer you are using and this is why I always advise to check the temperature of the meat. It is impossible to test the recipe on all the different kinds of Air Fryers that exist. Mine is Phillips Air fryer XXL. Also the size of the chicken thighs matters.
Very good and very easy to prepare! Cooks quickly in the air fryer and didn’t dry out. I used a Kalorik Maxx Air Fryer/oven to make. I used coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil. We had no leftovers but if we did, they would have been great in a salad or for lunch the next day. Will be making again.
This was extremely easy and incredibly delicious. We’ve literally had it 4 nights in a row (and tonight will be #5). Thank you for sharing.
I wish I could give this recipe 100 stars. It was that good. I used olive oil instead of vegetable oil. And in the big boss air fryer, your times were perfect. I didn’t check the temp at all, just went by the time and made sure the boss was fullu preheated. 2 days later the chicken thighs taste even better. I will definitely make these again