How Long To Cook Frozen Chicken Breast In Air Fryer?

Learn how long to cook frozen chicken breast in air fryer as part of our air fryer back to basics series.

Let us share with you the ideal frozen chicken breast air fryer cooking time and temperature, as well as a master recipe that you can keep as is or make your own.

Frozen Chicken Breast In Air Fryer

When you cook frozen chicken breast in the air fryer its all about the perfect time and temperature. We spent years experimenting with frozen chicken breast just to get it spot on.

We found that too high a temperature and you had awful dried out chicken breast, and the same problem if you cooked your chicken breast for too long.

It was during the experimenting for our 2^nd air fryer cookbook (Air Fryer Easy Everyday) that we played about with our air fryer chicken marinades and realised that a frozen chicken breast in a marinade cooked in the air fryer, is the best way to cook chicken breasts.

Today, we will be running through our top FAQ for frozen chicken breasts, how long to cook frozen chicken breasts in air fryer depending on the type you are doing and so much more. Plus, you have the chance to grab our free air fryer time and temperature printable which features plenty of chicken ideas!

The Complete Air Fryer Cooking Guide

The Complete Air Fryer Cooking Guide is new for 2024, following on from our first air fryer cookbook. Our first cookbook sold over 160,000 copies worldwide is still selling well and has changed the way people use the air fryer.

In this newer mini book, we provide you with the air fryer cooking times and temperatures for more than 275 everyday air fryer foods. It also highlights with symbols when to flip, shake and spray your air fryer food.

Read more about The Complete Air Fryer Cooking Guide here.

Free Air Fryer Time & Temperature Printable

During the pre-order promotion of our first air fryer cookbook “The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook”. We gave away a free time and temperature air fryer chart of a lot of the single item foods that were featured in the cookbook.

It was a HUGE success and you asked for, so here I am with more for you. A FREE air fryer time and temperature chart that features the top 30 most cooked air fryer food including these yummy air fryer frozen egg rolls. You will no longer have to scroll whilst cooking dinner, because you can print it out and save it for later!

Can You Cook Frozen Chicken Breast In An Air Fryer?

Yes, you can cook frozen chicken breast in air fryer, you just need to be careful of the time and temperature that you use and that your chicken is fully cooked.

We highly recommend a thermometer like this one to make sure chicken is fully cooked (this goes for all our air fryer chicken recipes)

Is It Safe To Defrost Chicken In Air Fryer?

Yes, it is fully safe to use the air fryer to defrost chicken. You can use your instant pot, air fryer, or Ninja foodi to defrost chicken, but not your slow cooker. This is because the slow cooker doesn’t get hot enough to kill off the bacteria.

Please see our Ninja Foodi Frozen Chicken Breast recipe for how you can use the pressure cooker element to defrost chicken, or simply follow our air fryer frozen chicken breast details.

What About Ninja Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breast?

If cooking frozen chicken breast in air fryer ninja, it’s the same thing as a standard air fryer, just that you have a two drawer setup.

What we prefer about the Ninja is that we can firstly use both drawers to cook frozen chicken in bulk, or we can do one drawer with frozen chicken breast and the other with your dinner sides.

Or even better, we love this air fryer paper liner and they fit perfectly in the air fryer drawers. Perfect for marinated frozen chicken!

Best Way To Cook Frozen Chicken Breast In Air Fryer?

I find that the best way to cook chicken breast and to prevent them from drying out is to cook them in a marinade and marinate the chicken a few hours before air frying.

You can always tell such a difference when you use the marinade:

• It is moist
• It is flavoursome
• It is never dry

Plus, if you hate cleaning your air fryer, you can also cook the chicken breast directly in the foil tray container, like you can see we have done below.

Air Fryer Easy Everyday

In our first air fryer cookbook, The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook (get it here) we taught you how to cook chicken breast with a simple dry rub.

But in our 2^nd air fryer cookbook Air Fryer Easy Everyday (get it here) we were asked to show you how to flavour your chicken and we did just that in our meal prep section.

So, if you want to give your frozen chicken breasts the wow factor, we recommend that you plan an hour, maybe once a month, where you marinate the chicken for the freezer. Then you will have plenty of ways to enjoy your air fryer chicken without feeling like mealtimes are getting boring.

Can You Recommend An Air Fryer?

I often get asked which air fryers I recommend and which one I use. In 95% of our air fryer recipes, we use either the Philips Air Fryer XL or the Cosori XL because they are the best ones, we have found out of many air fryers we have tried over the years. You can click on the links above and read up on them. But if you would rather have a dual air fryer we recommend this Ninja Dual (make sure you order the right one as not all are good) or the Philips Dual.

How To Cook Frozen Chicken Breast In Air Fryer?

• Remove. Remove the chicken breasts from the freezer.
• Prepare. If your chicken breasts are in cling film/plastic wrap or in a freezer bag remove it and transfer to a paper liner in the air fryer. You can also cook your frozen chicken breasts directly in a foil tray. 
• Cook. Place the frozen chicken breasts into the air fryer and air fry at 160c/320f for 38 minutes.
• Internal. Important – make sure you use a thermometer to double check that the chicken at its thickest part has reached an internal temperature of 70c/160f or above.
• Season. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

That is how simple it is cooking frozen chicken breast in air fryer but now let’s talk all about the time and temp.

Air Fryer Coronation Chicken

I love a meal upgrade on some organised meal prep. What we did was air fry frozen chicken breasts using the curry yoghurt marinade from our air fryer chicken marinades collection. Then once it had been cooked we added to a bowl a couple of big dollops of mayonnaise, a handful of raisins and shredded some of the chicken. Added in some extra marinade that had gone to the bottom of the foil container and mixed.

We then had a delicious air fryer coronation chicken topping and paired it with our air fryer jacket potatoes. Talk about a match made in heaven!

How Long To Cook Frozen Chicken Breasts In Air Fryer?

To cook frozen boneless chicken breasts in air fryer, the cook time is 38 minutes at 160c/320f. This is for medium chicken breasts that you have bought from the grocery store and are not overly big or overly small.

Cooking at a lower temperature will ensure that your chicken breasts are cooked all the way through without drying out.

Remember to always check for an internal temperature of 70c/160f or above when your chicken breasts have finished cooking to ensure they are properly cooked.

How long for large frozen chicken breast in air fryer? If you are air frying large chicken breasts, I would follow the same rule as when you are air frying thawed chicken breasts like I do in our how long to cook chicken breasts in air fryer guide.

That is that we go up in intervals of 5 minutes for small medium and large. So given that I would add an extra 5 minutes to the cooking time for frozen large chicken breasts.

What about frozen pre cooked chicken breast in air fryer? For already cooked chicken breasts, you are simply using the air fryer to reheat frozen chicken.

With this in mind I would recommend an air fryer temperature of 150c/320f and a cooking time of 15 minutes. Because you want to reheat, not cook again the chicken.

How long for instant pot air fryer frozen chicken breast? We find that the instant pot air fryers are slower than a standard air fryer. With this in mind, we recommend instead air frying the frozen air fryer chicken breast at 180c/360f but keeping the same cooking time. For more about this and adjusting based on air fryer brands check out the complete air fryer cookbook and our air fryer temperature test.

What About Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breast Strips? For air fryer frozen chicken breast strips, as they are much smaller, you only need to cook them at 180c/360f for 12 minutes.

Make The Frozen Chicken Breast A Meal

Plus, don’t forget more chicken you can cook in the air fryer. Our favourites include air fryer chicken drumsticks, air fryer thawed chicken breast, air fryer whole chicken, ninja foodi whole chicken, and air fryer frozen chicken wings.

Learn all about cooking frozen chicken breast in air fryer below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.

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