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You must try air fryer snack bags. The ultimate air fryer chicken meal prep recipe, with 7 different flavour options and much cheaper than buying your own chicken slices from the supermarket.
Use this chicken meal prep recipe for snacking, to add into meals or even for making into delicious chicken salads.
Table of Contents
- Tesco Chicken Slices
- Can You Make Chicken Slices In Air Fryer?
- Can You Freeze Cooked Chicken Slices?
- Air Fryer Meal Prep 101
- Chicken Slice Price Comparison
- Free: Chicken Marinades Grocery List
- Snack Bags Recipe Ingredients
- Can You Recommend An Air Fryer?
- How To Make Air Fryer Sliced Chicken?
- Chicken Tikka Slices
- How Long To Cook Sliced Chicken Breast In Air Fryer?
- Recipes With Sliced Chicken
- Get Air Fryer Confident
- More Air Fryer Resources
- More Air Fryer Chicken Recipes
- Air Fryer Snack Bags Recipe
- Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
Tesco Chicken Slices
Okay, so I am sure you have not heard of chicken snack bags before, and wondering what on earth they are!
Well, the idea came about when I was researching (with my 8 year old Sofia) fresh ideas to feature in our new cookbook Air Fryer Easy Everyday. In fact, the beautiful photograph you see above, is from the cookbook.
She is now almost 10, but back then we were in Tesco’s with a big trolley, wondering if any ideas would scream out to feature in our new air fryer cookbook. I was looking for easy…..everyday recipes that can also save you money and was using my local Tesco’s for inspiration.
We grabbed all sorts of weird and random things and then I was at the end of the aisle where they sell the chicken slices. I.e. those already cooked thin slices of chicken breast that have been flavoured.
I remembered how much my dad loved chicken tikka slices and how he would always buy some when we were shopping and thought how ideal they would be for the air fryer.
But the mark up on the supermarket version is huge. Like it is with any cooked meat that you buy when shopping when you need a quick fix.
What if we could make our own?
Then we could cook the flavoured chicken breast in the air fryer, slice it, bag it and you had your very own equivalent at home to the prepared classic. It could then have a prime position in our air fryer meal prep chapter of our new cookbook.
This is exactly what I wanted to share with you today and what is amazing about our air fryer snack bags is the ability to mix and match flavours and use them however you want.
Can You Make Chicken Slices In Air Fryer?
Yes, you can make any of your favourite chicken slices in the air fryer and its just perfect for that quick chicken fix. We all know those jokes about being in front of the fridge, starving and wanting to snack on anything. Well what if you make ahead some chicken slices using the air fryer?
Can You Freeze Cooked Chicken Slices?
Or another option is garlic toast pizza. Which works in a similar way. For the garlic toast pizza air fryer recipe you instead can use garlic butter as your pizza sauce, then fill it up with cheese and you have a delightful garlic toast pizza.
Air Fryer Meal Prep 101
So, in our Air Fryer Easy Everyday cookbook we have a chapter dedicated to meal prep and always felt that we wanted to share more with you about meal prep, so created our air fryer meal prep 101 course. It has videos to go with all the meal prep and we found ourselves doing a lot with air fryer marinated chicken.
But our favourite was the simplicity of what we are sharing with you today and that is prepping some chicken breast, air frying it and then slicing it.
Though if air fryer meal prep is something that you want to start with, but don’t know what to do first, then these chicken snack bags are ideal. But before we dive into the recipe and method, let me share with you how much money you can be saving.
Chicken Slice Price Comparison
So how much of a mark up are you talking, when you buy chicken slices from Tesco, or another favourite supermarket? Well, lets check shall we and note all these prices are correct as of 15th July 2024.
- Tesco Chicken Slices – £1.88 per 100g sold in a 160g pack for £3.00. If we bought the raw chicken breasts, they would be 72p per 100g sold as 650g for £4.70. So, you could meal prep 6.5 packs of fresh chicken breasts for £4.70 vs £12.22 shop bought.
- Aldi Chicken Slices – £1.49 per 100g sold in a 180g pack for £2.69. Then the raw chicken breasts sell at £4.49 for 650g. Meaning that you would get 6.5 packs for £9.69 vs £4.49.
- Asda Chicken Slices – £1.84 per 100g sold in 160g pack for £2.95. But buy the packs of raw chicken breasts then you will pay £4.25 for 600g. These packs are slightly smaller so comparing to Tesco and Aldi it works out at £11.96 for 650g of flavoured chicken slices vs £4.60 for 650g weight.
- Sainsburys Chicken Slices – I have always avoided Sainsburys thinking they would be rather expensive, plus I have never had one near to where I live. It works out at £1.86 per 100g or £3.35 for 180g. Whilst the chicken breasts work out at £4.42 for 640g. Or for the comparison we have rounded it up to 650g and then converted it is £12.09 or £4.49.
- M&S Chicken Slices – £3.25 per 100g or £3.90 per 120g pack. Then for chicken breasts its £3.75 per 300g. Then converted to a 650g comparison its £21.12 for marks and spencer chicken slices or £8.12 for the chicken breasts. Though do note this is based on Ocado and that prices in store may vary.
This makes M&S the most expensive, followed by Sainsbury’s, then Tesco, Asda and finally Aldi.
But what is crazy is the mark up on the chicken breast slices and how it is so much easier to make your own.
But what about how much more it would cost you to make chicken breast into chicken slices at home. Well, we know the air fryer costs hardly anything to run, but what about the marinades.
Our chicken marinades for the air fryer include lots of herbs and spices you already have in, so your costs are fairly low.
A 650g pack of chicken breasts is likely to include 4 medium-large breasts and therefore you will need just one marinade. It would cost £10.33 to make all 7 of our marinades, so the extra cost if you don’t have any marinade ingredients in would be £1.48.
So, if you add £1.48 to the raw chicken breast prices above, your own homemade chicken slices would still be considerably cheaper.
Free: Chicken Marinades Grocery List
You can find the 7 chicken marinades that we are obsessed with here. But what I find really useful (we used it when we made them) is having a grocery list printable. That way you can tick off what you have in and plan your shopping around what is left. Simply download it below – its free!
Snack Bags Recipe Ingredients
Now lets jump into our air fryer chicken meal prep. Once you have your marinade planned (see the list above) then its easy peasy.
Chicken – We recommend 4 chicken breasts or 650g/1.5lb of boneless skinless chicken breast.
Marinade – One marinade will do 4 chicken breasts, simply choose one of our 7 marinades, or mix it up if you prefer. You can also batch prep your chicken breasts and do 7 lots of marinated chicken and remember it freezes well.
Accessories – Then whichever accessory you prefer for the air fryer because marinades can make your air fryer dirty. We like to use these paper liners, or some 7*7 foil trays/pans.
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 Make Air Fryer Sliced Chicken?
- Marinate. Start by mixing your marinade ingredients. You can do this in a bowl, in a zip loc bag, or directly in a foil tray. Then allow your chicken to marinate for at least 2 hours, or you can label up and freeze later.
- Cook. When ready place your chicken breasts into the air fryer either on a paper liner or in a foil tray or you can also use a silicone container. Air fry the chicken breasts for 15 minutes for small, 20 minutes for medium, or 25 minutes for large at 180c/360f.
- Cool. When the air fryer beeps, allow to cool, then using a chef’s knife chop into thin slices to be like Tesco cooked chicken slices, or thicker if you prefer.
- Bag. Then bag up your chicken slices and place in the fridge or the freezer for snacking on.
Now that is how simple it is to meal prep your own chicken breast slices. Of course, you can mix and match it with favourite seasonings and flavours to suit your mood.
Chicken Tikka Slices
Are chicken tikka slices your favourite? Then simply make our curry yoghurt marinade and then add in 1 tsp of chicken tikka paste. Its delicious and reminds of the chicken tikka slices my dad always bought from Iceland.
How Long To Cook Sliced Chicken Breast In Air Fryer?
You made our chicken snack bags but rather have them warm. If that is you simply place them into the drawer/basket of your air fryer and air fry for 3 minutes at 160c/320f. Because they are thin, they really don’t take long.
Recipes With Sliced Chicken
Beyond standing in front of the fridge snacking on your sliced chicken breast, what else can do with it?
Chicken salad – my favourite option is some chicken salad into Tupperware ready for taking to work with you.
Chicken wraps – another favourite from the new cookbook is chicken wraps and you can easily use meal prep chicken slices for this instead.
Chicken curry – transform it into a leftover chicken curry with the sliced chicken, which works very well with the curry yoghurt version.
Coronation chicken – Or another favourite is coronation chicken. I have made it a few times in the air fryer, and it features in our air fryer frozen chicken breast recipe.
Get Air Fryer Confident
It can be daunting when you first get an air fryer, you land on a recipe site and then think now what?
Well, we love helping new people to the air fryer as we remember the struggle ourselves when got our first air fryer back in 2012. That is why we have put together these useful resources just for you.
Sign up for our 100% free air fryer kickstart course. It’s a 5 day free mini series delivered by email and teaches you the basics of air frying. Get it here – its free!
We also have the air fryer bucket list which is what we recommend people follow after our kickstart course. Its 100% free too and walks you through the 30 most popular air fryer, bucket list worthy recipes. Sign up for it here!
Prefer the visual then check out our You Tube Channel – with more than 750 step by step kitchen gadget recipes. Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button to get access to new videos as they happen!
We also have two amazing air fryer cookbooks that are perfect for learning the air fryer. With step by step photos for key techniques and more than 140 recipes in each book. The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook was our first and has sold over 150,000 copies worldwide, and our new baby is Air Fryer Easy Everyday.
More Air Fryer Resources
- 101 Air Fryer Recipes For beginners
- Must Have Air Fryer Accessories
- How To Clean Your Air Fryer
- Plus check out all our 600+ air fryer beginner recipes!
More Air Fryer Chicken Recipes
Recipe This Blog
Air Fryer Chicken Fajitas
Recipe This Blog
Air Fryer Whole Chicken
Recipe This Blog
Air Fryer Hunters Chicken
Recipe This Blog
How Long To Air Fry Chicken Breast?
Recipe This Blog
How Long To Cook Frozen Chicken Breast In Air Fryer?
Recipe This Blog
Air Fryer Chicken Gyro Recipe
Recipe This Blog
Air Fryer KFC Zinger Burger
Recipe This Blog
Air Fryer Chicken Burrito Bowl
Plus, if you love easy air fryer meal prep here are a few more ideas: air fryer mac and cheese, air fryer veggie peelings, air fryer vegan curry, and let’s not forget about air fryer impossible quiche.
Pin this now to find it later
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Air Fryer Snack Bags
Equipment
Instructions
- Choose your marinade and mix up the marinade, ready for adding to the chicken breasts.
- Then use a foil tray, zip loc bag or even a bowl to mix the chicken breasts in the marinade. Add to the freezer with a label if keeping for later, or fridge for dinner tonight.
- Place the chicken breasts in the air fryer either on a paper liner, foil tray etc and air fry for 15 minutes for small, 20 minutes for medium, 25 minutes for large at 180c/360f.
- Allow to fully cool before slicing either thin slices or thick depending on how you like them.
- Finally transfer to a bag and store in the fridge for up to 3 days or the freezer for 3 months. You can then rinse and repeat with different chicken marinades, or different proteins and have a great air fryer meal prep recipe to turn to time and time again.
Notes
Nutrition
Can’t make it now? Then save it for later!
