Air Fryer KFC Chicken

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Air Fryer KFC Chicken. Follow our homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe and make your own KFC chicken in the air fryer.

The air fryer does a magical job of transforming your KFC ingredients into crispy KFC chicken that is cheaper and healthier than your favourite takeout.

We originally shared with you how to make KFC chicken in the air fryer back in the summer of 2016 and wanted to update it today for you with new photos and extra ideas.

air fryer kfc chicken recipe
Air Fryer KFC Chicken Recipe

KFC Air Fryer Chicken

One of my favourite ever uses of the air fryer is to make breaded chicken. You can create a production line and have your chicken getting coated in the flour, then in the egg and finally in the breadcrumbs.

Once set up its an effortless way to make fried chicken in the air fryer.

But what I prefer to do is make KFC air fryer chicken. I have loved eating at KFC for many years and up until recently, lived in Portugal and didn’t have access to the same KFC chicken options as everyone else takes for granted.

Dominic and I would spend a little while in the kitchen making a few of our copycat KFC chicken favourites including:

Each one of them is delicious and comes from similar KFC ingredients. You can make them all and have a feast, or you can just pick and choose which one best suit your favourite KFC menu items.

Best of all, they all cook in the air fryer and the air fryer is fantastic for making your own KFC chicken at home.

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Plus, as well as our free newsletter, we also have a free air fryer mini course. It is ideal for air fryer beginners or those that want to get more confident with their air fryer. The free course runs for 5 days with a new lesson delivered each day to your inbox.

Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?

Yes you can. You can swap the deep fat fryer for the air fryer and add in your just breaded chicken and air fry it.

It will taste better than the deep fat fryer because it wont be loaded with fat, yet will taste a lot more crispy compared to making KFC in the oven.

What Is KFC Original Chicken?

When you look online for a Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe you will often see mentions for KFC original chicken.

What this means is that you are looking for an authentic KFC chicken copycat recipe that is similar to the KFC that is served in KFC takeout throughout the world.

It is also associated with the KFC spice blend that is used on the chicken which we will be showing you how to use today.

Air fryer cookbook new cover
Air fryer cookbook new cover

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KFC Chicken Ingredients

Chicken – KFC style fried chicken starts with some whole chickens, which is the best option if you want authentic KFC, and you want to save money. Simply follow our guide for how to chop up a whole chicken and use two small whole chickens. Then you will have 4 drumsticks, 4 thighs, 4 breasts and 4 wings.  

Egg – I recommend cracking a few eggs into a bowl and mixing them with some extra seasoning. This helps keep your chicken more flavoursome and helps the breading stick to the chicken better.

Flour – The flour is what goes on the chicken first and helps the egg then stick to the flour. You can use any flour that you have in your pantry. I usually use this as an excuse to have a kitchen pantry clear out.

Seasoning – Its all about the delicious seasoning mix that you associate with KFC chicken. You can also mix and match if you have a food allergy which is what us Milner’s do.

Then for the kitchen gadgets that we have used in this air fryer KFC recipe, it has just been our Philips Air Fryer. We have this one and its wonderful for many types of air fryer chicken recipes and perfectly fits a big batch of KFC chicken in it.

How To Make KFC Chicken At Home?

how to make kfc chicken in the air fryer
  • Seasonings. Start by mixing together your KFC spice blend in a container. I always use a container because I can then save the leftovers for next time I want homemade Kentucky fried chicken.
  • Production. Its all about the production line. Create a bowl with your egg mixture, one bowl with your seasoned flour and a third with your seasoned breadcrumbs. A fourth bowl will then have your raw chicken pieces that are waiting to be breaded. Though see below for a full explanation of how this works.
  • Coat. Load your chicken into the flour first, then the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Making sure each of your KFC chicken pieces are well coated.
  • Load. Add to the air fryer and air fry for 16 minutes. If you are cooking a lot of chicken do a single layer, then do more batches.

Achieving Crispy KFC Chicken In Air Fryer

If you feel your KFC chicken is not crispy enough in the air fryer, I recommend that you add a little extra virgin olive oil spray. Simply spray the chicken a couple of minutes before the end of the cooking time. This will achieve a super crispy texture.

Though most of the time I have found that your KFC chicken doesn’t need this because of what a great job the air fryer does.

Creating A Fried Chicken Production Line

This is my personal KFC chicken production line:

KFC Chicken Ingredients

Its all about being organised and being able to make KFC chicken in the air fryer FAST.

I always make this as my first task and then any leftovers can be used in another breaded recipe.

I will create a bowl with the eggs, one with the flour, one with the breadcrumbs. Then to make the chicken more flavoursome I will coat it in the seasoning first, before it enters the flour like this:

homemade kfc chicken with seasonings

Then into the flour it goes for a good layer of flour for the egg to stick to:

homemade kfc chicken with flour

Then it will be drenched in the egg batter until thoroughly coated:

homemade kfc chicken drenched in egg

Then for the final step it goes into the breadcrumbs:

homemade kfc chicken into breadcrumbs

You’re now ready for the air fryer.

As you can see this has you organised and if you are cooking a lot of chicken you can prep your second lot while the air fryer is cooking your first lot.

What To Serve With Your KFC Chicken?

For a bit of fun, what I like to do is keep an old KFC chicken bucket and reuse it for serving our KFC air fryer chicken.

You can then smile thinking what a great KFC fakeaway that you have made in the air fryer and serve it with the usual sides that you normally buy from KFC.

You can make our air fryer frozen corn on the cob, our air fryer frozen French fries or pair it with our air fryer potato wedges.

More KFC Chicken In Air Fryer

Would you like more KFC chicken in the air fryer? Or like me do you have leftovers that need using up and you want to make something else.

If so, follow the rest of our air fryer KFC series below:

air fryer kfc chicken
Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?
Print Recipe
4.25 from 12 votes

Air Fryer KFC Chicken

Air Fryer KFC Chicken. Follow our homemade Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe and make your own KFC chicken in the air fryer.
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time16 minutes
Total Time26 minutes
Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Air Fryer
Servings: 6
Calories: 777kcal

Ingredients

Kitchen Gadgets:

Air Fryer KFC Chicken Ingredients:

Instructions

  • Chop up your whole chickens into drumsticks, thighs, wings, and breasts. Put to one side.
    Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?
  • Create your production line. Crack eggs into a bowl and mix with a fork. Place flour in a bowl and season well with chicken seasoning, salt, and pepper. Place breadcrumbs into a bowl and mix with half your KFC rub.
    Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?
  • Toss the chicken in half your KFC rub. Then load chicken into the flour mixture, then into the egg, and then into the breadcrumbs bowl. Make sure each piece of chicken is well coated from each bowl.
    Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?
  • Place the KFC chicken into the air fryer basket on a single layer.
    Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?
  • Cook for 12 minutes at 180c/360f. Then turn and cook for a further 4 minutes at the same temperature. If doing a big batch doing in lots making sure you on don’t over fill the air fryer.
    Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?
  • Serve warm in your old KFC bucket.
    Can You Cook KFC In Air Fryer?

Video

Notes

Chopping. We chopped a small whole chicken (it weighed slightly more than a Cornish hen) and I recommend you read how to chop up a whole chicken before doing this recipe.
Alternatively buy a mixture of thighs, drumsticks, wings, and breast and use that instead.
Reheat. I recommend you check out our reheating KFC chicken guide as its perfect for your leftovers from this recipe and also includes a video.
Thanks for reading our air fryer KFC chicken recipe on Recipe This. We have many more air fryer recipes for you to check out next. Though if you would like more breaded chicken ideas, I recommend you check out our air fryer breaded chicken wings next.

Nutrition

Calories: 777kcal | Carbohydrates: 37g | Protein: 57g | Fat: 43g | Saturated Fat: 12g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Monounsaturated Fat: 17g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 300mg | Sodium: 554mg | Potassium: 609mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 580IU | Vitamin C: 5mg | Calcium: 100mg | Iron: 5mg
Nutrition InfoPlease Note: Nutrition values are our best estimate based on the software we use at Recipe This and are meant as a guide. If you rely on them for your diet, use your preferred nutrition calculator.
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air fryer kfc chicken bucket recipe

Recipe This

Hi! I am Sam and along with my chef hubby Dom we love sharing with you easy everyday recipes using kitchen gadgets. We are also the authors of The Complete Air Fryer Cookbook, an amazing air fryer cookbook filled with 140+ everyday air fryer recipes. Beyond the air fryer we also love the instant pot, slow cooker, soup maker, ninja foodi, pie marker and several other kitchen gadgets. CLICKING HERE →

43 thoughts on “Air Fryer KFC Chicken”

    • Hi Mike,

      Thank you for your comment.

      Unfortunately not everyone who reads our blog lives in America so we make any recipes on our personal experience so that they work correctly, if we used American measurements then we could not be sure how the food would turn out. We have on our blog a conversion chart which converts any European measurements into American measurements, you can access it here:

      http://recipethis.com/about-us/

      As for using pharmaceuticals in our recipes I´m not too sure what you mean :/ but it could be the anti-depressant tablet i gave to the chicken because it was feeling too stressed before i cooked it 😉

      The kindest regards

      Dom & Sam

      Reply
    • Mike is close minded and ignorant. I’m also American and had no issues with the measurements. As for the chicken… it’s ok but doesn’t taste like kfc. Just being honest.

      Reply
    • I thought the lady commenting on the recipe was very nice. I would have said a typical everything is America comment from you. BTW there is no America, it is the United States of America. A message from Canada.

      Reply
      • Correct but should be North America. (I too am Canadian). Truthfully I agree with the measurements I hate the ml and grams etc I try to accommodate bu t still hate it. A lot of chefs recipes online sometimes show both conversations

        Reply
    • Hi Judy,

      The flour would not be visible because the it is used to make sure the egg sticks to the chicken. After coating the chicken in the flour you put it in the beaten egg and then place it in the breadcrumbs give it a shake and press the breadcrumbs into the chicken thus all the chicken is coated in the breadcrumbs and you should not be seeing any flour 🙂

      Hope this helps.

      Many thanks.

      Dom

      Reply
  1. 5 stars
    We are looking forward to trying this recipe out tonight. Thank you for sharing, this American can handle the measuring……take care!

    Reply
    • Hi Jayne,

      Great stuff, hope you like the recipe. We will be adding something in the near future where you can click a button and it will turn the measurements into American ones and back again, so we hope it will be a big help to everyone.

      Many Thanks.

      Sam

      Reply
    • Hi Dani,

      Enjoy! And when I visit Aussie blogs the measurements are not that different, so you should be okay. Though do ask if you have any issues.

      Kind regards

      Sam
      X

      Reply
    • Hi Brian

      They are already on the recipe. If you press word imperial then you will see the American measurements and then when you press metric it will take you back to the European measurements 😉

      Kind Regards

      Sam
      X

      Reply
    • Hi Tim,

      Yes we do. We love our chicken skin and it helps with the crispy coating if you use the skin. However if you are on a diet you can remove it if you wish.

      Kind regards

      Sam
      X

      Reply
  2. In this recipe you say to add the spices to the breadcrumbs and in the KFC spice recipe you say to add the spices to the flour. Which is it? Thanks.

    Reply
    • Hi Deb

      We do both. We do not think it matters which you do only that you seem to get a better coating of the spices when added to the flour and we found that when the spices are added to the breadcrumbs you can taste them alot more. In the flour they are alot more subtle.

      Kind Regards

      Sam

      Reply
    • Hi Bonnie,

      Its best not to, as they will stick together and not turn out as well.

      If you are doing a lot, I recommend the oven on its lowest setting and then transfer each batch, while waiting for the last. This way it will stop it from going cold.

      Kind regards

      Sam
      X

      Reply
  3. 5 stars
    Thanks so much for this recipe. I am in Australia so have no problem with the weights in Imperial or metric….
    My Grandson will love me being able to make KFC at home. He has a nasty reaction to KFC…..not sure what it is in it but it will be great for him not to miss out on a favourite food.

    Reply

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