Chicken Cutlets Air Fryer

This is a cheap and healthy meal that gets crunchy on the outside without deep frying. Just a spritz of oil is all you need for delicious protein that’s tender and delicious. One more easy air fryer recipewe love so much we make it weekly now.

If air fryer frozen chicken nuggetsaren’t your style and you want something homemade, this is it friends! Using thin cuts of chicken breasts you can get the most tender pieces that are lightly breaded with tons of flavor. If you’ve had these at a restaurant but hadn’t made them yourselves it is super easy.

You can definitely cook breaded foods in this hot air machine but it needs to be a sort of egg, flour, breadcrumbs type. Wet like tempura batter will not work as well unless the last coating is flour so it doesn’t stick as much but still creates a complete mess for you.

How Long to Cook Chicken Cutlets in Air Fryer

8 minutes is the average. The thinner they are the faster they will get done, but will dry out if left in too long. Luckily it is easy to open up the basket and check as often as you’d like. For smaller pieces cut the time down by 1 minute and check with a thermometer.

Frozen Chicken Cutlets Air Fryer

If you need instructions for air fryer frozen chicken breastit will take a bit longer than defrosted for sure. BUT a lot less than waiting for an oven to heat up. Timing is from 7-15 minutes total. This one is lightly breaded but you could use the same temp. and timing for no breading on the meat too.

Serve as is with a few side dishes or you could serve it up in the middle of two buns with some tartar sauce and lettuce too. Yes we have made all sorts of air fryer chicken recipesover the past year. When it comes to kids though they want finger foods.

Ingredient Notes

You will need a few boneless skinless chicken breasts, or already sliced chicken cutlets. If doing yourself use a cutting board and a really sharp knife to do this. All you need to do is hold your hand on top flat, use your knife to slice THIN in half or if really thick you could slice into thirds. Sometimes you can find already prepared at store bought this way.

If you want them to be really fall apart in your mouth tender like Thin Chicken Breast in Air Fryer you can pound them a bit. Just place 1 piece in between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and hit all over with a meat mallet. Make sure it is the same thickness all the way across for best results.

To bread it is quite simple, you just need 3 shallow dishes for this. Fill one with all purpose flour, one with whisked egg and another with Panko breadcrumbs. The latter can be any style you want really.

I like to blot my meat with paper towels a bit so the breading sticks nicely. Season the outsides with salt and pepper and then create an assembly line; flour, egg, then breadcrumbs. Press lightly so they stick and stay on well. You will want to spray your basket so they don’t stick and all the outsides peel off.

How do you know when they are done?

Cook time will vary depending on how thick your pieces are. Slice into middle to ensure there is no pink remaining and is 165 degrees F or more before consuming. Check internal meat temperature removed from the bin to get an accurate read.

How to reheat leftovers

Have leftovers? Make sure to store them in freezer bags with all of the air sucked out of them. When reheating chicken in air fryer just put them back into your basket for about 2 minutes to crisp the outsides again. It won’t be as good as the first run but better than reheating in the microwave for sure.

Looking for what to cook next? Try our frozen chicken tenders in air fryer with homemade air fryer biscuits or you can make homemade air fryer popcorn chicken too. Both of these are hits with my girls especially when they want a quick snack in between activities.

It originated in France where they were referring to a thin slice of meat; chicken, veal or pork. They’re often breaded and then baked, fried, or in this case you’re going to air fry them!