Having just purchased a air fryer, we’ve been experimenting a bit, made some great falafel balls, but this chicken, as my guest exclaimed, is to die for. Oh, and we got the Ninja Foodi, by the way.
Marinade Ingredients
- 2 cups buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 4 teaspoons Celtic Sea Salt
- 6 cloves garlic, crushed
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground pepper
- 2 teaspoons white pepper
Breading Ingredients
- 4 cups cornflakes (we use Nature’s Path Fruit Juice Corn Flakes)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 heaping teaspoon smoked paprika
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoon Celtic Sea Salt
- 1 heaping teaspoon Italian Seasoning (equal parts basil, oregano, rosemary, thyme, and marjoram)
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper plus more to taste
- 1 tablespoon white pepper
- Optional ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
The Dip Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 1/4 cup butter milk
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
One stick of butter, melted to brush on the chicken
Directions
Whisk together the marinade.
We’ve always used a large capacity (1 liter) vacuum food storage container to marinate. Sucking the air out will shorten the time you need for marinating, which is usually three hours to overnight. It’s just the best way to marinate anything. (And the links here are to our affiliate programs so, they support our pages.)
Preparing The Dry Ingredients
In a blender or food processor, whip the cornflakes into crumbs or a powder if you wish. Pour that into a large bowl add the rest of the dry ingredients (the breading), seal and set aside.
Cooking
You can bake these, but we are using an air fryer, so check yours for the time and temp.
We set ours on Crisp, 360 degrees for 20 minutes. The time is really dependent on the size of your chicken pieces. If making chicken nuggets, you’ll need just 15 minutes. For your average size legs, thighs, and wings, 20 minutes is about right, but for larger pieces, 25 minutes might be needed.
First whisk together the eggs, buttermilk, and Worcestershire Sauce in a bowl (big enough to coat your chicken).
Remove chicken from buttermilk mixture, and place on a rack to allow the excess to drip off. It’s at this time we preheat the air fryer.
Working with a few pieces at a time, dip in eggs, then coat with cornflake mixture, patting to adhere and place each piece inside the crisping container, keeping the pieces from touching if possible.
By the time you finish coating the chicken, the air fryer should be telling you to Add Food, so place the crisper inside, make sure your time and temp are correct, close it and then start melting your butter.
Five minutes before the fryer is done, lift the top and brush each piece with butter.
Serve warm, and enjoy. This is really a great recipe.
Update
We made this recipe once again, but this time we used the “grill” option on the air fryer. 500 degrees for 15 minutes using average sized wings, legs, and thighs. Brush on the melted butter at the 10 minute mark. They were moist, tender, and flavorful right down to the bone.
Bonus: Sweet n’ Hot Sauce
This is very simple to make, and you can make it as hot as you like.
Get a jar of raspberry pepper jam. Add two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and just warm it up so it turns into a sauce. Now, to make it hotter, chop up some peppers. We used my pickled habaneros. If your peppers are pickled, add only one tablespoon of vinegar.
If you can’t find a pepper jam, just use a regular raspberry jam and add the vinegar and hot pepper. We just loved the outcome of this chicken recipe with this sauce.