How to Cook Chicken Nuggets in Air Fryer from Scratch

Who can refuse the delicious flavor of chicken nuggets? Kids love them the most but adults cannot wait to eat them as well. Chicken nuggets have become everyone's favorite snack and even main dish. It is also easy to make because you can find store-bought or frozen chicken nuggets very easily. However, it does not mean that you cannot make it at home from scratch.

You might imagine a complicated way to make chicken nuggets from scratch. You can follow these steps on how to cook chicken nuggets in an air fryer. You usually use an air fryer to warm frozen chicken nuggets but you can also use it to make chicken nuggets from scratch. This way, you can make sure that your chicken nuggets are much healthier than the store-bought or frozen one. Let’s get cooking!

Ingredients

To make the chicken nuggets, the main ingredients will be chicken, of course. You need two pounds of boneless chicken breasts for this recipe. You need to cut them into smaller cubes about one-inch size. You will also need a half cup of pickle juice, a half cup of milk, and one large egg. That's it.

Batter

However, chicken nuggets are not only about the chicken. You must not forget about the batter that makes it crunchy on the outside after it is cooked. In the recipe on how to cook chicken nuggets in the air fryer, for the batter, you will need a cup of all-purpose flour, three tablespoons of powdered sugar, a half teaspoon of paprika, a half teaspoon of chili powder, a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, a teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper, a half teaspoon of salt, and a half teaspoon of baking powder.

If you want to make an adult version of chicken nuggets, you can add one to two teaspoons of cayenne pepper powder to the batter mixture.

How to Cook

Let's start the cooking process. First of all, you need to marinate your chicken. The chicken breast cubes can be placed in a ziplock bag or bowl. Pour the pickle juice in. Let the chicken be marinated for about 30 minutes. While waiting for the chicken to be marinated, you can prepare the batter. You can simply mix all the batter ingredients in a ziplock bag. There is still milk and egg. You can mix them in a separate bowl. Do not forget to preheat your air fryer to 360 degrees.

Now, it is time to coat your chicken. It is a fun process when making chicken nuggets but it can be the most time-consuming as well. Yet, you can ask your kids to help you with the chicken coating process. They will love to mess around with the chicken, for sure. The chicken can be removed from the marinade. You can put it in the egg mixture. Take the chicken pieces out from the egg mixture. Make sure that the excess egg mixture drips off as much as possible.

You can put them in the ziplock bag with the bread mix. You need to make sure that the bag is sealed perfectly before shaking it to make sure that every chicken piece is evenly coated with the bread. Now, you have the chicken nuggets that look like chicken nuggets and you can cook them.

To cook the chicken nuggets, you need to spray nonstick cooking spray to the bottom of the fry basket. Half of the chicken nuggets can be added to the basket. You have to make sure that there is only a single layer of chicken at the bottom of the frying basket. Do not forget to give some space among the chicken pieces so they will not stick together. You can spray the top of the chicken with a generous amount of cooking spray.

You can cook the chicken nuggets in the preheated air fryer for about six minutes. Open the tray to flip the chicken nuggets to the other side. You will need to spray them with cooking spray on top. Now, you need to increase the temperature to 400 degrees. You need to cook the chicken nuggets for another two minutes to make time crispy on the outside and cooked through on the inside. You can have about 30 pieces of nuggets with this recipe.

How to Freeze

Now you know how to cook chicken nuggets in the air fryer. Can you freeze your homemade chicken nuggets? Of course, you can. If you want to freeze them you only need to cook them at 360 degrees for six minutes. You can save another two minutes cooking process later after you take out the chicken nuggets from the freezer.

You need to make sure that the chicken nuggets are completely cool before you can put them in the container or bag. You can put the bag or container in the freezer and your chicken nuggets can last for up to three months. If you want to cook your frozen chicken nuggets, you just need to take them out from the freezer and put them in the refrigerator overnight. Reheat them at 380 degrees until they are crispy, golden, and warm.