Recipe This | Air Fryer KFC Chicken (2024)

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.

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:

• KFC Spice Blend For The Air Fryer
• Air Fryer KFC Twister Wrap
• Air Fryer KFC Zinger Burger
• Air Fryer KFC Chicken Strips
• Air Fryer KFC Popcorn Chicken

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.

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.

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• UK/Rest Of The World: Amazon UK – Waterstones –– Book Depository

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?

• 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:

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:

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

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

Then for the final step it goes into the 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:

• KFC Spice Blend For The Air Fryer
• Air Fryer KFC Twister Wrap
• Air Fryer KFC Zinger Burger
• Air Fryer KFC Chicken Strips
• Air Fryer KFC Popcorn Chicken

Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!