How Long To Cook Frozen Chicken Breasts In The Air Fryer
Depending on the size of your chicken breasts, they will take around 20-30 minutes, to cook from frozen in the air fryer. Here are some tips:
- Size matters Large, thick chicken breasts will take longer to cook. Try and find breasts that are approximately the same size to ensure even cooking. We tested with various sizes of breasts and noted times typically between 25-40 minutes depending on the size. Shoot for smaller breasts if you want them to cook in under 30 minutes.
- Temperature I highly recommend checking the internal temperature of the chicken with an instant read thermometer to ensure the chicken is fully cooked to 165°.
- No thaw You can cook the chicken from completely frozen! If your chicken breasts are stuck together, submerge the package in warm water for about 5 minutes. Then, open them up and carefully pry the breasts apart with a fork or knife.
What To Serve With Chicken Breasts:
- This Panzanella Salad is a hearty, Tuscan-style bread salad that would be fantastic with these air fryer chicken breasts.
- I love sneaking in extra nutrition, and this Sweet Potato Mac and Cheese is amazingly creamy and no one will know that its healthier with the sweet potatoes.
- And if youre aiming to please, these Air Fryer Carrot Fries are healthy or try these super cheesy Air Fryer Garlic Fries.
Air fryer chicken is my new favorite cooking hack! It makes a fantastic meal in minutes, and its perfect every time. If youre looking for other family meals, follow me to Fooddoodles.com to find your favorites.
Did you try this recipe? If so, I want to hear all about it! Leave a comment below or take a pic and tag #fooddoodles recipes on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, so I can easily find them. Have fun and eat well.
What Kind Of Oil Can I Use
Extra virgin olive oil and vegetable oil are best for this recipe. They have low smoke points and work great in the air fryer.
If youre interested in learning about the best oils for air fryers, I found a comprehensive post of the Best Oils for Air Fryer from the Air Frying Foodie that you might want to save for future reference.
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How To Make Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breast Recipe
Here are the basic instructions for making this chicken breast air fryer recipe. Check out the recipe card at the bottom of this post for the exact instructions and ingredient amounts.
Do You Need To Defrost Your Chicken Before Air Frying

No! This recipe is a direct from the freezer and into the air fryer recipe. An air fryer is great at cooking smaller chicken pieces such as breasts, thighs and wings from frozen and it yields very tender and juicy results. Ideally we would usually cook our chicken breasts fresh or pre-thawed, but when you get home late and havent planned ahead sometimes its necessary to dive into the freezer to see if you can find something interesting to cook. Frozen chicken breasts in the bottom of the drawer? Perfect! With this recipe they can be transformed into something yummy to eat in no time!
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Most Important Tips For Making These Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Breasts:
Here are the most important things to remember when making this chicken recipe:
- Every step is important. Dont skip the 20 minute marination or the 10 minute rest period. The chicken wont be quite as good!
- Try to find chicken breasts that are an even thickness. If your chicken breasts is over 10 ounces, slice it in half horizontally to create two smaller pieces of meat.
- If you have a favorite method for tenderizing chicken, please feel free to use it. Here in this post, Im sharing my favorite method. Be careful to avoid cross-contamination when handling the raw chicken.
- If you have three pieces of chicken , you can cook those following the same method. Just be sure to check the chicken for an internal temp of 165F.
How To Cook Frozen Chicken Tenders In Air Fryer
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Ingredients Needed For Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breasts
This super simple air fryer recipe only requires a few ingredients.
- Frozen, boneless, skinless chicken breast Frozen chicken breasts are widely available in most grocery stores, like Wal-Mart, Costco, Target, and Trader Joes. You can also use frozen boneless chicken thighs or chicken tenderloins. Find them in the frozen foods section.
- Cooking oil You can use olive oil, avocado oil, or vegetable oil.
- Seasonings of your choice Some options are salt, pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and thyme. You can also use seasoning mixes like lemon pepper, BBQ seasoning, all-purpose seasoning, Italian seasoning, poultry seasoning, or dry rubs. Experiment with your favorite flavor combinations! Alternatively, you can also use sauces on your air fryer chicken, like BBQ sauce or bourbon chicken sauce.
Do You Have To Defrost Chickenbreastbefore Air Frying
The air fryer does an amazing job with frozen foods and chicken breasts are no different. The best part is that you dont need to defrost before air frying. Simply season with your favorite seasoning blend and air fry to delicious juicy perfection.
A meat thermometer is encouraged and recommended. Especially if you like your meats really juicy. This way you can know exactly when its cooked to the minimum safe temperature which is 165°F / 74°C for chicken.
Also Check: Temperature For Grilled Chicken Breasts
Tips For Tenderizing Chicken Breasts:
Pounding and handling the raw chicken can be a little intimidating at first. Here are my tips to make the process a little easier:
- Use a plate for staging the chicken breasts , plus a cutting board as a hard solid surface, safe for pounding.
- Placing each chicken breast into a Ziploc bag or between plastic wrap during tenderizing helps stop shredding , reduce cleanup and avoid cross-contamination. I actually slightly over tenderized the chicken in these pictures, but it was still absolutely delicious!
- Use a meat tenderizer, or a heavy pan, such as a cast-iron skillet. Be sure you are working on a safe surface like a cutting board on a countertop.
- Go slowly and methodically to create an even thickness in the chicken. It should take about 10-15 seconds to tenderize each piece of chicken.
- Focus tenderizing more on the thicker parts of the chicken breast, working to make them the same thickness as the thinner parts of the chicken breast.
- If your chicken breasts are more than 10 ounces each, I recommend horizontally slicing the chicken into two halves, then lightly tenderize all pieces into an even thickness. The chicken breasts pictured in this recipe are about 10 ounces each, the maximum size to use without slicing in half.
How To Cook Frozen Chicken Breast
Its super easy to cook chicken from frozen, no defrosting time required.
PRO TIP: Leftover bacon grease makes an economical oil that will add extra flavor to chicken breasts! Simply melt it before using.
Also Check: How To Bake Chicken From Frozen
Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breast
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Planning on having chicken for dinner but forgot to defrost it first? Air fryer frozen chicken breast is the answer!
Made right from frozen with no thawing time involved, this frozen chicken breast turns out flavorful and juicy.
Similar to cooking fresh chicken breast in the air fryer, all you need is a few spices, some oil, and your air fryer!
This chicken makes a great meat component to go with a larger meal or can be used as an ingredient itself in homemade quesadillas or similar.
How To Cook Frozen Chicken Patties In The Air Fryer

Its easy to fry frozen chicken patties at home by selecting the brand you prefer. Therefore, it wont take you longer than 20 minutes to make lunch. However, the Tyson brand is a good option since it sells fully cooked and breaded chicken patties. To prepare them, follow these steps:
Remove the Tyson frozen chicken patties from their packaging and spray them with non-stick cooking spray before placing them in the air fryer. Set the temperature and time, cook at 400ºF for 10 minutes, turn them over midway ensuring they have been cooked on both sides.
As soon as they are done, either prepare your hamburgers or eat them with a salad.
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Can You Make Cooked Frozen Chicken Breasts In An Air Fryer
This recipe is for cooking raw, uncooked chicken breasts in the air fryer but you can definitely also use pre-cooked frozen chicken breasts if thats what you have on hand.
The process and recipe is exactly the same, youll just reduce the cooking time in the air fryer slightly.
Since you dont need to worry about the chicken hitting 165°F as its already been cooked, pull the chicken from the air fryer once its warmed through.
This will probably take at least 15-18 minutes from a purely frozen state.
This Is What Tyson Recommend For Their Chicken Strips:
Pull out the basket and shake the. How long to air fry tyson chicken nuggets. Place the chicken nuggets into the air fryer basket. For best results, nuggets should not overlap each other. Preheat air fryer to 400° f | 204° c for 5 minutes. Preheat your air fryer to 400 degrees.
Shake or flip the chicken nuggets halfway through air frying at around 6 minutes. Cook for eight minutes at 400f Air fry at 400°f/205°c for 8 minutes. These dino chicken nuggets are more flatter than regular chicken nuggets, which will result in a much faster cooking time by about 2 minutes. The recommended tyson chicken nuggets temperature for air frying is 180c/360f.
How long does it take to cook dino nuggets in the air fryer? Use 300°f for 9 minutes. Reheating chicken nuggets in air fryer takes only 5 to 8 minutes. How do you cook tyson frozen chicken nuggets in the airfryer? Turn nuggets once during cooking
How long to cook frozen chicken nuggets in air fryer? Air fry at 400°f/205°c for 8 minutes. This is what tyson recommend for their chicken strips:. Can you air fry tyson chicken. These dino chicken nuggets are more flatter than regular chicken nuggets, which will result in a much faster cooking time by about 2 minutes.
Let stand 1 to 2 minutes before serving. How long to air fry tyson chicken nuggets. ii. Let stand 1 to 2 minutes before serving. Add a liner to the air fryer basket, and place the chicken nuggets into the air fryer.
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Best Air Fryerfor Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breast
There arelots of great brands of air fryers out there that you can use for cooking yourfrozen chicken breast.
Personally,we love the Philips Air Fryer and have used them for 8 years. Over the years thesize has improved, and I can cook larger portions, but the quality of the mechanicsare still just as good.
In the Milner kitchen right now, we have the Philips Air Fryer XL, the Philips Air Fryer XXL and the Power Air Fryer Oven.
Thereis no doubt that Philips is the best air fryer and was of course the first, butthey are also expensive and not every family can justify the cost.
That iswhy for air fryer frozen chicken breast we would also recommend any of thefollowing:
Easy Chicken Dinner Recipes
- Simple Two Ingredient Instant Pot BBQ Chicken
- Easy Instant Pot Chicken Drumsticks Recipe
- Frozen Chicken Breast in Instant Pot
- Bacon-Wrapped Boneless Chicken Breast in Air Fryer
This easy air fryer frozen chicken breast in air fryer recipe should definitely be on your list of things to make. You don’t need to defrost it, and there are dozens of ways you can modify it to your liking!
If you try it out and like it, I would appreciate it if you could take a moment to leave a star rating and/or comment below.
Don’t forget to share it with your friends on social media!
You can also Follow Me on,, and. Don’t forget to tag me in your photos @windingcreek_ranch!
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How To Make The Best Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breast
This recipe is very simple, but there are a few steps you need to take to make sure it comes out perfect every time.
How To Make Frozen Chicken Breast In The Air Fryer
Note: This recipe was made using a Cosori air fryer. All air fryers cook differently, and you should always carefully rest a recipe before setting the cooking time and walking away. A thinner cut of chicken breast will use less time than a thicker cut, so for best results make sure to check out the chart below in the recipe card for the perfect juicy chicken breast.
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Air Fryer Frozen Chicken Breasts Faqs
Can I store and reheat my chicken breasts?
Yes in theory you can but we recommend that you eat them straight away. Chicken breast has a tendency to dry out when stored and reheating further dries out the meat resulting in chicken that is not very agreeable to eat. A better idea to use left over chicken is to not reheat at all, slice the chicken and use it cold in a salad.
Can I use a different oil and seasoning mix?
Yes, of course! This recipe is highly versatile and you can choose your favourite cooking oil to coat the chicken and substitute your favourite dry seasoning ingredients, no problems!
Ingredients For Frozen Chicken Breasts:

To prepare the air fryer for cooking, preheat to 400ºF while you prep and season the chicken.
First, drizzle olive oil on both sides of the chicken breast, rub or brush the oil on to coat evenly. Now, if you do not want to use oil when making this chicken, you do not have to, just follow the recipe without it.
Mix together the spices and liberally season both sides of the chicken breasts.
Place the frozen chicken breasts into the basket of the preheated air fryer. Be careful at this point as the air fryer will be really hot from preheating.
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How Do You Make The Juicy Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Breasts
Though the instructions in the recipe card below may seem long, I really just made them very detailed, because I want your chicken to turn out great every single time and answer any questions that might come up.
The recipe can be broken down into four basic steps to make it seem much less intimidating. Tenderize, season, cook, rest.
To tenderize, I recommend using a staging plate, a large gallon size Ziploc bag, a flat tenderizer, tongs, and a cutting board. Use scissors to cut one edge of the Ziploc bag so its easier to get the chicken in and out. If you have a favorite method to tenderize, feel free to do that instead.
One at a time, use tongs to place the chicken breast into the Ziploc bag. Using the tenderizer, pound slowly and methodically to create an even thickness in the chicken, focusing on tenderizing the thicker parts more.
Dont pound too hard, or youll begin to shred the chicken, which isnt what you want. Aim for a seamless, even thickness piece of meat. Place the chicken breasts back on the plate once tenderized and pat dry with a paper towel.
To season, mix up the vinegar and oil, then drizzle it all over the tenderized chicken. Use a pastry brush or your hands and be sure to cover both sides.
Next, mix up all the spices in a small bowl and sprinkle the mixture over both sides of the chicken. Let the chicken sit for at least 20 minutes to marinate before cooking.