Air-Fryer Hen Breasts Recipe

If in case you have an air fryer, rooster is probably going one of many first belongings you cooked within the machine. There’s little question that the air fryer is a fast and straightforward approach to make rooster, however all too typically that rooster is dry and bland, particularly while you’re coping with lean breasts. We all know from testing recipes you could’t merely throw meat into an air fryer and anticipate it to return out juicy and flavorful, so we requested our check kitchen colleague and veteran recipe developer Julia Levy to provide you with what we described as a fundamental methodology for air-fryer rooster breasts which can be completely cooked, flavorful, and juicy—juiciness being key. By way of quite a few checks and tweaks, Levy did simply that. Learn on for the fundamental recipe, ideas for getting the moistest, most flavorful rooster within the air fryer, and 5 variations on the fundamental recipe, together with miso-ginger, chipotle-lime, and Dijon-thyme.

3 Easy Ideas for the Greatest Air-Fryer Hen Breasts

Select bone-in, skin-on breasts. Whereas boneless, skinless rooster breasts are handy, we advocate utilizing bone-in skin-on rooster breasts for probably the most succulent outcomes. With a tool that cooks issues as rapidly as an air fryer, the tiny bit of additional cooking time doesn’t make sufficient of a distinction to forgo the bones and the pay-off by way of tendernessand fantastically browned rooster is excessive. Plus, you get crispy pores and skin! If that’s not your factor, first, we have to speak… And, second, you possibly can at all times take away the pores and skin after cooking. 

Dry-brine the breasts for juicier, extra flavorful meat. We’re longtime proponents of dry brining—it’s a easy course of that makes for a lot juicier, extra flavorful meat, and, not like moist brining, it doesn’t contain a vat of liquid sloshing round in your fridge. On this recipe, we name for merely rubbing the meat with a mixture of kosher salt and baking powder, then letting it sit for no less than 4 hours within the fridge. 

Add some baking powder to the dry brine for crispy pores and skin. As we’ve famous earlier than (see Niki Achitoff-Grey’s article about crispy chicken and turkey skin), baking powder is barely alkaline and raises the pH stage within the rooster pores and skin. This enables proteins to interrupt down extra effectively, resulting in crispier, evenly browned pores and skin. Achitoff-Grey notes that because the baking powder comes along with the hen’s pure juices, carbon dioxide gases kind, producing “a layer of tiny bubbles” that “enhance the pores and skin’s floor space, permitting it to develop a crunchy texture as soon as cooked.”

Save the schmaltz. If in case you have drippings within the backside of the air fryer after cooking, reserve it for roasting potatoes, making matzo balls, and another recipe the place you need some tasty chicken-y taste.