The Best Air Fryer Chicken Thighs: Cracklin’ Chicken!
Love my Cracklin’ Chicken, but hate the mess? It turns out that my popular and tasty take on Whole30 and keto fried chicken isn’t just easier to make in an air fryer, it’s less messy, too!
Servings: 5 people
Ingredients
- 5 chicken thighs skin-on, and bone-in
- Diamond Crystal kosher salt or your favorite cooking salt
- Magic Mushroom Powder (optional)
Instructions
- Grab some chicken thighs and a sharp pair of kitchen shears. Blot the chicken dry with a paper towel. If the thigh bone isn’t exposed, use the shears to snip down to expose it. Then, starting at one end, carefully cut out the bone, making sure you don’t cut through the meat.
- Trim as close to the bone as possible. When you get to the other end, trim around the joint and cartilage and remove the bone. Save these bones for homemade bone broth! Repeat with the remaining thighs.
- Flatten the chicken with a meat pounder to ensure uniform cooking.
- Sprinkle Diamond Crystal kosher salt on both sides of the chicken thighs. If you want to spice things up, you can sprinkle your favorite seasoning salt (e.g. Magic Mushroom Powder) on the meat side—but avoid sprinkling anything but salt on the skin side. (I don’t recommend putting anything besides salt on the skin because the spices can burn.)
- Preheat the air fryer to 400°F for 15 to 18 minutes, depending on the size of the thighs.
- When the air fryer is hot, carefully arrange the chicken thighs in a single layer, skin side up, in the the air fryer basket. (If your air fryer does not have a non-stick coating, spray avocado cooking spray before you place the chicken thighs in a single layer, skin side up, in the the air fryer basket.) You can actually smoosh up to five chicken thighs in a single layer in most 6-quart air fryer baskets without leaving any space in between them. They’ll turn out fine—the pieces will shrink as they cook.
- The Cracklin’ Chicken is ready when the skin is crispy and the meat is thoroughly cooked (at least 165°F in the thickest part of the thigh using a meat thermometer). If you’re making another batch, pour out the rendered fat before cooking another batch to reduce the amount of smoke.
Video
Notes
Tips for the best air fryer Cracklin’ Chicken
- Flatten the deboned chicken thighs evenly with a meat pounder to ensure even cooking.
- Only season the skin with salt so it will crisp up golden brown without burning! If you want to use a seasoning blend, only season the meat side.
- No need to add oil! I know many of you are tempted to brush the skin with olive oil or avocado oil, but the skin comes out crispier WITHOUT it.
- Lay the chicken thighs in a single layer in the air fryer. The thighs can touch each other on the side, but there should be no overlap—we’re aiming for 100% crispy skin!
- Spice things up by seasoning the meat side with one of my amazing Nom Nom Paleo Spice blends! You can make them yourself (three out of the four recipes are in Nom Nom Paleo: Let's Go!) or buy the blends on Amazon, iHerb, or from The Spice Lab.
Nutrition
Calories: 316kcal | Carbohydrates: 0.4g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 24g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 10g | Cholesterol: 142mg | Iron: 1mg