Air Fryer Chicken Thighs

Here’s everything you need to know about cooking chicken thighs in the air fryer. How long, what temperature, boneless skinless thighs (in bundles and unrolled), bone-in skin-on thighs, and everything in between!

Video: Air Frying Chicken

What Type Of Oil and How Much

Regardless of what type of chicken thighs you have, you’ll start by coating the chicken in a little bit of oil. The oil helps the chicken brown and stops it from drying out on the outside. Olive oil and grape seed oil are my go-to’s. Canola and vegetable oil are also fine options. If you have another go-to oil that you use for cooking chicken, that will work here also. Note that melted butter isn’t a great idea since it will scorch in the air fryer.

I typically go with olive oil in an oil sprayer like this one. I love it because I can fill it with my own olive oil, making it much cheaper and more convenient than buying cooking spray. Also, the sprayer works great. I’ve had mine for years! Or you can use the store-bought cooking spray, totally. No judgment here!

If you don’t have oil spray, use 1 tablespoon of oil for 6 chicken thighs, whether they’re bone-in or boneless, skin-on or without skin.

How Much Seasoning To Use

Season the chicken with salt and whatever other seasonings you’d like. I keep it basic with black pepper and garlic powder. You can have a look at all my homemade seasoning blend recipes here too to get some inspiration.

You typically want about 1/8 teaspoon of salt per chicken thigh (half of that on each side), and about the same amount total of whatever other seasonings you’re using. Just make sure that if you’re using salt, you don’t use a seasoning mix that also contains salt.

If you’re keeping your thighs in bundles, if you have an extra minute, unroll them and season the inside, and then roll them back up. It just gets seasoning into every little bite. If you’re planning to cook them unrolled, unroll them before seasoning both sides.

Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs In The Air Fryer

Often, boneless skinless chicken thighs are sold as little bundles of thighs on a tray. Essentially, the butcher has removed the bone and then wrapped the meat back up around where the bone was. See the picture at the top of this article to see what chicken thighs cooked as bundles look like.

To fit more chicken thighs into your air fryer, you should leave them in the bundles. They take up less room that way. I can easily fit 6-8 chicken thighs in mine like this.

However, if you aren’t cooking that many, then you can unroll them into flat almost-cutlets. Those cutlets give you more surface area for seasoning, and also more surface area for browning. They also take less time to cook. I can only fit 4 chicken thighs in my air fryer if I unroll them.

The main difference for cooking them is the time they’ll need. Unrolled chicken thighs won’t need as long to cook. I also don’t flip them so that at least one side gets the chance to get nice and brown in the shorter time.

Also, if in bundles, I tend to put them rounded side down to start so that after I flip them partway through cooking, the nicer side is up and gets the final bit of browning. If you unroll them before cooking, you should put them nice-side-up since we won’t be flipping them.

Bone-In Chicken Thighs In The Air Fryer

If you have chicken thighs with the bone (with or without skin), they will be like the bundles above, but with the bone inside. The only change is the amount of time they’re in the air fryer for.

Oil and season them as instructed, and you’ll start them rounded-side-down when you first put them in the air fryer. If they’re skin-on, that means they’ll be skin-side-down.

Times and Temperature

Whatever kind of chicken thighs you have, it’s important to put them in the air fryer basket in a single non-overlapping layer with a bit of room around each one. This is to help them cook more evenly.

Set the air fryer to 400F (no need to preheat it) and put the basket with the chicken thighs in there. Then these are the cooking times:

• Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs in Bundles: Cook for 10 minutes and then flip and cook for 5-7 minutes more.
• Unrolled Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs: Cook for 10 minutes.
• Bone-In Chicken Thighs (with or without skin): Cook for 15 minutes and then flip and cook for 10-15 minutes more.

Regardless of which type of chicken thigh you have, make sure that they have reached an internal temperature of 165 degrees Fahrenheit, as read on an instant read thermometer. Or cut into them to check that they’re no longer pink inside.

After you take the chicken thighs out of the basket, let them rest for 2 minutes before serving. Note that I don’t really put them on a special plate or anything to rest. Generally, by them time I plate them and get our other food onto plates, the 2 minutes is up.

Meal Prepping Chicken Thighs In The Air Fryer

They air fryer is a great way to pre-cook chicken as part of your meal prep. I also often cook chicken thighs in the Instant Pot for this purpose, so keep that in mind as another option. Anyhow, if you’re planning to use the chicken thighs at another time, let them cool for 10 minutes after you take them out of the air fryer. Then put them whole into a sealed container, or slice them and put them in the container. Refrigerate for up to 3 days.

Chicken Thighs With Skin In The Air Fryer

In general, whether the chicken thigh has skin or not doesn’t affect the recipe.

If you have boneless chicken thighs that have skin, the recipe below without any modifications will work perfectly. So you’ll be cooking your thighs for 10 minutes on one side (skin-side-down) first and then flip them and cook them for another 5-7 minutes, or until they reach 165 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant read thermometer.

If you have bone-in chicken thighs that have skin, you’ll use the bone-in method above. You’ll cook them skin-side-down for 15 minutes and then skin-side-up for another 10-15 minutes, or until they reach 165 degree Fahrenheit on an instant read thermometer.

How to Remove Skin from Chicken Thighs

If your thighs have skin but you don’t want it on there, you have two options.

1. Remove the skin before cooking. With thighs, the skin often will just pull right off. If it’s stuck somewhere, I find that clean kitchen shears (these are essentially just sharp scissors) work to snip away any spots where the skin is attached to the meat.
2. Cook the chicken as instructed for with-skin. Then let it rest for 2 minutes before using your fingers to pull off the skin. It will come off super easily. If it happens to be stuck somewhere, go in with kitchen shears as above. Just make sure the shears are clean and have not had contact with raw chicken.

How do you choose between option 1 and 2? I prefer option 2 for two reasons. First, it’s easier. Second, you get the flavor and some juice from the skin dripping onto the chicken meat as it cooks. This adds moisture and flavor but doesn’t add much in the way of fat.

Ok, I think that’s all of my advice. Now you can go try making chicken thighs in the air fryer. I can’t wait to hear what you think!

More Chicken Thigh Recipes

• Air Fryer Chicken Shawarma
• Boiled Chicken Thighs
• Easy Baked Chicken Thighs
• Smoked Chicken Thighs
• Chicken Tinga Recipe
• Sous Vide Chicken Thigh Recipe
• Instant Pot BBQ Chicken Thighs