This Air Fryer Chinese Chicken has all the flavor of General Tso’s takeout you love with less oil. Skip the delivery and make this tasty dish at home.
Our air fryer Chinese Chicken recipe tastes just like takeout General Tso’s chicken. The air fryer means you need less oil and cooks in under 20 minutes.
Scroll down to read more about how it all comes together or click here to jump straight down to the recipe.
What Is Chinese Chicken?
In this context, we’re talking about chicken like you might get from a Chinese restaurant for take-out. Usually small bites of chicken that are fried and covered in a delicious sauce. In this recipe, we’ll be making an easy General Tso’s chicken sauce.
You could also prepare the chicken in the air fryer according to the recipe and toss in a different sauce to make sesame chicken, orange chicken, and more.
How To Make Air Fryer Chinese Chicken
It all starts with boneless chicken thighs that you bread by dipping it in beaten egg then cornstarch for that nice crunch. After that, the chicken is cooked in the air fryer to give it that signature crispiness.
Put your chicken pieces in the air fryer basket, just over the crisper, and lightly coat each piece with cooking spray. If you prefer to use your favorite oil instead of cooking spray you can totally do that with an oil sprayer like this one. Then set the air fryer to cook for fifteen minutes at 400°F. Shake the basket after 5 minutes of cooking so your chicken will not stick to the crisper.
Want a variation without the air fryer? Try our Garlic Chinese Chicken recipe or Sous Vide Chinese Chicken instead.
Making Easy General Tso’s Sauce
Now, the sauce does need to be prepared on the stovetop and not in the air fryer. It’s very quick and easy though and I think it’s worth making it yourself.
To make the sauce super flavorful make sure you use fresh ginger and garlic clove. It makes a huge difference to use them fresh and gives you a more flavorful dish. The thing that really makes this sauce crave worthy is adding soy sauce and rice vinegar. These ingredients paired with brown sugar give this dish the perfect balance of sweet, salty, and sour.
When the chicken is done, just toss it in the sauce and cook for one more minute. Serve over cooked brown or white rice with some vegetables on the side. Then garnish it with sesame seeds or chopped green onions.
More Air Fryer Chicken Recipes
Browse all our air fryer recipes or try one of the favorite recipes below next time.
Air Fryer Chinese Chicken Recipe
This Air Fryer Chinese Chicken has all the flavor of General Tso’s takeout you love with less oil. Skip the delivery and make this tasty dish at home.
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
- Category: Entrée
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: Chinese
Ingredients
- 8 boneless chicken thighs
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
- 1 tsp. salt
- Cooking oil spray
- 1/2 cup water
- 3 Tbsp. less sodium soy sauce
- 2 and 1/2 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
- 2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
- 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
- 4 Tbsp. brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch
- 1 Tbsp. canola oil
- 1/4 tsp. minced fresh ginger
- 1 pressed garlic clove
- 1 Tbsp. green onions
Instructions
- Cut chicken thighs into chunks.
- In a small bowl whisk the egg.
- In another bowl mix cornstarch with salt.
- Dip each chunk of chicken into egg and then cornstarch.
- Spray the bottom of the basket and crisper of the air fryer with cooking spray.
- Add chicken chunks, leaving some space between the pieces. You will need to cook the chicken in several batches. It depends on the brand of the air fryer but it will cook in about 2 – 4 batches.
- Spray the chicken with cooking oil spray. Set the air fryer to cook at 400°F for 15 minutes. After 5 minutes of cooking, shake the basket. Cook for the remaining 10 minutes. If the chicken is not done after 15 minutes, add about 2 – 3 minutes more.
- To prepare the sauce mix water, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, and cornstarch in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Heat the canola oil in a large frying pan.
- Add ginger and garlic. Cook on low heat for about 30 seconds, being careful not to burn it.
- Add the sauce mixture. Cook on low/medium heat for about 5 – 8 minutes until the sauce thickens whisking often.
- Add chicken to the sauce, toss it and cook for about 1 – 2 minutes until the chicken is nicely coated with the sauce.
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This post originally appeared in September 2019 and was revised and republished in January 2025.
Thank you so much both my husband and I love Chinese food which I cook at home but doing it in the air fryer will be much easier to clean up than cooking I’m oil on stove
Thank you, Raquel, enjoy!
Nice, but there’s nothing wrong with msg, that’s a myth