Frozen Chicken Breasts in the Air Fryer

Once you know how to cook a frozen chicken breast in the air fryer, you’ll never stress about defrosting them ever again! With this easy method, you’ll take those frozen chicken breasts from straight-from-the-freezer to fully cooked in roughly 30 minutes, no prep needed.

What We Love About This Recipe

1. We’ve all been there. It’s time to start cooking dinner after a crazy day when you had no free time and 10,012 things to do. You go to the kitchen, open the fridge, and… realize you forgot to move the chicken over to thaw. NOW WHAT?! Well, this air fryer method eliminates all of that panic and frustration. Now you can just take the chicken breasts out of the freezer and pop them right in the air fryer!
2. After cooking the frozen chicken breasts in the air fryer, you can use them however you like! We kept the seasonings super simple so they won’t overpower components of any recipe you might use these in. They’re enough, though, that you could absolutely enjoy the chicken breasts as they are with your favorite sides!
3. You can customize your chicken breasts however you’d like! Add garlic powder and smoked paprika for Mexican-inspired chicken, or dried oregano and lemon juice for Mediterranean-inspired chicken. There really is no wrong way to season frozen chicken breasts, air fryer or not, so have fun with it!

Chef’s Tips

• All air fryers behave differently – even two of the same make and model and age sitting side-by-side on the same counter in the same kitchen. The time and temp that works best for my air fryer may or may not be right for yours. That’s one reason it’s important to pause the cooking halfway through and flip the chicken over! This gives you a chance to see how things are progressing and whether or not you need to adjust the temp or cook time.
• The food-safe temperature for chicken breasts is 165° Fahrenheit, but! Don’t cook the chicken all the way to that temp! Instead, take the chicken out of the air fryer when it reaches 160°-163° Fahrenheit, then set it aside and let it rest for 5 minutes. It’ll keep cooking residually during that time, bringing it up to the 165° safe temp without overcooking it. That rest time also allows for the juices within the chicken to redistribute and settle, ensuring every bite is nice and juicy.
• If you want a lot of flavor, after flipping the frozen chicken breasts in the air fryer basket, drizzle a little more oil over them and top them with a little more salt and pepper.

A Few of Our Favorite Chicken Recipes

• Buffalo Chicken Fries
• Marry Me Chicken Pasta
• Cranberry Chicken Salad
• Chicken Bryan (Carrabba’s Copycat)
• Keto White Chicken Chili
• Blackened Chicken Alfredo
• Marry Me Chicken
• 3-Ingredient Slow Cooker Mexican Shredded Chicken
• Instant Pot Chicken and Noodles
• Keto Buffalo Chicken Dip
• Ultimate Chicken Casserole
• Creamy Chicken Enchiladas
• Creamy Cajun Chicken Pasta Soup
• Chicken Salad with Grapes

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4.75 from 4 votes

Frozen Chicken Breasts in the Air Fryer

Prep: 10 minutes minutes

Cook: 35 minutes minutes

Total: 45 minutes minutes

Once you know how to successfully cook frozen chicken breasts in the air fryer, you'll never want to use any other method!

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2 chicken breasts

Ingredients

• ▢ 1 pound frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts approximately 2-3 chicken breasts depending on size
• ▢ 2 teaspoons olive oil or avocado oil
• ▢ ½ teaspoon salt more or less to taste
• ▢ ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper more or less to taste

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Equipment

• Air Fryer
• Tongs
• Internal meat thermometer
• large plate or cutting board

Instructions 

• Preheat air fryer to 360° Fahrenheit.
• Remove basket from preheated air fryer. Place 1 pound frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts in air fryer basket. Drizzle 2 teaspoons olive oil over chicken breasts, then sprinkle ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper evenly over chicken.
• Return basket to air fryer. Air fryer chicken breasts 15 to 20 minutes, then pause air fryer and remove basket.
• Flip chicken breasts over and return basket to air fryer. Air fry chicken breasts 10 to 15 minutes more, or until internal temperature of chicken breasts reaches 160° Fahrenheit.
• When chicken reaches 160° Fahrenheit internally, carefully remove chicken from air fryer and transfer to plate or cutting board. Let chicken rest 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, slice chicken breasts as desired, or transfer whole chicken breasts to serving plates and serve with desired sides.

Notes

• Actual number of servings yielded will depend on size and number of chicken breasts cooked.

Nutrition Information

Serving: 1 chicken breast | Calories: 295kcal | Protein: 48g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.03g | Total Carbs: 0.2g | Fiber: 0.1g | Net Carbs: 0.1g | Vitamin C: 3mg | Cholesterol: 145mg | Sodium: 845mg | Potassium: 843mg | Calcium: 13mg | Iron: 1mg

Number of total servings shown is approximate. Actual number of servings will depend on your preferred portion sizes.

 

Nutritional values shown are general guidelines and reflect information for 1 serving using the ingredients listed, not including any optional ingredients. Actual macros may vary slightly depending on specific brands and types of ingredients used.

 

To determine the weight of one serving, prepare the recipe as instructed. Weigh the finished recipe, then divide the weight of the finished recipe (not including the weight of the container the food is in) by the desired number of servings. Result will be the weight of one serving.

© Author: Cheryl Malik