Choose one of these 10 Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets Recipes to make for lunch or dinner!

Now that you have an Air Fryer, it’s time for Chicken Nuggets! Remember this pair wonderfully with Air Fryer French Fries or Air Fryer Sweet Potato Fries too.

Homemade Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets use less oil and take less time to make, you can feed your entire family with a healthier alternative than the deep frying method.

The air fryer will use hot air along with just a hint of oil spray to give those chicken pieces a wonderful golden brown texture.

There are so many ways to make chicken nuggets in the air fryer, how do you choose? Well, you don’t! Try them all and see what you like, plus you can get a variety of flavors too.

How long do you cook chicken nuggets in the Air Fryer?

Each recipe in the list will have a specific time; however, generally just about 12-15 minutes. The important thing to note is that ALL air fryers heat differently.

There is truly no real magic number because they all seem to put off a different level of heat, the best idea is to have a meat thermometer on hand to check the temperature throughout the cooking time.

I have several meat thermometers, but this inexpensive ThermoPro gets the job done well!

The internal temperature needs to be at least 165°F to be considered well done.

Tips for Making Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets:

Remember that if you plan to make chicken nuggets completely from scratch, do not cook the fries and chicken nuggets together.

If you are using frozen pre-cooked chicken nuggets and frozen fries, then you could easily cook all of those together.

The recipes I’m sharing today are all using raw chicken, so do not cook them together.

As mentioned above, be sure to keep a close eye on the temperature if this is your first time making nuggets. I’ve also found that we prefer boneless, skinless chicken thighs over boneless, skinless chicken breasts in most cases, but again that is a personal preference.

The best way to cook nuggets in the air fryer is to place them in a single layer in your air fryer basket or on an air fryer tray in the oven.

This means that these will need to be done in batches when using the air fryer basket, if you need a big batch then it may be easiest to use the oven or the air fryer setting on the oven, if you have that.

Sometimes the second batch will cook faster than the first, so always keep a close eye on it.

Regardless of the recipe you use, it’s always a good idea to flip or turn over the chicken halfway through the cooking time. Another option is to simply shake the basket a bit so they do not stick to the bottom.

What about Air Fryer Copycat Chick-Fil-A Nuggets?

These Air Fryer Crispy Nuggets will be a close alternative to your favorite restaurant style nuggets.

The key to making these is to soak the bite-sized pieces in pickle juice. It tenderizes the chicken before cooking int he air fryer.

Once you are done soaking, then it will be time to make the crispy coating.

Want less mess?

For even less mess, you can use a few different things to cover the base of your basket. There is Air Fryer Parchment Paper as well as Silicone Air Fryer that fits well in the Ninja Foodi or the Air Fryer.

A little oil cooking spray is also a must to have on hand. A few you could use would be grapeseed, coconut, or avocado. Find out more about the oil sprayers with this article.

Olive Oil spray can also be used but it does have a lower smoke point than other sprays. I do use it regularly without issue though.

If the nuggets look floury at all, just give them a light spray of oil and they will be perfectly crispy!

Can you make nuggets gluten-free?

Any air fryer chicken nugget recipe can be adapted to be gluten-free with a few simple swaps.

This includes using gluten-free flour. It needs to be an all-purpose flour that is a 1:1 swap with regular flour.

This will be the primary ingredient that needs to be swapped but always look at the full ingredients list before proceeding with the recipe and adapt as needed.