Here is an incredible recipe for keto air-fried chicken. Chicken fillet is fat-free, so it is often dry or not very juicy. To keep the chicken juicy, you can use bread crumbs or almond flour. Thanks to the air fryer, you can use very little or no vegetable oil. You could also use air fryer toaster oven or just a simple toaster oven for this recipe.
Since the aim of a Keto Diet is to remove carbohydrates, almost all, from your diet and induce your body to undergo ketosis. This state is when your body utilizes fat as a source of energy since there are no more carbohydrates to use. In this recipe, we are using almond flour instead of wheat flour or bread crumbs. Almond flour has significantly lower carbohydrate content when compared with wheat flour. In addition, almond flour brings a significantly more complex flavor to your dish by adding a touch of sweetness. This type of flour is even packed with antioxidants which are known agents in reducing the risk of cancer, diabetes, and heart diseases. Not only is your fried chicken going to achieve the crispy exterior you are expecting, but you will also get a more nutritious dish. Almond flour is also a great source of micronutrients such as manganese, magnesium, copper, phosphorous, calcium, and iron.
If in case almond flour is quite harder to get around your area, other flours such as coconut, chia, and flaxseed meal would also work wonders! These flours contain a competitive amount of fiber and medium-chain triglycerides and can equally help in digestion while giving you the crispy texture you are looking for. If all circumstances permit, another alternative to almond flour is ground pork rind! I bet you did not expect that. Using ground pork rind gives you the crackling sound and crispy texture while being an all-around keto-friendly ingredient.
With an air fryer, you can achieve a crispy coating for your fried chicken. You can even make the coating more exciting than it already is. The good thing about the keto diet is that cheese is almost always on the recipe list. You can add your own twist to the coating by adding grated parmesan cheese. This type of cheese cooks well using the convection principle from an air fryer and can give the dish a crispy and flavorful coating. If you are feeling a bit fancy, you can even add crushed nuts to your coating to give your fried chicken dish more texture.
Learn how to make a simple fried chicken more exciting, nutritious, and keto-friendly all while using an air fryer with this recipe! All that and more tips and tricks for you.
Keto air fryer chicken
Course: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy2
servings30
minutes20
minutes201
kcalIngredients
Chicken fillet – 500 g
Corn oil – 2 tbsp.
Lemon juice – 1 tbsp.
Chicken egg – 1 pc.
Spices, salt – to taste
Almond flour – 3 tbsp.
Directions
- Wash and dry the chicken fillet. Remove any excess with a knife. Measure out the right amount of almond flour, lemon juice.
- Now you need to make the chicken marinade. Pour corn oil, lemon juice, chicken spices and salt into a deep bowl. Mix everything well so that the oil mixes evenly with the lemon juice.
- Place the chicken breast in the marinade bowl. To make the chicken marinated better, you can take a knife and make several punctures in it. Now you can cover the bowl with cling film and put it in a cool place for half an hour or an hour. You can leave the chicken in the marinade bowl overnight. It is advisable to turn the chicken several times in a bowl.
- Break the egg into a bowl, beat with a fork. Remove excess spices and marinade from the chicken fillet with a paper towel, then dip it in a beaten egg.
- Put almond flour on a plate and roll it over the breast so that the flour evenly covers it on all sides.
- The fryer can be greased with vegetable oil using a silicone cooking brush. Place the crumbled fillets in an air fryer and cook at 180 degrees for 20 minutes.
- After the timer beep, the chicken is ready. Take it out of the air fryer and place it on a plate.
- For a beautiful presentation, cut the chicken fillet into slices, pour the sauce, add herbs, greens, fresh vegetables or vegetable salad to the plate. It is better to serve the chicken right away, while it is still hot and juicy, and soft.
Tips and tricks
- When drenching the chicken fillet in flour, try to cover the fillet completely to keep the chicken juicy. You can use double breading, but then the crust will be tighter.
- If you add chili to the marinade, the chicken will turn out spicy.
- To make the chicken even more tender, you can add Dijon mustard to the marinade. Extending the marinating time will also help your poultry meat absorb the marinate.
- Before marinating, poke your poultry meat with a fork to allow the marinade to seep into the meat easily.
- If you are using frozen chicken for cooking, place it on the kitchen table and let it thaw naturally. If you are buying chilled chicken, pay attention to the expiration date, as well as the colour of the fillet – it should be pink, but not grey. Also, the fillet should have a neutral chicken smell.
- Some cooked chicken can be refrigerated by placing it in a food container or covering the plate with cling film. Before serving, be sure to warm up the fillets – this can be done in the microwave, oven or air fryer. Most likely, after a while, the crust of almond flour will no longer be crispy.
- If you’re not on a keto diet, you can use wheat flour and panko crackers for breading. If eggs are forbidden for your diet, you can skip using them. In this case, do not remove the excess marinade, but immediately roll the fillets in almond flour. You can cook chicken steaks or chicken strips in the same way.
- To add more flavor to your fried chicken, you cn either add herbs and more spices to your marinade or to the almond flour.
- If you prefer other parts of the chicken such as things or legs, this recipe will work even better. These parts have more moisture than chicken breasts and will work wonders in an air fryer.
- To get an even juicer version of this fried chicken, you can cut your chicken breasts into smaller parts. This will cook the dish faster and more evenly.
- Adding butter or even buttermilk to your marinade adds complexity to the resulting flavor of your dish.
- Religiously follow the temperature suggestion in this recipe. Cooking the fried chicken with a significantly higher temperature will cause case hardening where the outer layer of your dish is cooked whereas the inner meat is still raw.