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Use the best chicken dry rub to make Air Fryer Chicken Tenders with no breading. This recipe requires just three ingredients and comes together using sliced chicken breasts or chicken tenderloin strips. Dip these into my chick-fil-a sauce, keto bbq sauce, or blue cheese dressing. You can also use these as a topping for my keto cobb salad.

Why Make This
- Chicken Tenders with No Breading: the easiest way to make keto chicken tenders is to skip the breading. This recipe does that, but doesn’t skimp on flavor because of my easy DIY chicken dry rub.
- Quick & easy: this recipe is no-fuss, requiring just a few ingredients and steps.
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken: When making chicken tenders in the air fryer, I use chicken tenderloins or chicken breasts sliced into strips.
- Chicken Dry Rub: I use this homemade spice blend in this recipe as well as my dry rub wings. It’s a complete spice mix that includes things like salt and pepper as well as garlic powder and smoked paprika.
- Avocado oil: I use this for most air fryer recipes, but olive oil is another one of the best oils for air frying.

How to Make Chicken Tenders in the Air Fryer With No Breading
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel and add it to a large bowl with the dry rub and oil.
- Evenly coat the chicken with the seasoning and oil.
- Add the chicken to the air fryer cooking basket.
- Air crisp on 400 for 5-6 min per side or until the tenders are cooked through.

Top Cooking Tips & FAQs
- Get variety by switching up the spice blend: You can switch this recipe up by using a range of homemade spice blends from the site. Some of my favorites for air fryer chicken tenders would be: bbq seasoning and cajun seasoning.
- Pop open your lid and check the tenders: the cook time will vary based on their size. Start checking them for doneness at the 10 minute mark.
They take about 12 minutes.
I use 400 degrees to air fryer chicken, including these chicken tenders.
Unbreaded chicken tenders take about 12 minutes to cook in the air fryer.
Recipes to Enjoy This With
- Copycat Chick-fil-A Sauce
- Air Fryer Frozen Green Beans
- Easy Homemade Keto BBQ Sauce Recipe
- Keto Chicken Cobb Salad [+VIDEO]
More Air Fryer Recipes
- Best Air Fryer Vegetable Recipes
- 52 Keto Air Fryer Recipes for Easy Meals
- Ninja Foodi Recipes: 50 Low Carb & Keto Options
If you try this recipe, please stop back and leave it a star rating and/or a review in the comments. Stay connected & share photos of your creations with me & others on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest!

Air Fryer Chicken Tenders No Breading
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Recommended Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Tenders, raw, chicken tenderloins or chicken breasts sliced into strips
- 2 tbsp Best Chicken Dry Rub Seasoning, click for recipe, or use bbq seasoning
- 2 tbsp Avocado oil, or olive oil
Instructions
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
- Add the chicken to a large bowl.
- Add the dry rub and oil to the bowl with the chicken. Then, evenly coat the chicken with the seasoning and oil.
- Add the chicken to the air fryer cooking basket.
- Air crisp on 400 for 5-6 min per side or until the tenders are cooked through.
Nutrition Details
The nutrition facts come from entering the recipe ingredients into Spoonacular API, a database of food ingredients. They may vary for any recipe based on the exact product used. The keto sweeteners I use have 0g net carbs & are not included because sugar alcohols do not impact most people. This is provided as a courtesy, but you can do your own calculations if you wish!
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