Dry Rub Chicken Breasts

Make juicy dry rub chicken breasts in 15-minutes with this easy recipe. It uses just three ingredients like my chicken rub. Plus, they can be cooked in your air fryer, oven, grill or cast-iron skillet. Enjoy this juicy chicken recipe with a side dish like my keto grits or cauliflower mushroom risotto for dinner or with a salad for lunch.

Why Make This

• Three ingredients: all you need are chicken breasts, my homemade dry rub recipe, and oil.
• Great for meal prep: this chicken breast recipe is super versatile. You can pair this with an easy side dish or use it to top a salad for an easy meal.
• Perfectly moist chicken breasts: making chicken breasts in the air fryer helps the meat become tender and moist with little effort. Just toss the chicken in spices and oil, then air fry!

Ingredients Needed

• Chicken Breasts: I’m using boneless skinless chicken breasts. To ensure that the chicken breasts have an even thickness and cook evenly, use a meat tenderizer to pound out each piece of chicken.
• Best Chicken Dry Rub: I use my own dry rub. This simple seasoning blend includes things you probably have in your spice cabinet like smoked paprika, garlic powder, black pepper, onion powder, cayenne pepper, and thyme. When it comes to chicken seasoning, this assortment of spices will give your chicken breasts so much flavor.
• Avocado Oil: this works best for air frying because it can stand high heat. When I run out, I also use olive oil or melted coconut oil.

You can get the full list of ingredient amounts and instructions from the full recipe card at the end of the post.

How to Make Juicy Dry Rub Chicken Breasts

Dry Rub Chicken Breasts have a similar prep process as my air fryer chicken thighs and dry rub chicken drumsticks.

1. Add the chicken breasts, chicken rub, and oil to a large bowl
2. Mix to evenly coat the chicken breasts
3. Place chicken in the air fryer cooking basket in a single layer and air fry at 400 degrees!
4. Flip the meat halfway through for the most even cooking

Top Cooking Tips & FAQs

• Mix the dry rub in a small bowl before adding it to the meat: this will ensure that it coats the chicken evenly.
• About 30 minutes before cooking, take out the meat – this will allow it to come to room temperature.

Other Ways to Cook Chicken Breast

I’m using my air fryer because I think that’s the easiest and best way to make chicken, but you can also cook your chicken breasts in the oven, on the grill, or stovetop in a cast-iron pan. 

• Baked chicken breasts take about 25 minutes in a preheated oven set to 400 degrees 
• Make the best grilled chicken breasts by using an indoor grill on medium heat or an outdoor grill on 400 degrees for about 4-5 minutes per side.
• Cast iron skillet chicken breasts require a cooking time of about 4 minutes per side on medium heat. 

How long should dry rub sit on the chicken?

For maximum flavor and best results, I prefer to keep my dry rub on chicken for at least 6 hours or overnight.

But, if you’re in a crunch on time, you can add the spices and just cook the meat in the air fryer immediately.

Other Dry Rubs:

You can use any spice rub that you wish to make flavorful chicken.

Some other homemade spice blends are:

• Pork rub (bbq seasoning): This one includes a keto brown sugar base as well as a lot of smokey flavors.
• Cajun seasoning

Storage & Leftovers

If you have leftover chicken breast, an easy way to store them is in an airtight container, or wrap them up tight in aluminum foil for up to 5 days.

How do you use dry rub on chicken?

I recommend using 1-2 tablespoons of this dry rub per pound of chicken breasts.

You simply toss the chicken breasts in the dry rub and oil to get an even coating.

As mentioned, for maximum flavor, let the chicken sit with the dry rub on it overnight or for at least 6 hours before adding the chicken breasts to the air fryer, oven, or grill.

How do you keep dry rub chicken moist?

Chicken Breast is a lean cut of meat so it doesn’t have much fat to keep it moist.

So, the cooking process is important for keeping these moist. Some tips are:

• Not overcooking: you can always pop the lid to the air fryer open to check the meat’s temperature.
• Salt: properly salting your food helps the chicken breasts retain moisture as it cooks. The recommended amount of dry rub per pound of meat adds both flavor and salt to have moist chicken breasts
• Brine: While this wasn’t necessary for this recipe, a foolproof way to keep any lean meat moist (including my pressure cooker Turkey breasts) is to brine the meat.
• Rest: Let the chicken rest on a plate covered with a foil tent for 5-10 minutes before cutting into it.

How do you keep chicken breasts from drying out?

Dried out chicken breasts are usually overcooked. You can keep your chicken breasts from drying out by:

• Removing them from the air fryer basket when they are done cooking (leaving them in the heat will cause them to continue to cook)
• Cooking them to slightly under the recommended internal temperature: meat continues to cook as it rests. So, my personal preference (and general rule of thumb) is to cook the meat until an instant-read thermometer reaches 155-160 degrees. This way, once the meat is done resting, it is at the perfect temperature.
• Allow the meat to rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting: this prevents most of the juices from ending up on the cutting board.

Recipes to Enjoy this with

• Air Fryer Green Beans
• Keto Grits
• Cauliflower Mushroom Risotto
• Keto Green Bean Casserole
• Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
• Air Fryer Asparagus

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!