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Fried chicken might just be one of the most delicious foods I can think of. Unfortunately, most fried chicken recipes are loaded with carbs because of the breading. These Air Fryer Chicken Legs (Drumsticks) come out delightfully crispy and full of flavor in about 30 minutes. They are the perfect way to get fried chicken flavor without using breading or added grains.
Why share Air Fryer Drumsticks
- Great for busy people and families: Air fryer chicken legs are one of my favorite easy keto recipes because they are perfect for busy people & families. They do not require much prep and cook until crispy in about 30 minutes total.
- Perfect regardless of your way of eating: almost everyone lots crispy chicken, so the whole family will eat them happily even if they aren’t following a low carb or keto diet.
- Crispy without flour breading: these use a spice mix to get fried chicken flavors without adding flour
Ingredients Needed for Air Fryer Chicken Legs
My air fryer drumsticks recipe uses:
- fresh chicken drumsticks
- some spices
- baking powder
The spices you need include:
- Sea Salt
- black pepper
- smoked paprika
- garlic powder
- onion powder
How do you cook drumsticks in an air fryer
The Ninja Foodi (all-in-one multi-cooker) makes it easy to cook air-fried dishes. In fact, it’s one of my favorite kitchen tools for chicken drumsticks, air fried chicken wings, air fryer roasted cauliflower, and air fryer sausages.
The best way to learn how to make this dish is to watch the post video. The basic steps to make drumsticks in the Foodi are:
- Pat the chicken legs dry with paper towels. Be sure to remove as much of the moisture as possible. Drier chicken results in a crispier end result.
- Mix up the spices, salt, and baking powder in a small bowl. Once it is well blended, place the chicken legs in a bowl or a large zip lock bag.
- Sprinkle the spice mix on top and give them a toss to coat the legs with the mixture.
- Place the chicken into the air fryer cooking basket and drizzle a little bit of oil on them. The oil will help give them a crispier skin.
- Air Crisp the drumsticks for about 12-15 minutes per side
Top Cooking Tips & FAQs
- Use thawed chicken legs or chicken drumsticks for best results: You could use frozen chicken if you prefer, but you have to make sure you take the time to defrost them first. Frozen chicken legs also tend to be wetter, so you need to spend more time patting them dry.
- Don’t try to substitute baking soda for baking powder: Trust me. I know from experience that the drumsticks will have a terrible taste, and you’ll waste perfectly good drumsticks for nothing.
How long to cook chicken legs in an air fryer
The technical answer for how long to cook chicken drumsticks is to cook until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees. To confirm this, you’ll need a meat thermometer. But, of course, not everyone has a meat thermometer.
For bare minimum doneness: 24 total minutes in an air fryer set to 400 degrees will adequately cook the drumsticks. But, the longer you keep them in the air fryer, the crispier they will get.
For crispy drumsticks: cook them for about 30 total minutes.
One great thing about air fryers generally is that you can always open the lid, check on your meat, and continue cooking if you need more time.
Getting air fryer chicken legs crispy with no breading
Traditional fried chicken relies on breading to help crisp up the outside of the chicken. Of course, breading, whether flour, bread crumbs, or a batter, is not keto or low carb friendly.
The solution to this is pretty simple. Baking powder, when added to the spice mix, allows the chicken skin to crisp up nicely in the air fryer. Along with a drizzle of olive oil, you will have crispy, great-tasting drumsticks without the use of bread crumbs and other grains.
Can you put foil in an air fryer?
Foil is a great trick to help keep baking pans clean or cleaner when cooking in the oven. If you like using foil for that purpose, you are in luck. You can line your cooking basket with foil or parchment paper. This can help make clean up easier when you are done cooking.
Since the Foodi cooking basket and cooking pot are dishwasher safe, I don’t bother with the extra lining.
Side Dishes for Air Fryer Drumsticks
Chicken drumsticks can go with a lot of different side dishes and dips. What you serve it with will depend on what you are in the mood for that night.
If you want a great vegetable side dish, you can try:
- Easy Sauteed Asparagus
- Keto Creamed Spinach
- Loaded Cauliflower
- Roasted Garlic Cauliflower Mash with Keto Gravy
Or, you can try it with a dipping sauce. One of my favorites is low carb sweet chili sauce, which I used to make Keto Asian sticky wings and would give these drumsticks an Asian flare.
More Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Recipes
If you love your air fryer (and who doesn’t?), check out these other Foodi recipes that use an air fryer:
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!
Ninja Air Fryer Fried Chicken Legs Recipe
Use DRDAVINAHS at checkout to save on some equipment & ingredients!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs Chicken Legs, this was about 6 drumsticks
- 1/2 tsp Natural Ancient Sea Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 1/2 tsp Smoked Paprika
- 1 tsp Garlic Powder
- 1 tsp Onion Powder
- 1 tbsp Baking Powder
Instructions
- Remove the chicken legs from the refrigerator and pat dry (removing as much moisture as possible helps to have a crispy chicken skin)
- Mix the sea salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and baking powder in a small dish or ramekin
- Sprinkle the seasoning mixture on the chicken and toss to coat
- Place the drumsticks on the cooking basket. In the Ninja Foodi, this is called the "Cook & Crisp" basket.
- Drizzle olive oil on them
- Use the Air Crisp setting on 400 degrees for the Ninja Foodi or 400 degrees on other fryers to cook the chicken for 12-15 minutes per side.
- Enjoy the chicken legs alone or add your favorite keto or low-carb dips and sauces.
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!
Maria says
I’ve had my air fryer for a few years, but have only used it once before. Decided to give this recipe a try since I just went to Costco yesterday and happened to buy chicken drumsticks. The only thing I would do differently, and the reason for giving it 4 instead of 5 stars, is that I would add more salt and pepper. It has a good amount of onion and garlic powder, but I thought it could have used some more salt and pepper, and possibly more paprika too. Otherwise, it’s a great recipe. And the air fryer cooks the drumsticks in about half the time as my oven, even at the same temperature . My husband loved the chicken! I paired it with Davinah’s easy Keto coleslaw recipe.
Christine Morgester says
This was some of the best chicken I’ve had in ages. Tastes just like “fried” chicken! Thank you for posting it!
April V says
I made this tonight along with your keto creamed spinach and WOW! Amazing flavor, so easy to follow and my family loved it! Thank you so much for sharing! I’ll be sure to try your other recipes!
Shannon says
While the seasonings were delicious, my chicken did not get crisp in my Foodi. IF I try this recipe again, I will only make 4 drumsticks to see if they crisp up more.
Davinah says
Hi Shannon,
Thanks for sharing this and you’re right about using 4. I added some tips and an instructional video to make this point clearer since chicken legs can really vary in size. Space is key here for them to fully crisp up so you might need to make 4 drumsticks to leave some room in your air fryer.
Best,
Davinah
AndeeSmith says
Love your recipe – thank you! I saved this recipe to my Pinterest IP Air Fryer Lid board. A lot of air fryer wing and drumstick recipes have you cook in the instant pot and then again in the air fryer. Who wants overcooking chicken??!!
Kim says
So damn good!!!
Chris Henry says
This recipe is AWESOME. I have a ninja Foodi and will never pan fry again. Thank you.
Davinah says
Glad you enjoyed this, Chris! Appreciate you for stopping back to leave a review.
Rachel T. says
Yesssss, gurl!!! Lol! Your recipe and instructions are on point. I just finished making (and eating) this recipe with the family and I got so many compliments from the way it looks, the crispness, and great flavor. My adult son who bought my dual sided air fryer for me, raved about these air fryer chicken legs. Chicken legs, I would never have thought! Lmbo! I made cubed potatoes with home grown elephant garlic in the other air fryer compartment, same temp/time, brushed with oil and it paired nicely. Thank you, thank you!
Davinah says
Love these tip and this meal idea! I actually only eat chicken legs this way too! Appreciate you for trying this and stopping back to leave a review.
Pat says
I made this last night. I highly recommend it. It couldn’t have been easier. The seasonings and baking powder and the splash of olive oil made a lovely delicious crust. It was so healthy!!! Everyone needs to try this!!
Davinah says
Thanks so much, Pat! Glad you enjoyed it!
Mary says
Delish! Very easy to do. Total time for complete meal – 30 minutes.
Patricia A Malloy says
Loved the crispiness and spiciness.
Mary Pearl says
I’m using smoked paprika for the first time. What’s the difference between it and plain paprika?
Davinah says
Hi Mary,
Thanks for asking. Smoked Paprika literally has a sweet & smokey flavor. Plain paprika is not a good substitute for it as it is more peppery-tasting. In fact, I tend to only use plain paprika for “decoration”/added color in my kitchen.
Hope that helps!
Sasha thomas says
Hello Queen; You Slayed this recipe. It was perfection. No need to add nor alter it. This is a 5 star recipe and if you follow it, you will have a crispy flavorful piece of chicken. Thank you BOSS QUEEN, great job. p.s. Now on a side note to you Ms. Queen D. I want 2 share . I use organic free range chicken drumsticks brined in kosher salt and organic herbs such as lemon garlic etc. for 2 1/2 hrs, then follow your recipe with ALL ORGANIC ingredients. So juicy. Organic fruits n vegetables , grass fed organic ground beef n wild caught tuna/salmon. Lost over 70 lbs without trying so I try to always eat clean. No processed foods ., Great Recipe u have here. Thank you
Davinah says
Thank you so much! I appreciate the extra tips that you left! So glad that you enjoyed it and was able to incorporate this in your weight loss journey! Keep up the amazing work!
Ruth Ann says
OMGosh, the skin became crunchy and tasty.
Hubby said keep this recipe this is really good!!
I worried about too many spices, they were just right!
If you want spicy, ad a bit of Chipotle to your taste.
Davinah says
Thanks for the tip, Ruth Ann! I appreciate you for trusting the recipe :). Love that you make these spicy by adding some chipotle!
Judy says
Thank you for this recipe. Family loved absolutely loved it.
Davinah says
Happy that you all enjoyed it! Thank you for stopping back!
kerry says
This is a super easy recipe and absolutely delicious. I used arrowroot flour instead of the baking powder and it made it even more like fried chicken.
Davinah says
What a great idea! Arrowroot is perfect for people who might want these, but are following paleo or Whole30! Nice tip.
Joanie says
I made this tonight and the chicken was perfect. I finished them with a very small basting of barbeque sauce. They were delicious. Thank you for the recipe
Davinah says
I love this making this with bbq sauce too! I’m happy that you enjoyed this recipe!
Joanne says
The meat comes out tender and juicy, and the crispy skin with these fantastic spices are absolutely delicious. This meal also takes no time at all to prepare. The drumsticks taste great cold as well. I love my Jinja and I love this recipe. Thank you!
Davinah says
I love my Foodi too! So happy that you enjoyed this recipe. Thanks for stopping back to share your experience making it!