Juicy Air Fryer Dry Rub Chicken Breasts

Take your chicken breasts to the next level with this three-ingredient, Dry Rub Air Fryer Chicken Breasts recipe. Using the best chicken dry rub and the Ninja Foodi, these chicken breasts come out perfectly tender and moist in less than 15-minutes. Enjoy this with a side dish like my keto grits or cauliflower mushroom risotto for dinner or a salad for lunch.

Why Make This

• Three ingredients: all you need are chicken breasts, my dry rub and oil
• Great for meal prep: this meat 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 perfectly tender and moist with little effort. Just toss the chicken in spices in oil and air fry!

Ingredients Needed

• Chicken Breasts: I’m using boneless & skinless chicken breasts. For even cooking, you can pound them out until they are about the same thickness.
• Best Chicken Dry Rub: I use this over and over in my house, so I make a batch and store it in a spice jar. This dry rub mix recipe includes common spices like smoked paprika, garlic and onion powder, and thyme.
• Avocado Oil: this works best in air frying because it can stand high heat. When I run out, I also use olive oil or melted coconut oil.

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.

You simply:

1. Add the meat, chicken dry rub and oil to a large bowl
2. Mix to evenly coat the chicken breasts
3. Add the meat to the air fryer cooking basket and cook!
4. Flip the meat halfway through for the most even cooking

Top Cooking Tips & FAQs

How long should dry rub sit on chicken?

For maximum flavor, 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.

How do you use dry rub on chicken?

I recommend using 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 temperature and leaving them in the air fryer covered so that the meat will continue to cook to 165 degrees as it rests
• 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!