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Make crispy & garlicky chicken thighs in your air fryer with this Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs recipe. It features my 5-minute garlic Parmesan butter that I used on my air fryer cajun shrimp and air fryer steak. Enjoy this with my air fryer frozen broccoli, air fryer squash, or creamy mushroom cauliflower rice risotto to make a meal.
Why Make This
- Quick & easy: this recipe mostly requires you to mix the chicken in spices and grated cheese before adding it to the air fryer. Plus, it’s ready in less than 30 minutes.
- Crispy Garlic Parmesan flavor: Garlic Parmesan wings helped me realize that garlic and Parmesan go so well together without much else. So, this easy dish includes those flavors, but amps up the garlic, since there’s fresh minced garlic in the garlic butter.
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken Thighs: I used bone-in and skin-on raw chicken thighs. You can also use boneless chicken thighs (see my air fryer boneless chicken thighs post for the time difference).
- Garlic Butter: I used my quick and easy garlic herb butter recipe. It not only adds flavor to this dish, but it’s also a great compound butter for air fryer steak.
- Parmesan cheese: I’m using the fresh, grated kind from the refrigerated section of the market.Sea Salt: I’m using fine grain sea salt.
- Black Pepper
How to Make Air Fryer Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs in 4 Simple Steps
- Add the seasoning and Parmesan to a bowl with the chicken. Then, evenly coat the chicken
- Add the chicken to the bottom of the cooking pot (no air fryer insert needed), skin side down. Air Crisp the thighs at 400 degrees.
- Use tongs to toss the chicken in the melted garlic butter and coat both sides.
- Air fry on 400 skin side up to crisp the skin and cook the chicken through
Top Tips & FAQs
- Enjoy the crispy garlic bits: one of the best parts of this recipe is the crispy garlic bits that sometimes fall to the bottom of the air fryer. Don’t let those go to waste. Scoop them up and serve them on top of your chicken.
- Adjust the cooking time for boneless: air fryer boneless chicken thighs take less time to cook than bone-in chicken thighs.
- Use a cake pan insert if you don’t have a multi cooker: my Ninja Foodi air fryer also works as a slow cooker and pressure cooker. So, for recipes like this, my air fryer Cajun shrimp and garlic butter steak bites, I skip the air fryer basket and just use the cooking pot. If your air fryer isn’t set up like this, use a cake pan air fryer accessory.
- Pat the chicken dry for crispier skin: one of the keys to crispy air fried chicken is to pay the chicken skin dry before adding spices and cooking
This recipe was specifically tested with raw and thawed chicken thighs. I haven’t tried this with frozen chicken thighs.
Yes. I don’t use any flour when air frying. Two of my crispest recipes are my air fryer fried chicken wings and air fryer chicken legs. Both have the crunch of fried chicken without flour or breading.
Yes. You can put frozen chicken wings and frozen chicken patties in your air fryer. I do not recommend putting a frozen whole chicken in your air fryer.
Recipes to Enjoy This With
- Air Fryer Frozen Broccoli
- Air Fryer Green Beans
- Squash in the Air Fryer
- Mushroom Cauliflower Rice Risotto
- Chicken Side Dishes
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Air Fryer Garlic Butter Chicken Thighs
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Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 lb Chicken Thighs, bone-in and skin-on
- 1/4 tsp Natural Ancient Sea Salt
- 1/2 tsp Black Pepper
- 4 tbsp Garlic Butter, click for the recipe
- 1 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated
Instructions
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
- Add the seasoning, Parmesan cheese to the bowl with the chicken. Then, evenly coat the chicken with the seasoning and Parmesan.
- Add the chicken to the bottom of the cooking pot (no air fryer basket insert needed) skin side down. Put the garlic butter on top.
- Air Crisp the chicken thighs at 400 degrees for 13 minutes.
- Use tongs to toss the chicken in the melted garlic butter and coat both sides.
- Air fry on 400 skin side up for 11-12 more minutes to cook the chicken through and crisp the skin
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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