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These air fryer chicken legs are a quick, easy, tasty dinner recipe. Love chicken drumsticks with crispy skin and plenty of flavor? Look no further!
Today we’ll be tossing some chicken legs in olive oil and a blend of seasonings before cooking them. This gives them a lovely, crispy skin and some absolutely delicious flavors thanks to a great spice rub.
Chicken Legs in Air Fryer
One of the coolest things about this recipe is that it’s easy to cook in the air fryer. Air fryers have become something of a must-have kitchen accessory in recent years, thanks to the combo of convenience and quality of food they provide. We’ll have dinner on the table in thirty minutes or less with this awesome air fryer recipe.
The air fryer gets your chicken that crispy, delectable finish we all love, without nearly as much oil as you’d need for other frying recipes. This chicken recipe goes with just about any side you can think of, too. Pasta? Perfect. Rice? Great. Salad? Even better!
What Do I Need to Make This?
To make this awesome recipe, you’ll need a few things to start with.
- Chicken drumsticks
- Olive oil
- Sea salt
- Lemon pepper
- Onion powder
- Dried oregano and thyme
- Garlic cloves, optional
- Fresh herbs to garnish
How To Make Air Fryer Chicken Legs
The steps for this recipe are so simple.
- First, you need to preheat your air fryer. Set it to 400 F | 200 C. Your air fryer should be preheated in about five minutes.
- Next, you’re going to season your chicken and garlic cloves. Put your chicken and garlic in a bowl or resealable bag. Coat them with olive oil. You want a liberal covering of oil over the entire chicken and garlic, to make sure your spice rub sticks to them. Sprinkle your spices over the chicken and garlic, tossing until evenly coated. You can rub the spice into the chicken with your hands if you like, just be sure to wash your hands with hot soapy water afterwards.
- To cook , simply place the chicken and garlic in the air fryer for about seven minutes. After 7 minutes are up, remove the garlic cloves and turn the drumsticks over, and cook them for 8-13 minutes. This should be enough for the chicken to cook to crispy perfection. If you’re not sure, take an instant read meat thermometer and test the internal temperature of your chicken. Chicken is fully cooked at an internal temperature of 165 F.
What Tools Do I Need?
- You’ll need a large bowl or zip-log bag for tossing the chicken.
- Of course, you’ll need an air fryer!
Tips And Tricks For The Best Air Fryer Chicken Legs
- Love extra crispy skin on the chicken? Then you’ll want to pat the drumsticks dry with a paper towel prior to coating them in oil. By removing any excess moisture on the surface of the chicken, you guarantee a crispier finish in the air fryer.
- Preheating the air fryer is critical. Air fryers are pretty much just smaller ovens. Just like an oven, preheating is important to make sure the food goes into a hot cooking area. You want your chicken to enter the air fryer at 400 F| 200 C. That allows the chicken to start cooking straight away. Think about it like this: you wouldn’t put raw chicken into a cold pan, right? The same applies to an air fryer.
- Avoid overfilling the air fryer! You can pretty much guarantee unevenly cooked chicken if you have an overcrowded cooking space. You want to give each piece of chicken and garlic plenty of space in the air fryer to allow the hot air to circulate freely.
- On that note, don’t stack your chicken legs in the fryer, either. It causes the same issue as overcrowding. By not allowing the hot air to circulate freely over the entire surface of the chicken, you wind up with unevenly cooked chicken. A single layer, exposing the skin of every piece to the hot environment of the fryer, is perfect.
- Use a meat thermometer to check the doneness of your chicken. Chicken is cooked when it reaches an internal temperature of 165 F. You can, if you want, cook your chicken drumsticks to an internal temperature between 180 and 195 F, as this is when the meat become more gelatinous and starts to fall off the bone. The higher temperature also removes any dark bloody spots around the chicken bone.
- Turning your chicken legs over halfway is also very important. Unless you’re cooking your chicken drumsticks rotisserie-style, you’ll have a side of the drumstick facing down when you’re cooking. That means the side away from the heat source in the air fryer won’t cook as much as the side towards the heat source. The easiest way to address this is simply to flip the chicken halfway through cooking. That way your chicken will be cooked evenly all the way around, with perfectly crispy skin on the entire drumstick.
Air Fryer Chicken Recipes
Air Fryer Parmesan Crusted Chicken With Mayo
Shake & Bake Chicken in Air Fryer
If you make this recipe be sure to leave a comment or give this recipe a rating ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐! I will be happy to hear from you!
Air Fryer Chicken Legs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon lemon pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 8 chicken drumsticks
- 20 cloves garlic, unpeeled
- Fresh thyme, basil or parsley to garnish
Instructions
- Preheat your air fryer to 400 F |200 C.
- Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel.
- Place the chicken and garlic into a large bowl or resealable bag. Add olive oil and toss to coat.
- Add the spices to the bag or bowl and toss to coat again.
- Arrange the chicken drumsticks and garlic in your air fryer basket in a single layer and cook at 400 F |200 C for 15-20 minutes. After 7 minutes of cooking, remove the garlic cloves, flip the chicken over and continue cooking for 8-13 minutes or until cooked through and the internal temperature reaches 165 F|73 C.
- Garnish with fresh thyme or parsley.
- Squeeze the buds of garlic from their husks onto the bread and spread like butter.
- Serve and enjoy!
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Made it tonight and loved it! Definitely a keeper!
Hey, Michael! I am glad you enjoyed it! And thanks for sharing your experience!
Have you tried this with thighs or breasts?
Hey Mike! You can use thighs instead of drumsticks. I haven’t tried it with breasts. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs cook quickly, in 15 to 20 minutes.