Air fryer BBQ chicken breast

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My air fryer is absolutely my favourite of all kitchen gadgets! I own a Ninja Foodi multi-cooker, and air crisp/air fry is definitely the function that I use the most. If you’ve got a Ninja Foodi be sure to check out my Ninja Foodi roast potatoes. This air fryer BBQ chicken breast is one of my most straight forward recipes, taking just a minute or two to prepare and cooking with minimal input.

We are busy parents to two lovely daughters, and as such we want to meal plan, meal prep and do what we can to enjoy nice lunches while we’re running around after our girls. On the days that my husband has a 12 hour shift I love to batch make our lunches for the 2-3 days of shifts.

Making lunches in advance means I just have to open the fridge, in the middle of the busy day running around after my 1-year-old, and I have a lovely, healthy, tasty lunch to hand.

This recipe is so simple to follow, as you sprinkle on a few herbs and seasonings, cook a little, marinade, and then cook some more. That’s it; succulent, juicy, tasty BBQ chicken breasts with little effort on your part.

Having tasty chicken to hand in the fridge, ready to serve in salads or sandwiches in next to no time, is something that stops me from ordering takeaways so frequently, which in turn saves me a significant amount of money!

When I’m wanting to prepare a fast dinner for my daughters I find it really simple to slice up some chicken, add a few cut vegetables and some Ninja Foodi white rice and then they’ve got a wholesome, healthy meal in minutes. If you’ve got a Ninja Foodi then you can make the Ninja Foodi BBQ chicken breast version – it’s basically the same!

Be sure to check out my other air fryer chicken recipes while you’re here.

Ingredients for air fryer bbq chicken breast

2 chicken breasts (1 per person)

Spray oil

Salt and pepper

Smoked paprika

Garlic salt or garlic powder

80ml BBQ sauce

How to make air fryer BBQ chicken breast:

Spray your chicken breasts with spray oil.

Sprinkle over smoked paprika, garlic salt and season well with salt and pepper too. Alternatively you can mix it all together beforehand and sprinkle on.

Turn over and repeat this step again.

Lay the chicken in the air fryer basket.

Cook at 180C (360F approx) for 10 minutes.

Turn over the chicken breast.

Cook at 180C (360F approx) for another 8 minutes.

Pour over the barbecue sauce; I like to use a silicone pastry brush to ensure even coverage, but you can just use a spoon or whatever you have to hand.

Cook at 180C (360F approx) for another 2 minutes.

Check the internal temperature of the chicken breast (in the thickest part) is a minimum of 74C (165F) and then remove.

You can rest for 5 minutes before you slice and serve. Or just serve up as a whole chicken breast alongside the rest of your dinner.

Want to try some of my other air fryer chicken recipes instead?

• Air fryer cajun chicken
• Peri peri chicken in the air fryer – great for peri peri chicken pasta
• Air fryer chicken wings
• Chicken fajitas in the air fryer
• Air fryer hunters chicken – tasty BBQ chicken wrapped in bacon

Looking for some alternative seasonings to use on chicken?

• Fajita seasoning
• Peri peri seasoning
• Cajun dry rub

What to serve with BBQ chicken breast?

While you’re using the air fryer why not try some of my other tasty air fryer recipes? Air fryer chips, air fryer frozen chips, air fryer green beans, air fryer hasselback potatoes, air fryer potato wedges or air fryer sweet potato fries would all work VERY well with this recipe.

Bacon mac and cheese pasta bake would be a great side dish too, as would homemade garlic bread made with my own simple garlic butter.

Want to add some vegetables in while cooking?

You’ll want to add more vegetables at least 1/2 way through the cooking time, if not 2/3 of the way through, to avoid burning. I love to add peppers, onions, garlic cloves, green beans, broccolini, carrots or courgettes. All work really well and bring some extra flavour to the dish.

Looking to try this recipe with a different cut of chicken?

You can use ANY chicken for this recipe! You’ll want to adjust the cooking times accordingly of course. Anything with a bone in, such as legs, wings or drumsticks, may take a little longer. Always use a meat thermometer when cooking to help check the internal temperature, and ensure you’re using the right cook time.

This also works really well with frozen chicken, again, with added cooking time. In the past I’ve used frozen thighs, tenders, strips and even frozen chicken nuggets.

I use skinless chicken breast for this, but you can use skin on chicken breast instead if this is your preference, or what you have available.

Great serving ideas for BBQ chicken:

We often keep this simple, with a nice pile of air fryer mashed potatoes, or chips, but it also goes great in the fridge, once cooled, sliced, for use in sandwiches, on a bagel, to top an air fryer pizza, in a tortilla or with a salad.

Something to note about air fryer recipes is that all air fryers have different sizes, depths and as such the cooking times can vary. All air fryer recipes on this website are intended as a guide, and not a guarantee that the timings will be perfect. Enjoy!

How to make BBQ chicken breast in the air fryer:

Note: All calorie information is for demonstration purposes only and is based on the specific uncooked ingredients that I used when creating the recipe.

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