Crispy Chicken Karaage Air Fryer Recipe in Less Than 15 Minutes (2024)

FAQs

How do you crisp chicken in an air fryer? ›

If you happen to own an air fryer, you can certainly reheat your fried chicken in its basket. Preheat the air fryer to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and let the fried chicken come to room temperature. Next, arrange the fried chicken in a single layer and cook it for about four minutes, flipping it once to ensure even cooking.

You didn't pat the chicken dry

You'll probably end up with soggy skin rather than the crispy golden crust you were looking for. Before putting chicken into the air fryer — or even seasoning your chicken — you should pat it completely dry with clean paper towels.

The trick to making a beautiful, crispy Karaage Chicken is the double fry and it's that second fry that makes it super crispy (some people even triple fry it).

Most of the time, we use potato starch or cornstarch. Potato starch can be hard to find (although Amazon is now a thing, and Bob's Red Mill is carried everywhere) but produces the best, lightest, crispiest results. Cornstarch comes in a close second and you can get it everywhere.

A drier surface helps achieve a crispier texture. Season your food with your preferred herbs, spices, or marinades, keeping in mind that air fryers require less seasoning than traditional methods. Consider lightly coating your ingredients with oil to enhance crispiness, but try not to overdo it.

While I do recommend very lightly spraying the fried chicken with oil before and during air frying, you don't submerge the pieces entirely in oil, and as a result, they undoubtedly absorb less oil in the process.

Foil is safe to use in an air fryer so long as you follow three basic rules: never let foil touch the heating element; make sure the foil is weighted so it doesn't blow around the basket; and avoid contact with acidic ingredients, which can cause the foil to leach onto your food.

Here in the US, corn starch is much easier to access in regular grocery stores, so that is a close substitute if you have trouble finding potato starch. As a comparison, I found that karaage made with potato starch yields a crispier skin and texture.

In test after test, potato starch produced the crunchiest, most cohesive coating—even when compared to cornstarch. Cornstarch samples were slightly more brittle and delicate. Not only was the potato starch coating crispier, but the crispy coating remained crispy up to 2 hours longer at room temperature.

The light coating of the cornstarch or flour will help make the chicken crispy when you cook it in the air fryer.

What starch is best for crispy? ›

Interestingly, cornstarch contains 25 to 28 percent amylose, which is higher than the amount in wheat or potato starch (which are 20 to 22 percent amylose), and this is why cornstarch works the best for making crispy coatings on fried foods.

Air Fryer instructions

At the halfway point (i.e. 6 minutes), flip the chicken skins over so they are skin-side up. Air fry the chicken skins the remaining 6 minutes or until crispy. Add a minute or two to the cooking time if the skin is still a little flabby in parts.

When using the air crisp lid for the Air Crisp, Bake / Roast, and Broil settings, then heat comes from the top. The main difference between the cooking methods is the fan speed.

So the goal of cooking chicken breasts in the air fryer is to cook them just right, quickly, without much oil, and get the most perfect juicy and moist chicken breast! You don't want to overcook them as that can mean dry chicken. You don't want to undercook them, because that, of course, means raw chicken.