Boil for 3-5 minutes, stirring to avoid burning.
To make the sauce, pour the remaining marinade into a small saucepan and bring to a boil. “Don’t use marinade from raw poultry as a sauce unless it is boiled first to destroy bacteria.” – USDA Food Safety Facts Sheets Like I mentioned in my cilantro lime pan fried chicken thighs, you can make a fresh batch of the marinade to make a sauce with if you’re concerned about food safety. But since the nutrition facts include the marinade in its entirety, we might as well use it, right? Right.Īs a food safety note, be sure to bring the remaining marinade to a boil for a few minutes to kill any yuckies (bacteria) from the raw chicken thighs. These air fried chicken thighs are moist and delicious on their own. Optional: Make a pan sauce with the remaining marinade.įirst and foremost, you won’t need the sauce. You could also use stovetop methods like pan frying and finishing in the oven like in my crispy buttermilk chicken breast recipe or pan frying and steam cooking like my naked chicken tenders. The food thermometer will come in handy again here! Yep! I’d put the chicken thighs on a wire rack over a baking sheet (or directly on the baking sheet) and start with a similar time and temperature. That will give it more color and texture on top, which makes for a better eating experience.Īlso, if you wanted another flavor option, check out my air fryer buffalo chicken thighs. The only tip I have would be to get some of the mustard seeds, peppercorns, and rosemary leaves on top of the chicken thighs. There’s very little technique to air frying your chicken thighs. But like I mentioned above, you could reserve the other 2 chicken thighs to cook the next day if you’re not a fan of leftovers. I air fried mine in two batches right after one another and had leftovers. You can find the food thermometer, Foodi, and all the other kitchen tools I keep in my kitchen on my Amazon list.Īs you can see in the photos, you’ll only be able to fit 2 of the 4 chicken thighs in the air fryer basket. A food thermometer is great to have on hand to check the internal temperature of proteins during cooking. Different air fryers may require slight temperature/time adjustments. I used my 6.5-quart Ninja Foodi for air frying. Step 2: Air fry the chicken thighs for 12-15 minutes at 400✯. This would speed up the cook time and reduce the time needed for the marinade to penetrate the chicken. You could even cut the chicken breast up into pieces like my air fryer chicken nuggets. Though you may want to pound them into an even thickness for even cooking. Can I use chicken breast instead of chicken thighs?
Don’t overthink it here!Īs for the other ingredients, you could use dijon mustard, fresh rosemary, and *gasp* bottled lemon juice.
And if you only have balsamic vinegar on hand, you could mix that with a little olive oil (maybe a tablespoon), garlic powder or freshly crushed/minced garlic, and a pinch of sweetness via sugar or honey.
#Ninja chicken thigh recipes free#
The recipe calls for fat free balsamic vinaigrette from Trader Joe’s, but you could use any balsamic vinaigrette. Ingredient Notes for the Mustard Balsamic Marinade I wouldn’t leave the chicken in the marinade for more than 2 days or you could end up with tough chicken. That gives you the option of saving the remaining 2 chicken thighs for the next day. Unless you have a massive air fryer, you’ll only be able to air fry 2 chicken thighs at a time. Step 1: Marinate the chicken thighs in a mixture of coarse ground mustard, balsamic vinaigrette, lemon juice, rosemary, salt, and pepper.Įasy enough, right? The recipe calls for marinating at least 2 hours, but you could always extend that window for more flavor. There’s a printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, if you haven’t already skipped there! ? If you have any questions I don’t cover, leave a comment at the bottom of this post. It’s a really simple recipe, but I’ll run through equipment and ingredient notes in more detail below. Mustard Balsamic Chicken Thighs Recipe Walkthrough As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualified sales.