My husband loves fried chicken. Fried chicken is not super healthy. We are also in a pandemic and we don’t love the idea of eating out too much… plus we are trying to keep ourselves as healthy as possible at the mo. I have also been scouring the cupboard for long forgotten things to use so that we can avoid the grocery store as much as possible – I found a box of panko bread crumbs (likely long ago expired but oh well) and found a great recipe that I modified for the air fryer! So here is a good healthier option for panko fried chicken legs!
Ingredients for panko fried chicken legs
chicken legs (6 or so)
buttermilk (1/4 c) or use 1/4 c milk and 1/4 tbs lemon juice mixed together and allowed to stand for 15 min
panko bread crumbs (1 cup)
parlsey 1 tsp
your choice of seasoning (Italian or I used fajita seasoning 1-3 tsp)
salt – about 1/4 tsp to taste
cooking spray
Instructions
Place chicken in a ziploc bag with buttermilk to coat and refrigerate for at least 30 min. You can leave this here all day or overnight if you like though. Spray inside of basket of air fryer with cooking spray; if you like put about 1 tsp of vegetable oil in the bottom. Mix dry ingredients in a bowl and coat the chicken well. I tried to pat a good layer of panko mix onto each side and then balanced as much as I could on the top. Then spray each side of the chicken and place in air fryer basket. Cook for 10 minutes at 380F then flip and cook an additional 14 minutes. Make sure the chicken internal temperature reaches 165 degrees so you know it is done.
This recipe doubles easily but my air fryer will only hold 6 legs at a time … I did double this and had lovely left overs…