Making Chicken Skewers in the Air Fryer is a great option to serve a complete dish on your table. All you will need for this recipe are a piece of chicken breast and a few fresh veggies. I will show you step-by-step how to make tender and juicy chicken skewers in the air fryer.
You will love making this recipe because you can make it different every time. You can experiment with different veggies, kinds of meats, and even fish.
You can prepare this recipe even if you don’t have the special air fryer skewers. You can use bamboo sticks instead and adjust them to the size of your air fryer.
🔖 What You Will Find in This Post?
- Why you should use Bamboo Sticks? How to avoid burning the wooden sticks?
- Why you don’t need to marinate the chicken skewers for more than two hours?
- What vegetables to use?
- Substitutes for the used ingredients.
- How to cut the vegetables into right size to make sure that all of them will cook evenly.
👩🍳How to Make Chicken Skewers in Air Fryer?
- Cut the meat and vegetables into pieces and slices.
- Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
- Leave the meat to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- Arrange the meat and chicken on skewers and arrange them in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
- Cook the chicken skewers for 30 minutes at 375°F (190°C).
🥰 Why You Will Love This Recipe?
- This recipe is perfect for a dinner or summer picnic. You can eat directly from the bamboo sticks even without any cutlery.
- The meat in the end will be very juicy even if we are using the chicken breast that isn’t fat.
- You have a complete and balanced dish consisting of chicken meat and roasted vegetables.
- It is a quick recipe and you can use the vegetables that you have under hand.
🥘 Ingredients and Substitutes
- Chicken breast. I picked the chicken breast because it is usually to everyone’s liking. You can replace it also with boneless chicken legs, turkey breast, or with pork fillets. If you will decide another meat, take in consideration that you should adjust the cooking time accordingly.
- Vegetables. I used a mix of Zucchini, Bell Peppers, and Onions. I picked them because I like these vegetables the most when being grilled. But of course, you can use any other vegetables you like. As an idea, you can use also mushrooms, eggplants, potatoes, or carrots.
- Mayonnaise. I decided to use mayo in this recipe because due to its fat content of it, the meat becomes juicier. If you want a more dietary result, replace the mayo with Greek yogurt.
- Horseradish Cream. I included it in this recipe because the horseradish cream helps to soften the meat and also gives a slightly spicy taste to it. You can replace the horseradish cream with mustard or omit it altogether and use other spices that you like.
- Seasonings. I used only a mix of salt and black pepper because I wanted to feel the taste offered by Horseradish Cream, but of course, you can experiment with any spices or aromatic herbs you prefer to use in a combination with chicken meat. I could suggest using rosemary, oregano, thyme, and chili flakes.
👩🍳 Step-by-step Directions
Marinating Chicken Skewers for Air Fryer
Wash the chicken breast and use a paper towel to eliminate all the water drops from the meat. Make sure that the meat is dry enough, so the spices will penetrate more easily inside and will have a more pronounced taste.
Cut the chicken breast into similar-sized pieces. Then after that, cut also all the vegetables into slices (You can orient how thick to cut the vegetables from the image below).
Pro Tip: When you will cut the vegetables, pay attention to their cooking time. Those that will cook quicker, cut them thicker. Those that will cook longer, cut them thinner.
Put all the ingredients, including the spices and sauces in a large bowl.
Mix well until you will make sure that the meat pieces are covered evenly with the marinade. Leave the meat to marinate for at least 30 minutes at room temperature or for 2 hours in the refrigerator.
Pro Tip: I don’t recommend leaving the chicken and vegetables to marinate for more than 2 hours because the vegetables will start to leave too much water and will lose their appearance.
Assembling Air Fryer Chicken Skewers
Before you begin, make sure that the skewers fit in the air fryer. If you want to go safe, you can use bamboo wooden sticks that you can cut with scissors and adjust the length exactly for your air fryer basket.
Pro Tip: If you will use bamboo sticks like I did, put them in water for about 10 minutes before putting the meat and vegetables on them. By soaking the bamboo sticks in the water, we will avoid burning them during cooking.
After all the ingredients have been marinated, put them on the skewers or bamboo sticks. You can alternate the veggies with chicken as you want.
How Long to Cook Chicken Skewers in the Air Fryer?
Arrange the chicken skewers in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
Quick Note: If you plan to cook a larger amount of chicken skewers in the air fryer, consider cooking them in a few batches to avoid overcrowding the air fryer basket.
Cook the chicken skewers for about 30 minutes at 375°F (190°C). After this time, the chicken skewers will be browned on the outside and juicy on the inside.
Halfway through baking turn the skewers on the other side so they will brown more evenly.
Quick Note: The cooking time is approximate only because the cooking time may differ from the model of your air fryer, how your air fryer is working, how big it is, and the meat you will cook in it. The timing from this recipe is for the Cosori Air Fryer 5.8QT. If you have another air fryer model, after 20 minutes, remove the air fryer basket, check at what stage are the chicken skewers and adjust the timing accordingly.
In the end, you can decorate the chicken skewers cooked in the air fryer with some chopped parsley for extra flavor and color. Or you could use basil or coriander instead of parsley.
🍽️ Serving Suggestions
This type of dish is already a complete one, but considering that we have more meat pieces than vegetables, I would suggest you serve the chicken skewers with a garnish based on vegetables such are:
And of course, consider serving them near a dipping sauce:
- Homemade Romesco Sauce
- Homemade Buffalo Sauce
- White BBQ Sauce (Alabama White Sauce)
- Homemade Sweet Chili Pepper Sauce
Love Cooking Chicken in The Air Fryer?
Check also these simple and delicious chicken recipes:
- Crispy Air Fryer Chicken Schnitzel
- Best Air Fryer Chicken Leg Quarters
- Easy Air Fryer BBQ Chicken Breast
- Easy Homemade Chicken Patties in Air Fryer
- Homemade Air Fryer Chicken Nuggets
- Keto Sesame Chicken Legs in Air Fryer
🏆 Expert Tips. What to Pay Attention On?
- Marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes.
- Cut the meat pieces into similar-sized pieces of meat to make sure that all the chicken pieces will cook evenly.
♻️ Make Ahead, Storage and Heating:
Can I Prepare Chicken Skewers Ahead of Time?
You can marinate the chicken the night before, but without adding the vegetables. The next day, when you will cook the chicken, just add the vegetables and put them to cook in the air fryer.
How Long Do they Last in the Fridge?
You can keep the chicken skewers in the fridge for about 2 days in a tightly closed container.
Can You Freeze the Air Fryer Chicken Skewers?
If you have cooked too much, or you have some chicken skewers leftovers, then you can freeze them in a tightly closed container. When you want to serve them, you can put them directly from frozen back in the air fryer and cook them for about 7-8 minutes at 400°F (200°C). Actually, I don’t recommend thawing beforehand as the vegetables may release water.
How to Heat Chicken Skewers?
You can reheat them by using the microwave or in the air fryer at 400°F (200°C) for about 5 minutes.
📋 Recipe Card:
Air Fryer Chicken Skewers (Kebabs)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 14 oz Chicken Breast
- 9 oz Zucchini
- 3 oz Bell pepper
- 1 oz Onion
- 2 tablespoon Mayonnaise
- ½ tablespoon Horseradish Cream
- ½ teaspoon Salt
- ½ teaspoon Black Pepper
- Chopped parsley Optional, for decorating.
Instructions
- Wash well the meat and vegetables. Dry well using a paper towel.
- Cut meat and vegetables into suitable size pieces.14 oz Chicken Breast
- Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix well.14 oz Chicken Breast, 9 oz Zucchini, 3 oz Bell pepper, 1 oz Onion, 2 tablespoon Mayonnaise, ½ tablespoon Horseradish Cream, ½ teaspoon Salt, ½ teaspoon Black Pepper
- Leave the meat to marinate for at least 30 minutes.
- Put the chicken meat and vegetables on the skewers and arrange them in a single layer on the air fryer basket.
- Cook them for 30 minutes at 375°F (190°C).
- Optional, decorate with chopped parsley.
Quick Note
I highly recommend reading the entire recipe to find more tips and notes about this recipe. Read Full Recipe ⇑
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