Make these easy Keto Sesame Chicken Legs in the Air Fryer in less than 30 minutes. These Golden Chicken legs are nicely brown, juicy inside, and crispy outside. And the best part? They are also Keto-friendly and you will use less oil than usual.

What I love about the air fryer is that it allows you to cook something delicious super easy, quick, and you don’t need to wash a lot of plates after that.
This is a quick dinner recipe that you can put on the table in a busy work week. It requires no cooking skills from you. You need just to prepare and cover the chicken legs with the marinade, and after that to cook in the air fryer for about 15-20 minutes at 380°F (190°C). That’s it.
🥰 Why You Will Love This Recipe?
- Very easy to make, even if you don’t have experience in cooking.
- I used simple ingredients that you can easily find.
- Its a quick recipe that you can put on the table in less than 30 minutes.
🏆 Tips for Success? How to Make It Better?
- Not overcrowd the air fryer basket because we need to leave space between chicken legs. This will make them crispier. If you need to cook a larger amount of chicken drumsticks, then a better idea will be to cook them in a few batches.
- If you want to get a crispy chicken legs, then you should preheat the air fryer for at least 5-10 minutes. Also this will speed up the cooking time.
- If you have time, leave the meat to marinate overnight because the pieces of meat are large enough and it takes longer for the marinade to penetrate well the meat.
- Add oil to the marinade, because the spices open their aroma better in the oil and later, this aroma stick better to the meat.
🤔 How to Scale the Recipe up and Down?
This is a simple recipe, so in case if you will want to reduce or increase the quantity, just increase all the ingredients proportionally.
🍽️ Serving Suggestions
You could serve the sesame chicken drumsticks next to some baked vegetables like spicy broccoli in air fryer, frozen asparagus, white rice, or noodles.
🔥 What Air Fryer Do I Use?
I used for this recipe the Cosori 5.8Q Air fryer, and I set it up to 380°F (190° C) for about 20 minutes (without preheating the air fryer).
🥘 Ingredients Needed for This Recipe?

- 5 Chicken drumsticks.
- 1 tablespoon of Sesame Seeds.
- 3 Garlic cloves.
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of Soy sauce.
- 1/2 tablespoon of fresh Ginger.
- 1 tablespoon of Olive oil.
- Black pepper to taste.
🥦 Ingredients Swap?
- Chicken drumsticks. You can replace them with the whole chicken legs (thighs with drumsticks attached) or chicken wings.
- Spices. In the marinade, you can add also chili peppers, black pepper, turmeric or curry.
- Olive oil. You can replace with other oil that have a high smoke point.
👩🍳 Step-by-Step Instructions
Prepare the Marinade
To marinate the meat, put it in a bowl and pour over all the ingredients for the marinade except the sesame seeds. Mix well and let the meat marinate for a while.
To extract the maximum flavor from the meat, a good idea will be to marinate the meat for at least one hour. But of course, if you have more time, the taste would be even better. Ideally, let the meat marinate overnight.
If you don’t have time, and you need to cook the chicken drumsticks as quick as you can, just cook cover well the chicken legs with the marinade, and start cooking them.

Preheat the air fryer for 5 minutes at 380°F (190°C). Then put the drumsticks in the air fryer basket and cook them for about 10 minutes on one side.

Remove the air fryer basket, flip the chicken drumstick on the other side and cook them for another 10 minutes.
The time of the cooking may vary on the size of the chicken legs and how your air fryer works.
For the best results, use a meat thermometer. Our goal is to reach the internal temperature of the meat to 160° F (70° C).

After that time, our meal should obtain a beautiful golden crust and it is ready to be served.

♻️ Storage and Heating
If you will have some leftovers, you can store the leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3 days.
You can heat the chicken legs in the microwave, in the oven and surely you can put them back in the air fryer for 3 minutes.
This type of food is perfect for freezing. I would suggest you freeze the meat after marinating because the freshly cooked meat will always be juicier.
But of course, if you have leftovers, you can put them into a well-closed container and keep them into the freezer for a few months.
📋 Recipe Card:

Keto Sesame Chicken Legs in Air Fryer
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 2 Servings 1x
Ingredients
- 5 Chicken drumsticks.
- 1 tablespoon of Sesame Seeds.
- 3 Garlic cloves.
- 2 1/2 tablespoons of Soy sauce.
- 1/2 tablespoon of fresh Ginger.
- 1 tablespoon of Olive oil.
- Black pepper to taste.
Instructions
1. Wash well the chicken drumsticks and put them in a larger bowl that will allow you to mix easily the marinade with the meat.
2. Pour over the meat the oil, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and black pepper.
3. Mix well the seasoning and let the meat marinate for at least an hour. Ideally, let the meat marinate overnight.
4. Take the meat from the marinade, sprinkle each piece with sesame seeds, and put it in the air fryer basket for about 20-25 minutes at 380°F (190°C).
5. Enjoy your meal!
Notes
If you have not filled the air fryer tray full of meat and the air flows easily between the chicken drumsticks, then you can not flip the meat from side to side.
The cooking time may vary due to the drumstick sizes and by how powerful your air fryer is.
- Category: Side Dish
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 Chicken Drumsticks
- Calories: 393 Kcal
- Sugar: 9 g
- Sodium: 1 g.
- Fat: 24 g.
- Carbohydrates: 14 g.
- Fiber: 0 g.
- Protein: 28 g.
- Cholesterol: 138 mg.
Keywords: sesame seeds, chicken, air fryer
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