Paleo Gluten-Free Air Fryer Crispy Chicken

The best healthy crispy chicken recipe you'll ever try.

Sep 12, 2023

My crispy chicken recipe is inspired by Danielle Walker’s Eat What You Love paleo, gluten-free, and dairy-free fried chicken recipe.

I created my version when I was re-inventing Ingo’s Crispy Chicken Summer Salad.

I cook my crispy chicken in an air fryer as opposed to actually frying in oil.

This truly is the best healthy, paleo crispy fried chicken recipe that I’ve tried!

I like to prep a lot of this because it reheats well and it’s fairly labor intensive, so I want to make it worthwhile. This recipe makes a lot of extras so if you’re just cooking for yourself or don’t want leftovers, cut this chicken recipe in half!

Paleo Gluten-Free Air Fryer Crispy Chicken Recipe

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

⅓ cup plus ⅔ cup arrowroot powder
1 ½ tablespoons coconut flour
2 large eggs
⅓ cup full-fat coconut milk
1 ½ teaspoons hot sauce (I use Cholula or whatever’s in my fridge!)
2 ¼ cups blanched almond flour
3 ¼ teaspoons garlic powder
1 ½ teaspoons onion powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
1 ¼ teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon cayenne or red chili flakes
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
4 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
Avocado oil spray (or olive oil)

What To Do:

Preheat your air fryer at 380° F for 15 minutes.
Get out 3 separate shallow bowls.
1. In the first, combine the ⅓ cup arrowroot powder and coconut flour.
2. In the second, mix the eggs, coconut milk, and hot sauce.
3. In the third, combine the almond flour, ⅔ cup arrowroot powder, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, paprika, cayenne or chili flakes, and black pepper.
Pat your chicken thighs dry. Working one thigh at a time, dip each piece into the arrowroot coconut flour mixture, making sure all sides are covered, and shaking off any excess. Then dip into the egg mixture, coating all sides. And finally, coat each side in the almond flour mixture.
Add 3-4 chicken thighs into your air fryer at a time depending on their size. Give each piece a light spray with the avocado oil spray.
Air fry at 380° for 11 minutes. Flip, and then cook for another 8-11 minutes at 380°, until golden brown and cooked through.
Repeat until all of your chicken is cooked.
Serve warm on top of your salad! Or eat alone (with ketchup) as chicken nuggets. Yum.

Notes:

Storage: Store leftover chicken in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
To Reheat: Place breaded chicken back into the air fryer and bake at 350° for 8 minutes. We don’t want to cook it at too high of a temperature because we just want the chicken to get hot again, but not overcooked or burnt.
Deep Fry: You can absolutely deep fry this chicken if you’d prefer that method over air frying.
Other Eating Methods: This is a great healthy chicken nugget recipe for kiddos too! Serve the thighs sliced with ketchup… yum. I’ll admit, I eat at least one thigh like this whenever I make this recipe. OR pile on top of waffles and douse in syrup. How ever you want to eat this chicken is up to you.

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