Air Fryer Chicken Teriyaki 🧡🎉 is the perfect recipe to keep in your back pocket for an easy weeknight dinner that’s tasty, high protein, simple, and satisfying! We’re talking juicy chicken with sweet-and-savory teriyaki flavor that’s crave-worthy without even needing to turn on your stove or oven, and ready in 20 minutes!
Easy Air Fryer Teriyaki Chicken Recipe
- I love most Asian-inspired recipes and chicken teriyaki is no exception. The savory-yet-sweet flavor gets me every time!
- I’ve got other chicken teriyaki recipes with just about every cooking technique covered! Including stovetop Better-Than-Takeout Chicken Teriyaki, Sheet Pan Chicken Teriyaki with Pineapple, Sheet Pan Chicken Teriyaki with Vegetables, Pineapple Chicken Teriyaki Skewers, and Baked Chicken Teriyaki with Rice.
- Although I didn’t have an air fryer version until now! I love making chicken in my air fryer because it’s a healthier choice because you use much less oil compared to other cooking techniques. This is also a high protein recipe which is important to feel full and satisfied.
- And it’s quick, simple, the chicken turns out moist and juicy, cleanup is a cinch, and I don’t need to turn on my oven.
- For this chicken teriyaki air fryer recipe, you can make your own homemade teriyaki sauce, but in an effort to keep this recipe super simple and geared towards busy weeknights when you’re tired and rushed, just use store bought teriyaki sauce and doctor it up a little with extra ginger, brown sugar, and garlic to taste.
Ingredients in Air Fryer Chicken Teriyaki
- Teriyaki Sauce: Clearly a key ingredient in teriyaki chicken is teriyaki sauce! Rather than re-inventing the wheel, I use store bought teriyaki sauce. However, you can make your own teriyaki sauce like I’ve made in Better-Than-Takeout Teriyaki Chicken or this Homemade Teriyaki Sauce.
- Brown sugar: Optional with store bought but if you’re making your own homemade teriyaki sauce, I suggest to include brown sugar for proper sweet-meets-savory flavor.
- Seasonings: Garlic powder and ground ginger add layers of flavor and help doctor up store bought teriyaki or homemade. You can’t go wrong with garlic and ginger in Asian-inspired recipes! Add salt and pepper to taste.
- Chicken: Boneless skinless chicken breasts are what I use most but you can also use boneless skinless chicken thighs for richer flavor. Chicken breasts can be thick (too thick) at times to air fryer so make sure you either pound them or use thin-sliced chicken breasts. Thighs are naturally thinner.
- Garnishes, optional: Green onions, sesame seeds, red pepper flakes for heat, extra teriyaki sauce for dipping or drizzling are all welcome.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
My favorite Air Fryers
How To Make Chicken in the Air Fryer
- Teriyaki: Make easy homemade teriyaki sauce OR use store-bought teriyaki sauce. To either version, add brown sugar if desired, and then stir in garlic, ginger, salt, and pepper to taste. Tip – For extra layers of flavor, if you’d like to add a splash of regular soy sauce, sesame oil, or rice vinegar to the marinade, go for it.
- Marinate: Dice the chicken into bite-sized pieces, and then marinate it with the teriyaki sauce mixture for at least 30 minutes, or up to 8 hours.
- Air Fry: Depending on your air fryer, you may need to preheat it. Spray the air fryer basket with cooking spray or add a light drizzle of olive oil. Using a slotted spoon, or tongs, place the pieces of chicken into the basket in a single layer.
- Check: Depending on your air fryer, the size of the pieces of chicken, how warm your kitchen is, etc. cooking time will vary. Cook chicken until it’s done, meaning 165F internal temperature.
- Garnish: Garnish as desired and serve with coconut rice, veggies such as roasted broccoli, carrots, green beans, mashed cauliflower, or your favorites.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
Air Fryer Chicken Teriyaki
🧡🎉 The perfect recipe to keep in your back pocket for an easy weeknight dinner that's tasty, high protein, simple, satisfying and ready in 20 minutes! Juicy chicken with sweet-and-savory teriyaki flavor that's crave-worthy you don't need to turn on stove or oven. I use store bought teriyaki sauce that I doctor up with extra ginger, garlic, and brown sugar, or you can make your own scratch teriyaki sauce, linked in the Notes below.
Equipment
- Air Fryer (I recommend a large or XL sized air fryer; or you will need to cook in batches)
Ingredients
- ⅔ cup teriyaki sauce, or a bit more if needed (I use store bought sauce; but you can make your own homemade teriyaki sauce if desired – linked in Notes below)
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 to 3 teaspoons light brown sugar, optional if using store bought but strongly recommended if making your own teriyaki
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger, or to taste (or about 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, finely grated)
- ½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 1 to 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1-inch bite-sized pieces (boneless chicken thighs may be substituted)
- 1 teaspoon olive oil for coating air fryer basket
- Green onions, thinly sliced, optional for garnishing
- Toasted sesame seeds, optional for garnishing
Instructions
- To a large bowl, add the teriyaki sauce, olive oil, optional light brown sugar, garlic powder, ginger, salt, pepper, and stir to combine to create a marinade.
- Add the diced chicken to the bowl, stir to combine and coat, cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or up to 6-8 hours. If you have 1-2 hours, that's perfect.
- When you're ready to air fry, I recommend drizzling about 1 teaspoon olive oil over the air fryer basket or you can spray it with cooking spray.
- Some air fryers require preheating, others don't. Preheat air fryer to 385F if yours does. Temperature Tip – I like to air fry in the 380-390F range because I find that the chicken doesn't dry out as easily. Cooking closer to, or at, 400F reduces a bit of cooking time, but the issue is the chicken exterior gets more well done than desired (can char a bit) before the interior has fully cooked through. This is especially true in marinades with a higher sugar content like this one.
- Using tongs or a slotted spoon, add the chicken to the air fryer in an even flat layer (try not to overlap or pile pieces on top of each other) and discard excess marinade. Tip – Don't just dump the whole bowl's contents into the air fryer – that's too much marinade and will just burn.
- Air fry for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through to 165F measured with a digital thermometer; flip once midway through cooking. Air Frying Cooking Tips – Since all air fryers are different sizes, have different strengths and potency, the exact size of the chicken pieces will vary, and how crowded or uncrowded the air fryer basket is, all affect cooking time. Depend, depending on which air fryer I'm using, sometimes this recipe only takes about 10 minutes if I'm only using 1 pound of chicken, and sometimes it takes closer to 20 minutes if I'm using 1 1/2 pounds of chicken – always cook until done, no matter how long that takes.
- Optionally garnish with green onions, sesame seeds, and serve immediately. I like to serve it with rice.
Notes
Homemade Teriyaki Sauce recipe that I recommend. And then add the brown sugar, garlic powder, ground ginger, and salt/pepper to taste that are in this recipe card (above).
Storage: Leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for 3-4 months. Reheat in the microwave for about 30 seconds, or as needed. Add a little extra store bought teriyaki sauce to the chicken before you nuke it to prevent it from drying out.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 278cal, Carbohydrates: 10g, Protein: 39g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 4g, Trans Fat: 0.02g, Cholesterol: 109mg, Sodium: 2037mg, Potassium: 752mg, Fiber: 0.2g, Sugar: 9g, Vitamin A: 51IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 23mg, Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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