These Air Fryer Bang Bang Chicken Skewers 🍗🌶️🍯 feature juicy, bite-sized pieces of seasoned chicken that’s topped with creamy and spicy-sweet bang bang sauce! I love making this skewered chicken recipe in myair fryer because it’s EASY, ready in 15 minutes, and the chicken is tender, juicy, and SO FLAVORFUL! Oven-baking and grilling instructions are also provided.
Easy Air Fryer Bang Bang Chicken Recipe
- Bang bang chicken gets its name because of bang bang sauce, which is a four-ingredient sauce consisting of mayo, sweet chili sauce, honey, and sriracha. It’s a blend of creamy, spicy-yet-sweet, and makes everything taste so good!
- The mayo also keeps the chicken very moist and even if you ‘don’t like mayonnaise’ that’s fine, because the sauce doesn’t scream there’s-mayo-in-here. Trust me here!
- There are other bang bang chicken recipes that utilize more of a traditional frying technique including dipping the chicken in egg, dredging with flour, and then cooking. Not knocking that, but mine is simpler, quicker, and easier.
- I make these chicken skewers in my air fryer because it creates juicy, tender chicken, nearly effortlessly! The chicken also cooks quickly in the air fryer and in 15 minutes, it’s ready!
- If you don’t have an air fryer, I provide baking and grilling options in the recipe card section below.
My favorite Air Fryers
Key Ingredients in Bang Bang Chicken Skewers
Bang Bang Sauce: A mixture of mayonnaise, Asian sweet chili sauce, honey, sriracha or your favorite hot sauce.
Seasoned chicken: Bite-sized pieces of boneless skinless chicken breasts (or use boneless skinless chicken thighs) are coated with olive oil, garlic powder, onion powder, paprika, salt, and black pepper.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for the ingredients with amounts included and for more complete directions.
How to Make Bang Bang Chicken Skewers in an Air Fryer
I love a low prep time recipe that delivers big time flavor. This is a dish that does just that!
- Make the bang bang sauce by whisking together all the sauce ingredients in a large bowl. Divide the sauce into two portions; one for brushing on the chicken while it cooks and the other for serving and dipping that you set aside.
- Toss the chicken pieces with the seasonings, marinate for 30 minutes, and then thread them onto soaked wooden skewers (or metal skewers).
- Brush the skewers with bang bang sauce.
- Air fry at 380F for about 10-12 minutes, flipping once midway through. Add more bang bang sauce. If your air fryer basket isn’t large enough to accommodate all the skewers you have, cook in batches.
- Serve with the reserved bang bang spicy sauce and fresh herbs such as cilantro or parsley, if desired, for garnishing. Store leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months in an airtight container.
Note: Scroll down to the recipe card section of the post for step-by-step photos and process shots of the cooking process.
what to serve with bang bang chicken
Any type of veggies such as roasted broccoli, sliced carrots and cucumbers, or your favorite simple side dish works great to round out your meal.
Air Fryer Bang Bang Chicken Skewers
🍗🌶️🍯 Juicy, bite-sized pieces of seasoned and quick-marinated chicken that's brushed with creamy and spicy-sweet bang bang sauce! I use my air fryer because it's easy, and the chicken is juicy, tender, and ready in 15 minutes, Oven-baking and grilling instructions are also provided in the Notes below.
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 ½ to 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts, diced into 1-inch pieces (boneless skinless chicken thighs may be substituted)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon paprika, or smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 teaspoon black pepper, or to taste
Bang Bang Sauce
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- ⅓ to ½ cup sweet chili sauce
- 1 to 2 tablespoons honey
- 2 to 3 teaspoons sriracha sauce, or to taste (recommened to start with less and work your way up if you know you’re spice-sensitive)
Instructions
- Soak wooden skewers if using them (rather than metal skewers) in water for about 30 minutes prior to using them.
- Chicken – To a large bowl, add the chicken, and all remaining ingredients, toss well to evenly coat the chicken, and allow it to marinate on your counter for about 30 minutes. If you're going to marinate longer, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 4-6 hours.Thread the chicken onto approximately 4 to 6 skewers.
- Bang Bang Sauce – To a large bowl, add all the ingredients, whisk to combine, taste, and adjust the spice/sweetness level, as desired. Divide the sauce into two bowls (one for brushing the chicken with as it cooks, and the other for serving).
- Air Fryer – If your air fryer needs to be preheated, do so before air frying. Otherwise spray the basket with cooking spray, add the skewers to the basket, brush them generously with bang bang sauce from one of the bowls; reserve the remainder.
- Air fry at 375F-380F for about 10-12 minutes, flipping once midway through cooking. When you flip the skewers, brush them with the reserved bang bang sauce. After you're done with it, discard this bowl since it was in contact with raw chicken.Cooking/Air Frying Tips – Chicken is done when it reaches 165F as measured with a digital thermometer. All air fryers vary in their size and heat output, so air fry as long as necessary in your machine until the chicken is done and cooked to your liking. It may be more than 12 minutes especially if your air fryer is smaller. Do not crowd, and air fry in batches if necessary.
- Serving – Serve the skewers with the untouched, fresh bowl of bang bang sauce and optionally garnish with fresh herbs such as cilantro, parsley, or your favorite.
Notes
Nutrition Stats: Not every drop of the bang bang sauce will be used for brushing, nor for dipping, and that’s where the majority of the calories/fat are coming from (mayo, chili sauce, honey) so in a practical sense, the caloric and fat consumption will be less than indicated while the protein stat should remain unchanged.
Storage: Leftovers will keep airtight in the fridge for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Reheat in the microwave for about 30 seconds, or as desired; or just eat cold from the fridge.
For Grilled Bang Bang Chicken Skewers
- Do everything that same as you would for air fryer bang bang chicken skewers, but rather than air fry, you’ll GRILL them on a grill that’s been preheated to medium-high. Brush the chicken skewers with bang bang sauce before grilling.
- Grill bang bang chicken skewers for about 8-10 minutes, or as needed. Rotate the skewers every couple of minutes to ensure even cooking. Brush, as desired, with extra bang bang sauce while grilled.
- Exact grilling time will depend on the exact size of the chicken pieces, heat output of your grill, and how well done you like your grilled chicken. Start checking at 7-8 minutes, and they may need 10-12 minutes if the pieces are a bit larger.
- Serve with reserved bang bang sauce.
For Baked Bang Bang Chicken Skewers
- Similar to air fryer bang bang chicken skewers, you’ll want to marinate the chicken pieces and make the bang bang sauce. It’s your choice if you want to thread the chicken onto skewers or just bake it as-is on a greased baking sheet.
- Do NOT brush with the bang bang sauce before baking. Only brush it on in the last 5 minutes or baking because the honey and sweet chili sauce will be prone to burning.
- Bake for about 20 minutes in a preheated 375F oven. Flip once midway through.
- Exact baking time will depend on the exact size of the chicken pieces. Start checking at 15 minutes, and they may need 22-25 minutes if the pieces are a bit larger.
- Once baked and done, brush with bang bang sauce and serve with additional sauce.
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving, Calories: 469cal, Carbohydrates: 11g, Protein: 25g, Fat: 36g, Saturated Fat: 6g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 18g, Monounsaturated Fat: 11g, Trans Fat: 0.1g, Cholesterol: 88mg, Sodium: 934mg, Potassium: 452mg, Fiber: 0.4g, Sugar: 10g, Vitamin A: 226IU, Vitamin C: 2mg, Calcium: 13mg, Iron: 1mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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more easy skewers and kabobs recipes
This recipe is just great! Didn’t have large skewers but I had bamboo cocktail ones, so I used them with two nuggets of chicken on each. Presentation was so very cute.
The chicken was moist, tender -great sauce.
Thanks for the 5 star review, Karen, and I’m glad this was great both in presentation and taste and flavor!
A+++ These kabobs are flipping good! I wasn’t sure how much chicken I had so I made a half batch of the sauce. I wish I would have made the full recipe. I will next time.
Highly Recommend!
Thanks for the five star review, Carrie, and I’m so glad you loved this and that next time you’ll make the full batch of sauce! In my experience, the sauce is so good that it seems to be devoured and never goes to waste!