Can You Cook Ground Chicken in an Air Fryer?

Learn what ways you can take ground chicken and use it in your air fryer for several yummy easy dinners.

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Have you ever thought about putting ground chicken in the air fryer? Can it be done? Is it a good idea? Let us show you use ground chicken in your air fryer along with some great recipe ideas.

Jump to:

• ⚙️ Why It Works
• 🌮 Taco Meat
• 🥬 Lettuce Wraps
• 🍝 Pasta
• 🍔 Burgers
• 🍞 Meatloaf
• ⚽ Meatballs
• 🧊 Frozen
• 🛒Order Ground Chicken

⚙️ Why It Works

When compared to beef, ground chicken is lean. That means there won't be a lot of fat at the bottom of your air fryer. I think this gives ground chicken an advantage. Put also presents a pitfall. That is overcooking.

If you have large enough pieces of ground chicken you can check the temperature of the chicken to see if it's at a high enough temperature to consume. That why you won't overcook it. It's going to be hard to do since the pieces are so small you can easily stick your thermometer probe right through the chicken. You are measuring the air then! I found better success using the ThermoPop from ThermoWorks. It's fast and the probe end is thinning that a lot of other thermometers I have tried.

Now let's show you some things you can make with that ground chicken.

🌮 Taco Meat

When I first wanted to use my air fryer to cook ground chicken I started with making meat for tacos.

I remove the tray from the air fryer basket and placed the meat directly in the basket. Like this:

You then cook it and break it up as you go just as you would if you were cooking it in a pan.

🍽️ RECIPE - Air Fryer Chicken Tacos

🥬 Lettuce Wraps

Don't want to put your ground chicken in a tortilla? No problem. It would be great to put directly into a lettuce wrap. Just follow how I cook the chicken for tacos and put the meat into lettuce instead.

Here are some types of lettuce that make for good wraps.

• Green Leaf
• Red Leaf
• Butter or Bibb lettuce
• Romaine

I like topping the wraps with:

• Crumbled cheese like Queso fresco, feta, or goat cheese.
• Shredded carrots or beets to up the veggie intake and the color.
• Sesame seeds or Everything But the Bagel seasoning.

Then top if all of with Bachan's Japanese BBQ sauce. It's thicker than soy sauce but not as thick as most BBQ sauces. Comes out of a squeeze bottle so super easy to use.

🍝 Pasta

Another option for the air fried ground chicken is to include it in pasta. A quick simple dinner can be boiling your favorite pasta, drain it, and put it into a bowl. Stir in ground chicken, add marinara sauce, chopped up fresh basil, and grated parmesan and you got yourself a delicious dinner without much effort.

🍔 Burgers

Change up your burger routine and give ground chicken a try for your next burger. Burgers are easy to cook in the air fryer. The key is to keep the burger as thin as you can so that they cook faster, stay moist, and you have more surface area to brown. I typically just form the patties in the palm of my hand and place directly into the air fryer basket.

Most people like to top their burgers with romaine, iceberg, or leaf lettuce. To change things up you can use microgreens, which will add more flavor.

🍽️ RECIPE - Air Fryer Ground Chicken Burgers

🍞 Meatloaf

You really can make meatloaf with any type of ground meat and chicken qualifies as any type of ground meat. Take your favorite meatloaf recipe and sub in ground chicken.

You don't need anything special to make meatloaf in the air fryer. Just form the loaf and place it directly in the air fryer. This is better than cooking in a loaf pan as the air can completely circulate the meat giving it a better outer crust. And any fat doesn't just pool up in the meat.

I have seen Alton Brown use a loaf pan as a mold for meatloaf. He puts the raw meatloaf into a 10-inch loaf pan and then turns it upside down onto a sheet pan. Depending on the size of your air fryer basket that may or may not work. It's ok to just hand form it.

You want to cook the meatloaf until it reaches an internal temperature of 155 and then add a glaze that you make to taste with ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, honey or brow sugar and spices. Or you can just use your favorite BBQ sauce. You cook it then to help the glaze adhere. The final internal temperature needs to be 165 degrees.

⚽ Meatballs

Making meatballs is very similar to making meatloaf. A lot of the time the recipes will be the same, it's the technique and shape that changes.

Why I like making meatballs in the air fryer is that the meatballs tend to be more round than making them in a pan where you end up with some flatten sides.

🧊 Frozen

If your ground chicken is frozen it would be best if you could thaw it ahead of time before putting in the air fryer. If you put it in frozen it won't cook evenly. Since we are talking about a short cooking time, I think it matters.

The good news is that ground meat doesn't take that long to thaw. Submerge the ground chicken into some cold water. It will probably take around 1-2 hours. Water is a better conductor of heat than air, so it will more quickly thaw your meat. You need cold water instead of hot so that the outer portion of the meat doesn't heat up much faster than the interior.