How to Cook Frozen Chicken Nuggets in the Air Fryer

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Air fryer chicken nuggets are about as close to drive-thru-at-home as you can get! Crispy and delicious, it is SO easy to cook frozen chicken nuggets in the air fryer!  Check out our latest air fryer post below.

chicken nugget dipped in ketchup

Frozen Chicken Nuggets in the Air Fryer

A couple of weeks ago the kids came home from a night at their grandparents’ house and Landon would NOT stop talking about how they had cooked the most DELICIOUS dinner EVER. I was intrigued and asked him what they had.  Imagine my surprise when he answered back with, “chicken nuggets and french fries!”  Now, don’t get me wrong – that certainly sounds tasty.  But I bake them up from time to time and never get such a giddy reaction.  So what was the big difference?

They cooked the frozen chicken nuggets and fries in the air fryer!

So then it made total sense. That air fryer – I’ll tell ya!  It is such a great kitchen appliance and worth its counter space in gold. The food you cook, be it frozen or fresh, cooks to perfectly and so consistently every time.  Frozen foods that are breaded come out crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Make sure you check out the other air fryer recipes we have written:

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How to Cook Bacon in an Air Fryer
Make easy S’mores in your air fryer

How to Cook Chicken Nuggets in an Air Fryer

I promise you – it is SO easy to cook frozen chicken nuggets in your air fryer.  The hardest part is deciding which dipping sauce to serve on the side! The nice thing about frozen nuggets, is that they are fully-cooked. The only job the consumer has it to heat them up. You don’t have to worry about them being undercooked (besides of course, that they won’t taste great). But there aren’t the safety risks that accompany cooking raw chicken.

frozen chicken nuggets in air fryer

I should also state that it really doesn’t matter what brand of nuggets you use. For this post I used Great Value (ie Walmart brand) nuggets.  These nuggets are breaded and a little thicker than some other nugget brands. I cooked them for 12 minutes and they came out great. For thinner nuggets, you can always start with an 8-10 minute cook time and add minutes until they are done to your liking.

Great Value Breaded Chicken Nuggets

  1. Arrange nuggets in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
  2. Cook nuggets at 400F for 12 minutes.
  3. Enjoy immediately and serve with your favorite dipping sauces!

chicken nuggets with dipping sauce

Yum! They cook up perfectly every single time!

We have nuggets on occasion for a quick dinner, and when we are hosting a party, I like to cook up some nuggets and toss them in our buffet warmer for appetizers and/or kid-friendly menu foods.


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1 thought on “How to Cook Frozen Chicken Nuggets in the Air Fryer”

  1. I purchased some frozen nuggets at Walmart that have tempura batter and these are not cooked. So I baked them because I didn’t want to fry them when it was just me. I hope someone experiments with these in an air fryer a d post how to cook them.

    Reply

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