Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Thigh Fillets (2025)

This Air Fryer Boneless Chicken Thigh Fillets recipe is one of my all time favourites. Use this versatile base recipe as is, or add any seasoning, marinade or glaze that you please. Despite being skinless, the fillets remain beautifully moist and tender plus they’re quick and easy to cook.

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Along with chicken breasts, these skinless and boneless chicken thigh fillets are easily one of the most regularly cooked items in my kitchen. There isn’t a cuisine in the world that chicken doesn’t easily lend itself to.

Thigh fillets are really easy to cook and just as easy to eat. With no bone they slice very easily and are therefore ideal for throwing into other dishes as well as serving them in their own right.

How to Serve

I’ll try to keep my suggestions fairly brief here as I’m pretty sure I could create a whole website dedicated to 1001+ ways to use cooked chicken thigh fillets. Try some of these suggestions to get started –

• Glaze the chicken thighs with bbq sauce in the final minutes and make a hunter’s chicken burger. Add rashers of air fried bacon and top with melted cheddar cheese then stuff everything into a brioche bun with lettuce, tomato and quick pickled red onion.

• Season the chicken with olive oil, pomegranate molasses, garlic salt, sumac, chilli flakes, a little cumin and serve with turkish rice, yogurt sauce, creamy smooth hummus and lots of fresh salad and pita or naan bread.

• Marinade the chicken thighs in a little fresh lemon juice, fresh chopped thyme and oregano and garlic salt. Serve on air fried sourdough bread with confit tomatoes, mozzarella pearls, fresh rocket and a drizzle of pesto.

Ingredients

Chicken Thigh Fillets

The two most common ways that chicken thighs are sold here in the UK is either with the bone-in and skin on or with neither. These thighs with no skin which have been fully boned are often referred to as thigh fillets to distinguish them.

Chicken thigh fillets can vary in size quite considerably. I would consider the 125g/4oz fillets that I cooked to be very midsize. So it should be easy for you to decrease or increase the cooking time slightly if you have especially smaller or larger thighs than mine.

Thigh fillets are more expensive to buy than bone-in thighs. If this is a consideration for you, it is very easy to remove the bone yourself. Just use a good sturdy pair of scissors and cut around the bone. Once you have done a couple you really get a feel for exactly where all the bits of cartilage are at either end of the bone and exactly where you need to cook. You can then choose whether to remove the skin or leave it on. The air fry cooking instructions are the same either way.

I do often find that those little bits of cartilage/gristle can still remain even when you buy the filleted thighs. So it is worth spending a minute to remove any of these pieces and tidy up the thighs, I’ve included this step in the recipe instructions.

Oil

The oil in the recipe is essential to prevent the chicken from drying out on the surface, it promotes browning and gives the seasoning something to stick to.

I’ve used vegetable oil which is neutral in flavour. You can use any oil that you choose or even melted butter in this case. Just consider whether the flavour of the oil/fat you intend to use is complementary to your seasonings and the way that you intend to serve them.

Seasonings

As I’ve mentioned multiple times already, how you choose to season the chicken is really up to you. Marinades should largely be brushed off before air frying. Dry seasonings can be added per the recipe steps. And any sauces or glazes should be brushed on with around 5 minutes of cooking time remaining. This is especially important if there is a heavy sugar element to the sauce (including honey, maple syrup, bbq sauce, etc).

I used a simple 50/50 mix of garlic salt and paprika which is delicious in it’s own right. Don’t be scared of keeping things classic. The main thing to remember is to make sure there is some kind of salt element to whatever you choose to use.

Allergen Information

This recipe is free from egg, dairy, gluten and nuts.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

How Long to Air Fry Boneless Chicken Thighs

These 125g/4oz chicken thigh fillets air fry in 15 minutes. I don’t turn the chicken during cooking so it is a handsfree cook. If you pack in more thighs so there is less room for the air to circulate, you may wish to give them a turn and a little shuffle after 10 minutes.

If your thigh fillets are substantially bigger or smaller, you will need to adjust the cooking time accordingly.

How to Air Fry Chicken Thigh Fillets From Frozen

Boneless chicken thighs are something that I regularly buy in bulk and then freeze in small portions. I also sometimes by bone-in thighs in bulk and debone them myself and then freeze.

Either way I do find that it is worth spending a couple of minies making sure that the chicken is fully prepped before freezing. By this I mean trimming it up and making sure that there are no rogue pieces of bone or cartilage still attached.

To cook the fillets from frozen, it is a good idea to quickly run them under water to remove any ice crystals from the surface. This will also help you to seperate them if any are stuck together. You can then dry them thoroughly and proceed to oil, season and air fry them as normal. They don’t require any extra cooking time when cooked from frozen.

Leftovers – Storage & Reheating

Leftover chicken thighs have a million uses. They will keep in the fridge for several days in an airtight container or they freeze very well. You can eat or use them both hot or cold. Do make sure that you defrost any frozen leftovers before using or reheating.

Cold chicken thighs can be sliced and added to salad. They are especially good added to my favourite caesar salad recipe. Or you can mix them with some cooked bacon in mayonnaise. Add some sweetcorn kernels too for a really good sandwich filler or baked potato topper.

To reheat the chicken, you can simply microwave it. This doesn’t take long at all and keeps the meat very juicy. There is no skin to go soggy with these fillets which is a bonus. But if you wish to use the air fryer, I suggest loosely wrapping the chicken in foil, adding a drop of water then air frying until piping hot. This will effectively steam the meat and again keep it very juicy.

The Air Fried Feast Community

Come on over to Facebook and join my community discussing all things air fryer. Get involved in sharing your experiences and trials, help out others and find out what wonderful things everyone is cooking in their air fryers!

What Exactly is an Air Fryer?

Very simply, an air fryer is a small convection (fan) oven. The benefit is that the hot air is circulated all around the food being cooked which speeds up the cooking time and cooks the food more evenly.

What are the Benefits of Using an Air Fryer?

Size, time and energy usage. Air fryers are ideal for cooking smaller quantities. Heating up a space that the food just fits into requires less energy and means that the heat source is much closer to the food. Combining these two things can speed up the cooking time.

Rotary types are not usually good for recipes where the food is breaded, glazed, likely to break up or in a tray/container. They do however make the best chips and roasted veg.

My 2 in 1 version like the one I’ve linked also has a rotating tray for things that could be broken up by a paddle, but the height clearance with the lid isn’t deep enough to use it to cook some items like sausage rolls. I’ve now actually retired by Actifry in favour of having my two basket type fryers.

Mini Oven Air Fryers

These usually have a glass door, shelves and overall are really quite large. You can cook quite a decent quantity of food in them so are best if regularly cooking for multiple people. They often come with extra features like a rotisserie spit or kebab skewers.

Multicookers with Air Fryer Functions

Some likeNinja 11 in 1and some of the earlier versions with a few less functions, have an air fryer option. They mostly operate the same as a basket fryer but the basket drops in the top rather than sliding in like a drawer.

Some electric pressure cookers likeInstant Potscan also air fry when used with a specific lid.

Is an air fryer always better to use than an oven?

As much as I do love air frying, the honest answer to this is no. And the more detailed answer is that it will always depend on what you’re cooking, how much of it you’re cooking and what type and size of air fryer you have.

Once you need to cook in more than 2 batches, it often makes more sense to use an oven. If you already have the oven on to cook other items, it may make more sense to throw one more item in rather than using an additional appliance.

I don’t think either method is often necessarily better than the other. The important point to note is that there is absolutely no difference in the finished product.

Do Air Fryers Need to Be Pre-Heated?

The answer to this is rather annoying – it depends. It depends entirely on your model and type of air fryer. The best advice I can offer is to check your manual and follow their guidance. My Cosori models have a preheat function. I press a button and it heats at 205c/400f for 4 minutes.

It’s also worth noting that regardless of whether you are supposed to pre-heat or not, if you are cooking in batches, it is quite likely that anything after the first batch will cook a little quicker because of the retained heat. It is best to check on them before the cooking time is completed.

What is the best temperature to Air Fry at?

It will always depend on what you are cooking and from what state. All of my air fryer recipes don’t use temperatures above 200c/390f because many of the most common fryers in the UK don’t go above this. Mine goes to 230c/450f and I use this temperature a lot but it is no help for me to share recipes which many people can’t use.

What setting is best to use? Air fry, bake, dehydrate, etc…

Not all air fryers have different settings like this. When they do it usually relates to the fan speed. The default setting to use will always be “air fry” so unless something else is specifically stated in the recipe, always use the air fry option.

There are other air fryers that have an additional heating element which cooks from underneath rather than just the top. Just as with the other settings, unless you are using a recipe which states to use a second heating element, stick with just using the top down air fry option.

Of course if and when you become more confident with air frying, using recipes and the settings of your air fryer, you can start adapting them to suit.

Can Food Be Cooked From Frozen In An Air Fryer?

Absolutely! To cook from frozen you usually will need to reduce the cooking temperature and increase the time to make sure your food is cooked right through to the middle.

It is best to check my individual recipes for cooking from frozen advice as some items are a little different. And there are occasionally exceptions to the rule.

Can I Reheat Food In An Air Fryer?

Yes. As a general rule I reheat food for roughly 1/3 of the original cooking time at the same temperature. Or at 10 degrees lower for half the time for larger items.

Are Air Fryer Liners a Good Idea?

Unless otherwise stated, I do not use liners when air frying. Basket and rotary type air fryers are designed to be used without liners. Mini oven types will generally require some kind of tray like with a regular large oven although most come with crisper racks to use.

There are many air fryer liners available including quite thick silicone ones. These will affect the cooking times and possibly temperatures of your cooking/baking. I also don’t like how cooking juices are prevented from dripping through the basket rack. This can stop food from crisping all the way around.

When I do want to collect the juices, I mostly use some foil, or occasionally a foil tray which can be washed and reused.

If you do prefer to use them, once you have got a feel for how they affect your cooking and baking, you may need to make adjustments to the recipe accordingly.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

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The Recipe