Crispy Chicken Fingers
on Oct 13, 2022, Updated Oct 14, 2025
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Step aside, frozen chicken fingers 👋! These homemade Crispy Chicken Fingers will be your new favorite air fryer recipe. They are so crispy on the outside and cooked to perfection—moist and tender—on the inside. This recipe is perfect for school lunches 🎒 but adults will love them too. Using an air fryer saves on time, mess, and calories because you can use a fraction of the oil required for frying. I love to cut these homemade chicken fingers into strips and enjoy them on top of a salad 🥗. They’re also delicious on their own with a side of ketchup.
Key Takeaways
- Crispy Chicken Fingers are easy to make and healthier than frozen alternatives, thanks to air frying with little oil.
- You can customize the recipe with gluten-free breadcrumbs or different oils, and it’s adaptable for meal prep.
Table of Contents
Why You’ll Love Crispy Chicken Fingers
Panko breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan cheese create the crunchiest, most mouthwatering coating on these air fryer chicken fingers. There’s no need for the drive-through or that bag of frozen breaded chicken tenders in your freezer ✌️: this recipe is easy, delicious, healthier and there’s no frying involved. I love using my air fryer when I’m short on time or simply don’t want to deal with a huge clean-up 🧽. Air-frying uses 95% less oil to achieve that similar crisp.
Ingredients
🐔 Chicken Fillets: Sometimes called chicken cutlets, strip, or tenders, this is a narrow, thin portion of meat cut from the chicken breast. You can buy them from the butcher or cut whole chicken breasts into fillets at home. See my Tip below.
🌾 All-Purpose Flour: An essential component of a crispy breading station, all-purpose flour helps create a dry base for the egg to cling onto.
🍳 Eggs: Whisked eggs help the breadcrumbs stick and contribute to a thick, crunchy crust.
🍞 Panko Breadcrumbs: These crisp flakes made from white bread are superior to standard breadcrumbs IMHO because they are larger in grain size, which produces more crunch.
🧀 Parmigiano Reggiano: As The Modern Nonna, of course I’m going to use the full Italian name for parmesan. The latter is premium “parm,” but any variation of this cheese will do.
🧂 Salt and Pepper: Don’t forget to season with your heart!
🥑 Avocado Oil Spray: All you need is a light coating of oil to get the chicken to crisp up in the air fryer. I like avocado oil because it has a high smoke point and a neutral taste.
Nonna’s Tip 🍗
I purchase my chicken already cut thin into cutlets, as it makes life easier, but you don’t have to. You can butterfly chicken breasts, pound them thin, and then slice into strips.
Variations and Substitutions for Crispy Chicken Fingers
- Use Italian store-bought or homemade breadcrumbs instead of panko.
- You can use any neutral, high-smoke point oil to make these Crispy Chicken Fingers, such as sunflower or canola oil.
- Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is optional but so delicious.
- I haven’t tried it, but I believe these air fryer chicken fingers would still be delicious made with almond flour and gluten-free breadcrumbs.
Similar Recipes
Best Served With
- These would be incredible served with a side of Crispy Parmesan Crusted Smashed Potatoes and their yogurt dipping sauce.
- Try dipping these homemade chicken fingers in Homemade Spicy Mayo.
- Use these crispy chicken cutlets as a crunchy, protein topping on a salad, such as my Simple Green Salad.
Common Questions
You can shallow fry the chicken fingers in any neutral oil, such as avocado oil. You can also bake them at 425F (220C) for 15 to 20 minutes on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Note: they won’t be as crispy. If baking in the oven, spray the chicken fingers with oil on both sides and flip them halfway through baking so they crisp up evenly. You can also bake them on a wire rack placed inside a rimmed baking sheet, so that the hot oven air can circulate around the chicken pieces.
Yes, you can easily use gluten-free breadcrumbs in this recipe. I haven’t tried this recipe with almond flour or a 1-to-1 gluten-free flour, but I’m sure either would work well.
Yes, these Crispy Chicken Fingers can certainly be made dairy-free. The Parmesan is totally optional OR you can substitute with your favorite dairy-free grated cheese.
Feel free to buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts and fillet them yourself. I purchase pre-cut chicken cutlets as it makes life easier. To fillet a boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut through the center (also known as butterflying the breast), pound each half thinly (about 1/4-inch thick), and cut into long thin strips.
This Crispy Chicken Fingers recipe is fantastic for meal prep. You can bread the chicken the night before, refrigerate, and then air-fry them the next day. You can also easily double or triple the amount and store them, uncooked and breaded, in the freezer. Then, simply let them defrost in the fridge overnight or through the work day and they’re ready to be air-fried at dinner time!
This is the air fryer that I use and love to make this Crispy Chicken Fingers recipe.
Crispy Chicken Fingers
Ingredients
Instructions
- Working with one chicken cutlet at a time, cut it into 2 to 3 strips, depending on how large it is.
- Assemble three bowls and prepare the dredging station in this order: flour in one bowl, whisked eggs in the second bowl, and the breadcrumbs mixed with the grated cheese in the last bowl. Season each bowl with salt and pepper.
- Working with one chicken strip at a time, dip it into the flour, shake off the excess, proceed to dip into the egg mixture, and then the breadcrumbs. Continue to do this with each chicken strip until they are all breaded.
- If your air fryer has preheating instructions or a preheat button, please be sure to do that first. Spray each chicken strip with avocado oil spray on each side and place it in the air fryer basket. Air fry at 415F (210C) for 9 to 10 minutes, flipping the chicken strips over once halfway through the cooking time. Enjoy warm!
Nonna’s Notes
- Make it Italian 🇮🇹: You can easily repurpose these into a Chicken Parmigiana by placing on a baking pan, coating in marinara, topping with mozzarella, and heating in the oven until the cheese is bubbly.
- Frying: Although I prefer the air fryer, you can fry these in a neutral oil or olive oil. Fill a pan with about 1.5 inches of oil and let heat until a toothpick or chopstick inserted in the oil forms bubbles. Carefully, using tongs, fry the fingers on each side, until browned and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the chicken reads 165F.
My Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love any recipe that I can do in the air-fryer. My kids absolutely loved these too. I added some grated parm to the mixture and they came out so crispy, but still juicy inside!