This easy recipe for air fryer chicken breast features the deep, warm and delicious flavors of chipotle peppers and cooks to perfection in about 18 minutes.
Why You Should Try This Recipe
If you’re looking for an easy way to prepare boneless, skinless chicken breast in your air fryer, you’ll want to put this recipe on your menu. It features the wonderful flavor of chipotle, which is simply smoked and dried jalapeno peppers. Chipotles have a very earthy, smokey and robust flavor with just enough warmth to bring everything to life. It’s an easy recipe to make and you can prep the marinade the night before, assuring a full flavor meal. When it’s time to cook, all you do is preheat the air fryer for about 5 minutes, place them inside and air fry for about 18 minutes. That’s it! This is also a very versatile recipe that can be served any number of ways, including leftovers that are awesome in a salad!
What You Need To Make This Recipe
The only special equipment you need is an air fryer. For the ingredients we use fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast of about 6-8oz each. If they are extra large, cut the in half horizontally. You can also pound them to an even thickness to assure the best cooking results. Many of the seasonings you probably already have in your pantry. They include brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, dried oregano and olive oil. The special ingredients are Chipotle Chile Pepper powder, and canned adobe sauce. The chipotle chile pepper powder is available in most supermarket spice aisles. It’s great in a number of different recipes and is affordable too. The canned adobo sauce is usually found in the Mexican food section and is generally a small 7oz can called Chipotles in Adobo Sauce. Just scoop out the 2 tablespoons of sauce and save the peppers for another time. If you don’t have or can’t find the adobo sauce, no worries! There’s a simple substitution in the recipe notes below that uses tomato paste, vinegar and cumin.
How Long to Marinade?
The beauty of this recipe is that the chipotle marinade/sauce is nice and thick and will stick to the chicken during cooking. You’ll have great flavor even if you skip the marinating time. That said, I love when the meat has time to fully absorb the flavors, so I often prepare the marinade the evening before, and let them sit in a ziploc bag or shallow dish in the refrigerator overnight.
What To Serve With This Recipe
There are really endless possibilities, but I love something cool and green. Zucchini is a favorite, a nice chickpea and avocado salad with some cilantro and lime is awesome. It also pairs well with rice and beans for a more traditional Mexican dish. And nothing beats our Instant Pot Refried beans!
Recipe
Air Fryer Chipotle Chicken Breast
- Total Time: 25 minutes
- Yield: 2 servings
Description
Air fryer chicken breast seasoned with Mexican chipotle and cooked to perfection in an air fryer. Ready in under 20 minutes.
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, 6-8oz each
- 3 tablespoons canned adobo sauce (see notes below)
- 2 teaspoons chipotle chile pepper powder
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt to taste (about ½-1tsp)
Instructions
- In a shallow baking dish, mix the adobo sauce (see notes for substitution), chipotle chile powder, brown sugar, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, oil and salt. Mix until well combined.
- Add chicken breast and rub mixture into chicken. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes. (4 hours is better, overnight is best).
- Preheat air fryer at 360 degrees F for 5 minutes. Then place the marinated chicken into air fryer, air fry at 360 degrees F for 17-19 minutes (depending on size), flipping halfway through. Internal temperature of chicken should be 165 degrees F when done.
- Once done, remove chicken and let it rest for 5 minutes before enjoying.
Notes
Adobo sauce: The adobo sauce will be in 7oz cans of chipotles with adobo sauce. Simply use 2 tablespoons of the sauce for this recipe. For a substitute, use: 2tbs tomato paste, 1tbs cider vinagar, 1 tsp cumin and an extra tablespoon of olive oil.
- Prep Time: 7 min
- Cook Time: 18 min
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Air Fryer
- Cuisine: Mexican
Diane Z says
I made the chipotle chicken.
One of my ingredients was Pato Sauce. I marinaded the chicken overnight. It was moist and delicious.
MarsRoams says
Absolutely delicious! I marinated the chicken for almost 24 hours. Due to personal spice preference, I used less Chipotle seasoning. These were so good, so juicy, and absolute perfection. Really ups your chicken game! This is my new go-to recipe for chicken seasoning. The family all devoured these.
Rain says
I was looking for a new air fryer chicken recipe for my quesadillas, and this one absolutely hit the spot! I followed the recipe exactly and marinated overnight. Delicious and so easy!
RecipeTeacher says
Oh I LOVE chicken quesadillas. And you’re right, that is an excellent use for this recipe. Thanks for the feedback!
James says
Im surprised this dont have more reviews so here is mine and thank you for the recipe…this chicken came out nice for my burrito bowl…i stuck to the recipe but added a tablespoon of ancho chili powder and apple cider vinegar and pretty much a tablespoon of all spices as i was seasoning a family pack of chicken. nice crispy and juicy and wayyy cheaper than going to chipotle…… appreciate ya this ones a keeper
Danielle says
This recipe is fantastic!! We always have a couple cans of chipotles in adobo sauce in our pantry and I actually used the chipotle adobo salsa, and the chicken came our SO moist and SO tasty! I also added lime juice from a half of a lime, and followed the rest of the recipe to a tee. I marinated the chicken breasts for a good 5-6 hours (my air fryer fits 3 breasts and the marinade was more than enough for all 3). I will definitely be making this again – thank you!
RecipeTeacher says
Thanks, Danielle! That adobo sauce is such great stuff. I too keep it on hand for a lot of recipes.
Aimee Froling says
I accidentally posted my question on the wrong recipe! I have hot mexican-style chili powder and ancho chili powder on hand. Can I sub either of those for the chipotle chili powder? Thanks!
RecipeTeacher says
No problem with the post, Aimee. I fixed it. I’d probably go with the ancho chili powder. It’s milder than the chipotle chili powder, but still has that smokey flavor. And if you have the adobo sauce anyways, the flavor profile should be super close to the original recipe. Let me know how it goes!