This air fryer chicken sandwich is an excellent way to bring home your favorite flavors of the famous Popeye's Chicken Sandwich without the extra calories from the fryer. This quick recipe will only take you about 30 minutes to make and requires just six ingredients. The air fryer gives the chicken tenders the best golden brown color and crisp and is also an extremely user friendly appliance.
This crispy chicken sandwich recipe is a delicious weeknight meal. It also can be an excellent Friday night treat! Throwing the chicken in the air fryer instead of the deep fryer makes this recipe much more simple to make and also a lot less messy. No flour mixture, no paper towels to catch the extra grease, no oil to deal with after the fact, but you still get the same results. This air fried chicken sandwich is excellent to make for lunch or as a dinner when hosting guests. It is also very kid friendly.
This was inspired by my Spicy Fried Chicken Sandwich recipe on this site, and pairs well with this Homemade Bacon Jam recipe or with this truffle fries recipe served on the side.
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Ingredients
All of the ingredients needed to make this recipe are simple to find and should be available at any grocery store. I usually will get chicken tenders or a thin sliced chicken breast for the chicken element. Panko breadcrumbs are the best option for this recipe because of how crispy they get. The most important ingredient though are the dill pickle chips. You have to get dill pickles are the flavor will change completely.
- chicken breast tenders
- eggs
- bread crumbs
- dill pickle chips
- mayonnaise
- potato bun or brioche buns
See recipe card for quantities.
Instructions
Remove tendons from chicken tenders if present. Place the chicken breast tenders on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Use a meat tenderizer to tenderize the chicken. Whisk eggs in a shallow bowl and add bread crumbs to a second bowl.
Dip one tender in the egg mixture and coat with bread crumb. Dip the tender back in the egg and then coat a second time with bread crumb. Complete the previous step for all of the tenders. Place the tenders in the air fryer basket.
Air fry the tenders one layer at a time at 390 degrees for 14 minutes. Flip tenders halfway through.
Spread mayonnaise on a potato bun, add about five pickles. Place chicken tender on top of the pickles. Serve immediately.
Hint: for extra juicy chicken, mix pickle juice with buttermilk in a ziploc and add the chicken tenders. Allow the chicken tenders to marinade overnight. This will give you a very moist chicken and cause the chicken to not dry out when air fried. A crispy outside of the chicken and a moist inside from the pickle brine sounds like the perfect chicken for copycat Popeye's chicken sandwiches.
Substitutions
- Bread Crumb - use gluten free bread crumbs to make this recipe gluten free. You can also use a mixture of flour and spices if you are frying
- Bun - use gluten free buns instead of white bread buns to make this gluten free
- Chicken - switch the chicken out with tofu for a vegetarian version
- Egg - you can switch out the egg for a buttermilk mixture. If you are doing this, I suggest letting your chicken sit in the buttermilk for a few hours in an air tight container. This will give you a very juicy chicken breast
Variations
- Spicy - add hot sauce to the mayonnaise to make a spicy chicken sandwich
- Caprese - add tomato, mozzarella and pesto to the sandwich to make a caprese chicken sandwich
- Crostini - chop up the chicken tenders, tomato, lettuce and bacon and mix with ranch for a chicken bacon ranch crostini
- Fried - now of course this is an air fryer recipe, but you do still have the option to deep fry. Deep frying can be a great way to add an extreme amount of crisp, but you will want to use a seasoned flour dredge for this rather than bread crumbs
See this chicken bacon ranch crostini recipe on my website!
Equipment
To create this recipe, you will need an air fryer and bowls for the bread crumb and egg. If you do not have an air fryer, you can use a deep fryer, use a dutch oven filled with hot oil to fry the chicken, or you can bake it in the oven. No matter how you cook your chicken, make sure that it reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
You will also need a meat tenderizer and plastic wrap to tenderize your meat. This will assure it is at a perfect thickness so you don't overcook your meat and also makes it really juicy.
Storage
Store leftover chicken in the refrigerator for up to 3-5 days once cooked. The leftover buns should be stored in an air tight container.
These ingredients stand up well to freezing for up to 2 months in a freezer bag.
Top tip
Toast the top bun and the bottom bun for best results. This will keep your buns from getting soggy when you add the mayonnaise and pickle slices to the buns. The toasted brioche bun also adds an extra level of flavor to the dish that you will not get from a non toasted bun.
FAQ
You absolutely can to add some extra flavor. Some suggestions for spices you could add would be garlic powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, onion powder, cajun seasoning, etc.
I suggest either using either chicken breast, chicken breast tenders or chicken cutlet. These will give you the best results and won't overwhelm your sandwich.
You can either deep fry your chicken or you can bake it. Please note baking will not allow your chicken to get as crispy, unless you have a convection oven since that is basically the same thing as air frying.
Related
Looking for other decadent sandwiches like this? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with this Copycat Popeye's Chicken Sandwich recipe:
📖 Recipe
Air Fryer Popeyes Chicken Sandwich
Equipment
- Air Fryer
- Meat Tenderizer
Ingredients
- 1 lb chicken breast tenders
- 3 cups gluten free bread crumbs use more if needed
- 3 eggs use more if needed
- 1 tablespoon mayonnaise per sandwich
- 4-5 pickle chips per sandwich
- 1 brioche bun or potato bun per sandwich
Instructions
- Place the chicken breast tenders on a baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Use a meat tenderizer to tenderize the chicken. Whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl and add the bread crumbs to a second bowl.
- Dip one tender in the egg and then coat with bread crumb. Dip the tender back in the egg and then coat a second time with bread crumb. Complete the previous step for all of the tenders. Place the tenders in the air fryer basket.
- Air fry the tenders one layer at a time at 390 degrees for 14 minutes. Flip tenders halfway through. Depending on the size of your air fryer, it might take a couple of batches because you do not want to stack tenders on top of each other or you will not get an even crisp.
- Spread mayonnaise on a potato bun, add about five pickles. Place one piece of juicy chicken tender on the sandwich and enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
If you have any questions about how to make this popeyes chicken sandwich or need other sandwich recipe suggestions, leave a comment below!
Kimberly says
That looks amazing!
thebutteredgnocchi says
Thank you so much!
Kinsey says
Can I bake this in the oven? I don’t have an air fryer
thebutteredgnocchi says
Absolutely! It would just take longer to bake than the times I provided! You could also pan fry it in a little bit of olive oil!