10 Healthy Air Fryer Chicken Recipes

Who doesn’t love fried chicken?

“Don’t rub it in,” you’re thinking. “With all the fat and calories, I’ll never have fried chicken again.”

Part of that is true. Just 3.5 ounces of fast food fried chicken has almost 400 calories and over 29 grams of fat. It’s neither slimming nor healthy.

But you can have fried chicken again! The magic of the air fryer—a countertop appliance that uses hot air to mimic deep-fat frying with little or no oil—puts “fried” chicken on the menu, crispy coating and all. And it’s all guilt-free!

Satisfy your fried chicken cravings with these 10 Nutrisystem-tested-and-approved healthy air fryer chicken recipes.

1. Air Fryer Honey Mustard Chicken Bites >

This marinade is as simple as it is heavenly: spicy brown mustard, honey and black pepper. Simple coat bite-sized pieces of boneless chicken breast in half the marinade. Ten minutes later, it’s into the air fryer for eight minutes per side. Finally, toss the chicken in the rest of the marinade. At only 144 calories a serving (the recipe makes six servings), this delicious dish counts as one PowerFuel and two Extras on Nutrisystem. Get the full recipe here! >

2. Air Fryer Boneless Garlic Ginger Chicken Bites >

The name alone tells you you’re in for a delicious, savory treat. And it’s incredibly easy to make! Mix up some garlic, ginger, lemon juice, oil, honey, cornstarch, turmeric, cumin and cayenne pepper and place it in a plastic bag. Cut a pound of boneless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces, place them in the marinade and toss so the pieces are well coated. Let the chicken marinate for a few hours or overnight.  At this point you can make a chive yogurt dip with nonfat Greek yogurt, chopped fresh green onions, garlic powder and cayenne. The chicken takes about 16 minutes in the air fryer. The recipe makes six servings at 129 calories each. One serving counts as one PowerFuel and one Extra. View the full recipe right here! >

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3. Healthy Air Fryer Chicken Drumsticks >

This is the one you’ve been waiting for! The recipe has only three ingredients: skinless chicken drumsticks, oil and Cajun seasoning (cayenne pepper, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder and oregano). After marinating the chicken for half an hour, place it in the air fryer and cook for 15 minutes. Voila! Spicy “fried” chicken you can indulge in. One serving equals one drumstick which clocks in at 155 calories. On Nutrisystem, it counts as one PowerFuel and one Extra. Check out the full recipe here! >

4. Air Fryer Dry-Rubbed Chicken Bites >

These bite-sized pieces of spicy (savory not hot) chicken are crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside. The coating consists of chili powder, paprika, cumin, garlic, onion powder, black pepper and salt.  The tablespoon of olive oil helps the spices stick to the chicken pieces. After 16 minutes (eight minutes per side) in the air fryer, you can enjoy this taste bud-pleasing treat for only 245 calories. On Nutrisystem, this counts as two PowerFuels and one Extra. Get the recipe here! >

5. Air Fryer Sausage, Potatoes and Veggies >

Chicken sausage is the base of this delicious, healthy mélange that includes baby potatoes, zucchini, olive oil, garlic powder and black pepper.  Ready in less than 20 minutes, one serving (the recipe makes two) is only 247 calories and counts as one SmartCarb, one PowerFuel, one Extra and half of a Vegetable. Click here for the full recipe! >

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6. Air Fryer Crispy Chicken Sandwich >

If you’ve been avoiding Chick-fil-A® and missing their iconic sandwich (and yummy sauce), you can get that same great taste with this tribute recipe and real Chick-fil-A® sauce, now available at select retailers and grocery stores. It all starts with a top-rated Nutrisystem lunch—the Grilled Chicken Sandwich. The secret is to let the chicken—which you separate from the bun—marinate in pickle juice for five minutes. This is followed by a breading process (egg, water, whole wheat flour) and about eight minutes in the air fryer. When it’s done, plop on a couple of pickles and you’re good to go. One serving is 358 calories and counts as two SmartCarbs, 1.5 PowerFuels and one Extra (or one Nutrisystem Lunch, one SmartCarb, half of a PowerFuel and one Extra). Check out the full recipe here! >

7. Air Fryer Chicken Parmesan Sliders >

These cute little sandwiches pack the big Italian taste of chicken parm and they’re a cinch to make. The recipe starts with chicken cut into bite-sized pieces, then coated in breadcrumbs and flour.  After 15 to 20 minutes in the air fryer, assemble the sandwiches with whole wheat slider buns, low sugar marinara sauce and part skim mozzarella cheese.  Put the sandwiches back in the fryer to melt the cheese. The recipe makes four servings (that’s two sliders each!) for only 186 calories.  On Nutrisystem, these sandwiches count as one SmartCarb, one PowerFuel and two Extras. Get the full recipe here! >

8. Air Fryer BBQ Potato Skins >

Enjoy the delicious taste of barbecue chicken stuffed into crispy potato skins! This tasty appetizer, which serves two people, is as delicious as the classic starter from your favorite restaurant. Topped with melty cheddar cheese and reduced fat sour cream, each 143-calorie serving counts as one PowerFuel and two Extras. Check out the full recipe right here! >

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9. Air Fryer Boneless Garlic Parmesan Chicken Bites >

These yummy treats will make you miss your favorite chicken wings less, guaranteed.  Have your own “wing night” by cutting a pound of chicken into bite-sized pieces. After dipping them in a beaten egg, roll them in a mixture of grated parmesan cheese, minced garlic, fresh parsley and pepper. Pop them in the air fryer and you’ll have tender, boneless chicken wings ready to enjoy. They have so much savory taste, you won’t need a dipping sauce. The recipe makes five 188-calorie servings. Each counts as two PowerFuels. Click here to view the full recipe! >

10. Healthy Air Fryer Honey Garlic Drumsticks >

To wrap up this list of healthy air fryer chicken recipes, we’ve got another drumstick option! Marinating these drumsticks in olive oil, honey and minced garlic is the secret to its tender, juicy texture and savory-sweet flavor. Cook time is only about 15 minutes. One serving (the recipe makes two) is only 168 calories and counts as one PowerFuel and two Extras. Get the recipe here! >

Have you come up with your own healthy air fryer chicken recipes? We want to try them! Submit your recipes on our Recipe Submission page for a chance to be featured right here on The Leaf. Submit your recipes here! >

If you’re looking for more of your favorite foods made healthier, Nutrisystem is the plan for you! We cook up perfectly portioned versions of popular meals and snacks to help you lose weight the easy (and delicious) way. Get started with your weight loss journey today! >

The post 10 Healthy Air Fryer Chicken Recipes appeared first on The Leaf.

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Looking for a neutral calorie tracking app

Hi all! As the title said, I’m working through some disordered eating and the “counting down” of calories (you have 1200 left, etc) is pretty hard for me. I’m looking for a neutral app that just tells me how many calories i have eaten that day, and how many grams of protein, without setting a weight loss goal or counting down. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’m currently using eatlove but the interface doesn’t work for me. Thank you!

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is it purely thermodynamics? what about biological roles?

Hi there! Im a cico gal and i understand that weight loss is basically energy in vs energy out and that’s how you lose weight and will continue to lose weight as long as the ins are less than the outs. Simple physics & chemistry right.. What i don’t understand is how biological factors can play a role in “slowing” that process. The famous example is how i keep seeing people say that their metabolism adjusts or adapt to the deficit which in turn stops their weight loss? starvation mode? how is that possible. The role of hormones also confuses me bc why do docs say it’s harder to lose weight with PCOS or hypothyroidism? feel free to explain it as scientifically as you can since im a molecular scientist/ geneticist myself but i simply can’t wrap my head around it. If i had to guess, i’d say starvation mode doesn’t actually exist or else the universe would collapse lol. And for hormonal/biological issues maybe its the case of lowering the TDEE/BMR of a person? like its still cico but the body’s natural “calories out” part is less than the average person? Im currently also studying how genetics play a factor in this and somehow the genetics part makes sense to me but the hormonal/metabolism part just doesn’t. I’d really love to know

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How do you intentionally lose weight while also knowing about the perils of the diet cycle?

I feel a big disconnect between what I see on communities like this and what I experience in my life and with clients. I’m a mental health counselor and have a few clients with disordered eating behaviors. I also was raised in an environment in which I was very abused by my mom for being “fat” (I literally wasn’t at all, normal BMI), constant criticism and disgust of my body and how I ate. I often restricted, binged, and/or felt the need to exercise off any “cheat” meals I had. I always felt guilt around eating. I was a college athlete and naturally after college couldn’t maintain an exercise regimen of 2 hours of cardio per day (nor was it kind to my body).

Point being, I feel frustrated. With myself, with not knowing what the truth is? My training, my work with clients, my own life experience has taught me that intentional decisions to restrict calories or food groups or times when you eat will inevitably lead to increased hunger, cravings, surge in appetite and/or binges, due to the feelings of psychological deprivation.

Literally any time I try to restrict at all- even try to eat 100 calories less per day or even just TRACK my calories, I immediately feel a panic/anger, and a bunch of cravings pop up. Or if I have a few successful days of weight loss, when I see the scale I think, “thank god, I can actually eat now.” Even if I was only restricting like 100 calories.

I struggle a lot with how easy? It seems to be for so many people on here to do these things to lose weight. Do you literally not get the increase in cravings or binge urge? When they come up, how do you talk to yourself to make them go away? Do they go away? What’s your internal world like as you embark on this? After you achieve your goal, how is your relationship with food and movement? Is it always guilt, fear or shame based?

I’m a very self-aware person and try hard to be kind to my body. But it doesn’t feel like intuitive eating and increasing movement a bit will actually get me to 50lb weight loss. (I gained 50lb while pregnant and my body didn’t lose any of it.)

it just seems like I would totally have to disconnect from my body and its urges and cravings, or be super mean to myself, in order to do the weight loss I see posted here.

Can someone help me understand ? I’m not trying to be a dick just really stuck and nothing meshes.

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post weight loss issues

I am half way through losing around 100ibs. it was a very slow process( 2 years) and I did intentionally so that my body and mind are able to adapt to the new life style and so that I can avoid issues such as lose skin as much as I can. However half way through and I still don’t even resemble closely what I’ve imagined. Don’t get me wrong I’m happy with the progress but the only thing I can think about is a stomach fold and stretch marks that will never go away. What do I do? Is there hope that I’ll achieve the body of my dreams at the end of weightloss? I’m not aversed to surgery but obviously I’d be happier if I didn’t require it.

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Is it normal to get progressively less happy with your achievements?

Hi everyone, I'm 22F 158cm and lost 25kgs in the past year. I went from 82kg to 57kg. I'm now at a healthy weight.

But I still see a fat person in the mirror and it's getting worse. At first I was really happy about my achievement and liked the way I looked. But the past few months I've been maintaining weight, and as time progresses, I am less happy about myself. A theory I have is that when I was losing weight, I took lots of pictures and was able to see my progress really well. So even if I wasn't healthy yet, I was already really proud because of the difference. But now there hasn't been any weight loss in so long, meaning my body has not changed. And I keep seeing the same thing, it's not special anymore. I genuinely feel fat again and I don't know what to do to make these thoughts go away. Are these thoughts a normal thing to happen for someone in my situation? My boyfriend says maybe I should start exercising, which is something I definitely want to do. But I don't think that's going to fix my broken self image. Because when I was 80kg I also thought that if I could weigh under 60kg that I would be so happy, and I'm not. So I don't think exercising is going to fix my self image. A temporary fix maybe, I don't know. I just want to know if anyone else feels the same or if anyone has gone through something similiar. Thanks for reading.

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The Truth About Football Season Weight Gain (and How to Bounce Back!)

More than one-third (37%) of men would give up football games or other sporting events for two months if it meant they could sport a six-pack or a flat stomach, new research suggests.

In a new poll of 2,000 American men over the age of 30, 39% said their belly is the physical attribute they’d change about themselves.

And as football season comes to an end, men are feeling the effects. Thirty-seven percent said they usually gain weight from September to January, with 53% claiming they gain 10 pounds or more.

Football isn’t the only thing men would give up either. The poll, conducted by OnePoll and commissioned by Nutrisystem, also revealed that a quarter of men surveyed would give up their love life for two months for a flatter belly.

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The poll also showed that almost one in five men began to lose confidence by the time they reached their early 30s.

More than 50% are less comfortable dating over 30 because they are less confident in how they look. And forty-seven percent of men admit they worry that their significant other doesn’t find them as attractive as they used to.

Men’s health and wellness seems top of mind more now than ever before as 43% of men believe that mental and physical health are equally as important as wealth and current lifestyle. If given the choice between getting a promotion at work or losing 20 pounds, 30% would choose to focus on their weight loss goals.

“Losing weight will not only lower total body fat but also stubborn belly fat,” said Courtney McCormick, MPH, RDN, LDN, Manager Clinical Research & Nutrition at Nutrisystem. “Excess fat around the abdomen responds well to a high protein, low GI diet, so be sure to pay attention to your portions, eat plenty of fruits and veggies and stick with whole grains and lean proteins.”

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Even more interesting, a whopping 68% believe social media has created unrealistic body standards for men over the past decade.

But most men believe making a change could help. Half of men surveyed believe that losing weight would make them feel better about themselves. And 45% said they would need to lose 11 pounds or more to gain more confidence, which isn’t surprising since 46% of men said they gained 21 pounds or more over the last 10 years.

“Having a game plan is crucial,” said Hall of Fame quarterback and Nutrisystem ambassador, Dan Marino. “For guys especially, simplicity, variety and correct portion sizes are key. Programs like Nutrisystem that are delivered to your door and easy to follow are the best bet. And when you start seeing the results, it makes you motivated to keep going.”

When it comes to getting back on track, 53% of men said having an easy-to-follow plan for healthy eating would help them best achieve their health goals. Thirty-eight percent of respondents said teaming up with a partner and 35% said having healthy meals delivered to their door would fuel their success.

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TOP 5 THINGS MEN WOULD DO TO FEEL MORE CONFIDENT

Start exercising more             (53%)

Lose weight                             (51%)

Quit smoking                           (31%)

Improve their love life             (24%)

Change jobs                           (23%)

The post The Truth About Football Season Weight Gain (and How to Bounce Back!) appeared first on The Leaf.

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