Air Fryer Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs

Air Fryer Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs are the perfect light dinner for summer. Served with a side salad, it is easy to make and super simple to clean up. The chicken is crispy on the outside and moist on the inside – making it a family favorite.

This air fryer honey mustard chicken is a quick and easy dinner that the whole family will love! The chicken thighs are coated in a simple honey mustard sauce and then air-fried to perfection.

Serve with some steamed veggies and you have a delicious and healthy meal that is ready in no time!

If you love easy dinners that come together super fast – you will love this chicken thigh recipe. Not only is it simple to make with just a few steps – but it only calls for a handful of ingredients. (some of which you probably already have in your kitchen)

This recipe is great for those busy weeknights when you don’t have a lot of time to get dinner on the table. Plus the clean-up is quick too – which gives you more time for all of the other things pulling at your time.

Here are some commonly asked questions

What is the best way to store leftover honey mustard chicken?

If you have leftovers, just place the pieces in an airtight container and keep them refrigerated for up to 3 days.

To reheat, you can microwave until hot (about 90 seconds per piece) but I do have to say that the skins don’t remain crispy this way.

Or you can pop the chicken back in the air fryer and cook at 375 degrees until hot again (usually several minutes) You might want to give it a fresh spritz of oil before heating to help crisp things up again.

Can I use frozen chicken?

While cooking foods from a frozen state is great when using the pressure cooker, it doesn’t work quite the same for all foods when it comes to the air fryer. For this chicken recipe, I don’t recommend trying to cook this frozen. Please start with fresh chicken.

I have a bake option and other special features on my air fryer, is that the setting? Or do you put it on “air fry” setting?

All of my recipes were created with an air fryer that had only a temperature & timer setting – since not all air fryers have all the additional settings.

You can use the bake setting when making recipes that you would traditionally bake – but if possible, please just set the temperature & time for this recipe.

Ingredients for Air Fryer Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs

• honey
• dijon mustard
• olive oil
• chicken thighs – bone-in- skin-on

How Air Frying Works

While air fryers are relatively new to the market, the technology isn’t really a new concept. They basically work like tiny convection ovens that you can use on your countertop.

Similar to a convection oven, it circulates the hot air within the cooking area using a high-powered fan. This helps evenly distribute the heat around the food which not only creates more evenly cooked food but also reduced cooking times.

By circulating the hot air, which contains the fine oil droplets from adding a light mist layer before cooking, and allows you to remove the need for submerging our foods in heavy oils to create the deliciously crunchy foods we all love.

What are the benefits of air frying?

Healthier

It’s no secret that fried foods are more fattening – but did you know that there are 9 calories in every gram of fat? With air frying, we can reduce the fat by removing most of the oils usually needed to create crunchy foods. This helps to drastically reduce fat intake and calories.

Convenience

I love being able to cook with my air fryer and eliminate the need for large baking sheets and lots of pots and pans. Most of my air fryer recipes can be made with just a mixing bowl or two or a small saucepan in addition to my air fryer.

Energy Efficient

Someone said to me once, “why make this in the air fryer if you can do it the conventional way in the same amount of time?” Well, air frying helps eliminate the need for a conventional oven.

Not only can you keep your home cooler in the summer by not using the oven, but you are saving money with reduced energy consumption costs as well.

Time Saver

I don’t know about you, but if I can avoid turning on the oven and having to wait 20 minutes for it to preheat, I’m happy about that. Most air fryer recipes either don’t require that you preheat the fryer – or the preheat time is 5 minutes or less. That is a huge time saver over using the oven.

Take it on the go

I love that the air fryer is compact and easy to take along on trips. We pack ours in our RV and find that air fryer cooking while camping is so much easier than trying to deep fry foods on a small RV stove or camping burner.

How to Make Air Fryer Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs

1. Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees for 5 minutes.
2. Lightly spray the air fryer basket with olive oil or another cooking oil. *See post for why I don’t recommend using cooking spray.
3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the honey, mustard, and olive oil.
4. Brush or rub the mixture all over the chicken, including between the skin and the thigh meat.
5. Place the chicken – skin side down in the greased basket, skin side up, and cook for 12 minutes.
6. Flip the chicken so it is skin-side up. Cook an additional 7-12 minutes – or until the internal temperature reaches 165F on an instant-read thermometer.
7. Enjoy immediately and store leftovers in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Can this be made with drumsticks?

You can make this recipe with drumsticks too.

1. Cook at 370 degrees for 10 minutes.
2. Flip the chicken. Spray with more olive oil.
3. Cook an additional 10 minutes.

You’ll know they are done when the meat is no longer pink at the bone and the juices are clear. A meat thermometer inserted near the bone should register 165 degrees.

Can this be made with chicken breasts?

You can make this recipe with boneless, skinless chicken breasts too.

1. Cook at 400 degrees for 11-15 minutes.

No need to flip. You’ll know they are done when the meat is no longer pink at the bone and the juices are clear. A meat thermometer inserted near the bone should register 165 degrees.

Can this be made in the oven?

Yep – you can make this recipe in the oven if you don’t have an air fryer. While this is slower than cooking the chicken in the air fryer – you can make up to 8 pieces at a time instead of 4 – so it is great for a larger family.

1. Bake in a 9×13 baking dish in a 375-degree oven for 30-40 minutes.

No need to flip. You’ll know they are done when the meat is no longer pink at the bone and the juices are clear. A meat thermometer inserted near the bone should register 165 degrees.

What oil sprayer do you use?

First, let me say that I highly recommend that you do not use cooking spray. It will leave a residue on your air fryer basket & cause it to smoke when you use it. I really like this spray bottle – because it gives a nice mist & sprays consistently each time using just olive, vegetable, or canola oil. I couldn’t air fry easily without it.

Air Frying Doneness Tip

Every air fryer is a bit different and they all cook at different rates – so in general, all cooking times are approximate based on the pan and temperature.

You can always cook the recipe longer if needed and reduce the heat a bit. If needed, you can tent the top if it is browning too much.

How to prevent sticking in the air fryer

Sticking can often happen when using an air fryer. I understand that most would think to add non-stick spray to the basket to prevent this. I strongly encourage you to not do that.

Non-stick spray leaves a coating that won’t come off, even when washed. Over time – this will build up and cause smoking when you use our air fryer.

I also do not recommend putting down a sheet of foil. The idea behind air frying is to allow the air to circulate around the food.

This is why the basket or tray has holes in it. If you put foil down – this prevents the air from reaching all of the areas it needs to in order for it to cook properly.

Instead – I recommend spraying the basket with olive oil using this spray bottle. You can line the air fryer with perforated parchment paper.

Or you can use one of these really great silicone liners that still allow for airflow but are reusable and easily cleanable.

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If you love this Air Fryer Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs recipe, you’re going to love these other air fryer chicken recipes too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

Air Fryer Chicken Legs

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If you love this recipe for Honey Mustard Chicken as much as I do, please write a five-star review, and be sure to help me share on Facebook and Pinterest!

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