Ranch Seasoning Chicken

Ranch Seasoning Chicken is a delicious 30-minute dinner made simple in the air fryer. Juicy chicken thighs seasoned with ranch are AMAZING! (No air fryer, there’s a recipe for baking in the oven too)

My friends, I love it when dinner is super quick and easy. Now that we are cooking for two more often than not I have fewer hands in the kitchen to help out. So keeping prep and clean up simple is essential.

This is why I love using my air fryer for recipes like this ranch seasoning chicken. It keeps me from turning on the oven and gets dinner on the table in less than 30 minutes – which is GREAT!

This chicken is so juicy and flavorful. I don’t know what it is about ranch seasoning – but it just makes recipes like this SO GOOD! Ranch seasoning is just the perfect pairing with chicken.

So when you add ranch with the butter (because butter makes it better-right?!) it just sends this chicken recipe over the top. Once you make it and you realize just how quick and easy it is to make this delicious dinner – you will be hooked.

chicken thighs air fryer

Here are some commonly asked questions

What is the best way to store leftover ranch seasoning 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.

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.

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 from frozen. Please start with fresh chicken.

air fried chicken thighs

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.

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.

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.

air fryer bone in chicken thighs

How to make Ranch Seasoning Chicken

1. Pat the chicken thighs dry with a paper towel and season them with salt and pepper.
2. In a small mixing bowl, combine the softened butter and ranch seasoning.
3. Lift the skin off the top of each chicken thigh and stuff about 2 teaspoons of the butter mixture under the skin of each thigh. Then, use the remaining butter mixture to spread over the top of the chicken thighs.
4. Lightly grease the air fryer basket with olive oil spray or line with a parchment or reuseable liner and add the chicken thighs, skin side up.
5. Cook at 400F until golden brown– about 14-16 minutes or until the chicken reaches 165F internally.
6. Serve immediately and store any leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to three days.

Why is my food dry, chewy, or not crisp?

Most people think that air frying is done completely without oil. However, you need just a little bit of oil so the machine can circulate those tiny oil droplets, which is what makes air frying create deliciously crisp and crunchy food.

So when your food isn’t turning out as expected, it is usually that you aren’t actually adding enough oil to the recipe. If those oil droplets aren’t present, all you are doing is baking your food, resulting in a less flavorful taste and texture. Be sure to not skip the step of spritzing the food with oil if the recipe calls for it.

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.

air fryer chicken thighs recipe

Ingredients for Ranch Seasoning Chicken

• bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
• butter – softened
• ranch seasoning

Can this be made with boneless chicken?

Yes, you can make this with boneless chicken thighs. Keep in mind that rarely do you find boneless chicken thighs with skins – so you won’t have that crispy skin as part of the final flavor.

Cook at 390 degrees for 10-12 minutes, or until the chicken reaches 165F on an instant-read thermometer.

air fryer chicken thighs

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.

Can this recipe be cut in half?

Oh of course! If you only need 2 pieces of chicken, you can definitely cut this recipe in half.

You can also make the full recipe and save what you don’t need since the chicken will stay good for 3 more days if properly stored.

What to serve with ranch seasoning chicken?

This recipe seems to pair perfectly with almost anything. Here is a list of our favorite things to pair with this air-fried ranch seasoning chicken.

• strawberry jello salad
• sea salt garlic corn
• one hour dinner rolls
• instant pot baked potatoes
• bacon and garlic green beans
• garlic mashed potatoes
• Greek feta chicken pasta salad

ranch chicken thighs

If you love this recipe – You might also love my air frying cookbook too!

The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Two also makes everything fast and easy. Most recipes take 30 minutes or less and they’re designed with simple prep and minimal clean-up in mind. Nutritional information, serving size descriptions, and recipes for vegetarians, vegans, and gluten-free are also included. There’s so much to savor.

The Essential Air Fryer Cookbook for Two

Perfectly Portioned Recipes for Healthier Fried Favorites

ORDER THE BOOK HERE

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If you love this Easy Ranch Seasoning Chicken recipe, you’re going to love these other chicken recipes too. Please click each link below to find the easy, printable recipe!

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