Air Fryer Chicken Legs

Looking for a quick and simple chicken dinner recipe? This crowd-pleasing Air Fryer Chicken Legs recipe features inexpensive chicken drumsticks cooked to crispy perfection in under 30 minutes. 

If you are like me, you are always searching for easy chicken recipes the whole family will love. Once you try this air fryer chicken drumsticks recipe, try these Cilantro and Lime Marinated Chicken Thighs or whip up Easy Orange Chicken with a tasty side of Ginger Rice. All three chicken recipes are guaranteed family favourites!

Air Fryer Chicken Legs

Winner winner, chicken dinner! Friends, here’s another delicious and incredibly easy chicken recipe to add to your weekly rotation. If you love your air fryer as much as I do, this is the perfect recipe for you. Dinner is on the table in under 30 minutes, much less time than oven baked chicken legs.

It’s as effortless as seasoning the chicken drumsticks with a simple spice mixture (which includes salt and freshly ground black pepper) while you wait for the air fryer to preheat.

The final touch is a glaze featuring your favourite barbecue sauce. In the Spring, I’ll use my tomato-free Rhubarb BBQ Sauce but we also love it with a molasses based Kansas City style sauce.

What I love about this recipe (besides how easy it is) is that chicken legs, more specifically chicken drumsticks, are notoriously inexpensive. This is because less work is required to process chicken drums since they are always sold ‘bone in’.

What’s more is that ‘bone in’ and especially ‘skin on’ drumsticks have the most flavour potential. You can use skinless chicken legs, but I prefer to leave the skin on because it prevents the meat from drying out.

Additionally, these ‘barbecue’ crispy chicken legs go with almost any side dish. From Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes to a simple Spring Mix Salad with Green Goddess Dressing.

Chicken Legs vs Chicken Drumsticks

For clarification, there is a difference between chicken legs and chicken drumsticks even though the terms are used interchangeably. Chicken Legs, sometimes called Chicken Marylands or Chicken Leg Quarters, are the whole articulated leg of the chicken, minus the foot.

However, Chicken Drumsticks (also called chicken legs) are the lower portion of the leg, in between the thigh and the foot.

The entire leg portion of the chicken is known as ‘dark meat’ because it contains more myoglobin, a protein responsible for transporting oxygen to active muscles. The darker the meat, the richer the nutrients which also results in more pronounced flavour.

Ingredients in Air Fryer Chicken Legs

Every ingredient in this simple recipe serves a purpose and is easy to find in any grocery store. In fact, you probably have all of them in the pantry right now.

• Chicken Legs
• Olive Oil
• Garlic Powder
• Paprika
• Cumin
• Salt
• Black Pepper
• Barbecue Sauce

Feel free to use skin off or skin on chicken drumsticks, depending on your preference. I highly recommend keeping the skin on to protect the meat from drying out as it cooks. We love the crispy skin because it provides nooks and crannies for the seasoning to hide in.

The term ‘air fryer’ is a bit of a misnomer. The meat doesn’t ‘fry’ but instead cooks rapidly through convection. Air fryers are simply tiny convection ovens that use less oil than conventional deep fryers. They are not as ‘healthy’ as marketing agencies lead you to believe but they do use less energy and are great time savers.

Though the spice mixture contains garlic powder, paprika, cumin, salt and freshly ground black pepper, feel free to omit any of the above. You can spice things up by adding hot paprika, chili powder, or cayenne powder. Or add dried herbs such as rosemary, thyme, onion powder, or marjoram.

Finally, use your favourite barbecue sauce or whatever you have on hand. I find that lighter, fruit-based barbecue sauces work and it usually says on the bottle whether it is meant for chicken or not. Don’t forget to save some for dipping sauce!

How to Make Air Fryer Chicken Legs

The detailed instructions for this chicken leg recipe aren’t much longer than the abbreviated ones; mix seasonings, coat chicken, cook, add sauce, cook, eat. Did I mention this recipe is ready in less than 30 minutes?

Begin by preheating the air fryer to 400 degrees F. Next, mix garlic powder, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Brush the drumsticks with olive oil and coat them in the seasoning mixture, turning them to ensure every side is seasoned.

Arrange seasoned drumsticks in the air fryer in a single layer, leaving ample space in between each piece. If you have an air fryer rack, you can do all the drumsticks at once otherwise you may have to make two batches.

Cook chicken in the 400 degrees F air fryer for 10 minutes. After ten minutes, turn them over and cook for another 8 minutes. Next, transfer the drumsticks to a large mixing bowl. Pour in the barbecue sauce and turn to coat each drumstick with sauce.

Return the drumsticks to the air fryer basket for an 2-3 additional minutes cooking time, or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees F. To measure the temperature, use a meat thermometer in the thickest part of the meat, but not as far as the bone.

Use tongs to transfer the drumsticks to a serving platter and serve with extra barbecue sauce for dipping.

Store any leftovers in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Recipe Variations

Use the save recipe feature to keep this recipe as a primer for cooking chicken legs in an air fryer. It also works for chicken wings and the technique remains the same, regardless of the seasonings and sauce you use. For example, you could use my honey teriyaki sauce to marinate the chicken legs first, then bake them and sauce them with more sauce.

Or you could season the legs with Chinese 5 spice and sauce them with spicy Hoisin sauce or Char Siu sauce. Go Korean style with sweet and spicy Gochujang and Maple glaze. Whichever flavour combination you choose, follow the basic steps of this recipe; coat, cook, flip, cook, sauce, cook, eat for perfect chicken legs every time.

Hi! I’m Bernice Hill and am the sole recipe developer, photographer, and writer at Dish ‘n’ the Kitchen. It is my pleasure to share easy to follow recipes that are delicious, nutritious, and approachable for the whole family.

If you make this Air Fryer Chicken Legs recipe, I’d love to hear about it in the comments section or in a recipe rating. Be sure to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest for my latest recipes. Also, if you do make this recipe please, share your photos and tag me on Instagram. I hope you like this recipe!