Our easy Air Fryer Chicken Legs Recipe comes out super tasty and juicy, thanks to a secret ingredient: Mayonnaise!
Slather these chicken legs with mayo and the perfect blend of seasonings, then toss them in the air fryer. Dinner will be ready in 25 minutes!
The Best Air Fryer Chicken Legs
These Mayo and Mustard Chicken Legs are on a regular rotation at our house. This simple recipe takes inexpensive cuts of chicken and makes them taste amazing, with crispy skin and juicy, flavorful meat.
You can use this recipe to air fry bone-in chicken legs, chicken thighs, or chicken quarters.
As a bonus, you don’t need to use any oil!
If you’re looking for a recipe to make chicken legs with a different flavor, check out our Air Fried Chicken Drumsticks with a dry spice rub that includes Italian seasoning and smoked paprika, or Air Fryer Chicken Drumsticks with a crispy breading. Or if you are in the mood to use your slow cooker, you should try slow cooker Indian butter chicken.
Ingredients You’d need
- Chicken Legs – This recipe works perfectly for bone-in chicken legs or drumsticks. You can also use it to make bone-in chicken thighs or chicken quarters (which are the leg and thigh together).
- Mustard – Regular yellow mustard adds tons of flavor to the marinade for these chicken legs.
- Mayonnaise – This creamy spread is good for more than just sandwiches! Use it to mix up a creamy seasoning for chicken legs that will help the skin get extra crispy.
- Garlic – Minced fresh garlic makes this chicken extra savory, and smells amazing while it’s cooking!
- Seasonings – We’re adding onion powder, smoked paprika, and salt.
How to Make These Chicken Legs
- Prep the Chicken. Rinse and pat dry the chicken legs, and remove any excess skin or fat that might be there.
- Mix the Marinade. Add mustard, mayonnaise, seasonings, and minced garlic to a small bowl.
- Stir until smooth.
- Coat the chicken legs with the mayo mixture, being sure to spread it on all sides of each piece.
- If you’d like to, cover the chicken and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
- Otherwise, or when the chicken has marinated, add it to the air fryer basket in a single layer.
- Air Fry at 400°F/200°C for 15 minutes.
- Flip the chicken over, and continue cooking for another 5-8 minutes, or until done.
Serving ideas
These garlic mustard chicken legs are delicious with any of your favorite air fryer side dishes!
Try them with an Air Fryer Baked Potato and Air Fryer Green Beans.
Or Air Fryer Frozen Curly Fries and a Greek Salad.
Recipe Tips
- Adjust the seasonings. Mustard and garlic are delicious with some dried herbs, but you can try your favorite seasonings in this mayo marinade too.
- If you have time, let the chicken marinate in the mayonnaise spread for an hour or two in the fridge before cooking it.
- If your chicken legs or pieces are larger, you may need to add additional cooking time.
- Chicken is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F/74C.
- Be sure not to overfill the air fryer basket. If needed, cook the chicken legs in batches.
FAQs
Creamy mayo creates a delicious marinade that is thick enough to slather all over the chicken. It adds moisture to the meat and browns up beautifully when the chicken is cooked.
I suggest marinating the chicken legs in the mayo and mustard mixture for an hour, and up to 12 hours. Longer than that and the texture of the meat will start to change.
The mayo treatment helps to get the skin on the chicken extra crispy, but if you want to, you can remove it before seasoning.
It’s important to dry the chicken well before adding seasonings. You should also be sure that your air fryer basket isn’t too crowded. Both of these things can contribute to chicken not getting crispy in the air fryer.
Sure! Most air fryer recipes can be converted to oven recipes, just like oven recipes can be converted to air fryer recipes! For these chicken legs, bake them, covered, in a 375°F oven for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake for 10-15 minutes more, or until fully cooked.
Air Fryer Chicken Legs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 8 chicken legs
- 2 tbsp mustard
- 4 tbsp mayonnaise
- 3-4 cloves garlic finely minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp onion powder
Instructions
- Add mustard, mayo, garlic and spices to a small bowl. Stir until smooth.
- Rinse and pat dry the chicken legs, and remove any excess skin or fat that might be there. Spread the chicken with the mayo mixture, being sure to coat all sides.
- Place the chicken legs in the air fryer basket in a single layer. Air Fry for 15 minutes at 400°F/200°C.
- Flip the chicken over, and continue air frying for 10 minutes.
- Test for doneness, and add 5-7 minutes of additional time if needed to fully cook the chicken.
Notes
- If your chicken legs or pieces are larger, you may need to add additional cooking time.
- Chicken is fully cooked when it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F/74C.
- Be sure not to overfill the air fryer basket. If needed, cook the chicken legs in batches.
Lovely recipe – can’t wait to try it!
I made this recipe and loved it. I added a bit more garlic as I really wanted to bring out the flavor. This chicken has just the right of spices and flavor to bring out the juicy chicken. I can’t wait to make it again – it will definitely be on the regular rotation!
Hi Helena! So glad to hear you liked our air fryer chicken legs! Thanks for the positive feedback! It’s always such and encouragement to hear from our readers 😊