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Instant Pot Bang Bang Chicken is crazy good, crispy, crunchy and insanely easy to make in the Instant Pot using the air fryer lid. You’ll love these addictive air fried Bang Bang Chicken with our very popular Bang Bang Sauce (BoneFish Grill Copycat).
Bang Bang Chicken
Air Fryer Bang Bang Chicken consists of extremely juicy boneless chicken coated in a flour, egg, panko and air fried to ultimate crispness. Serve Bang Bang Chicken with our 5 mins Bang Bang Sauce for an uber easy classic party appetizer.
Learn the trick to that irresistible golden coating of bread crumbs without deep frying! You just need few drops of oil and that’s not even the secret 😀
Ingredients
Find the Ingredients with actual measurements way below the post on the “Recipe Card“. The list below is just a reference.
- Chicken: Use boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs. I used breasts. You can dice them either 1/2 inch or 1 inch pieces.
- All Purpose Flour
- Eggs: 2 extra large eggs should be sufficient. Medium eggs = Use 3 and small eggs = Use 4.
- Bread Crumbs: Panko. Skillet roast the panko over medium high heat stirring frequently until uniformly golden. This way you’ll get a beautifully gorgeous golden crumb crust without even deep frying the chicken! You can store any excess crumbs in an air tight container.
- Seasoning: Garlic powder, salt & paprika.
- Oil Spray
- Bang Bang Sauce: Use our 5 mins homemade Bang Bang Sauce recipe for best results.
- Garnish: Chopped scallions.
Tips & Tricks
- Golden Bread Crumb Coating: It’s not impossible to achieve that beautiful golden color crispy crust without deep frying the bang bang chicken. Skillet roast (medium heat) or oven roast the panko bread crumbs until golden and than use them in the recipe. And that’s my secret 😀 You’ll have amazingly even colored golden crisp bang bang chicken.
- Oil Spray: Spray the Air fryer basket of the Instant Pot and also the crumb coated chicken and than begin air frying them.
- Arranging the chicken: Never over fill the air fryer basket or to say dump all the chicken pieces all at once. They will not cook evenly as hot air will not have enough room to circulate. Arrange the chicken in one even layer.No stacking one on top of the other.
- Flip the Chicken: Flip the chicken once half way through the cooking time. We have noticed that this results in an uniform cooking, gives the dish an uniform gorgeous color.
- Serve Right away: One the bang bang chicken is done serve them right away for ultimate crispness. Drizzle generous amount of Bang Bang sauce and enjoy these super addictive appetizer.
Method
Find the detailed step by step recipe along with measurements way below the post on the “Recipe Card“.
Step #1 Dry Roast the Panko Bread Crumbs
The original panko looks just like the above first pic. Our goal is to achieve that gorgeous uniformly golden crumb coated chicken without deep frying.
And you can achieve just that when you dry roast the panko first over medium high heat stirring frequently. I skillet roasted them and than crushed them a few times with hand to achieve a more finer crumb (the second pic above).
If you skip this step your Instant Pot Bang Bang Chicken will look pale, just imagine beige color. They will not have the golden crust!
Step #2 Coat Chicken in Flour
Begin by whisking the flour with seasoning. Than transfer the seasoned flour in a large zip lock bag and add the chicken cubes (I seasoned them with crushed black pepper).
Seal the zip lock bag and rub/shake the bag a few times with the help of your hands to nicely coat the chicken cubes evenly with flour.
Step #3 Prep the assembly line
Prep the assembly line as shown in the above picture. The Chicken is all ready to be crumb coated.
Step #4 Crumb Coat Chicken
Take one flour coated chicken cube at a time shaking off excess flour and dip it in the whisked eggs. Than lift it up and place it on the panko bed, roll the egg coated chicken gently to coat evenly with bread crumbs. Gently press while doing so.
Repeat the process until you are done with all the chicken cubes.
Step #5 Air Fry Bang Bang Chicken
Place the air fryer basket inside the steel pot of the Instant Pot.
Spray the air fryer basket with any neutral oil. Arrange the crumb coated chicken in one single layer, spray them with oil. DO NOT over fill the basket or stack the chicken cubes in a pile.
Secure the Instant Pot air fryer lid. Press the Air Fry Button and set the temp to 400 F and time to 10 mins. Than, press the start button. The Instant Pot will take about 3-5 mins to pre-heat and than the air frying process will begin.
After 5 mins press the CANCEL button and flip the chicken cubes, spray with oil. And air-fry at the same settings for rest of the 5 mins.
Once done, open the lid and place it on the Instant Pot trivet. It’s SUPER HOT so so not place it anywhere else.
Keep the air fried bang bang chicken on a clean dry plate.
Step #6 Drizzle Bang Bang Sauce & Serve
Drizzle a generous amount of bang bang sauce on top of the bang bang chicken and serve hot immediately for maximum crunch. You may garnish with chopped scallions.
Storing Tips
Fridge: You can store the Bang Bang Chicken (just the air fried nuggets) without the sauce for upto 5 days in the fridge. But, the crispness will be gone when you re-heat them to serve later.
Freezer: You can freeze only the nuggets (Without the sauce) for upto 2 months. Thaw them, re-heat and serve. The nuggets will no more be that crunchy.
Sauces you’ll love
Instant Pot Bang Bang Chicken
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Ingredients
- 1.17 pounds boneless skinless chicken diced into 1 inch cubes (**530 g , Use chicken thighs or breasts)
- 1 cup all purpose flour.
- 2 cups Panko Bread crumbs. (**skillet roasted until golden)
- 2 extra large eggs (**whisked well)
- Oil Spray (**like avocado or canola)
Seasonings for All-Purpose Flour
- 1/2 tbsp garlic powder
- 1 tbsp Paprika
- Salt (to taste)
For Flash Marinating Chicken
- 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
- Salt (to taste)
Garnish
- Bang Bang Sauce
- chopped scallions
Equipment Used
Instructions
Dry Roast the Panko Bread Crumbs
- Set a skillet over medium high heat and dry roast the panko bread crumbs stirring frequently until uniformly golden. Bread crumbs burn quickly, do not leave unattended. Set them aside.
Crumb Coat the Chicken
- Add the seasonings (mentioned above in the “Seasonings” section) into the all purpose flour and whisk to mix well.
- Dice the chicken into 1 inch cubes and rub them with 1 teaspoon crushed black pepper.
- Transfer the seasoned flour into a large ziplock bag and add the chicken cubes. Seal the bag and coat the chicken with flour by gently rubbing and shaking the bag with the help of your hands.
- Prepare an assembly line – arrange the flour coated chicken, whisked eggs in a bowl and the skillet roasted panko in a dry flat plate in a symmetrical order.
- Now, take one flour coated chicken piece from the zip lock bag and shake off any excess flour. Quickly dip it in the whisked egg coat on all sides and lay it on the bed of bread crumbs. Gently roll the chicken to uniformly crumb coat it. Set it aside on a clean dry plate. Repeat the process until you are done with all the pieces.
Air Fry the Bang Bang Chicken using the air fryer lid
- Place the air fryer Instant Pot Basket inside the steel pot of the Instant Pot. Spray the air fryer basket with oil.
- Now arrange the crumb coated chicken inside the air fryer basket in one single layer. Do not over crowd or stack the chicken one on top of the other.
- Spray the chicken with oil.
- Seal the air fryer lid and press the AIR FRY Button. Set the temperate 400 F and the time 10 minutes. Finally, press the START button.
- After 5 mins of cooking time, open the air fryer lid and flip the chicken pieces. Spray them with oil and again air fry them for the rest of the 5 mins using the same settings you used before.
- When the cooking cycle is over carefully open the lid of the air fryer and bring out the crispy air fried bang bang chicken on to a moisture free plate.
- Drizzle with generous amount of Bang Bang Sauce and sprinkle some chopped scallions and serve hot right away. Enjoy!
Notes
- Measuring Units Used: 1 Cup = 240 ml & 1 teaspoon = 5 ml.
- Eggs: Extra large = 2, Medium = 3 & Small = 4. I used Extra large eggs.
- Roasting/toasting the Panko: Heat = Medium High Heat, technique = stirring frequently (very important otherwise the bread crumbs will burn and you have to start all over again), Color of the Crumbs = golden.
- For finer crumbs: Crush the toasted panko with the help of your hands. This step is optional.
Do let us know if you created this recipe