Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Bites

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These air fryer buffalo chicken bites are the perfect game-day snack, appetizer, or quick protein for dinner. They use a handful of simple ingredients and take less than 30 minutes to make. Plus, since this recipe doesn’t use flour breading, these buffalo chicken breast bites are low-carb and gluten-free.

Air Fryer Buffalo Chicken Bites served on a large plate, accompanied by dips and celery sticks on the side

Why Make Spicy Chicken Bites

Easy recipe with simple ingredients: This recipe is the real deal if you’re looking for something easy for dinner or game day during football season. It uses 9 simple ingredients, most of which are spices that you have in your pantry.
Low-carb and gluten-free: My buffalo chicken bites recipe omits flour breading making it a low-carb and gluten-free option for boneless buffalo wings.
Perfect appetizer, snack, or main dish: These tasty bites are versatile, so you can have them as an appetizer, game day snack, or main dish for lunch and dinner.

Ingredients Needed

These boneless chicken bites don’t require much. Since they don’t have breading like bread crumbs, you simply toss the meat in spices and cook. Here’s what you’ll need to gather:

Chicken breasts: I’m using boneless skinless chicken breasts that I cut into cubes or bite-size pieces
Natural Ancient Sea Salt: Optional
Black pepper
Smoked paprika
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Avocado oil or olive oil

Homemade Buffalo Sauce

Frank’s Red Hot Sauce: You can also use their buffalo wing sauce if that is all that you can find.
Butter: Unsalted

ingredients to make buffalo chicken bites (air fryer): Chicken breasts cut into bite-sized pieces, optional natural ancient sea salt, black pepper, smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, a choice of avocado or olive oil, homemade buffalo sauce, Frank's Red Hot Sauce (or its buffalo wing variant), and unsalted butter are displayed in separate bowls.

Be sure to check out the recipe card at the end of the post to get the full recipe, including the exact ingredient amounts and full step-by-step instructions.

How To Make Buffalo Chicken Bites In The Air Fryer

Mix the spices in a small bowl. Add the chicken pieces to a large mixing bowl with the spices and oil. Toss to coat the chicken evenly.
Place the chicken breast pieces in a single layer in the air fryer basket. Air fry at 400 degrees for 6-8 minutes.
Mix the buffalo sauce ingredients in a separate bowl.
Toss the cooked chicken pieces in the sauce, allow them to rest in the buffalo sauce for 5 minutes, and serve (Leftover sauce can be served with the bites in a dipping cup).

4 easy steps to cook Buffalo Chicken Bites in the air fryer

Recipe Tips & FAQs

For spicy food lovers, add a dash of cayenne pepper or ghost pepper flakes to the sauce for additional flavor and heat.
Mix the spices in a small bowl first; this helps the spices apply evenly.
Preheat the air fryer to 400 degrees for 5 minutes for best results (the chicken bites get a good sear).
To make the clean-up easier, you can line the bottom of your air fryer with parchment paper.

Dipping Sauce Options

Here are some options for dipping these little bites:

blue cheese dressing
leftover buffalo sauce
ranch dressing

Storage & Leftovers

Store leftover buffalo chicken bites in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days or freeze them.

FAQs

What are buffalo bites made of?

Buffalo bites are made of boneless chicken breast cut into cubes or bite-sized pieces and tossed in buffalo sauce and various seasonings like garlic powder, paprika, and onion powder. You can also bread your chicken bites in a flour mixture (flour, cornstarch, and spices) and deep fry them in oil until they are golden brown for extra crispiness if you don’t mind the carbs.

What goes well with buffalo chicken?

Boneless buffalo chicken bites go well with various side dishes. You can have them with carrot sticks, celery sticks, green beans, and others. Many of these sides for fried chicken work well.

What’s the difference between chicken and buffalo?

The main difference between traditional chicken and buffalo chicken is the sauce. Buffalo chicken is served with the popular spicy and super-tasty buffalo sauce.

Easy Side Dish Recipes

Below are side dish ideas for buffalo chicken nuggets besides the usual blue cheese dressing, carrot sticks, and celery sticks:

For meal prep, you can switch up the sides by day.

More Buffalo Chicken Recipes

Buffalo chicken is irresistibly tasty, so you’ll definitely want to try more recipes besides the air fryer buffalo chicken bites. See the list below: