TheWildWaynes
a family of four cooking & creating our way through tiny living
Crispy Butter Cheddar Chicken Cutlets in the Air Fryer
What is Butter Cheddar Chicken?
Use your air fryer to turn the battered chicken into crispy butter cheddar chicken cutlets. Two medium sized chicken breasts are cut into four cutlets. Each cutlet is dredged in flour and then washed with salt and peppered eggs. The egg washed chicken cutlets are then pressed into a pile of fine shredded cheddar cheese and RITZ cracker crumbs.
What do you need to make butter cheddar chicken?
We live full time in our 30 foot 5th wheel trailer and never use our stove or oven. So, all you need is an air fryer. Super easy and super delicious
How to make your own crispy butter cheddar chicken
To start out, we need to crush one sleeve of RITZ crackers in a gallon size zip lock bag. Add two cups of shredded cheddar cheese and shake it up to mix the ingredients.
Crack two eggs onto a plate. Lightly salt and pepper the eggs and beat the eggs with a fork to make the egg wash. Pour one cup of flour onto its own plate and pour the cheddar cheese and RITZ cracker crumps onto a third plate.
Slice the chicken breasts into cutlets by slicing each chicken breast horizontally with a sharp knife to make two equal sized cutlets. Push each cutlet into the flour to cover completely and shake extra flour off back onto the plate. Then wash in the egg using your fingers to push the egg over areas of the chicken that does not have egg stuck to it.
The Butter Cheddar Crust
We now have a chicken cutlet dredged in flour and washed in egg. Place the cutlet on top of the pile of shredded cheddar and crushed RITZ crackers. Use a dry hand to push cheddar and RITZ over the top of the cutlet. With a good amount of force, push down on the covered cutlet for a few seconds so there is a nice crust that sticks to the side of the chicken cutlet. Flip and and repeat making sure the cutlet is well covered.
Place each battered butter cheddar chicken cutlet onto a plate. Use wax paper to keep them separated if you are stacking the battered cutlets. Use an olive oil spray bottle, the EVO oil sprayer is a very good one, and spray the tops with oil so the cracker crumbs are wet.
The Air Fryer
Preheat the air fryer to 400°F for 5 minutes. Spray the hot air fryer basket with olive oil and place cutlets into the basket with out touching each other. We do two batches.
Air fry for fifteen minutes flipping after eight minutes. Remember that each air fryer is a little different and you should keep an eye on the crust the last few minutes. You do not want to burn your butter cheddar chicken.
Your Crispy Butter Cheddar Chicken is Done
Put the done butter cheddar chicken on a plate and cover with aluminum foil while you cook the last batch. You can pile up steamed vegetables, green beans, pinto beans, rice, noodles, French fries, mashed potatoes, or eat cut into strips dipped in ranch, ketchup, or hot sauce. Oh! Put it between a toasted bun or French roll with onion, lettuce, tomato, dill pickles and spicy mayo or chipotle mayo.
More Air Fryer Recipes from TheWildWaynes
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Air Fryer Recipe Videos from TheWildWaynes
Tools we use in our 32 foot 5th wheel trailer kitchen to make cooking easy and fun
Cookie Spatula that works the Best in the Air Fryer
Wooden Spatula I use for Scraping and Stirring
End Grain Wood Cutting Board on Etsy
Boo’s Mystery Oil for the Wood Cutting Board
Boo’s Board Cream for Wood Cutting Boards
Hard Boiled Egg Holder for the Instant Pot
Egg Bite Mold for the Instant Pot
Steamer Basket for the Instant Pot
Basket Replacement for Cosori 5.7 quart Air Fryer
Crispy Butter Cheddar Chicken in the Air Fryer
Equipment
- Air Fryer
Ingredients
- 2 Chicken Breasts cut into cutlets (horizontally)
- 1 Tbsp Olive Oil in an oil sprayer
Dredge
- 1 sleeve Ritz Crackers crushed
- 2 cups Cheddar Cheese fine shredded (I like medium cheddar)
- 1 cup Flour
Egg Wash
- 2 Eggs beaten on a plate with salt and pepper
- 2 shakes Salt for the egg wash
- 2 grinds Black Pepper for the egg wash
Instructions
Preparation
- Pour 1 sleeve of RITZ crackers into a 1 gallon zip lock bag, push the air out, and zip the bag closed
- Crush the crackers using a rolling pin or can of beans
- Fine shred ~2 cups worth of medium cheddar cheese
- Add the shredded cheddar cheese to the zip lock bag with the ritz crackers
- Zip the bag closed and shake the ingredients together well
- Add one cup of flour to a plate
- Add two eggs to another plate
- Lightly salt and pepper the eggs and then beat the eggs with a fork
- Add the cheddar cheese and ritz cracker mix to a third plate
Crust the Chicken
- Slice 2 chicken breasts into cutlets, slicing horizontally, making 4 thin chicken breast cutlets
- Dredge a chicken cutlet in flour making sure all of the surface of the chicken is covered in flour
- Shake off any extra flour
- *Use one hand for dry ingredients and the other for wet ingredients, keeps your fingertips build up free
- Dip the chicken into the egg flipping and using your fingers to make sure the chicken is completely covered in egg
- Let the extra egg run off onto the egg wash plate
- Move the egg washed chicken cutlet to the cheddar ritz cracker mixture
- With your dry hand, cover the top side of the cutlet with some of the cheese and cracker crumbs
- Use the palm of your hand to press the crumbs into the chicken surface making a thick coating of cheddar cheese and cracker crumbs
- Place coated chicken cutlets on a clean plate
- Repeat for the rest of the chicken cutlets and spray the tops with olive oil to get the cracker crumbs wet so they do not burn in the air fryer
- I put a piece of wax paper between layers of breaded chicken cutlets so they do not sit on one another
Air Fry
- Preheat the air fryer to 400°F for 5 minutes
- Spray olive oil on the inside of the hot air fryer basket
- Place how ever many chicken cutlets fit in your air fryer basket oiled side down, I could fit 2
- Spray the tops of the breaded chicken cutlets with oil to get the crumbs wet
- Air fry at 380°F for a total of 15 minutes
- After 8 minutes of air frying, flip the chicken cutlets over, and spray lightly with olive oil
- Finish air frying for the remainder of the 15 minutes
- Use a thin cookie spatula to move the chicken to a plate, tent with aluminum foil and repeat for the last two breaded chicken cutlets
- Let the final chicken rest for 5 minutes and serve with steamed or roasted vegetables, salad, rice, pasta, French fries, on a toasted bun with lettuce, tomato, and onion, or by itself.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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