Pro tip: Don't trust the default breading time on frozen chicken tenders

I tossed a bag of frozen breaded chicken tenders in my air fryer at 375 for the recommended 10 minutes and pulled them out to find raw chicken inside. After three more rounds of 5 minutes each, I finally got them done 20 minutes past the package time. What's the biggest time lie you've found from a frozen food label in your air fryer?

3 comments

3 Comments

riley_wood8427d ago

Wow wait, fish sticks too? That's wild, I thought fish would cook through way faster than chicken. So basically every frozen meat in an air fryer is just a total gamble on the time?

iris92727d ago

I read somewhere that a lot of frozen food companies set their cook times based on ovens that don't circulate air as well as air fryers do. But it seems like in this case it's the opposite problem. I saw a food blogger mention that the coating on frozen tenders can brown way faster than the inside actually cooks, so you get a nice crispy outside with raw chicken inside. That happened to me with a bag of fish sticks once too. I just assume now that any frozen meat needs at least 10 extra minutes in the air fryer no matter what the bag says.

joel_clark3727d ago

Yeah I read something similar too - the coating crisps up way faster than the inside thaws and cooks. @iris927 thats exactly what happened with my tenders too, the outside looked perfect but the inside was basically frozen still.