Air Fryer Salsa Chicken Thighs Recipe

Air Fryer Salsa Chicken Thighs Recipe – delicious crispy, crunchy chicken thighs loaded with fresh salsa flavor!

These chicken thighs are tender and juicy, with a crispy, crunchy, crackling crust and are loaded with spicy salsa flavor!

We love serving this chicken with Instant Pot pinto beans, air fryer shishito peppers, Pineapple Jalapeño Salad, Green Chile Guacamole, Easy Keto Tortilla Chips, some 4 Citrus Margaritas and of course our spicy and tangy Tito’s Tacos Style salsa recipe!

This chicken thigh recipe is marinated in salsa flavor and then topped with more salsa after air frying in it – making it crispy, crunchy, and full of zesty southwest flavor!

We hope you love this recipe as much as we do.

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If you love crispy, crunchy chicken – and fresh, cool, spicy salsa – this recipe is going to be your next favorite.

We’re loading chicken thighs up with fresh salsa (we use our Knockoff Tito’s Tacos Salsa Recipe, but you can use any salsa you love) as both a marinade AND a topping – so you’ll get tons of spicy flavor in every bite!

This is one of our favorite delicious recipes for knockout chicken thighs because:

• salsa chicken fits perfectly in a keto eating plan, as it is naturally low carb.
• crispy, crunchy chicken skin is even more delicious with spicy, fresh salsa baked into it!
• chicken marinated in salsa is bursting with flavor and unbelievably tender – the spices and lime juice help to soften the meat and keep it from drying out.
• you can add this chicken to salads, wraps, tacos, and burritos – or serve with some cilantro lime rice and pinto beans!

We like to make this recipe using our Knockoff Tito’s Tacos Salsa Recipe – it is tangy, spicy, and the runny texture works perfectly as a marinade and topping.

If you’re looking for a bit of another flavor, you can use any salsa you love.

Some of our favorite salsa recipes:

• Easy Mango Avocado Salsa Recipe
• Avocado Tomatillo Salsa Recipe
• Spicy Pineapple Mango Salsa
• Watermelon Salsa

Pro tip: Whatever salsa you use, you will use some as a marinade and discard after marinating raw chicken in, and then you will use different salsa as a topping. Never use marinade salsa as a topping, as it will have touched raw chicken.

You can use boneless or bone-in chicken thighs, skinless or skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe – it will change your cooking time a bit (add 2-3 minutes for both bone-in and skin-on) but will not change your cooking process at all.

Whether you choose skin or not/bones or not is completely up to you – picking chicken thighs that have not been trimmed and de-boned are often more economical and do offer more fat and benefits for keto diets.

If you aren’t worried about keto diet macros, you can trim off skin and remove bone yourself to save money – or buy skinless and boneless. Again, it’s completely up to you – this recipe is designed to work with either, and come out perfect no matter what you pick!

We like to air fry chicken thighs at 400 degrees – which helps the chicken skin get crispy and crunchy without drying out the chicken meat.

If your air fryer doesn’t heat to 400 degrees, set it as high as it can go. We want it to render fat quickly and crisp skin so it can get crispy, crunchy, and crackly – and a high heat and the air fryer’s air circulation can help achieve that.

Chicken thighs are fully cooked at 165 degrees internal temperature when a thermometer i inserted into the thickest part of the chicken thigh.

Be sure to not hit the chicken bone when measuring your chicken’s temperature.

If you have an air fryer and you’re looking for more delicious easy air fryer recipes, please check out some of our recent favorites like air fryer bacon, crunchy air fried BBQ chicken drumsticks, lemon pepper air fried chickpeas, and more:

For our complete air fryer recipe index, click here.

This recipe is keto and low carb – but it is delicious alongside traditional Mexican food dinners and sides, too.

Chop this chicken up and serve it in tacos, burritos, and wraps; serve it in a rice bowl; use it in a Cheesy Chicken Taco Salad Stuffed Avocado; in 10 Minute Chicken Tortilla Soup; alongside Pineapple Jalapeño Salad, or with Easy Keto Tortilla Chips!

For the rest of our tacos, burritos, and fajitas recipes, click here.

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If you love this easy recipe, be sure to check out our other reader favorites, like our famous pork tenderloin!