My air fryer sweet and sour chicken bowls feature super crispy chicken, vibrant veggies, and a homemade sweet and sour sauce! I love making this recipe on busy weeknights when I want something that tastes like takeout 🥰🥰. The sweet and sour sauce is so so yummy and only requires a few ingredients. Bonus, my kiddos love this recipe, too!
- Whole meal in one bowl: Sauté peppers and onions while your chicken is air frying, and serve it all over a bed of rice.
- Super crispy chicken: I’ve been creating air fryer recipes for years, and this one is one of my favorites! I love every opportunity to make extra crispy chicken (without a deep fryer!), and this one seriously slays. Toss the chicken in my amazing sweet and sour sauce, and ENJOY.
- Tastes like takeout: I loveeee sweet and sour chicken, but don’t always love the ingredient list when I order it for takeout. My sweet and sour sauce for this recipe is naturally sweetened with honey and orange marmalade, and spiced up just a bit with chili garlic sauce (sriracha also works!).
Featured Ingredients
- Chicken: I like using boneless skinless chicken breasts for this recipe, but boneless skinless thighs will also work.
- Panko bread crumbs: Panko helps gives the breading for the chicken its extra CRUNCH when air fryed.
- Orange marmalade: My secret sauce ingredient! It gives this sweet and sour chicken amazing sweet flavor and thickens the sauce a bit, too.
- Cornstarch slurry: The slurry is crucial to thickening up the sauce! Don’t want to use cornstarch? Just omit it, but know your sauce will be a bit thinner.
- Chili garlic sauce: Contrast the sweet marmalade and honey with a little chili garlic sauce (sriracha will also work!). I like to go a little lighter on the spice when I’m serving this to my kiddos, and then add a little extra to mine before serving 😋.
- Rice vinegar: Adds the perfect of “sour” flavor to balance out the sweetness in the sauce.
Find the list of full ingredients in the recipe card below.
How to Make Air Fryer Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Prepare the sauce: Add all the ingredients for the sauce into a small saucepan and simmer. Make the cornstarch slurry in a separate bowl and then add it to the simmering sauce to thicken it up
- Sauté the veggies: Add your chopped veggies to a skillet with sesame oil, and cook for 5-7 minutes.
- Prepare the chicken: Dredge the chicken through flour, then egg wash, and then panko. This order of operations will help the breading stick extra well to the chicken (which yields a super crispy chicken after its air fried!).
- Air fry the chicken: Make sure the chicken chunks aren’t touching and air fry to crispy perfection.
- Toss the chicken in the sweet and sour sauce.
- Assemble into bowls, and ENJOY!
Find the full recipe instructions in the recipe card below.
Serving Suggestions
My instant pot white rice recipe is a go-to! It makes perfect rice every single time. Simply make a batch of rice in the instant pot while you’re preparing the rest of these bowls. Easy peasy.
Storage Instructions
Store this air fryer sweet and sour chicken in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. I like to warm my chicken and veggies back up in the air fryer because it crisps up leftovers so well 🙌🏻. The microwave also works!
More Easy Air-Fryer Recipes
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Begin by preparing the sweet and sour sauce. Add the honey, ketchup, vinegar, soy sauce, orange marmalade, and chili garlic sauce to a saucepan. Whisk to combine. Bring the mixture to a gentle boil over medium/high heat. Turn the heat to low and simmer.
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In a separate bowl make the cornstarch slurry, whisk together the cornstarch and warm water. When the cornstarch dissolves, pour the mixture into the saucepan. Whisk the slurry into the sweet and sour sauce. It should begin to thicken pretty quickly. Remove from heat and set aside.
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Prepare the veggies by heating the sesame oil in a large skillet over medium/high heat. Add the onion and peppers to the oil and season with salt. Saute for 5-7 minutes or until they reach the desired texture. Cover and remove from heat.
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Next, prepare the chicken. In three separate bowls, add the flour to one, whisked eggs to the second, and panko bread crumbs and salt to the third bowl.
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Dredge a piece of chicken through the flour, then egg, and then the panko. Be sure it is fully coated. Set aside and repeat until all the chicken has been coated.
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Transfer the chicken to the air fryer and spray with avocado oil. Be sure the chicken pieces are not overcrowded. Cook at 400º for 5-8 minutes (depends on what type of air fryer you’re using) or until the chicken is golden brown and crispy. You may need to cook the chicken in batches. We are looking for an internal temperature of 165ºF.
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Transfer the cooked chicken to a large bowl and toss with the sauce until coated. Serve the chicken and peppers over rice or on their own.
- We used orange marmalade, but you can replace that with any type of jam. Note that if you use a different fruit, it will change the flavor of the sauce.
- Option to replace the orange marmalade with orange juice. Note that you may need to add a bit more cornstarch to thicken the sauce.
Calories: 449 kcal, Carbohydrates: 63 g, Protein: 32 g, Fat: 8 g, Fiber: 2 g, Sugar: 35 g
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Photography: photos taken in this post are by Erin from The Wooden Skillet.
