We’re wrapping up our week of air fryer recipes with some tasty air fryer chicken legs with mustard and herbs. This air fried, mustard-crusted chicken makes the perfect high-protein entrée for a weeknight meal. I’m air frying both chicken legs and chicken drumsticks here. Whether your preference is for air fryer drumsticks or air fried chicken legs, I’ve got you covered!
Day 7 of our week of recipes for the air fryer is finally here. If you haven’t been following along, here’s what you missed:
- 1: Air Fryer Carrots with Herbs, Tahini, and Pomegranate Seeds
- 2: Air Fryer Jicama Fries with Cilantro-Lime Dipping Sauce
- 3: Air Fryer Burgers Stuffed with Cheese
- 4: Air Fryer Squash with Brown Butter and Sage
- 5: Air Fryer Tilapia with Garlic Chive Miso Butter
- 6: Air Fryer Tofu Bowls with Ginger-Lime Aioli
We’re finishing up the week with some savory mustard-crusted chicken legs! By chicken legs, I’m talking about the chicken thighs with drumsticks attached. If you’re like my husband and “chicken legs” is a synonym for the drumsticks, well, that’s going to work too.
I air fried chicken legs and I also air fried chicken drumsticks in one batch. They took the same amount of cooking time. Whichever cut of chicken you happen to have on hand, you can use this recipe.
I used Lusty Monk’s Original Sin Mustard for these air fryer chicken legs. This is a spicy, grainy mustard with great flavor.
I don’t recommend using sweetened mustard for this recipe, such as honey mustard. The sugars may burn while cooking. You’ve been warned; try sweetened mustards at your own risk!
And now for the disclaimer…
All recipes on this website may or may not be appropriate for you, depending on your medical needs and personal preferences. Consult with a registered dietitian or your physician if you need help determining the dietary pattern that may be best for you.
The nutrition information is an estimate provided as a courtesy. It will differ depending on the specific brands and ingredients that you use. Calorie information on food labels may be wildly inaccurate, so please don't sweat the numbers too much.
For more information on how the three recipe levels may help with a weight management goal, refer to this post. Let's get cooking!
Air Fryer Chicken Legs with Mustard and Herbs
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 lbs chicken legs and/or chicken drumsticks, bone-in, skin on (I used a combination that weighed a total of 2.16 lbs)
- 4 tablespoons grainy mustard (unsweetened, NOT honey mustard)
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon dried rosemary
- ¼ teaspoon dried sage
- salt and pepper, to taste
- cooking oil spray of choice
Instructions
- Mist your air fryer oven racks with the cooking spray. Put your chicken pieces in a single layer on the racks.
- Stir the mustard, avocado oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary, sage, salt, and pepper together. Spread this mustard mixture all over the top of the chicken pieces with a spoon. (Watch my rock-n-roll recipe video below if visuals would help you out!)
- Put the air fryer racks with the chicken into your air fryer oven. Bake at 400° for a total of 30 minutes, switching the position of the trays in the oven at 10 minutes, 20 minutes, and 25 minutes. This is long enough to get a nice mustard crust and for there to be no blood around the bones of the chicken.
- Serve with a whole grain and some non-starchy veggies (or just the non-starchy veggies if low-carb is your jam).
Video
Notes
This is a level 2 recipe (transition or weight maintenance). The nutrition information provided is a calorie and nutrient overestimate that does not subtract the weight of the chicken bones nor the cooking loss. (Fat does drip off of the chicken when you cook it in an air fryer.) If you are tracking calories and/or macros, keep in mind that you are overestimating portions if you use raw meat and poultry weights for calculations... That said, this how I've always done things personally to help with my weight management because it is easier. Professionally, we calculate the EP (edible portion) when conducting a nutrient analysis on a recipe. I don't think it's necessary to do that at home, as it makes tracking unnecessarily difficult. Nutrition information is for one serving of the recipe.
Nutrition
I served the air fried chicken legs with some roasted zucchini (it’s in season here!) as well as jalapeno-cheddar air fryer cornbread. (Yes, you can make cornbread in an air fryer, and it is delicious!) I’ll be sharing the recipe for air fryer cornbread soon, so stay tuned!
If you try this recipe, I’d love to know whether you made air fryer chicken legs or air fryer drumsticks! I think they are perfect cooked this way with the herby, zingy mustard crust. Enjoy!
Enthusiasm for the concept, Summer, which you look to have executed flawlessly. I once tried something somewhat similar, though oven-baked, not air-fried. Panko, minced oregano and dijon. Thus, your latest entry came with the intrigue already loaded.
Do you have any difficulty finding whole chicken legs? They once were common around here, but a couple years ago they ceased being available at large, and were attainable only at the butcher's counter, and even then, not always.
The butchers have been largely absent ever since the pandemic started, and thus, I haven't seen whole leg quarters since February, I think. Thanks for taking what has been for me a rare find lately, and making a treat of it. As usual!
The legs are harder to find, that’s why I ended up with a mix that included drumsticks! I’d say chicken legs were the most common part of the chicken we’d have while I was growing up. Where’d they go?
Summer
Thanks for the air fryer series. These chicken legs and drumsticks look so tender and I loved the flavours of herbs and the mustard that you have used.
Thank you so much, Hasin! I really liked how easy this recipe was to put together.