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These Mexican-inspired Air Fryer Stuffed Chicken Roll-Ups take ordinary chicken breasts and transform them into crispy rolls of tender chicken stuffed with cream cheese, shredded Mexican blend cheese, green chilies, and chunky kernels of corn!

The egg, flour, and breadcrumb coating ensures that these stuffed chicken breast rolls come out golden with a crispy crunch.

Frying these in an air fryer will also eradicate any feelings of guilt that you'd ordinarily be left to digest from traditional deep-frying or pan-frying.

Serve these air fryer stuffed chicken rolls with a light side salad, roasted veggies, crispy potato wedges, or potato mash. They're great for a wholesome family meal or when hosting guests.

Table of Contents

Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Why This Recipe Works
What You’ll Need To Make Stuffed Chicken Rolls
Equipment Needed
Ingredient Notes
How To Make Stuffed Chicken Rolls In An Air Fryer
Easy Instructions With Photos
Pro Recipe Tips
Variations
What To Serve With Stuffed Chicken Rolls
FAQs
More Recipes You’ll Love
Recipe
Reviews

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Healthy: Ditch the deep frying method and enjoy these air fryer stuffed chicken rolls for a much healthier meal option while still enjoying the same flavor profile and crispy texture as oil-fried chicken rolls.
Budget-friendly Basic Ingredients: This recipe calls for inexpensive basic ingredients – great for a weekday family meal or when you're trying to be financially conservative without compromising on the best flavors and textures.
A favorite For Everyone: Fried stuffed chicken rolls are loved by kids and adults alike, even the pickiest eaters! It's unlikely that you'll have any leftovers.
Interesting texture combinations: These air fryer stuffed chicken rolls provide delicious contrasting textures – the soft and tender chicken breast meat, melted cheese and cream cheese, and crunchy panko breadcrumb coating fried to crispy perfection is absolutely mouth-watering!
Quick and Easy: You can have crispy air fryer stuffed chicken rolls ready to serve your family or guests within 35-40 minutes from start to finish!

Why This Recipe Works

Easy Instructions. You can easily follow along with my simple step-by-step recipe instructions with photos to ensure that you end up making the best-tasting air fryer stuffed chicken rolls ever!
Recipe tips and questions have been added for your convenience, particularly helpful if you've never made stuffed chicken rolls before.
Variations. I've included recipe variations and suggestions on how you can adapt these air fryer stuffed chicken rolls as a helpful guide and inspiration for your own cooking efforts!
Serving suggestions are listed below should you want to pair these air fryer stuffed chicken rolls with delicious side dishes that will easily bulk up the meal – great if you are serving a larger crowd.
Tried and True. I've been making air fryer stuffed chicken breasts with various types of fillings for the family for quite some time, which means that you can trust that I'm guiding you from tried and true techniques and processes.

What You’ll Need To Make Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Equipment Needed

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Air Fryer
Chef’s Knife

Ingredient Notes

Below, I discuss the ingredients and possible substitutions if you don't have a specific ingredient. However, if you are looking for the specific measurements of each ingredient, scroll down to the bottom of this article, just above the comments, for the printable recipe card, which includes all the ingredients and the specific amounts of each one.

Chicken Breasts. You can get chicken breasts already flattened, or you can cut them down the side almost completely through, but not all the way through, and then spread them open with a piece of parchment paper over and pound them about a ¼ inch thick.
Mozzarella cheese. I love the mild flavor profile of this choice of cheese for these chicken rolls but you could also use Colby Jack or any other cheese that you love the most.
Corn. Whole kernel corn is best. You can use frozen, canned, or fresh for this recipe. Make sure to drain canned corn and to thaw frozen corn before use.
Cream cheese. Always use cream cheese in a block for cooking, not the kind packaged in a tub and allow the cheese to soften at room temperature before mixing with other ingredients as this allows for easier incorporation.
Garlic. You can use a garlic clove to make your own minced garlic or purchase pre-minced garlic.
Green chilies. I make it easy and use canned, chopped chilies.
Mexican cheese blend. While I think this is a great cheese blend for these stuffed chicken rolls, you can use another blend. Cheese shredded from a block melts better than store-bought pre-shredded cheese.
Cilantro. Use freshly chopped as a garnish..
Salt and Pepper. Use as much or as little as you like.
Flour. I've used all purpose flour but you can use a gluten-free flour instead if need be.
Eggs. Use large eggs.
Breadcrumbs. You can use either plain or seasoned breadcrumbs. I like to se panic breadcrumbs for extra crunch.

How To Make Stuffed Chicken Rolls In An Air Fryer

Easy Instructions With Photos

In a large mixing bowl, add the cream cheese, corn, garlic, green chilis, and Mexican cheese.
Beat with a hand mixer until well combined.
Lay out a piece of flattened chicken and lay out 2-4 mozzarella cheese slices over the chicken.
Spread a couple of spoonfuls of the cream cheese mixture over the sliced cheese.
Starting on one end, roll up the chicken as tight as you can without squishing out the filling. Use toothpicks to close the chicken.
In a large shallow dish, combine the salt, pepper and flour. In a separate dish, add the beaten eggs. In a third dish, add the breadcrumbs. Roll one chicken roll in the flour mixture, then roll in the eggs, and lastly in the bread crumbs.

How To Air Fry Stuffed Chicken Rollups

Place the breaded rolls in the air fryer, making sure the rolls are not packed too closely together. You may need to do a second batch.
Spray the rolls with nonstick cooking spray, then place the air fryer basket back into the air fryer and set at 375° for 10 minutes.
Flip the rolls over and spray with the nonstick cooking spray. Return to the air fryer and cook for another 15 – 20 minutes.
Use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. Temperature should reach 165° when chicken is probed in the middle of the roll.
Remove the chicken from the air fryer and remove the toothpicks.
Serve immediately with your favorite side dish.

Pro Recipe Tips

Chicken breast already made into filets can often be purchased at the meat section of your local store. Otherwise, cut the breast open horizontally, making sure not to cut completely through. Place a piece of parchment paper over each chicken breast and pound to achieve a ¼ inch thickness.
If you don't have an air fryer you can still fry these in oil in a pan or bake them at 350F in the oven for 25 minutes.
Organizing your work station with the three bowls of ingredients (eggs, flour mixture, and bread crumbs) will help you to work quickly and efficiently, limiting mess and fuss.
You can coat the air fryer basket with oil but then I suggest only a light spray of cooking oil otherwise your chicken rolls will absorb that excess oil and risk becoming soggy instead of crunchy and crispy. The same goes for when you spray the chicken rolls themselves just prior to cooking and in between the cooking time.
Spread the stuffed chicken rolls out on the air fryer basket with adequate space between them so that they can crisp evenly without overcrowding. You may need to cook in batches.
When serving, make sure that the toothpicks used to hold the rolls together have been removed, especially when serving to children.

Variations

For a mediterranean-inspired dish, add cooked vegetables such as mushrooms, bell peppers, and aubergine to the cream cheese filling with a different cheese blend.
For an Italian-inspired version, consider adding chopped bacon pieces to the cream cheese filling with shredded parmesan cheese.
Increase the heat of the dish by adding in some cayenne pepper or even diced jalapeno peppers into the cream cheese filling.
Make these stuffed chicken rolls gluten free by using gluten free flour and gluten free bread crumbs.
If you can't consume eggs, use yogurt or butter instead to help the breadcrumb coating stick to the chicken.

What To Serve With Stuffed Chicken Rolls

Looking to add to these air fryer stuffed chicken rolls? Here are some great Mexican-inspired add-ons to consider:

Rice. Whether it's cilantro rice, Mexican rice or Cauliflower Rice (as a low-carb alternative. This is shown in some of the photos with the chicken);
Salad. This can either be a light and leafy salad, like our Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad, or something like Mexican street Corn Salad or a corn pasta salad;
Slaw. Serve with your favorite slaw like Mexican Cabbage Slaw, or Cilantro Lime Slaw.
Fries – either traditional potatoes fries or sweet potato fries like Chipotle Sweet Potatoes With Queso Fresco;
Corn on the cob; or Mexican cornbread.

FAQs

What Are Stuffed Chicken Rolls?

Stuffed chicken rolls are exactly what they sound like.

Start with flattened chicken for an even surface that a delicious cream cheese stuffing mixture can be spread on, then rolled and securely closed with the help of some toothpicks just before coating them in eggs and breadcrumbs to fry to crispy deliciousness in the air fryer!

Are These Chicken Rolls Gluten Free?

No, they aren't. I've used all-purpose flour and standard breadcrumbs in this recipe. You can change this by using gluten-free flour and gluten-free breadcrumbs instead.

How Should I Store Stuffed Chicken Rolls?

These stuffed chicken rolls should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a maximum of 5 days. You can then reheat them in the oven or in the air fryer to try to regain some of that crispy exterior again.

How Do I Know If My Chicken Is Fully Cooked?

The last thing you want is to be serving raw chicken rolls to your guests or the family! If you're unsure whether your chicken is cooked through, take an instant-read thermometer and test the chicken by inserting the thermometer in its thickest section.

The internal temperature of the chicken rolls should be at least 165℉ for them to be safe to eat.

Can I Make This Recipe Ahead Of Time?

You could easily prepare and assemble the stuffed chicken rolls a day or two in advance (without the egg and breadcrumb coating) to store in the refrigerator.

Just prior to cooking, prepare the beaten eggs and breadcrumb assembly line, coat the chicken rolls, and cook them in the air fryer as directed by the recipe instructions.

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