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Question about air frying a whole chicken after my sister bet me 20 bucks it would come out dry
My sister came over last Sunday and saw me eyeballing a 4 pound whole chicken I picked up from the market on 5th Street. She laughed and told me there was zero chance an air fryer could cook a whole bird without turning it into shoe leather, so we shook on 20 bucks. I rubbed it down with salt, pepper, and a little smoked paprika, shoved it in breast side down at 350 for about 50 minutes, then flipped it at the end to crisp the skin. The tricky part was the legs kept hitting the top element, so I had to truss the thing tighter than I ever do in the regular oven. When I pulled it out and let it rest for 10 minutes, the thigh meat hit 175 on my cheap thermometer and juice actually ran out when I cut in. My sister just stared at the plate for a second, then handed me a 20 and asked if she could take the leftovers home. Now I want to know if anyone has tried this with a bigger bird, like 5 or 6 pounds, and whether spatchcocking first makes it any easier to fit.
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lindab492d ago
Skip the spatchcock. It sounds smart but you lose the skin on the bottom and it dries out faster flat side down. Plus a flat bird takes up more rack space than a trussed one sitting upright in the basket. Trussing is annoying for 30 seconds but a 6 pound bird will fit if you tuck the wings back and tie the legs tight. The real trick is dropping the temp to 325 and adding 15 minutes, not changing the shape. Everyone acts like spatchcock fixes everything but it just makes a different set of problems.
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milam422d ago
Man that trussing struggle is so real, I've had wings jam up against the top element before and it's a nightmare to fix once things get going. Honestly for a 5-6 pound bird I'd spatchcock it, takes the height problem out of the equation and it cooks way more even. Good on you for winning that bet, siblings never believe us until the juice runs out.
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