Today I’m going to teach you how to make an entire whole chicken in the air fryer. This Air Fryer Whole Chicken is only about 5 minutes of prep for a perfect hands off meal that your family will love.
Skip rinsing your chicken. This is an old school step that has been proven not necessary in recent years. It also prevents you from spreading bacteria around your kitchen. Start with the chicken breast side down. This is a simple trick that keeps the breast meat from drying out. Tuck those chicken wings. With the chicken wings tucked behind the chicken, it will help keep them from burning. Invest in an instant read thermometer. While the cooking time for this is pretty accurate, air fryers vary. Your best bet is to use a thermometer that can stay inside the chicken as it cooks. I love this Instant Read Thermometer. Take the chicken out at 160 degrees Fahrenheit. While chicken needs to be 165 degrees to be safe to eat, carry over cooking will finish it off. Read more about carry over cooking below. Let the chicken rest. Once the chicken is done cooking, it really needs to rest for 12 to 15 minutes. If your chicken is bigger than 4 pounds, it will need to rest even longer. Read about why we let meat rest below.
If you let chicken only hit 160 degrees Fahrenheit, it will reach 165 degrees before you eat it, but pulling it out early will prevent it from drying out. If you are nervous about this, invest in that thermometer linked above, and watch the temperature climb with the chicken out of the air fryer. It’s pretty magical. We are letting meat rest for two main reasons. The first is that if you immediately slice it – no matter what the meat is – a lot of the juices from cooking will run out of the meat. The second reason we let chicken rest is that slicing it too early will shred the meat. See these beautiful, clean slices below? Those come from letting the chicken rest.
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