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Whole Chicken
In The Air Fryer
Looking for a simple, yet absolutely delicious meal you can put together with your air fryer?
This is my go-to chicken for the air fryer. Of course there are many other recipes, but this one right here, this one has got it all.
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This chicken can be used as a weeknight dinner, a special birthday or anniversary dinner, or even a part of your holiday table. It is that good. Not only does it look beautifully roasted, but the flavor is also out of this world.
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We will be marinating this with a whole lot of goodness. From lots of fresh garlic to herbs, to melted butter that will make this buttery, soft, savory, salty with a crispy outer skin - full of flavor.
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​I cannot begin to tell you how amazing this chicken is, you will just have out try it for yourself to find out just how good it is. I have had many people rave about this meal and I hope you enjoy and your family can rave to you about how amazing it is!
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Over the years of making this I have tweaked a couple of things and I will be sharing those in the recipe, either way will work well and you also add some of your favorite seasonsings to the marinade.
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Lets go ahead and get started. Be warned this is like a restaurant meal at home, so you may be hooked!
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FRESH
FLAVOR
The fresher the better, am I right or am I right? Okay, all jokes aside, yes fresher is always better. I do understand however that sometimes we just want to use what we have available so if dried herbs, granulated garlic and onion or even jarred garlic and onions flakes are what you have on hand, let's use what we have. However if you do have fresh herbs, cloves of garlic, onions, these fresh ingredients they are what sets this apart!
Fresh herbs contain volatile oils and compounds that give them a clean, bright vibrant, intricate and complex flavors. When the herbs are dried, they lose those compounds giving them a simpler and flatter flavor. The flavor then becomes more concentrated; however, it is more one toned and lacks the depth of flavor you achieve from using fresh herbs. Now even though throughout the cooking process the strong flavors become more muted, they also become more married together creating a harmonious flavor profile.
BUTTER
For this recipe we are using an air-fryer for the method of cooking. The air fryer itself uses hot air that circulates with a fan that blasts the hot air around the chicken in a continuous cycle. While this air in circulating around the chicken along with the heating elements we want to ensure a crispy texture to our chicken that we get in a fried product. That is where our fat component comes in. Now oil is a better for the heat making it easier for the meat to be evenly browned and toasted.
While oil is a great option in my recipe I use butter, and I highly recommend giving this a try!
The butter adds immense amounts of rich luscious flavor to our chicken. We are not only coating the outside skin with the butter mixture but getting under the skin to ensure maximum flavor.
The butter also creates a golden crust while lending to a creamier, slightly sweet flavor that you can't really achieve in other fats. The depth of flavor compared to oils far surpasses.
Butter itself contains milk solids that when heating caramelizes which adds a nutty, toasty flavor that pairs perfectly with the chicken and all the herbs combined.
The process of this caramelization is called the Maillard reaction. This reaction is basically a heat-induced chemical reactions between amino acids and the lactose in the milk solids. As the reaction occurs, compounds are breakings down and rearranging, creating new and different flavor and aroma molecules. When our butter caramelized it recreates this nuttier, toffee like flavor which is out of this world.
This is also why it's important to use real butter as opposed to oil-based butter spreads, we use for toast or and type of bread.
Using butter has distinct and complex flavors while also adding moisture and tenderness to our chicken and the crust of the chicken.
If you have watched the YouTube recipe video of this, you will see I grated my garlic and onion and finely diced some of my herbs.
However, after making this many, many times I have come to an easier solution.
In my small blender, I add most of the ingredients and blend until smooth. This makes things a lot easier.
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1. In a heat proof bowl, heat and melt your butter.
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2. Add onions, garlic, rosemary, thyme, culantro (or cilantro), lemon juice to a blender.
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3. Add 2 tbsp of water to help blend if needed.
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4. Add all your spices together and blend.
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5. Mix together the blended mixture to you butter..
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6.Using your hands gently pull back the skin of the chicken.
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7. Using the tip of your knife cut slits into the chicken especially the breast areas.
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7. Take your marinade mixture and rub it all around the inside, under the skin and on top of the skin,
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8. Use your lemon peels and the remaining half of your onion and place on the inside of your chicken.
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9. Place your chicken breast side down on your air fryer tray.
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10. Place in your air fryer around 350 - 380 degrees. Start at 350 and increase towards the end if needed.
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11. Air Fry for 30 minutes breast side down.
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12. Carefully remove from the air fryer and flip.
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13. Place back into air fryer and cook for another 30 minutes until internal temperature is 165 degrees F in the thickest part of the chicken, being fully cooked.
