The benefits of roasting a whole chicken in an airfryer are crazy! First up, there is minimal clean up. Who doesn’t love that? It’s also quicker than an oven, the chicken comes out crazy juicy with crispy skin and your kitchen isn’t left scorching hot from heating up an oven for over an hour. When it comes to roasting a whole chicken in an air fryer technique is everything. Every air fryer is different so you will need to tweak and adjust your bird to your air fryer. However, there are a couple very important universal tips you need to know when air frying a chicken so let’s get the basics out of the way. 

First, don’t stuff your chicken. It wont have the same affect as it would if you were roasting it in an oven. It won’t get fully cooked and by the time it is the entire chicken will be burnt and dried out. Second, I didn’t tie my chicken legs together because it makes the chicken taller and I didn’t want it to be too close to the heating element. If you have a larger air fryer, you can tie its legs together for a prettier looking bird if you want. Alternatively if you have too big of a bird, you can press the breast down to break the breast bone and it should flatten out for a better fit. Ideally, you want to pick a bird that fits your air fryer so any bird around 3-3.5lbs should fit in a standard air fryer that holds 5 - 6 quarts. 

Typically, when roasting a bird in the oven you have the bird breast side up, however because most air fryers heating element are located at the top of the air fryer this makes the top the hottest spot. Placing the chicken breast side up will dry out the breast quickly and leave the rest of your bird raw which is definitely not what you want. In order to avoid this, we will be air frying the bird breast side down so the the thighs and back side, which have plenty of fat, can render down the rest of the bird and keep the breast nice and juicy. Plus, dark meat can handle hotter temperature for longer times so no need to worry!

By now, you should know that here at pro home cooks we are big fans of rendered fat. Whether it be from a thick ribeye steak or fat slabs of bacon we love saving it and using it to amplify other dishes. A cool bonus when air frying a whole chicken is the rendered fat that drips down into the basket. So here’s a cool tip to utilize that rendered chicken fat that isn’t included in the recipe below. Once the chicken is done cooking, pop out the wire basket it is in and let the chicken cool down. This will reveal the second basket which will be filled with delicious chicken shmaltz. Go ahead and throw in some chopped potatoes and/or veggies, give it a sprinkle of salt and toss to coat everything in that shamltz-y goodness. Air fry it for 10 - 15 minutes at 400 F while the chicken is cooling down and by the end of it you will have the perfect roasted chicken dinner ready to be devoured! 

Whole Roasted Air Fried Chicken Recipe:

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Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoon of dried rosemary
• 2 teaspoon of dried thyme 
• 2 teaspoon of garlic powder 
• 2 teaspoon of onion powder
• 2 tablespoon of salt 
• 2 tablespoon of black pepper 
• Oil spray 
• 4-4.5 pound chicken

Instructions:

1. Mix all the seasoning together in a bowl. Set aside. 
2. Remove any gizzards or giblets inside the cavity of the chicken. Pat dry your chicken to ensure that there is no moisture inside or around the chicken. 
3. Spread your seasoning mix all over and inside the chicken. 
4. If you have time, dry brine your chicken for 24 hours on a wire rack. However, if you don’t have time, 15 - 30 minutes will be sufficient.  
5. When you are ready to cook, spray your basket and chicken with oil and place your chicken breast side down. Set the temperature to 360F and air fry for 30 minutes. 
6. After the 30 minutes are up, check the internal temperature. If it reads 165F flip the bird so that it sits breast side up and cook it for another 20 minutes for a 4lb bird or another 30 minutes for a 5lb bird. 
7. Once the time is up or the chicken has reached an internal temperature of 165F, stop the air fryer and let it sit for 10 minutes before carving it. Enjoy!