Air Fryer Large Whole Chicken (2024)

Follow my simple guide to make an Air Fryer Large Whole Chicken and you’ll be amazed at how easy it is, how quickly a whole chicken can cook and just how crispy chicken skin can get! I’ve included my best tips for making sure the chicken fits in the basket, cooks evenly and is perfectly succulent. Plus instructions for how to make a simple gravy with the chicken juices.

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I don’t know why I didn’t get around to properly testing and sharing this recipe sooner. I’m sure that after chips, whole chickens seem to be one of the first things that people try in their air fryers. And for good reason, chickens are glorious air fried.

My regular oven cooked roast chicken recipe has been a hit from day one. I roast my chickens at a higher temperature and much quicker than most people which gives you juicy meat and a superbly crispy skin. Nothing really has changed with this air fryer version except that it cooks even quicker and you don’t need to turn the oven on.

How to Serve

Roast chickens are extremely versatile. Not only are they a perfect centrepiece for a roast dinner but they can be served with a summer salad and roasted vegetables, with rice, pasta, added to soups or stews, stuffed into tacos and an almost infinite other number of other options.

To make a classic roast dinner like in my photographs, you can find all my recipes in my roast dinner recipe archive. To make a dinner like mine, recreate my menu with these recipes:

• Air fried butternut squash cubes
• Steamed green beans
• Proper Yorkshire puddings
• Air fried stuffing balls
• Crispy air fried roast potatoes
• Homemade smooth cranberry sauce
• Don’t forget the gravy!

If you don’t fancy a roast, try some of these other meal ideas:

• Pile the roasted chicken onto a bed of garlic and coriander rice, add some buttery corn on the cobs, a pile of creamy coleslaw and drizzle with hot honey butter garlic sauce.

• Stuff the roast chicken into buttered baguettes or pita breads with baby salad leaves, mayonnaise and crispy streaky bacon.

• Make a very simple dinner with mashed potato, simply cooked savoy cabbage and the recipe’s chicken gravy.

• Pimp up a bowl of instant ramen with shredded chicken, spring onions, a softly boiled egg and some shredded vegetables. Stir some of the gravy into the soup base for extra flavour and an umami hit.

How to Carve Roasted Chicken

It might not make for a hallmark movie looking partly carved roast chicken but the first thing I do is remove each of the legs. They should basically twist off but you can use a sharp knife or even pair of scissors to cut through the joint if needed. Then I separate the drumstick from the thigh. These get served just as they are.

For the main breast part of the chicken I either do carve slices straight off the bone or remove each of the breasts in full and then slice them. Again the removal should be easy with your hands although this can be quite tricky when the chicken is still hot so cutlery might be useful.

And then it is simply a case of making sure all the extra juicy bits from under the chicken and any other bits of meat still clinging to the carcass are removed. Again, using your hands is by far the best option if you can.

Ingredients

Chicken

I’ve roasted a 1.6kg/3.5lb chicken in my 4.7l basket air fryer. This is either a large example of a chicken labelled “medium” or a chicken on the smaller end of “large” – depending on which supermarket you look at. It is important to make sure that the chicken you buy will fit your air fryer so take this account when selecting one.

I prefer to just buy plain chickens rather than any other ready seasoned options. Largely because I have control issues but also because I find that they tend to be quite wet in their bags which prevents them from properly roasting. To dry them thoroughly you end up removing most of the seasoning. So unless you have very strong preferences, I would highly recommend seasoning a plain chicken from scratch.

Don’t overlook frozen whole chickens. These can be very economical to buy but you do need to thoroughly defrost them before cooking whole.

I’ve included an instruction to remove all the superfluous bits of the chicken including the neck, bum, and wingtips. Really detailed instructions for this can be found in my How to Roast Chicken post along with step-by-step photographs.

The reason for this is twofold. Firstly I just believe in making the chicken as easily carve-able as possible after cooking. And secondly in the case of air frying, the less unnecessary sticky out bits, the better it’s going to fit in the air fryer.

Seasoning

I’ve simply used sea salt flakes to season the chicken. Maldon is my favourite brand. I like to keep the seasoning very neutral when I’m going to be using the chicken meat in various different ways. This means that I don’t end up with clashing flavours. I might not want a rosemary scented chicken thigh in a ginger spiked ramen broth for example.

If you have specific plans for the chicken you can season away to your heats content. Don’t skimp on the oil, especially when using dried herbs or spices – this will prevent them from burning. There are lots of premixed seasoning mixes and pastes which are great to use. Or you can of course create your own.

Allergen Information

This recipe is free from egg, dairy, gluten and nuts.

Please note that this recipe may contain other allergens not referred to above and any variations suggested have not been tested unless otherwise stated. For more information regarding any dietary information provided on this website, please refer to my Nutritional Disclaimer.

How Long to Air Fry A Whole Large Roast Chicken

This 1.6kg/3.5lb chicken air fries in a total of 45 minutes in a pre-heated air fryer. The cooking process is in two stages.

Firstly the chicken is cooked upside down for just over a half the total cooking time. This both ensures that the bottom of the chicken gets properly blasted with heat and cooks evenly. It also gives the skin a chance to get golden and crispy. And it allows many of the internal juices to run down into the chicken breasts which keeps them moist.

The second stage of the cooking is with the chicken right side up. I take the opportunity when turning the chicken to drain any of the juices an fats that have collected in the bottom of the air fryer. These are set aside ready to be added to when the chicken finishes cooking. By removing the juices mid cooking, this prevents them from steaming the chicken rather than allowing it to roast.

How to Air Fry A Whole Chicken From Frozen

You don’t. There is no good way to ensure that the middle of the chicken is properly cooked before the outside parts haven’t dried into leather. It is much better to allow the chicken to thoroughly defrost before cooking.

Leftovers – Storage & Reheating

There are of course a million ways to use leftover roast chicken. I would recommend stripping any remaining meat off the bones and carcass before the chicken is completely cold. It is much easier to remove this way. Store the chicken in the fridge or freeze in portions.

Don’t waste the bones, add them to a medium saucepan of water (I speed up the process by boiling the kettle) and simmer for a couple of hours. Top up the water level if needed. You’ll end up with 1 to 2 pints of chicken stock from just one chicken carcass depending on how much you reduce it. The more you reduce, the stronger the flavour.

I prefer to reheat the meat in the microwave with a drop of water. This effectively steams the meat and keeps it lovely and moist. You can do the same in the air fryer by loosely wrapping the chicken in foil along with a drop of water. Air fry on high until piping hot all the way through.

The Air Fried Feast Community

Come on over to Facebook and join my community discussing all things air fryer. Get involved in sharing your experiences and trials, help out others and find out what wonderful things everyone is cooking in their air fryers!

What Exactly is an Air Fryer?

Very simply, an air fryer is a small convection (fan) oven. The benefit is that the hot air is circulated all around the food being cooked which speeds up the cooking time and cooks the food more evenly.

What are the Benefits of Using an Air Fryer?

Size, time and energy usage. Air fryers are ideal for cooking smaller quantities. Heating up a space that the food just fits into requires less energy and means that the heat source is much closer to the food. Combining these two things can speed up the cooking time.

Rotary types are not usually good for recipes where the food is breaded, glazed, likely to break up or in a tray/container. They do however make the best chips and roasted veg.

My 2 in 1 version like the one I’ve linked also has a rotating tray for things that could be broken up by a paddle, but the height clearance with the lid isn’t deep enough to use it to cook some items like sausage rolls. I’ve now actually retired by Actifry in favour of having my two basket type fryers.

Mini Oven Air Fryers

These usually have a glass door, shelves and overall are really quite large. You can cook quite a decent quantity of food in them so are best if regularly cooking for multiple people. They often come with extra features like a rotisserie spit or kebab skewers.

Multicookers with Air Fryer Functions

Some likeNinja 11 in 1and some of the earlier versions with a few less functions, have an air fryer option. They mostly operate the same as a basket fryer but the basket drops in the top rather than sliding in like a drawer.

Some electric pressure cookers likeInstant Potscan also air fry when used with a specific lid.

Is an air fryer always better to use than an oven?

As much as I do love air frying, the honest answer to this is no. And the more detailed answer is that it will always depend on what you’re cooking, how much of it you’re cooking and what type and size of air fryer you have.

Once you need to cook in more than 2 batches, it often makes more sense to use an oven. If you already have the oven on to cook other items, it may make more sense to throw one more item in rather than using an additional appliance.

I don’t think either method is often necessarily better than the other. The important point to note is that there is absolutely no difference in the finished product.

Do Air Fryers Need to Be Pre-Heated?

The answer to this is rather annoying – it depends. It depends entirely on your model and type of air fryer. The best advice I can offer is to check your manual and follow their guidance. My Cosori models have a preheat function. I press a button and it heats at 205c/400f for 4 minutes.

It’s also worth noting that regardless of whether you are supposed to pre-heat or not, if you are cooking in batches, it is quite likely that anything after the first batch will cook a little quicker because of the retained heat. It is best to check on them before the cooking time is completed.

What is the best temperature to Air Fry at?

It will always depend on what you are cooking and from what state. All of my air fryer recipes don’t use temperatures above 200c/390f because many of the most common fryers in the UK don’t go above this. Mine goes to 230c/450f and I use this temperature a lot but it is no help for me to share recipes which many people can’t use.

What setting is best to use? Air fry, bake, dehydrate, etc…

Not all air fryers have different settings like this. When they do it usually relates to the fan speed. The default setting to use will always be “air fry” so unless something else is specifically stated in the recipe, always use the air fry option.

There are other air fryers that have an additional heating element which cooks from underneath rather than just the top. Just as with the other settings, unless you are using a recipe which states to use a second heating element, stick with just using the top down air fry option.

Of course if and when you become more confident with air frying, using recipes and the settings of your air fryer, you can start adapting them to suit.

Can Food Be Cooked From Frozen In An Air Fryer?

Absolutely! To cook from frozen you usually will need to reduce the cooking temperature and increase the time to make sure your food is cooked right through to the middle.

It is best to check my individual recipes for cooking from frozen advice as some items are a little different. And there are occasionally exceptions to the rule.

Can I Reheat Food In An Air Fryer?

Yes. As a general rule I reheat food for roughly 1/3 of the original cooking time at the same temperature. Or at 10 degrees lower for half the time for larger items.

Are Air Fryer Liners a Good Idea?

Unless otherwise stated, I do not use liners when air frying. Basket and rotary type air fryers are designed to be used without liners. Mini oven types will generally require some kind of tray like with a regular large oven although most come with crisper racks to use.

There are many air fryer liners available including quite thick silicone ones. These will affect the cooking times and possibly temperatures of your cooking/baking. I also don’t like how cooking juices are prevented from dripping through the basket rack. This can stop food from crisping all the way around.

When I do want to collect the juices, I mostly use some foil, or occasionally a foil tray which can be washed and reused.

If you do prefer to use them, once you have got a feel for how they affect your cooking and baking, you may need to make adjustments to the recipe accordingly.

Don’t forget to let me know in the comments if you try making this recipe – I want to know what you think and if you made any substitutions, how did it turn out?

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The Recipe