Roasted Chicken in the Ninja Foodi
Jennifer really wanted a pressure cooker for Christmas. After reading tons of reviews and talking to friends with Instant Pots, Air Fryers, Slow Cookers and other similar multicookers, she decided on the Ninja Foodi (which she was lucky enough to find under the tree on Christmas morning!). For those unfamiliar, the Ninja Foodi is a combination pressure cooker, air fryer and slow cooker.
Since the Ninja Foodi seemed a bit overwhelming at first glance, so we decided to start out with a simple roasted chicken to test both the pressure and air crisp functions. The results were wonderful for our first try! The chicken was tender, juicy and flavorful. We also tried cooking carrots in the Ninja Foodi for our side dish.
We thought we’d share the recipe and some of our thoughts with you here…
Place liquid ingredients, peppercorns, garlic and thyme in cooking pot.
Place chicken in Cook & Crisp Basket above cooking pot.
While pressure builds, the display lights will rotate in a circular pattern. Once pressure is built, the timer will start.
Pressure cooking complete.
Crisping underway!
Crisp, tender chicken in about 30 minutes!
Ninja Foodi Roasted Chicken
- ¼ C fresh lemon juice
- 1/3 C hot water
- ¼ C honey
- 2 TBS kosher salt
- 1 TBS whole black peppercorns
- 6 fresh thyme sprigs
- 5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
- 1 whole chicken (about 4 lb fit nicely)
- 1 lemon, cut in half
- olive oil
- seasoning salt of your choice
- fresh ground pepper
Prep:
In a small bowl, mix together lemon juice, hot water, honey and 2 TBS salt. Pour mixture into the cooking pot. Add peppercorns, thyme sprigs and garlic to the liquid in the pot.
Remove any giblets from the cavity of your chicken. There’s been some controversy as of late regarding whether or not to rinse your chicken. We opted not to, but feel free to do so if you’d like. Do pat the chicken dry either way. Rub cut lemon half all over chicken, then place both lemon halves inside chicken cavity. Tie chicken legs together with cooking twine and place chicken into the Cook & Crisp Basket. Brush lightly with olive oil and sprinkle with a bit of your favorite seasoning salt and pepper.
Pressure Cook:
Attach pressure lid and set release valve to seal. Press the PRESSURE button and select HI. Set time to 22 minutes and press START. (Never having used a pressure cooker before, I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get up to pressure before beginning to cook. It took about 10 minutes, so be sure to account for this if you are trying to get a meal on the table at a specific time.)
When pressure cooking is complete (unit will beep) allow chicken to sit undisturbed for 5 minutes (what they call “natural release” of pressure). After the 5 minutes, shift release valve to vent to allow any additional stem to exit. Once all steam is released, carefully remove the lid.
Air Crisp:
Brush the chicken with more olive oil and add additional salt and pepper to taste. Close the crisping lid (this is the lid attached to the cooker) and select the AIR CRISP button. Set temperature to 400 degrees and set timer to 10 minutes. Select the START button. Once the timer sounds, remove lid to see if the chicken is browned to your liking. If not, add 5 minutes.
Remove chicken to cutting board and let rest about 10 minutes before carving.
Tip: While the chicken rests, we tossed some baby carrots in olive oil, salt and pepper and placed them in the Cook & Crisp Basket. Lower the crisping lid and hit the AIR CRISP button, set temperature to 400 and timer to 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, open the lid and toss the carrots. Replace lid and crisp for an additional 3-5 minutes. Now you have a tasty side dish and no extra dishes!
