BBQ Ninja Chicken

This recipe is based on the pressure cooker recipe in the Ninja Foodi recipe book that comes with it. It turns out very similarly to a BBQ rotisserie chicken you can buy at a good deli. The pressure-cooking keeps the chicken from drying out and the quick air fry at the end makes the skin crispy and puts some color into it. 30 minutes of cooking time for a whole chicken.

Ninja Chicken

Approximately 5 lb whole chicken thawed

1/2 cup BBQ Sauce
1 tbsp Liquid Smoke - optional
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp chopped garlic
1 tbsp poultry seasoning
1/4 cup water

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1. Clean the chicken and remove any parts that came with it
2. Mix the water, BBQ sauce, liquid smoke, half of the garlic, paprika and poultry seasoning in the Foodi pot
3. Spray the fry basket with oil and place the chicken in it.
4. Secure the pressure cooker lid and set it to pressure and the timer to 22 minutes
5. Release the pressure slowly or quickly, I have not noticed a difference
6. Pat the chicken dry and spray oil on it
7. Brush more BBQ sauce and any of the spices if you wish, on top of the chicken
8. Set the Ninja to Air Fry at 400 F and the timer to 8 minutes
9. Remove the chicken and let it sit for about 5 minutes

Notes

After pressure-cooking, make sure the chicken is at least 165 F in the thickest part of the thigh.

There are nearly infinite variations for this. Replace the BBQ and liquid smoke with Asian or Italian sauces or whatever you can come up with. I haven’t tried it yet but I think a tomato and balsamic vinegar mix with some spices might be really good. The original recipe is pretty good, it uses honey instead of the BBQ sauce and liquid smoke and also does not use paprika.

For a slightly stronger taste, you could mix the liquid and spices as it is listed above and also take the same measurements of garlic, the spices and liquid smoke and mix that and spoon it inside the chicken.

The liquid smoke is for a stronger flavor but is not necessary.

You could use this recipe in a conventional oven, make sure you seal it up with aluminum foil for the entire cooking time, except for the last 30 minutes to brown it. In my oven, it takes about 90 minutes for a 5-pound chicken.