Juicy chicken drumsticks (legs) cooked in an air fryer
Using ready-made Barbeque Sauce (cheating, I know) the chicken is on the table in just 20 minutes!
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I love my Air Fryer, it cooks food far quicker than an oven and is, therefore, a lot cheaper.
Plus, there's no need for it to preheat first - you can cook in most Air Fryers straight away. 😉
The texture of the food is always good and it’s just so easy to clean up!
I'm a huge fan of Ninja products and I own a lot of their products (most can air fry) but for this, I used the Ninja Speedi 10-in-1 on Air Fryer mode to cook these.
But of course, you can use any air fryer.
Do you have to turn chicken in an air fryer?
Yes, you will need should turn the chicken halfway through cooking. Avoid using those air fryer liners as they stop the air circulating as it's meant to.
Most air fryers are really easy to clean, especially if you have one with a good non-stick.
Some cheap brands don't have such a good non-stick so it's worth doing a bit of research before the best air fryer to buy.
How long do drumsticks take in an air fryer?
Air Fry at 200°C - 390° for 20-25 minutes depending on your air fryer. The time will also depend on the temperature of your chicken at the start of cooking.
As will all meat and poultry you should remove it from the fridge 20-30 minutes before cooking.
How to check if the chicken is cooked and safe to eat?
True, you can check the doneness of the chicken by using a sharp knife and cutting through a small piece to see if the meat is well cooked and the juices run clear.
However, that's a thing of the past! You really should use a digital kitchen thermometer. Seriously, they take the guesswork out and leave you certain your food is cooked.
All you do is insert the thermometer in the centre of the chicken. The internal temperature of the chicken should be read 75°C - 165°F
You can buy a cheap kitchen thermometer but if you cook a lot and want perfectly accurate temperature readings then I suggest the ETI SuperFast Thermapen - I absolutely cannot cook without using mine!
Used by top chefs and has wide temperature ranges from -49.9°C to 299.9°C, with easy configuration display in °C or °F and 1. 0° or 0. 1° switchable resolution.
A must for all cooking including BBQ, grill, smoker and baking. The Thermapan is 50% faster than traditional probes and accurate to ±0.4 ºC (-49.9 to 199.9 ºC).
Anyway, nuff said, let's get back to the BBQ chicken!
I cheated with this because instead of Homemade BBQ Sauce, I was in a real hurry so I used shop-bought BBQ sauce. 😉
Yep, that's all the ingredients apart from a little spray of oil. 😊
Important!
Be careful choosing which spray oil you use on anything non-stick as many of those low-calorie oils ruin the coating because they contain something called lecithin.
Lecithin has the unfortunate ability to stick to a nonstick coating.
It sticks so much that it builds up and becomes very hard to remove, eventually degrading the cooking surface and causing food to stick. 😞
Most store-bought cooking sprays contain soy lecithin - so do check the ingredients.
I always use Crisp 'n' Dry spray oil because, unlike other spray oils, Crisp n Dry is 100% rapeseed oil. It doesn’t contain lecithin, so it is safe to use in your air fryer.
Air fryer barbeque chicken drumsticks
Lightly spray the chicken with vegetable (rapeseed oil). Lay them in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
I used the Ninja Speedi with the tray in the bottom position, making it the same as any other air fryer. I could have easily added two more, but this was an experiment so I only cooked four.
Using a pastry brush, give the chicken a good coating of BBQ sauce. We will coat the other side when we turn the chicken.
Set your air fryer to 200°C - 390°F for 20 minutes.
After 10 minutes, turn and coat that side with more BBQ sauce.
Continue to cook for a further 10 minutes. Do check they are properly cooked through and if not, cook for another 2 to 5 minutes.
*The internal temperature of cooked chicken must be 75°C - 167°F*
So, please use your digital thermometer to check - you did buy one, didn't you?! 😉
Mine, cooked in the Ninja Speedi, had reached 79°C at just 20 minutes.
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!
Air Fryer BBQ Chicken Drumsticks
Ingredients
- 4 - 6 Chicken drumsticks
- BBQ sauce
- a little vegetable oil
Instructions
- Lightly spray the chicken with vegetable (rapeseed oil). Lay them in a single layer in the air fryer basket.
- Using a pastry brush, give the chicken a good coating of BBQ sauce - we'll coat the other side when we turn the chicken.
- Set your air fryer to 200°C - 390°F for 20 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, turn and coat that side with more BBQ sauce.
- Continue to cook for a further 10 minutes. Do check they are properly cooked through and if not, cook for another 2 to 5 minutes.
- The internal temperature of cooked chicken must be 75°C - 167°F
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Jan