Spatchcock Tandoori Chicken Fried Crisp In An #Airfryer

Crisp Tandoori Chicken with fiery chili spice and the subtle tender cooked taste of a smoked clay oven with half the calories of fried chicken!  Yep that’s what you get when you make tandoori chicken in an air fryer.  Look at all that roasted goodness!!

I received an air fryer last Friday (one of the perks of being a food blogger) and was quite excited to try it.  I made some garlic chili chicken wings, and some Cajun fries both of which turned out well. Today (well I wrote this post yesterday) I decided to be a little more adventurous and tried a whole roasted chicken! I have the large size (5.3 quart) Bella fryer which can easily hold a medium sized whole chicken. I spatchcocked the chicken first and then smeared it with tandoori spice! Another first: I have always wanted to spatchcock a chicken and today I did. Spatchcocking is a method where you cut out the backbone and make some more cuts and that makes the chicken cook faster and helps to get the spice into the chicken. I am not sure if I did a great job of spatchcocking but hey, it’s my first time and it was kind of fun. Made me feel like I was conducting chicken surgery of some sort! Check out my first attempt at spatchcocking a chicken :)!

As for the spice, you can use a ready-made tandoori spice (available at any Indian store) or make my custom tandoori spice. Today I used a store bought ready-made tandoori spice and spiked it with some meat tenderizer and extra chili powder which made my chicken more tender and spicier. I threw some finely sliced onion, cilantro and some almond flour over the chicken & popped it into the air fryer, set it for 20 minutes at 350. Opened it after 20 minutes, flipped the bird over and set it for another 20 minutes. The almond flour adds to the crisping and gives it some texture. This was a large bird (about 4 lbs.) but I think this recipe would be good with smaller Cornish hens. Anyways 40 minutes after we had spicy Tandoori Chicken tender on the inside and crisp on the outside! The onion got nicely fried and gave the chicken that roasted caramelized flavor you get from a clay oven. It was really yummy! Squeezed some lemon on it and we had a great meal!

Here’s my chicken smothered in tandoori spice going into the fryer!!

Chicken after 20 minutes in the airfryer before the second flip! Onions got nicely caramelized :)!

If you’re looking for a gadget that turns any food into fried without all those extra calories this is the toy for you! So far, I have tried 3 different dishes and each time I felt like I was indulging in luscious juicy fried food. It’s also a huge time saver. Here, you have a small oven that uses centrifugal and convection cooking to crisp and roast in a short time via the maillard effect. The air fryer works by coating the foods with a little oil while circulating air heated to fry foods using 80% less oil than a deep fryer. And yes, I do recommend using a little oil or oil spray to coat your foods if you really want that taste of fried food and not baked. Think of how energy efficient it is. Instead of heating a large oven you’re baking/ frying quickly and efficiently in a small one. It also has no preheat time.  When you take the food out, if you don’t feel its fried to satisfaction you can pop it back in the fryer and frying picks up right where it left off. Clean up is a cinch. Just put the tray under some soapy running water and it’s all clean.

Well anyway, is it worth the extra 100 odd bucks you spend on it? I am a kitchen gadget person so I may be a little biased here but, in my opinion, considering the amount of money spent on eating meals out, any kitchen gadget that makes life in the kitchen easier and makes meals healthier is a good investment but then again, it’s a personal choice. I am very happy with my air fryer and am looking forward to trying new recipes. Next on the menu, fish fry, meat cutlets and fried pork chops!! This is my first blog post of 2019 and I really hope to tap into my creative instincts and blog more this year :)!

Air Fryer Tandoori Chicken

Print recipe

Ingredients

• 1 medium sized whole chicken
• 2 onions (sliced)
• 2 Tbsp Olive oil
• 2 Tbsp heaped Tandoori Dry Spice
• 1 Tbsp meat tenderizer
• 1 Tsp chili powder ((optional))
• 1 lemon (juiced)
• 1 Tbsp dried parsley
• 2 Tbsp almond flour
• 1 Tbsp cilantro chopped

Directions

	Spatchcock the chicken
	Add meat tenderizer, salt, dried parsley, chili and oil to the dry tandoori mix
	Smear over chicken and marinate a few hours if you can
	Top the chicken with half of the sliced onion. sprinkle 1 tsp almond flour and pop into the air fryer. Set it at 350 for 20 minutes.
	Pull the chicken out of the air fryer after 20 minutes, flip it over, top it with rest of the sliced onions and 1 tsp almond flour and put it back into the air fyer. Set it at 350 for 20 minutes.
	Pull out of the air fryer, sprinkle with lemon juice, chopped cilantro and enjoy!

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