• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
the frugal farm girl logo transparent background

The Frugal Farm Girl

Living Simply, Growing Abundantly: Homesteading, Gardening, and Recipes on a Budget!

  • Live Debt Free
    • Frugal Living
    • Get out of Debt
    • Meal Planning
    • Couponing
  • Raise Your Own
    • Chickens
    • Ducks
    • Goats
    • Mini Pigs
    • Rabbits
  • Grow Your Own
    • Canning
    • Gardening
    • Homesteading
    • Recipes
  • Shop
  • Essays
  • About

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

Home » How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

January 25, 2019 (Updated: September 7, 2020)

Learn how to cook a whole chicken in the 3-1 Ninja Foodi. Thankfully you will also learn what NOT to do when you use this Ninja Foodi chicken recipe.

Two years ago my best friend said something to me that was life-changing.


“You can cook a whole chicken in 25 minutes.”- Best friend
“What?! How?”- Me
“Instant Pot.”-Best Friend

This was news to me. Especially because I was working with an oven that always took twice as long to cook.
So thankful I put that thing to the curb this summer!


When I received my Ninja Foodi for Christmas I couldn’t wait to try this out. After looking at the basket I was hesitant.


I thought I had it going for me putting our own homegrown chickens in it. When you raise your own meat birds they can be in the 4-6 lb. range.
Well, it was a little tough to fit our bird in and I made a little mistake.

In the end, it was delicious and I recommend trying a whole chicken in an instant pot or Ninja Foodi. The meat was falling off the leg nice and tender.


The Ninja Foodi is the best because after you pressure cook it you put the Air Crisper on and get crispy skin.
If only that worked for us with this first time almost fail!

  • Check out my first REVIEW on the Ninja food here.
  • Or how I Used it to Make Venison Steaks.
How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

I used the recipe from the Ninja Foodi Booklet. It is as follows.

Recipe for Cooking a Whole Chicken Seasoned in Pressure Cooker

Ingredients:

  • 1 Whole uncooked chicken 4/12 – 5 lbs.
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 tbls. + 2 tsp. kosher salt
  • 1 tbsp. black peppercorns
  • 5 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 5 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp. canola oil
  • 2 tsp. ground black pepper
How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

Directions for Cooking Whole Chicken

Step 1:

The first thing I did was rinse the chicken. I mixed up the lemon juice, water, honey and salt. This mixture goes in the bottom of your pot.

Add in the whole peppercorns, thyme ( I used dried thyme a couple pinches), and garlic. I didn’t have fresh garlic so I used ground.

I tied up the legs of the chicken and here is where things got tricky.

My lid wasn’t fully closing with the legs in the air. So I tucked them under the handle and the lid went down.

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

Step 2:

Once you have the pressure cooker lid on you put it to seal, high pressure and time is set for 15 minutes.

It always takes about six minutes for the cooker to reach pressure.

After the time is up you put the valve to vent and let all the air out.

MISTAKE I MADE: I didn’t test the chicken at this point and I should have. Get a thermometer and make sure your chicken is cooked all the way. The chicken should have pressured cooked for only five more minutes. Instead, we cut it open at the end to see the legs were still quite bloody. Microwaving your bird ruins that delicious crispy skin you were drooling over.

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

Step 3:

Next you brush chicken with whatever oil you have. Season it heavily with salt and pepper.

Close the crisping lid and select Air Crisp. Temperature goes to 400° and timer is set to 15 minutes.

So far the total cook time has been about 30 minutes. Not bad right?

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

Step 4:

When the timer is up remove the chicken from the basket and let it rest for 10 minutes. This is a crucial step to NOT overlook. Seriously it needs to rest.

Slice and enjoy!

How to Cook a Whole Chicken in Ninja Foodi

Final Tips:

Be sure to check the chicken’s temp after pressure cooking. You can always add five more minutes or more at this point before air frying.

We used our own chickens and I was surprised it was snug in the basket. Overall the taste was great and everyone in the family loved it. If you haven’t started raising your own chickens, start here. It always blows my mind every time how different they taste than store bought chicken.

You will see the air crisper mark on the top of our chicken. Not a big deal but I don’t know if this image will be Pinterst worthy! This is real life friends.

P.S. You need to follow me on Pinterest! We are having a ton of fun over there with projects gardening animals and saving money!

If it the skin isn’t as crispy after the 15 minutes add five more minutes.

The total time for this bird is 37 minutes.

Worth it or would you rather cook a chicken in your oven?

Category: Ninja Foodi, Meal Planning
Previous Post:how to decide to live debt free as a coupleHow To Decide Once & For All To Live Debt Free
Next Post:Mini Pig Feeding Tips To Start Nowwhat to feed your pot belly pigs

About Tasia

Welcome! I have desired my own backyard farm since I was a girl. I started a frugal crazy couponing lifestyle that allowed us to pay off our debt, create an online business and purchase our farmhouse and land. Join me as I share everything we are learning with you to encourage and inspire your dreams.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jody Teicher

    December 23, 2019 at 5:27 pm

    Thank you for this wonderful recipe. How much water should be added?
    Thank you.

    Reply
    • Tasia

      December 29, 2019 at 8:10 am

      Hi Jody! Glad you stopped by. 1 cup water. Thanks

      Reply
  2. John Rhodes

    March 4, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    What am I doing wrong? My chicken is never cooked through, and I follow the steps. What temp should it be at the of pressure cooking? Its beginning to get frustrating. I air crisped it for 20 min and still it wasnt cooked

    Reply
    • Tasia

      March 19, 2020 at 11:00 am

      Are you doing it frozen? I’ve found it’s best to do a whole chicken non frozen in the foodi. Turns out better. But try cooking it for 10 minutes longer than what you normally have. Also I found it to work by turning the chicken upside down in it too to cook better when frozen.

      Reply
  3. Chris Heels

    June 11, 2020 at 6:25 am

    Hi Tasia, so you use a cup of cold water etc, when you pressure cook the chicken.
    When you finally are ready for the crispness of the skin, do you leave the water in the pan when you put the basket in the pan, I’m a little confused, thank you.

    Reply
    • Tasia

      June 11, 2020 at 10:58 am

      Hey Chris. I put the chicken in the air fryer basket right away. So when it’s pressure cooking it’s already in the air frying basket. Any water that is left I leave in there. Hope that helps.

      Reply
      • Chris Heels..

        June 12, 2020 at 4:57 pm

        Well Tasia, that was a wonderful chicken, it was pleasant and most delicious, next time I will add some lemon, black pepper and what ever other choices of niceties to give it a scrumptious and more yummy taste as I must admit, only adding a small amount of oil (as we are not too keen on a crispy skin) did not really complement. 👍

        Reply
        • Tasia

          June 12, 2020 at 5:58 pm

          Glad to hear it! Thanks so much for coming back and letting me know how it was. The ninja is a ton of fun right?!

          Reply
  4. Deborah wallis

    June 14, 2020 at 8:25 am

    I have tried this recipe 4 times and can never get the pressure cooker to pressurize with all the ingredients in the pan It just burns so end up washing the pan out and just putting water in then it pressurizes. What am I doing wrong. I am following the recipe to the Letter.

    Reply
    • Tasia

      June 16, 2020 at 9:17 pm

      Do you mean the bottom of your pan burns? I would add extra water before you put your ingredients in.

      Reply
  5. Joni

    October 23, 2021 at 5:01 pm

    Hi there! Thank you for these directions. Once I read your post, I realized I still have my Foodi booklet. It says to pressure cook on high for 22 minutes (4.5-5 lb chicken) instead of 15 minutes. I wonder if that’s why some people found theirs didn’t cook thoroughly. Anyway, I’m finally trying this out and I appreciate your tips!

    Reply
  6. Jaqi Sheppard

    January 31, 2022 at 8:36 am

    I love my foodie. Yesterday I cooked a whole chicken, following your recipe. It came out perfectly, even down to the crispy skin. My 19yr grandson, who can be fussy, ate everything and went back for more. And leftovers will become carrot and chicken soup. Perfect.

    Reply
    • Tasia

      February 1, 2022 at 10:52 am

      Awesome glad to hear!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Sidebar

backyard chicken planner
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest
the ultimate homestead planner

About Us |  Copyright Inquiry | Privacy Policy | Contact Us

CHECK OUT OUR BJ'S CLUB DEAL BLOG!

RSS Error: A feed could not be found at `https://www.mybjswholesale.com/feed/`; the status code is `503` and content-type is `text/html; charset=UTF-8`

The Best Chicken Planner

Stay organized and learn how to give your flock the best care

Download Now
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • TikTok
  • Pinterest

Copyright © 2025 · The Frugal Farm Girl · All Rights Reserved · Privacy Policy