I love air fryer hunters chicken. Delicious chicken wrapped in crispy bacon, loaded with melted cheese, and smothered in barbecue sauce.
This is one of those amazing air fryer comfort foods that will go on the top of your air fryer bucket list and can be scaled up or down, depending on how many people you are feeding for dinner.
Heads up! This hunters chicken recipe is so so popular with our air fryer readers that they asked us to feature it in our air fryer beginner’s cookbook called Air Fryer Easy Everyday. You can get a copy here.
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Hunters Chicken Air Fryer
Do you just love chicken wrapped in bacon and super crispy from the bacon and the chicken super moist?
Yes, me too.
I want to shout from the rooftops that I also love chicken wrapped in bacon and its one of those foods that is ideal for the air fryer.
That is because you don’t need to babysit it like you do in a pan, the bacon goes so lovely and crispy, and you then can use the air fryer to melt the cheese and warm up the barbecue sauce.
The inspiration behind this hunters chicken air fryer recipe was actually a café visit with a good friend. It’s featured in our places to eat out at in Beverley and I looked at it in the little serving dish and thought that I MUST make air fryer hunters chicken.
Today I will be sharing with all about this hunters chicken air fryer recipe, hunters chicken ninja foodi recipe, how long to cook hunters chicken in air fryer and so much more.
If you are looking for more delicious air fryer chicken wrapped in bacon ideas, also try our air fryer cookbook which features a delicious chicken wrapped in bacon with cheese recipe. So yummy and I made sure I got the most during the photoshoot.
What Is Hunters Chicken?
Hunters chicken, which is also known as chicken new yorker, is a delicious chicken recipe. Chicken is wrapped in bacon and cooked until the bacon is crispy and the chicken is cooked through. It is then finished under the grill with grated cheese and some barbecue sauce. Its very popular in pubs in the UK.
Can You Cook Hunters Chicken In Air Fryer?
Yes, you can cook hunters chicken in the air fryer and its delicious. The best thing about the air fryer is its great for crisping bacon and for melting the cheese. Which of course, are two of the best features of a classic hunters chicken.
Can You Cook Chicken With Sauce In Air Fryer?
Yes, you can cook chicken with sauce in the air fryer, but you must think about the logistics of doing so.
For example, you wouldn’t just pour a sauce into the air fryer as it will make a real mess and instead you can use a silicone baking pan (we used this one) and then after cooking the chicken with the bacon, you can add the sauce, or in the case of hunters chicken in the air fryer, the sauce is barbecue.
Should You Put Raw Chicken In An Air Fryer?
Yes, you should put raw chicken in the air fryer, and you will love chicken cooked the air fryer way. Its brilliant for all kinds of raw chicken such as an air fryer whole chicken, air fryer chicken schnitzel, air fryer boneless chicken thighs, or even making air fryer chicken gyros.
Hunters Chicken Schnitzel
Talking about chicken schnitzel, you can also make a hunters chicken schnitzel. Follow our schnitzel recipe for the air fryer and then when its done, transfer it to a silicone dish like we do, and then add barbecue sauce and cheese.
Hunters Chicken Ninja Foodi
You could make a ninja foodi hunters chicken too. Simply use the air fryer basket of the ninja foodi and transfer into a dish for the final cook part. Then for making a hunters chicken ninja foodi recipe use the air fryer function.
Or if you have a ninja air fryer, you can also follow this hunters chicken recipe.
Slimming World Hunters Chicken
If you follow Slimming World its easy to adapt this hunters chicken recipe. Simply go with a low calorie barbecue sauce and then reduce the amount of cheese used. Because OMG I love my cheese.
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Hunters Chicken Air Fryer Ingredients
Chicken – We love getting the big packs of chicken breast from Iceland because then we can make them last through a few different meals.
Bacon – You can use any bacon you like. But really thin bacon cooks too fast and it can often end up overcooked. We prefer to make this chicken and bacon air fryer recipe with back bacon.
Cheese – For the cheese in a hunters chicken we recommend a mix of cheeses. We used 100g of cheese and it was 50% grated mozzarella and 50% grated cheddar.
Sauce – Lets make the sauce that makes this hunters chicken taste amazing. We mixed together honey, garlic, barbecue sauce and sweet paprika.
Can You Recommend An Air Fryer?
I often get asked which air fryers I recommend and which one I use. In 95% of our air fryer recipes, we use either the Philips Air Fryer XL or the Cosori XL because they are the best ones, we have found out of many air fryers we have tried over the years. You can click on the links above and read up on them.
Plus, we recommend you head over to our air fryer recipes category as we have more than 500 tried and tested everyday air fryer recipes and have been air frying for 10+ years.
How To Cook Hunters Chicken In Air Fryer?
- Prep. Using a chopping board as your work station wrap chicken in bacon and then secure the bacon with cocktail sticks/tooth picks.
- Cook. Next air fry the chicken wrapped in bacon for 28 minutes at 180c/360f making sure that the chicken is fully cooked.
- Mix. Whilst the chicken is cooking in the air fryer, add the barbecue sauce ingredients into a bowl and mix well with a fork. Place a later of the sauce into the bottom of your silicone container.
- Melty. Then you want to make the cheesy melty topping. Remove the cocktail sticks from the chicken and place the chicken wrapped in bacon over the barbecue sauce in the container. Cover with the chicken with the two cheeses.
- Finish. Put the silicone with the hunters chicken back into the air fryer and air fry for 5 minutes at 180c/360f.
How Long To Cook Hunters Chicken In Air Fryer?
Hunters chicken in air fryer takes JUST 33 minutes. This includes 28 minutes to cook the chicken wrapped in bacon and another 5 minutes to warm up the barbecue sauce and melt the cheese.
Air Fryer Hunters Chicken & Potatoes
What I also love is have my hunters chicken in the air fryer with some potatoes. My favourite is to use another air fryer or kitchen gadget at the same time so that its easier for plating everything up.
Such as instant pot no drain mashed potatoes, ninja foodi roast potatoes, air fryer sliced potatoes or air fryer sweet potato cubes.
Listen To Air Fryer Hunters Chicken
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Hunters Chicken With Mozzarella
For adding the cheese to your air fryer hunters chicken, I much prefer a mix of some grated cheddar cheese with some mozzarella.
It is totally personal choice to whether you want to make hunters chicken with mozzarella or just stick with whichever cheese you have in.
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- Check out all our 600+ air fryer beginner recipes!
Learn how to make hunters chicken in air fryer below, note you can print it out with or without photos, adjust servings, or click between metric and imperial depending on where you are in the world.
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Air Fryer Hunters Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 Medium Chicken Breasts
- 8 Rashers Back Bacon
- 50 g Grated Cheddar Cheese
- 50 g Grated Mozzarella Cheese
Barbecue Sauce
- 240 ml Barbecue Sauce
- 4 Tbsp Honey
- 1 Tsp Frozen Chopped Garlic
- 2 Tsp Sweet Paprika
Kitchen Gadgets
Instructions
- Using a chopping board as your workstation wrap 2 back rashers around each chicken breast until well covered and then secure with a toothpick/cocktail stick.
- Place the chicken wrapped in bacon into the air fryer and air fry for 28 minutes at 180c/360f or until the chicken is perfectly cooked.
- Whilst the chicken is cooking, mix together in a small bowl the barbecue sauce ingredients with a spoon. Then add a layer of the barbecue sauce to the bottom of a silicone baking pan that fits your air fryer.
- When the air fryer beeps, remove the chicken from the air fryer and remove the cocktail sticks that have held the chicken in place.
- Place the chicken into the barbecue sauce and then sprinkle the grated cheese over the chicken.
- Air fry the hunters chicken for a final 5 minutes at 180c/360f to melt the cheese and warm up the barbecue sauce.
Notes
Nutrition
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