Air-Fryer Rotisserie-Style Chicken Pieces

The supermarket rotisserie chicken is one of the great convenience foods of the late twentieth century — fully cooked, properly seasoned, under £8, sitting in a warming case ready to go. It's also, almost always, slightly dry, slightly bland-smelling, and from a chicken that's been spinning under a heat lamp for who knows how long. The home rotisserie alternative used to require a counter-eating appliance with a spit. The air fryer makes that obsolete.

This recipe approximates the rotisserie flavour through a spice rub — the standard rotisserie blend is smoked paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, dried herbs (thyme, oregano), and a touch of sugar to encourage browning. The chicken pieces (a mix of bone-in thighs and drumsticks, which is what most rotisserie chickens give you) get rubbed all over and air-fried at moderate heat — 380°F rather than 400°F — so the meat cooks through evenly without scorching the spice rub.

The photo shows the result: a glass casserole dish with four pieces of golden-brown bone-in chicken (drumsticks and thighs), the skin deeply burnished and crackling, the spice rub visible as a dark pebbled crust. The slightly oily sheen is the rendered fat — that's the dripping you want to spoon over rice or potatoes later.