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We love a hearty dinner in our family. Sitting around together, talking about the day, and enjoying something that is simple to make, but absolutely delicious, is a big part of our family evenings together. Making Ninja Foodi hunters chicken is so simple. I’m using an OL750UK, the 15 in 1 Ninja Foodi, but you can use just about any air fryer or grill model for this dish.
If you’re not an owner of a Ninja Foodi then you could make a slow cooker hunters chicken or air fryer hunters chicken instead.
I absolutely LOVE using my Ninja Foodi to make air fryer recipes, and if you’re wanting to use yours better than check out my air fryer tips and tricks too. I’ve got an array of amazing air fryer recipes – but this has to be one of my favourites.
Making tasty dinner recipes is something that I dove, and this saucy dish is a welcome change in my air fryer.
I personally use my own homemade brown sugar BBQ sauce for this BUT you can absolutely just use a shop bought BBQ sauce and get equally delicious results. I also love to make Ninja Foodi BBQ ribs or Ninja Foodi bbq chicken breast with this bbq sauce too.
I typically like to use chicken breasts for this recipe but if you would like something a little more flavoursome then you could use chicken thighs instead. These have even more flavour in them and are fantastic too. I mostly use chicken breasts for this as I want my fussy eaters (my daughters!) to enjoy this too.
Hunters chicken is sometimes known by a couple of different names, such as chicken cacciatore or chasseur, depending on what you search on Google for. Although I know these to be recipes with slightly different ingredients including wine, stock and other lovely ingredients such as tomatoes or mushrooms.
For the avoidance of doubt with this recipe I am talking about using chicken breasts, streaky bacon, grated cheese and delicious bbq sauce to create a tasty meal. This is my own recipe and it is the same as the hunters chicken you will often find in pubs In the UK.
Ingredients for Ninja Foodi hunters chicken:
Spray oil
2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs
4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
40g grated cheddar
50ml BBQ sauce
Salt and pepper
Method for making hunters chicken in the Ninja Foodi (air fryer):
Prepare your chicken breasts (or thighs) by removing any excess skin or fat.
Spray with a little spray oil.
Season well with salt and pepper.
Cook in the air fryer at 200C (390F approx) for 10 minutes.
Then wrap each of the chicken breasts (or thighs) with the streaky bacon. Use two pieces per breasts or one piece per chicken thigh. I like to tuck the ends of the rashers underneath the chicken and then place it back into the air fryer basket.
Cook again at 200C (390F approx) for 6 minutes.
Spread the BBQ sauce over the top and then add the grated cheese. I press this down a little to help it stay together on top of the chicken.
Cook for a further 4-5 minutes at 200C (390F approx).
Check that the chicken is cooked to a safe internal cooking temperature of at least 75C (165F approx).
Serve with your choice of air fryer sides and enjoy!
Can you make this dish using a Ninja Foodi grill?
Absolutely you can. I would recommend you following similar cooking times, with the grill set to a similar temperature (depending on your model).
I would follow the same method, with part cooking the chicken, then wrapping in bacon, cooking a little more, then adding the BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese.
As always just make sure to check that something is cooked safely, and monitor the cooking by checking at least 1 or 2 times – to avoid any burning.
Looking for some serving ideas? Check this post out:
What cheese works well on hunters chicken?
I typically just use a cheddar cheese, as this is what I have at home. However, a mixture of mozzarella and cheddar cheese works really well also. This melts beautifully on the top of the bacon wrapped chicken breast but also has a wonderful cheese pull.
Strong cheddar is my favourite for this dish but any hard cheese would work well really.
How do you make sauce for hunters chicken?
I’ve got a BBQ recipe listed above, but you can just buy a nice BBQ sauce at the supermarket, the kind you’ll find in the same aisle as tomato ketchup, and that’s a fantastic way to make this dish with very little time, money or effort.
Got some leftovers you want to use up?
We’re big fans of cutting food waste and love to use these leftovers in a tortilla wrap, panini or soft white roll. This makes for a delicious and simple lunch and meals we’re not wasting any leftovers.
Some people like to make a hunters chicken pasta dish and I’d probably adapt this for the air fryer using my air fryer pasta bake recipe.
Can you use a different meat or meat substitute for this?
Absolutely you can! Steak would work beautifully for this, with a much shorter cooking time. I’ve used Quorn fillets in the past when we’ve had vegetarians visitors, and used facon instead of bacon. It’s quite a good substitute actually and while I’ve not found a vegan cheese that melts 100% you can still create a tasty version without meat or dairy.
Can you freeze this dish?
Yes. You can either cook it, freeze it and then defrost for 24 hours in the fridge before re-heating or you can bag up the components and then defrost overnight before cooking as per the recipe.
Sometimes I will part cook the chicken, wrap it in bacon and then place it in the freezer like this.
I always defrost everything in the fridge for a minimum of 12 hours, but ideally 24, before I cook, just to ensure it is safe for re-heating and warming through evenly.
Why not check out some of my latest Ninja Foodi recipes while you’re here?
- Ninja Foodi roast chicken
- Ninja Foodi apple crumble
- Ninja Foodi hunters chicken
- Ninja Foodi chicken kebabs
- Ninja Foodi pulled pork
- Ninja Foodi Accessories
- Ninja air fryer recipes
- Ninja Foodi BBQ chicken breast
- Ninja Foodi BBQ ribs
- Ninja Foodi chicken wings recipe
How to make Ninja Foodi hunters chicken:
Ninja Foodi hunters chicken
How to cook tasty chicken wrapped in bacon with bbq sauce and cheese (hunters chicken) in the Ninja Foodi
Ingredients
- Spray oil
- 2 chicken breasts or 4 chicken thighs
- 4 rashers of smoked streaky bacon
- 40 g grated cheddar
- 50 ml BBQ sauce
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
-
Prepare your chicken breasts (or thighs) by removing any excess skin or fat.
-
Spray with a little spray oil.
-
Season well with salt and pepper.
-
Cook in the air fryer at 200C (390F approx) for 10 minutes.
-
Then wrap each of the chicken breasts (or thighs) with the streaky bacon. Use two pieces per breasts or one piece per chicken thigh. I like to tuck the ends of the rashers underneath the chicken and then place it back into the air fryer basket.
-
Cook again at 200C (390F approx) for 6 minutes.
-
Spread the BBQ sauce over the top and then add the grated cheese. I press this down a little to help it stay together on top of the chicken.
-
Cook for a further 4-5 minutes at 200C (390F approx).
-
Check that the chicken is cooked to a safe internal cooking temperature of at least 75C (165F approx).
-
Serve with your choice of air fryer sides and enjoy!
Note: All calorie information is for demonstration purposes only and is based on the specific uncooked ingredients that I used when creating the recipe.
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