Chicken jerky strips in an air fryer
Marinated — the short answer
70°C (158°F) for 300–420 min
- For
- 500g in total, about 6mm at the thickest point
- In
- Multicooker with air fry, single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Check
- Bends and cracks rather than snapping
- Safety
- Poultry must reach 70°C in its thickest part and stay there for two minutes, or an equivalent pair from the FSA's published table. Full rule below.
Five to seven hours at 70°C — dehydrating raw poultry, which is a safety question first.
Marinated
Before anything else
From national food-safety authorities, not from us. These take precedence over any cooking time below.
Requirement — Food safety (microbiological)
Poultry must reach 70°C in its thickest part and stay there for two minutes, or an equivalent pair from the FSA's published table.
Target: 70°C in the thickest part, or an equivalent from the table below.
How to tell, without a thermometer
- No pink meat anywhere, including next to the bone
- Juices run clear when the thickest part is pierced
- Steaming hot all the way through, not just on the outside
If it has not got there: Put it back in. Give it two to three minutes at the same temperature and check again in the thickest part. Do not judge by the outside: air frying browns the surface long before the centre is finished, and a well-coloured breast can be several degrees short.
Important: If poultry has been left at room temperature for more than two hours before cooking, cooking it thoroughly does not make it safe again — some bacterial toxins survive cooking. Discard it.
| Temperature | Held for | Measured at |
|---|---|---|
| 60°C | 45 min | the thickest part of the meat |
| 65°C | 10 min | the thickest part of the meat |
| 70°C | 2 min | the thickest part of the meat |
| 75°C | 30 sec | the thickest part of the meat |
| 80°C | 6 sec | the thickest part of the meat |
The quick answer
70°C (158°F) for 300–420 min
Strip thickness, for published 6mm slices marinated overnight.
- Assuming
- 500g in total, about 6mm at the thickest point
- In
- Multicooker with air fry
- Loaded
- Single layer, pieces not touching
- Preheat
- Not needed
- Result
- Cooked but dry
Preparation
Cut into 6mm slices and marinated overnight, then patted dry. No oil.
No oil needed.
How to load the basket
Single layer, pieces not touching. The reference condition. Air reaches every surface, and times are the shortest the food will achieve.
How to tell it is done
- Bends and cracks rather than snapping
- No moist patch when a strip is torn open
Where these figures came from — marinated
- Applies to
- Specific to this model
- Why this rating
- A published dehydrating row with a stated slice thickness, which is the only variable that materially moves a drying time. The manufacturer's booklet states separately that the appliance does not preheat in this mode.
- Last reviewed
- 2026-08-13
What this does not cover
- Published by the manufacturer for this appliance. It is evidence about this machine and is not general advice.
- Dehydrating removes water without cooking. Nothing here is a cooking time and none of these figures brings food to a safe temperature.
- Dehydrating at 70°C for five to seven hours is a drying instruction and not a route to the poultry safety target. The governing rule is shown above and this figure does not satisfy it.
Sources (1)
Ninja Foodi MAX Health Grill & Air Fryer AG551UK — Inspiration Guide and cooking charts (PDF)
SharkNinja Europe Limited — Manufacturer cooking chart (United Kingdom)
Relied on for: The temperature, time and quantity for chicken jerky strips.
States this directly
Passage read and verified
Retrieved 2026-08-13 from argos-support.co.uk
Retrieved from Argos's manual library for Argos product 735/0124, published alongside the instruction booklet as a second document.
What usually goes wrong
Case hardening. The outside of a strip dries and seals before the middle has lost its water, so the piece feels finished and is not — which matters more here than in any other dehydrating job, because the food started raw.
Running the appliance safely
These apply to every food and every air fryer, so they are here once rather than repeated under each state above. They come from Electrical Safety First, from UK product-safety notices and from the manufacturers’ own manuals.
- Plug an air fryer directly into a wall socket. Do not run one from an extension lead.
- An unusual smell, an unusual noise, or scorch marks on the plug mean stop using it and contact the manufacturer.
- Do not overfill. Food touching the heating element is a fire risk, not a cooking problem.
- White smoke from fatty food is usually normal. Black smoke means unplug it immediately.
- Do not leave an air fryer running unattended.
- Leave clear space above and around the appliance, and never cover the air intake or the outlet.
- Aim for a golden yellow colour or lighter on starchy foods such as chips and roast potatoes, rather than a darker brown.
- Buy from a reputable retailer rather than a third-party marketplace seller.
- Clean the drawer, the plate and the element after use. Accumulated grease is what smokes, and then what burns.
- Register the appliance with its manufacturer. It is how a recall reaches you.
- Do not rely on the appliance's own thermal protection. A UK recall was issued because it did not operate.
Each links to its own page, with what it means in practice, what to do if it has already happened, and the source it comes from. Every safety rule AirfryerHQ holds.
Why chicken behaves this way
Lean chicken muscle holds little intramuscular fat, so once its water has gone there is nothing left to keep it palatable — which is why a breast passes from juicy to dry within a couple of minutes and a thigh does not. Skin behaves as a separate material: it needs sustained heat and dry air to render its fat and crisp, and it will stay flabby at a temperature that cooks the meat underneath perfectly well. Bone conducts heat slowly and shields the meat around it, which is why bone-in cuts finish later than their weight suggests.
Where to go from here
The pages that answer the questions this one tends to raise.
- Using a thermometer, and where to put itThe times above are for a piece that is not the one you are holding. This measures yours — and it is the single change that fixes most dry chicken jerky strips.
- How food actually gets crispyWhy patting it dry, spacing it out and a little oil are all the same instruction — so you can apply it when a page runs out.
- Why published timings differIf another chart says something else, this is usually why — and which one to believe.