Turkey 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, on the same published figure as chicken and beef.
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 is not cooking. The governing poultry 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 turkey 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 same as every other jerky: a dry sealed surface over a centre that still holds water, which reads as done and is not.
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 turkey behaves this way
Turkey muscle carries even less intramuscular fat than chicken breast, so its window between cooked and dry is narrower still and there is nothing to disguise an overshoot. Minced and formed into a burger it behaves differently again: the mince holds water only while its proteins are loose, and once they tighten the patty expels moisture all at once and goes from juicy to crumbly within a minute. That is why the published turkey-burger time carries no instruction to flip — every extra handling is another chance to lose the structure holding the water in.
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 turkey 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.
Easily confused with
- Chicken jerky strips — A different cooking problem with a different answer.