Sure, a soft pulled chicken in barbecue sauce is great, but what if you and your child want barbecue chicken flavor AND crispy skin? And what if you want to give your child–and yourself–some practice eating whole pieces of chicken? We got you, and it doesn’t get any easier. Dry spice rub. Air fryer cooking. You’ll have this bad boy on the table within 25 minutes of starting dinner.
Check out our other great roast chicken dishes!
If your child is ready to hold and eat whole pieces of chicken, just hit it with a squirt of lemon and tell him or her where to bite in; if not–and, at least as of the time we developed this recipe, our child is one of those kids–cut from the center of a chicken piece, aiming to get a couple of relatively uniform bites of chicken with a little skin. Serve with barbecue sauce, as needed.
Like the idea of the chicken but aren’t sure your child will like the taste? Lots of different routes you can take here: substitute the paprika for garam masala and add a few pinches of each ginger turmeric and you’ve got chicken tikka; cut down the cumin and add some lemon zest and you’ve got lemon pepper; remove the cumin and add onion powder and some peanut dust from the bottom of a jar of peanuts and you’ve got suya.
Brad (the Dad) is the founder and Chief Recipe Officer of New Dad's Kitchen. His own cooking/feeding journey started humbly during his son's infancy, preparing and managing his son's bottle intake in order to support his wife; it has since blossomed into a full-on passion to feed his child and family delicious and healthy meals that can satisfy both a toddler and his very tired parents.
