Ninja Foodi Cornish Hen Recipe

Best Ninja Foodi cornish hen recipe to get meat tender and the chicken skin crispy and delicious. Use pressure cooker and air fryer functions to make one of our most popular Ninja Foodi Chicken Recipes ever.

Have you only tried Ninja air fryer recipes? Maybe you have only attempted Ninja pressure cooker recipes? Well this combines both functions at the same time! That is right. Not only does it eliminate cleaning vs. if you used both of them separately, but it gets dinner done faster too.

Ninja Foodi Air Fryer Cornish Hens

You could just air fry it the whole time like we did when making air fryer cornish hens and our air fryer whole chicken. I like half and half if you have this pot though. Much smaller means you need far less time and every extra minute can make the meat dry out. Pressure cooking helps maintain the moisture I feel.

Yes you could cook this in your other pressure cooker brands, but it won’t look like the top photo when done. If you did use another brand there would be a few options to get there, not nearly as convenient as this. You could throw them under the boiler when done = another thing to wash.

What exactly are Cornish game hens?

They are a cross between the Cornish and White Plymouth Rock chicken breeds. They are packed up as very immature birds and no more than 2 pounds each. These were 1 pound and perfect for 1 adult or 2 kids to share. They taste just like a “regular chicken” though if you’ve never had one, you’d never know the difference.

Ingredients

1. Cornish game hens fresh or frozen
2. Olive oil to crisp skins
3. Seasonings of your choice, suggested below

You can vary this up a lot just with different things on the outside. Keep it simple with salt and pepper if you want, you can use already bottled lemon pepper seasoning blend, Mrs. Dash I had on hand and is a salt free alternative. And remember to save the drippings to make our brown onion gravy when done.

with Frozen Cornish Hens

Whether yours are frozen solid or fresh the timing is actually the same!! Believe it or not frozen meat when pressure cooked gets just as moist and the cook time doesn’t need to be adjusted really at all. The timing below accounts for two at one pound a piece. If yours is much larger then you will only be able to fit one but I would imagine the timing would remain the same.

Cooking Tips

1. If you ARE going to air crisp at the end only set for 17 minutes at high pressure since you will continue to crisp the skin at the end at 400 degrees you don’t want it to dry out
2. For birds NOT using the air fryer at the end you’ll want 20 minutes total to get it to the ideal temp. inside.
3. ALWAYS allow for a little time to naturally release steam at the end AND allow meat to rest when done before slicing. Both of these tips will get your meat as moist as possible.
4. if you could care less about eating the skin I would go for this timing, gets it as moist as possible.

You can see below how well this size fit. Perfect for the four of us with Ninja Foodi rice with pressure cooker carrots and potatoes on the side.

Do cornish hens have giblets inside?

Most of these do not come with the neck and “things” inside the cavity, I have never seen it myself. Just in case, check inside and remove any of that. Some like to use them to make gravy.

What is the ideal internal temperature?

Use a meat thermometer to check the internal meat temperature before consuming. For these they should reach 165 degrees F in the thickest part to be safe.

How to Cook 2 Cornish Hens in Ninja Foodi

• Lay on a few paper towels. Gently press down on all sides to remove moisture from skin.
• Pour broth into your pot.
• Put steamer basket inside. Spray inside with non stick cooking spray.
• Lay hens breast side up.
• Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on all seasonings.
• Close and seal pressure cooker lid and set to high pressure cook for 20 minutes to fully cook if you are NOT going to air crisp at the end.
• Release rest of steam and lift lid, set aside. Spray top with olive oil or avocado spray and close lid that is attached to air crisp.

How to crisp chicken skin with air crisp lid

If you ARE going to air crisp at end, set to 17 minutes of pressure cook instead of 20. Allow for a 5 minute natural pressure release. Press air crisp, 400 degrees F, cook for an additional 10 minutes to get crispy skin.

I would say total time to get these done is 25 minutes but then if you are crisping you’d need at least 30 minutes cook time. I would not use the slow cook function on this machine, instead use our Slow Cooker Cornish Hens instructions.