The Boomer‑Era Appliance That Wound Up Losing Its Job To Air Fryers

Cooking is a task that almost everyone does, whether they like it or not. Sometimes it can be a matter of pride and joy, but often it's little more than needing to get dinner on the table. As such, there has long been a revolving door of kitchen appliances that promise to make culinary life easier on us, with many of those old-school kitchen tools now falling into the categories of either outdated or unnecessary to begin with. A once high-tech electric knife now most likely collects dust, but there is another appliance that, after its heyday, has been discarded entirely: the home rotisserie oven.

There was a time when rotisserie ovens were the toast of the town, thanks primarily to the mouth-watering advertising of Ronco infomercials. The "but-wait-there's-more" style convinced plenty of home cooks that this could be the solution to all their kitchen woes. Yet, the truth, unfortunately, rarely matched the sales pitch. While these rotisserie ovens do work — they make a beautiful roast chicken and can cook everything from salmon to lamb chops — there are some issues with these devices. Namely, these appliances are difficult to clean and take up too much counter space.

The spot freed up on the counter when that rotisserie oven heads to the dump is the perfect place for the popular countertop cooking solution of the moment: an air fryer. And one of the absolute best uses for an air fryer is that same Sunday classic, a roast chicken.

They may not have had a 30-minute infomercial to sell them, but air fryers became popular for the same reason as the rotisserie oven: a promise of fast, easy, healthier cooking. That's right, air fryers aren't just for quickly blasting a tray of french fries or jalapeño poppers, models with a large enough basket can be used for a whole bird. There are a number of reasons that an air fryer is actually perfect for cooking a chicken, but the most important factor for the majority of busy home cooks is the speed.

Air fryers are essentially just small countertop convection ovens. They work by circulating hot air around whatever food you have in the basket. When it comes to roasting chicken, this both speeds up the process and helps to ensure that it comes out with that delicious crispy skin. Avoid the mistakes common to air fryer chicken — like neglecting to flip the bird over or forgetting to check its internal temperature — and that little countertop oven can deliver a beautiful centerpiece for your Sunday dinner.

Of course, given that air fryers seem to have replaced rotisserie ovens, we would be remiss not to question if you need one at all. If your oven has a convection setting, you certainly don't. Some newer ovens even refer to convection as an "air fryer" setting. Alternatively, you can just spend a bit more time and roast your chicken the old-fashioned way.