I recently bought Ashley Original Chicken, which is designed for easy cooking in an air fryer. I snatched it up quickly because it was on sale.
To be honest, I usually don’t buy air-fryer chicken products because I’ve never really been satisfied with them. However, since this was from the Ashley brand, I had a bit of hope that it might be better.
Compared to other air-fryer chickens, there wasn’t anything particularly different about it. It’s made from chicken thigh meat, and the cooking time of 12 minutes is pretty standard. The only real difference seemed to be that Ashley logo.
The cooking instructions are straightforward: preheat your air fryer for about 5 minutes, then cook the chicken for 12 to 15 minutes. The exact cooking time might vary depending on your air fryer, so adjust as needed.
As expected, the calorie count for Ashley Original Chicken is quite high. It’s 210 kcal per 100g, meaning if you eat 500g at once, you’re consuming over a thousand calories.
The chicken is from Brazil. While other origins like Thailand and the U.S. are also listed, I suspect most of it is Brazilian.
Here’s what it looks like when you open the package.
And here it is placed in the air fryer. Some pieces had their skin torn off, possibly because they slightly thawed and then refroze, sticking to other pieces.
This is after about 6 minutes of cooking in the air fryer. I flipped them over and cooked them for another 6 minutes.
After a total of 12 minutes in the air fryer, the cooking was complete. Surprisingly, not a lot of oil came out.
My Review of Ashley Original Chicken
I guess I had too high hopes for Ashley.
While the crispiness was good, it was very salty.
It did have some juiciness, but the chicken thigh meat also had a somewhat mushy texture.
Air fryers are undeniably convenient cooking tools, but it seems there’s just no escaping the limitations when it comes to fried chicken.
I don’t think I’ll be repurchasing Ashley Original Chicken.