Nearly ruined my chicken thighs with this rookie mistake

I threw some seasoned chicken thighs in my air fryer at 400 degrees like I always do. About 8 minutes in I started seeing a ton of smoke and smelled something burning. Opened it up and saw the skin had this thick layer of black char on the bottom side. Turns out I forgot to pat the chicken dry before seasoning and the extra moisture made the sugar in my rub burn way too fast. Now I always dry the chicken with paper towels first and I drop the temp to 375 for the first 10 minutes. Has anyone else had their rub turn into a sticky burnt mess like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_jennifer17d ago

Pat the skin dry with a paper towel and skip adding sugar until halfway through cooking.

parkernelson17d ago

Honestly that makes so much sense if you think about it. So many cooking mistakes happen because people rush the prep or mess with the timing too soon.