Chicken

By Food & Wine
Updated May 03, 2018
John Kernick
From classic fried chicken to an incredibly easy Thai-inspired wrap, here are some of F&W's best chicken recipes. These easy and delicious chicken recipes are perfect for serving for dinner parties and guests. Try one of these fantastic dishes tonight.
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Butter-Roasted Chicken with Soy-Garlic Glaze

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F&W’s Kay Chun rubs an Asian-spiced butter under chicken skin before roasting to create an incredibly juicy and delicious bird.

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Chicken Caesar Skewers

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F&W’s Justin Chapple quickly marinates chicken in a Caesar-inspired marinade flavored with garlic and anchovies before skewering and broiling. He serves the chicken with lettuce leaves for wrapping.

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Whole Roast Chicken with 40 Brussels Sprouts

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When F&W’s Kay Chun roasts chicken, she adds brussels sprouts to the roasting pan so they absorb the fantastic flavor of the caraway-infused chicken juices.

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Chicken in an Herb Garden

© Con Poulos
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Cookbook author Katie Caldesi poaches rolled chicken breasts in vinegar before marinating them in olive oil with plenty of fresh herbs for a deliciously light, summery make-ahead dish.

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Arroz con Pollo with Avocado-Green Pea Salsa

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Using a family recipe, chef Jose Enrique makes this chicken-and-rice recipe with what seems like too much stock, wine and pilsner, but the result is especially moist. Use short-grain rice like Bomba, which absorbs liquid well.

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Crisp Spiced Chicken

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Tomato-and-Cilantro-Marinated Chicken Shashlik

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Grating tomatoes is a quick way to create the juicy puree that becomes a tangy base for a super-simple marinade.

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Classic Southern Fried Chicken

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Yucatán-Spiced Chicken

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These roasted bone-in chicken breasts with a light, citrusy sauce were inspired by Marcie Turney's trip to the Yucatán.

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Roast Chicken with Aromatic Jus

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Big Bob Gibson's Chicken with White Barbecue Sauce

© Marcus Nilsson
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At Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q, chef Chris Lilly butterflies a whole chicken, smokes it, then dunks the bird into a vat of tangy white barbecue sauce. Home cooks can grill pieces of chicken until crispy and nicely charred, then serve them alongside Lilly's terrific white sauce.

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Caribbean Jerk Chicken

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The spirit of Jamaica's popular jerk sauce comes through in this superspicy, fragrant grilled chicken. To punch up the flavor even more, let the marinade sit for an additional 24 hours before adding the meat. To lower the heat, swap out Scotch bonnet chiles (among the world's hottest) for jalapeños.

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Grilled-Chicken Tagine

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Honey-Chile Chicken Wings

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Tim Wood avoids the deep fryer and opts to broil or grill his chicken wings, which turns them supercrispy. A soy-and-honey glaze makes them sweet, sticky and salty.

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General Tso's Chicken

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This version of the take-out classic is lighter because the chicken is only lightly coated in cornstarch and is pan-fried rather than deep-fried.

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Pickle-Brined Chicken

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"When you have leftover pickle juice, isn't it a waste not to use it to make chicken taste delicious?" asks Frank Falcinelli. He brines chicken breast in dill-pickle juice to flavor it and keep it moist in the oven, then serves it on top of supertender leg meat he's shredded and mixed with sautéed chard.

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Fried Chicken Tacos

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"Right in Tijuana's red-light district sits Kentucky Fried Buches, where cooks fry chicken necks, skin on, to fill soft corn tortillas. I can't stop eating them," says Andrew Zimmern. "At home, I fry skin-on chicken thighs until they're supercrisp, then eat them with avocado-tomatillo salsa, my family's favorite."

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Sticky Grilled Drumsticks with Plum Sauce

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Grace Parisi prepares a wonderfully sticky and nicely sweet glaze of fresh plums and red pepper jelly to brush over drumsticks while grilling. Hot red pepper jelly makes for a spicier glaze; sweet pepper jelly creates a milder one.

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Chicken Shawarma with Green Beans and Zucchini

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To fill this sandwich wrap, Ana Sortun coats chicken thighs with a lengthy list of spices that includes allspice and nutmeg, then braises them in beer and garlic. To simplify the recipe, rub chicken thighs with the spice mix and roast them in the oven (no beer necessary).

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Chilaquiles-Style Roasted Chicken Legs

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Chilaquiles is a baked Mexican dish that's often made with leftover shredded chicken, tortilla strips and cheese. In her more substantial and refined version, Grace Parisi bakes whole chicken legs with tomatoes, hominy, jalapeños and tortilla chips.

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Grilled Chicken Sandwiches with Mozzarella, Tomato and Basil

Quentin Bacon
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These warm sandwiches are best made with thin bread, so you can get your mouth around them. Some tasters suggested adding pesto, tapenade or a garlicky aioli to make them even more delicious.

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Cardamom Chicken with Rice Pilaf

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Sprinkled with cardamom, roasted until crisp, and topped with an apple-flavored sauce, chicken legs become extraordinary. The chicken is perfectly matched by the raisin-studded rice pilaf that's also flavored with cardamom.

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Hot-and-Crunchy Chicken Cones

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Austin's The Mighty Cone food trailer has become famous for its Hot-and-Crunchy Cones: fried chicken coated in an ingenious mix of cornflakes, slivered almonds and sesame seeds, then wrapped in a tortilla with a mango-jalapeño slaw and a spicy ancho "paint." To simplify the recipe, keep the crunch but omit the chile "paint," instead upping the amount of jalapeños in the slaw.

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Chicken Marsala

© Abby Hocking
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Our variation on the Italian-American classic includes smoky, salty bacon to balance the sweetness of the wine.

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Chicken with Port and Figs

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Dried figs are poached in port to make a luscious Portuguese-inspired sauce. Ruby port provides the best color, but tawny will also taste good.

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Pan-Roasted Chicken with Corn Relish

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This one-skillet recipe is based on a dish Cathal Armstrong's father, Gerry, made when Armstrong was growing up in Dublin, with a big difference. "We only got fresh corn for our birthdays. Otherwise it was frozen."

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Stovetop Chicken and Dumplings

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Baking these easy dumplings right on top of the simmering stew makes them extra fluffy.

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Chicken Parmesan with Pepperoni

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Chef Bryan Vietmeier merges two Italian-American favorites here: chicken parm and pepperoni.

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Chicken and Rice with Fresh Chorizo

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"In the Amazon, cooks make a Portuguese-style chorizo that's very good," says Pedro Miguel Schiaffino. He uses it with other local ingredients in this spin on a Latin classic.

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Chicken Smothered in Gravy

Photo © Quentin Bacon
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This satisfying riff on smothered pork chops calls for skinless chicken drumsticks, which have only slightly more fat than breasts, as well as more zinc and iron and tons more flavor.

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Sour-Orange Yucatán Chickens

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Orange juice and lemon juice give this superb roast chicken a pleasant tang; honey gives it a touch of sweetness.

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Slow Cooker Thai-Inspired Chicken Stew

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Thai-Style Chicken In Lettuce Leaves

© Christina Holmes
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Stir-Fried Chicken with Chinese Cabbage

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A simple sauce of garlic, hot pepper, sherry, wine vinegar, and tomato, adds intense flavor to this quick stir-fry and it practically makes itself while the chicken and cabbage cook. Steamed rice is an ideal accompaniment.

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Curried Chicken on Pita