Our Best Chicken Recipes

Who needs a deep fryer when you can get such delicious results from an air-fryer? Starts with a hot-sauce buttermilk soak, then coat the chicken with well-seasoned flour mixture. A dip in beaten eggs, then back into the flour mixture to ensure a crispy coating, and the air-fryer will take it from there without quarts of oil and all of the splatters that go along with it. 

Tangy feta and juicy tomatoes roast together in the oven, creating a creamy sauce that clings to ruffly campanelle or corkscrew-shaped cavatappi pasta in this easy bake sheet pan dinner. The whole dish comes together in under an hour as the chicken, cheese, and aromatics bake in the oven, while the pasta and kale quickly cook on the stove. Serve hot, room temperature, or as a chilled pasta salad.

As the child of Portuguese immigrants, 2011 Food & Wine Best New Chef George Mendes grew up eating all sorts of rice dishes at home. "There was simple tomato rice served with fried fish and then rabbit rice on special occasions and holidays," he says. This cozy chicken and rice recipe draws on those memories. In it, shredded rotisserie chicken, olives, sautéed onions and bell pepper, and crispy rendered soppressata are topped with cooked saffron rice and baked until the rice gets crispy on top to make a comforting dinner.

This magnificent dish from chef Jamie Malone of Minneapolis' Grand Cafe easily took the award for our Dish of the Year. Her brilliant interpretation of the classic Paris-Brest (a filled ring of choux pastry) uses a savory chicken-liver mousse instead of the traditional whipped cream. A burnt honey glaze and shower of flaky Maldon salt balances the richness and makes the dish outrageously delicious.

Seasoning boneless, skinless chicken thighs with a classic, Southern fried chicken spice blend and dill pickle juice makes for the juiciest, crunchiest fried chicken sandwiches. Choose a dill pickle brine without much sugar, which can burn during cooking.

At chef Ziqiang Lu's Birds of A Feather in Brooklyn, tingly heat from Szechuan peppercorns teams up with slightly sweet dark soy sauce and Shaoxing wine to build deep flavor into this quick stir-fry. Have all of the ingredients at the ready before heating the wok for best results. Lu recommends browning the dried chile peppers until well toasted. This helps tease out their aroma and leaves you with a warming mouthfeel that lingers.

At Nari in San Francisco, chef Pim Techamuanvivit's gaeng rawaeng, a whole Cornish game hen submerged in a deeply savory golden curry redolent with spices, is served with impossibly flaky roti for sopping. In this recipe, a small chicken—standing in here for the Cornish game hen in the original dish—gently cooks in a velvety sauce of coconut milk spiced with chiles and galangal.

French Laundry chef-owner Thomas Keller uses panko bread crumbs to give chicken a crunchy crust. "Pounding chicken breasts to a uniform thickness cuts down on cooking time," he advises.

This mole by chef Ofelia Barajas at La Guerrera's Kitchen in Oakland is inspired by her grandmother Jovita Vargas' recipe from her restaurant in Guerrero, Mexico. It's rich, warm, and well balanced, with a variety of chiles adding layers of heat, fruitiness, sweetness, and smokiness.

Chef Meherwan Irani's Parsi-style fried chicken is first marinated with an aromatic mix of ginger, garlic, chiles, and spices, then dredged in flour and dipped in fluffy beaten egg for a crispy, golden crust. Basting the chicken while it cooks helps to crisp the outside while keeping the inside juicy and evenly cooked. He serves this dish with a quick slaw of shredded cabbage and carrots, chopped cilantro, and healthy dashes of vinegar and lime juice.

At their Chicago restaurant Superkhana International, Zeeshan Shah and Yoshi Yamada's flavor-packed Butter Chicken Calzone takes three days to make; thankfully, they've shared some shortcuts (like a great store-bought butter chicken spice blend and store-bought pizza dough) for this homemade version. Whole-milk yogurt and gently acidic tomatoes team up with warm spices to flavor and tenderize boneless, skinless chicken thighs for the rich calzone filling. 

Chef Samantha Fore's favorite Sri Lankan grab-and-go snack, maalu paan, a yeasty roll stuffed with spiced fish and potato, inspired this rendition, filled with curry-spiced chicken, leek, and carrot. Typically made with homemade dough, these get a speedy upgrade thanks to store-bought frozen rolls.

This hybrid skillet-on-the-grill method lets you capture all the delicious juices that the bird gives off as it cooks, while still allowing the chicken to absorb plenty of barbecue flavor. Smoky charcoal, plus the rich, deep notes of smoked paprika and chipotle chile, add plenty of depth. Achiote paste delivers a seductive red color to the meat, and a bed of rosemary adds that irresistible flavor. A final brilliant touch is thick slices of grilled bread to serve alongside, ready to sop up all those beyond-wonderful juices.

Grated fresh turmeric gives this grilled chicken a golden glow, while plenty of garlic, ginger, and puckery tamarind add bright flavor. Coconut charcoal burns exceptionally clean, letting the marinade shine. In Bali, Indonesia, Ibu Djelantik serves this chicken with her version of sambal matah, a bright, slaw-like condiment with chiles, shallots, and makrut lime or Key lime juice that offers a refreshing counterpoint to the chicken.

This hearty Soto Ayam, an Indonesian soup, served at Diana and Maylia Widjojo's restaurant Hardena in Philadelphia, is the perfect one-bowl meal. The fragrant soup, filled with juicy chicken and delicate vermicelli noodles, gets topped with cabbage and sprouts to add texture and fresh crunch. The spice paste, bloomed in oil alongside fresh lemongrass and lime leaves, layers a mildly earthy, warming flavor into the broth.

In this flavor-packed chicken, Juan Pablo Loza, director of culinary operations at Rosewood Mayakoba in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, shares his obsession for the al pastor style of cooking. This dish takes its inspiration from a traditional way of roasting chicken in Michoacán, where butterflied whole chickens are marinated with citrus, and speared with thick wooden stakes hammered into the ground. Here, the cooking style is adapted to a horizontal grill basket set over two stacks of bricks on the grate, positioning the chicken up and away from the hot coals.

At Blue Hill at Stone Barns in Pocantico Hills, New York, chef Dan Barber prepares this soup with seasonal chicken (raised in late spring, summer, and fall), using wings, backs, necks, and feet. His recipe yields almost eight quarts of broth, so there's plenty to freeze.

The meat is marinated overnight with onions, garlic, thyme, and chiles along with citrus, and then rubbed forcefully onto the chicken to access the fragrant oils. After the meat takes on all that flavor, it's stewed with the marinade and loads of bell peppers for a satisfying, thrilling stew. 

Fall in love with Molly Yeh's simple and hearty take on knoephla, the traditional German soup filled with dense, chewy and satisfying dumplings.

James Holmes, the chef at Lucy's Fried Chicken in Austin, soaks livers in buttermilk, hot sauce and soy sauce to temper the gaminess and make them extra-delicious.

Hero sandwiches at the sub shop are usually served on untoasted rolls, but we prefer to brush the bread with olive oil and run it under the broiler for a minute or two. If you like, put a slice of mozzarella on the top half of each before broiling.

Extra-juicy and crispy pan-fried chicken tenders are hard to resist, but recipe developer Laura Rege ups the ante by serving them alongside a spectacularly bright and creamy vinegar aioli for dipping.

Jonathan Waxman's tasty chicken salad—made with the leftovers from a rotisserie bird—gets dressed with a mix of yogurt and Gorgonzola cheese.

The traditional Greek avgolemono soup is just chicken broth (thickened with egg and flavored with lemon) and rice. We add juicy bites of chicken breast and green peas to make the soup a meal. 

The dumplings in this simply-flavored chicken with dumplings are made like biscuits. Baking them in the oven while the chicken cooks saves precious time.

Chicken breast adds plenty of protein but not much fat to this version of ajiaco, a cilantro-scented chicken soup that's virtually Colombia's national dish. Stirring in fiber-rich brown rice turns the soup into a satisfying one-dish meal.

At Goodnight Charlie's, a honky-tonk bar in Houston run by master sommelier David Keck, chef Felipe Riccio's crispy hot chicken tacos are the perfect snack to fuel late nights on the dance floor. Riccio likes to top them with spicy, chorizo-studded braised collards and bread-and-butter pickles.

Chef Hillary Sterling's epic chicken at Vic's in New York gets its juiciness and deep flavor from brining, air drying, and marinating. The process is simple but does require some planning­—start at least a day ahead. She serves the bird on a mix of charred broccoli, onions, and fingerling potatoes, fiery from the chiles and fresh from the basil, with a bright kick of red wine vinegar. Six heads of garlic mellow and sweeten after roasting, adding a caramelized flavor to the dressing and the marinade.