Our 50 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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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 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.

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.