Recipes

Rendered bacon fat and pieces deepen the savory flavors of this classic Filipino dish.

This creamy chicken and wild rice soup makes use of leftover chicken and comes together in just 20 minutes of active cooking time. It's a great one-bowl meal for busy nights.

Pickling fresh peaches and then charring them on the grill adds extra flavor to this arugula salad with crispy grilled chicken thighs.

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.

A simple combination of lime, cumin, hot paprika and Kewpie mayo is the secret to this delicious grilled chicken from Food & Wine's Justin Chapple.

Chicken thighs are brushed with honey-horseradish butter as they cook, creating a terrific glaze that's complemented by a vibrant, garlicky parsley sauce.

Everyone loves the smoky taste of freshly-grilled chicken, but is cooking the chicken directly on the grates really the best way to go? 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? Thick slices of grilled bread to serve alongside, ready to sop up all those beyond-wonderful juices.

Balinese grilled chicken is marinated in a fragrant blend of spices, including turmeric, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass, then grilled to smoky perfection. Bold, aromatic, and deeply flavorful, it captures the essence of traditional Balinese cuisine.

This jerk chicken recipe is from Paul Chung, who grew up in Jamaica and sampled jerk throughout the island. It's fragrant, fiery-hot, and smoky all at once.

Sheldon Simeon uses fresh ginger and pineapple juice to add bright heat and tang to the sweet, teriyaki-like homemade huli huli sauce that coats the chicken wings and pineapple slices in this recipe. The marinade helps the wings get smoky-sweet on the grill and retain a delicious juicy bite. Huli huli means "turn turn"—huli huli chicken is local specialty on Oahu, where vendors thread chickens on a special rotating grill and broil it over charcoal. When grilling at home, be sure to turn the chicken wings often so they crisp evenly. The slices of fresh, glazed pineapple get smoky on the grill and play off the juicy, caramelized chicken.

Char-grilled marinated chicken thighs get their bold flavor from ají panca and gochujang and are served with a cooling black mint dipping sauce.

Tamarind chicken features tender pieces marinated in a tangy, sweet, and slightly spicy tamarind sauce, then grilled or roasted to perfection. The bold, zesty flavors create a delicious balance of sour, savory, and sweet.

At Cantinho do Aziz, a family-owned Mozambican restaurant in Lisbon, Portugal, chef Jeny Sulemange prepares a grilled coconut chicken that's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, which she serves with a truly irresistible coconut rice. When making this crispy grilled chicken at home, it's all about the marinade. To make it, use full-fat coconut milk; you'll skim the cream to make the marinade and use the remaining milk to infuse the rice with rich coconut flavor. (We recommend a Thai brand of coconut milk, like Chaokoh, which is richer with a much fuller coconut flavor.) Basting the chicken with more marinade on the grill gets the skin doubly crisp—the sugars in the marinade caramelize while the skin cooks and traps moisture and flavor in each bite.

The secret to this perfectly juicy grilled chicken recipe from chef Anthony Endy of The Alisal Guest Ranch and Resort is twofold: One, let the chicken sit in the aromatic citrus-and-herb flavored brine for 24 hours, and two, once your coals are hot, keep it moving on the grill. After the initial sear, turn the chicken often, and grill until a probe thermometer inserted in the thickest portion registers 155°F. Try serving it with Santa Maria–Style Pinquito Beans and a mild tomato salsa on the side.

Light up the grill for this simplified version of the classic, flavorful Indian chicken dish, courtesy of Madhur Jaffrey.

Crushed juniper berries combine with garlic and herbs to perfume this smoky chicken that makes for a stunning centerpiece for a leisurely lunch with good company. For a shortcut, substitute quality rotisserie or smoked chickens; simply cover with foil and reheat in a 200°F oven before carving and serving. Either way, smothering the chicken and crushed potatoes with a classic shallot vinaigrette means every plate will be wiped clean.

To help build deep layers of flavor in these tacos, Fermín Núñez begins his marinade by toasting and charring aromatics: dried chiles, cinnamon, allspice, and onions all hit the heat before soaking with juicy chicken thighs for an hour, imparting smoky flavor before they cook quickly on the grill or in the oven (see Note). Pair them with fresh tomatillo salsa cruda for a next-level taco night.

A pinch of ground allspice adds interest to a not-too-sweet maple and mustard concoction inspired by chef Brendan Collins. The simple sauce does double duty as a dressing for salad and as a marinade for chicken thighs — just reserve a little bit of the sauce for adding effortless pizzazz to a quick salad, and use the rest of it as a marinade to give chicken thighs a lacquered shine and deep flavor. The recipe is for grilled chicken thighs — see the note at the end of the recipe for how to prepare them in the oven.

These juicy roast chickens are marinated in a tangy, garlic-laden, Puerto Rican-style marinade. "It's the vinegar that makes you want to keep eating," Bill Kim says. "That flavor lingers and haunts you."

Dried figs are poached in port to make a luscious Portuguese-inspired sauce to pair with roast chicken for a meal perfect for the first fall nights. Ruby port provides the best color, but tawny will also work well

For this delicious, mustardy chicken, Jacques Pépin splits the chicken and cuts between the leg and shoulder joints to halve the cooking time.

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.

The garlicky butter in this recipe yields juicy meat and crispy skin, making this herb-roasted chicken dish a winner every time.

Wylie Dufresne is a genius at using avant-garde techniques to turn everyday ingredients into miraculous dishes. For instance, at his Manhattan restaurant WD-50, the revamped menu includes chicken confit with peas and carrots: The “peas” are actually carrots coated with freeze-dried pea powder. But when F&W challenged the Top Chef Masters contestant to create a fast recipe, he simply roasted the carrots to serve with chicken and tomato-infused tapioca porridge. It takes three chefs 12 hours to prepare the WD-50 dish, but less than an hour for a home cook to make this one.

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.

Andrew Zimmern’s Kitchen AdventuresFamily meal night across America just got easier, and so did entertaining on a budget. Don’t wait for August to make ratatouille; paired with roast chicken pieces, it’s a classic combination that even your kids will devour. If you care to, this dish works equally well with turkey quarters on the grill: Use the same marinade, but roast using indirect heat over wood coal for about 80 to 90 minutes for dark quarters, and 70 minutes for turkey breast.

Yes, three heads of garlic. You don't have to peel the cloves first. They soften during cooking and take on a subtle sweetness. Each person squeezes the garlic out of its skin onto the plate to eat with the chicken.

At his chicken-focused restaurant in Atlanta, Bantam + Biddy, Shaun Doty uses an Old Hickory rotisserie to cook his birds, which are coated with a lemony fennel-seed rub.

This chicken dish is elegant enough for entertaining and easy enough for a simple

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." More Great Chicken Recipes

Julia Child's chicken recipe is a lesson in simplicity and technique, yielding a flavorful, perfectly cooked bird you'll want to make again and again.

This aromatic roasted chicken is infused with Moroccan spices like cumin, coriander, and cinnamon, then roasted to golden perfection. Tender and flavorful, it’s often paired with olives, preserved lemon, or root vegetables for a rich, exotic meal.

"This recipe looks like a doozy, but it really delivers," says Andrea Reusing. "The chickens are just so reliably juicy, even when they're cooked longer than they should be." Smoking the birds quickly over anise-scented tea makes them wonderfully fragrant. If you prefer to cook one chicken instead of two, smoke it in a wok or a pot rather than a roasting pan.

This is a fantastic roast chicken, but the real star in the recipe is the olive bread, which gets spread in the roasting pan and toasted in the chicken pan juices. The bread turns custardy on the inside and crunchy on the outside.

Marinated in tangy sour orange juice, garlic, and Yucatán spices, these chickens are roasted or grilled to juicy perfection. Bold, citrusy, and deeply flavorful, they capture the vibrant essence of traditional Yucatán cuisine.

This six-pound bird yields a lot of meat. But if you want even more, get a capon (a castrated rooster). They're quite huge: nine to 11 pounds. (You'll have to increase the amount of ingredients relative to the size of the bird, which will also take longer to cook.) Eugenia Bone gets capons from dartagnan.com.

Tender chicken is roasted with fresh ginger, garlic, and aromatic spices, creating a flavorful, fragrant dish with a hint of warmth and zest. Perfectly crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.

Rubbing butter on chicken skin (as well as under it) and letting it sit in the fridge for a few hours is a great way to make it extra-crispy, with moist breast meat. Here, Floyd Cardoz flavors the butter with cilantro, garlic, mint, chiles, cumin and lime juice.

Chicken quarters roasted with golden squash and sage are nice for a chilly autumn evening. To help the squash to brown evenly, be sure to spoon off the fat from the roasting pan after removing the breasts. This is a case where less is more: A thin layer of fat will brown the vegetable better than a quarter-inch of it.

This crisp and juicy roast chicken from star chef Jonathan Waxman of NYC’s Jams is perfect with his chunky seven-herb salsa verde.

"I'm crazy for chicken," Piero Incisa della Rocchetta says. "I regularly eat a whole one by myself." Inspired by beautifully browned Peking duck, he brushes chickens with a mixture of soy sauce and honey from the beehives in his Patagonia vineyards.

In this supersimple dish from Justin Chapple, chicken legs roast on top of torn pieces of bread that absorb the rich and tangy juices, becoming deliciously crisp and chewy.

Chefs Evan and Sarah Rich of RT Rotisserie in San Francisco make the very best chicken. They use a buttermilk brine that includes umami powder, garlic and Douglas fir—a signature ingredient from their flagship restaurant, Rich Table, that they forage themselves. In this adaptation, the chicken is roasted in the oven, and the brine is made with buttermilk, dried porcini, garlic and rosemary, though if you have access to Douglas fir sprigs, feel free to use them.

For this easy one-pan dish, Grace Parisi roasts chicken legs on a bed of potatoes and kale so the meaty juices keep the vegetables moist. Prep takes just 10 minutes and the resulting meal serves eight or makes for excellent leftovers. There's very little clean-up as everything bakes up together and can be served straight from the pan. It's super healthy from the kale and lemon, but also hearty because of the roasted potatoes.

“I’ve always been confident that simple, delicious food is good on its own terms. You just have to not mess it up.” — Judy Rodgers

Ashley Christensen, the chef at Poole's in North Carolina, kicks up her pimiento cheese with spicy poblanos and green hot sauce. In this brilliant riff, Justin Chapple spreads the creamy dip under the skin of a whole bird before it's roasted to get both crispy skin and juicy meat.

Succulent chicken is butter-roasted to golden perfection, then finished with a savory soy garlic glaze. The result is a rich, juicy dish with a perfect balance of umami, sweetness, and crisp, caramelized skin.

Juicy roast chicken is served with a vibrant cilantro mint chutney, bursting with fresh herbs, citrus, and a hint of spice. This dish balances rich, savory flavors with bright, zesty freshness for a bold, satisfying meal.

Chef Hillary Sterling's roast chicken is spicy, garlicky, and perfectly juicy — and excellent served over smoky, caramelized vegetables.

The secret to incredibly flavorful chicken cutlets is a quick marinade in feta brine in advance of grilling. Food & Wine’s Justin Chapple then whips the feta cheese with lemon juice and olive oil to use as a spread for the excellent sandwiches here.

Chicken thighs are perfect for the grill because they stay nice and moist. Skewering them with rosemary imparts a lovely herbal flavor.