A chicken dinner shouldn’t be a gamble; it should leave you feeling like a winner, winner.
Whether you prefer your chicken bone-in or bone-out, the meat white or dark, the pieces cooked low and slow or fired hot and high on a grill, there’s a New York Times Cooking recipe out there for you. Our readers have found a lot to love about the 14 recipes below, our most-saved chicken dishes from this year so far.
The combination of chicken and rice is beloved across cultures, and there are myriad ways to prepare it. This recipe from Kay Chun marries subtle yet fragrant coconut rice with cut-up boneless, skinless chicken thighs for especially easy cooking. The dish is studded with yellow bell pepper, chopped cashews and fresh cilantro for welcome moments of vibrancy and texture.
Tajín, the tangy, spicy Mexican seasoning often sprinkled on sliced mango, is a streamlined way to add citrusy heat to marinades or rubs for quick, flavorful weeknight chicken. Rick Martinez wields it expertly here, combining it with agave syrup, orange juice and zest, chipotles in adobo, garlic and olive oil before brushing it onto chicken thighs that await a hot grill grate.
Recipe: Tajín Grilled Chicken
Melissa Clark developed this recipe so that anyone — with truly any amount of kitchen skill or know-how — can make it. Not only is it exceptionally easy, requiring little more than seasoning chicken and potatoes and arranging them on a sheet pan, it also calls for very few ingredients. It really is dinner at its simplest.
A Mexican michelada is a delightfully savory cocktail, so it should come as no surprise that its ingredients can also be a punchy sauce for chicken breasts or thighs. Ali Slagle first marinates the chicken in the mixture of beer, Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce and lime juice, then reduces the liquid for a final sauce to drizzle over the sizzled meat. Just be sure to save a Tecate or Modelo to enjoy with your meal.
Fruit jam is an excellent shortcut ingredient to use in sauces, like the one Nicole Taylor assembles here with other pantry staples like molasses, soy sauce and tomato paste. If you don’t love peach, feel free to swap in another fruit jam — it’ll taste just as good. This recipe, which is from Ms. Taylor’s cookbook “Watermelon and Red Birds: A Cookbook for Juneteenth and Black Celebrations,” is fit for any occasion, be it a Juneteenth gathering or a run-of-the-mill Wednesday evening.
Recipe: Peach and Molasses Chicken
Sweet, sour and a little spicy, this streamlined, 15-minute stir-fry is everything you love about kung pao chicken. Genevieve Ko adapted this recipe from her childhood friend’s mother, who would whip it up on busy evenings while tending to three kids, so you know it’s weeknight battle tested. Little more than black vinegar, sugar, soy sauce and cornstarch, the sauce is a straightforward yet delicious way to get chicken on the table in no time.
Recipe: Easy Kung Pao Chicken
Because chicken and rice really is that nice, here’s another interpretation, this one hailing from Peru. What sets it apart from other arroz con pollo dishes popular across Latin America is the cilantro purée, which creates a vibrant green coloring, and the aji amarillo, which imparts heat. In this version from Kay Chun, cooked canned hominy stands in for choclo, the Peruvian corn kernels you’ll find in more traditional recipes.
Sometimes, you just have to call it a day and pick up a rotisserie chicken at the grocery store. For those nights, there’s this fun and nostalgic salad from Eric Kim, which requires little more than mixing up a dressing spiked with peach preserves and frying up some wonton wrappers — but even those you could snatch up already cooked from a store or restaurant.
Recipe: Crispy Wonton Chicken Salad
What’s better than a well-rounded meal that comes together in one pan and doesn’t even ask you to make a sauce? That’s what this Ali Slagle recipe strives to achieve, combining chunks of ginger- and herb-flecked chicken and diced root vegetables on a sheet pan, then finishing it all with a drizzle of nutty tahini and a showering of fresh dill.
Let it be known that this dakdori tang, a deeply seasoned Korean chicken stew, can be made either in an Instant Pot or a slow cooker. It’ll work with whatever gadget you’ve got! Sarah DiGregorio calls for bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces, which is traditional to the dish so that you end up with a rich layer of fat on top of the braise. However, if you prefer a leaner stew, simply remove some of the chicken skin before cooking.
Recipes: Instant Pot Dakdori Tang | Slow Cooker Dakdori Tang
For a dish that offers risotto vibes and French bistro flavors, look no further than this one-pot recipe from Sarah DiGregorio. The grains, mushroom and chicken cook down in an aromatic broth for a few hours, then peas and a mustardy crème fraîche are mixed in just before serving for silky freshness.
For perfectly tender meat and crisp skin, roast your chicken low and slow, as Ali Slagle does in this easy-to-follow recipe. Think of this more as a template than anything else: Abide by the cook temperature and time, but feel free to personalize the seasonings, which won’t burn up in a 325-degree oven. Just make sure that your spice blend includes sugar and salt, which help with browning and depth of flavor.
Recipe: Crispy Baked Chicken
Lemon is often tucked into and around a simple whole roast chicken, so why not tangerines? Genevieve Ko stuffs the peels into the cavity, scatters wedges around the chicken and douses it all with a sauce of tangerine juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, rice vinegar and ground cayenne for a delectable dish at the intersection of Cantonese soy sauce chicken and American Chinese orange chicken.
Recipe: Roasted Orange Chicken
This tomato-y, deeply spiced chicken dish is essential to Pakistani cuisine and is traditionally made in a karahi, a wide pan similar to a wok. Here, Zainab Shah calls for a karahi, wok or large skillet and employs cubed boneless chicken thighs instead of the more common bone-in pieces for a speedy cook time.
Recipe: Quick Chicken Karahi (Spicy Chicken and Tomatoes With Chiles)
