20 Seriously Good Chicken Recipes Our Editors Love

Air-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried, grilled, simmered, or baked: There's nothing this star poultry can't do.

By
Mimi Young
Mimi Young
Mimi Young
Editor
Mimi Young is an editor and chef.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Updated July 30, 2024
Chicken Inasal on a white plate next to dipping sauce and a bowl of white rice

Serious Eats / Julia Hartbeck

While there are probably more than a million ways to cook a chicken—see all the tomes devoted to chicken cookery lining bookstore shelves—in actuality, most of us only use a few on a regular basis. Our choices are usually based on familiarity and personal preference, though sometimes what's trending can pique our interest enough to get us to try something new. I, for one, am a sucker for chicken recipes with good visuals on Instagram. They motivate me to seek out unfamiliar flavor combinations and textures, learn new cooking techniques, and look at old tried-and-true recipes in a different light.

This is how I've approached curating this collection of seriously good chicken recipes. There are familiar favorites like Southern fried and barbecue chicken (but done in an air fryer) and a spicy fried chicken sandwich with a Korean twist. We offer different methods of cooking a classic Moroccan chicken m'qualli (without the traditional tagine) and a more flavorful Indian butter chicken. There's even chicken soup to nourish your body and soul, made with whole little chickens stuffed with sticky rice and aromatics instead of shredded chicken and vegetables. So what are you waiting for? You just might discover new must-haves to add to your chicken-recipe repertoire.

  • Chicken Pot Pie with Buttermilk Biscuit Topping

    Closeup of spoon digging into baking dish of chicken pot pie with biscuit topping

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Whether you're Team Pie Crust or Team Biscuit, a solid chicken pot pie recipe is something you should always have in your back pocket. Lightly cold-poaching bone-in chicken in stock keeps the meat tender and not only concentrates the chicken flavor, but also adds body to the filling without the excessive richness of heavy cream. Here, the drop biscuits provide contrasting texture and tanginess from the buttermilk.

  • Air-Fryer Southern Fried Chicken

    A blue platter with air-fryer fried chicken

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    These days, who doesn't have an air fryer? While it offers quick and easy ways to cook your favorite foods with less fat, getting just the right texture and mouthfeel of say, traditional Southern fried chicken, can be a challenge. We took on that assignment and cracked the code with a buttermilk-pickle brine and a well-seasoned dredge that produces a fantastically juicy chicken full of the crisp craggy bits we'd expect in down-home Southern fried chicken.

  • Air-Fryer BBQ Chicken

    Air fryer bbq chicken on blue plate beside bbq sauce and mac n' cheese

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    An air fryer also comes in handy when the weather doesn't permit outdoor grilling or when you simply want barbecue chicken without having to fire up the grill. This recipe only takes five minutes of prep and cooks up in about 20 minutes—great for busy weeknights. The key is to space out the chicken to allow for even airflow and wait until the chicken is cooked halfway before smothering it in a sweet and tangy barbecue sauce to ensure a light, pleasant char.

  • Kimchi-Brined Fried Chicken Sandwich

    Side view of kimchi fried chicken Sandwich

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Move over Nashville hot chicken—there's another spicy fried chicken sandwich in town! This one's got sweet, tangy heat from fiery Korean gochujang, gochugaru, honey, and vinegar, punchy acidic funk from kimchi, a super crispy coating, creamy kimchi mayo, and cool shredded cabbage. So damn tasty, it's worth pulling out the frying oil.

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  • Jamaican Pan Chicken

    Pan chicken served with white bread and ketchup and pan sauce.

    Serious Eats / Karina Matalon

    A popular roadside specialty in Jamaica, pan chicken doesn't get nearly as much attention as its better-known cousin, jerk chicken. That's a shame, because pan chicken is a staple of Jamaican food culture and the ultimate fast food. In our version, the chicken is rubbed throughout and under the skin with a mix of scallions, ginger, garlic, Scotch bonnet pepper, and thyme, then grilled over smoky coals to charred perfection. Serve it with plenty of ketchup, Scotch sauce, and slices of Jamaican bread.

  • Chicken Souvlaki With Tzatziki Sauce and Greek Salad

    Skewers served with salad, pita, and tzatziki sauce

    Serious Eats / Julia Estrada

    A classic vinaigrette of lemon, red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, and garlic does double duty as both a marinade and a dressing. You can pull together the Greek salad and creamy tzatziki while the chicken marinates and cook off the skewers either on the grill or in a grill pan on the stovetop. Fold it all up inside grilled flatbread and you've got yourself a Mediterranean feast.

  • Chicken Inasal (Filipino Grilled Chicken)

    Chicken Inasal on a white plate next to dipping sauce and a bowl of white rice

    Serious Eats / Julia Hartbeck

    This rendition of the decadent Filipino street food features chicken thighs marinated in a mixture of coconut vinegar, citrus juice, lemon-lime soda, dark muscovado sugar, and Maggi seasoning, then brushed with aromatic annatto oil and grilled over charcoal. You'll want to serve it with white or garlic rice and plenty of sawsawan, a vinegary dipping sauce.

  • Chicken M’qualli Tagine With Olives and Preserved Lemon

    Overhead view of chicken tagine on a platter

    Serious Eats / Jen Causey

    The great thing about this recipe is that you don't have to cook it in a traditional tagine. In fact, cooking it in a regular pot allows for a more consistent and even cooking process that prevents moisture from evaporating too early. It's Moroccan comfort food—cooked in olive oil and seasoned with turmeric, ginger, and saffron—that's bold, sweet, and fragrant, balanced with sour and bitter flavors from preserved lemons and olives.

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  • Chicken Adobo (Filipino-Style Braised Chicken)

    Serving of chicken adobo with white rice on a plate, with more adobo sauce being poured over a chicken thigh with a spoon

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    The perfect balance of deep savoriness and bright acidity, chicken adobo is undoubtedly the most well-known and universally beloved Filipino dish. And while it's true that every Filipino family has their own prized (and highly guarded) recipe, we think this one is a keeper. You'll be tempted to dig right in, even if chicken adobo is always better the next day—who can blame you?

  • Butter Chicken

    Butter Chicken in a bright blue bowl served with rice on the side

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Although many popular butter chicken recipes simply involve chucking all the ingredients into a pressure cooker, we think putting in a little extra effort can make a world of difference. Here, we coat the chicken in a spiced marinade, then broil it as to ensure tender, juicy chicken morsels with a little bit of char to enhance the flavor of the dish.

  • Soy Sauce Chicken With Cola

    A whole Coca Cola Soy Sauce Chicken plattered with more sauce

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    Walk by any Chinese deli and you'll see whole birds hanging in the window, glistening with a mahogany soy sauce glaze. It's not the easiest to make, so most people (myself included) just leave it to the professionals. Enter Tim Chin's soy sauce chicken with Coca-Cola, which takes full advantage of the soda's citrus, caramel, cinnamon, and vanilla notes to produce a gorgeous amber ringer for the classic soy sauce chicken. Toasting the spices first is key to waking up the flavors in the marinade.

  • Samgyetang (Korean Rice-Stuffed Chicken Soup)

    Samgyetang in a black clay pot garnished with scallion

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    If chicken soup feeds the body and soul, then samgyetang takes chicken soup to a whole other level. Instead of shreds of chicken swimming in broth, this Korean iteration features whole small birds stuffed with sticky rice and aromatic goodies like ginseng, chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, sweet jujubes, and garlic. While it's traditionally eaten during sweltering Korean summers to "fight heat with heat," making you feel cooler and restoring your strength, samgyetang can also warm your bones in chilly weather.

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  • Tom Kha Gai (Thai Chicken Soup with Coconut and Galangal)

    A bowl of Tom Kha Gai

    Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

    When it comes to chicken soup, many consider tom kha gai to be the epitome of go-to comfort food. The combination of chicken stock and coconut cream produces a light and creamy broth that's deeply aromatic from fresh young ginger, lemongrass, and makrut lime leaves. Fish sauce provides savoriness, while fresh lime juice adds brightness and acidity.

  • Takeout-Style Kung Pao Chicken (Diced Chicken With Peppers and Peanuts)

    A plate of Kung Pao Chicken with spoon

    Serious Eats / Melissa Hom

    It might sound like an oxymoron, but the best takeout kung pao chicken could very well be the one you make at home—provided you lightly marinate the dark meat chicken first so it'll brown nicely, use the proper technique for stir-frying the vegetables (in batches), add just the right amount of aromatics, and coat it with a simple glossy sauce.

  • The Best Classic Chicken Salad Sandwich

    Side view of chicken salad sandwich

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    It seems rather obvious, but you can't make the best chicken salad sandwich without a superior chicken salad. We go the extra mile by cooking the chicken sous vide with lemon and herbs to keep the meat tender and flavorful before dressing it in homemade mayo. Mounding the salad on Bibb lettuce is key to avoiding soggy bread or loose chunks that otherwise detract from your sandwich-eating experience.

  • Galinhada Mineira (Brazilian Chicken and Rice From Minas Gerais)

    Overhead view of Galinhada Mineira in a serving bowl

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    This Brazilian dish makes the most of a single chicken. The secret to making a standout one-pot chicken and rice dish lies in the layering of flavors—such as deeply browning the chicken to develop a roasted flavor that infuses the rice and releasing rendered chicken fat to coat every grain. Blooming spices in oil and even seasoning throughout the dish is also crucial.

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  • The Best Creamy Chicken Enchiladas

    Chicken Enchiladas served up drizzled with crema

    Serious Eats / J. Kenji López-Alt

    Kenji's recipe packs a whole lot of flavor into one baking dish. Poblano chiles are roasted until blackened, then the charred peels are used to flavor the enchilada sauce. Chicken thighs are deeply browned before being shredded, while Jack cheese and crema add a rich luxurious texture to the filling.

  • Oyakodon (Japanese Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl)

    Oyakodon, in a white ceramic bowl alongside wooden chopsticks, a small ceramic bowl holding togarashi seasoning, and an additional bowl of oyakodon off to the left side.

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    Oyakodon is another super popular restaurant favorite that's just as easy to make at home. It starts with making a broth that's a classic Japanese sweet-and-savory combination of dashi, soy sauce, dry sake, and sugar simmered with sliced onion. Pieces of boneless, skinless chicken thighs are then added in and cooked through. Beaten eggs, carefully streamed over the simmering chicken, bind everything together in a soft scramble that's piled over bowls of steamed rice and topped with scallions and an optional raw egg yolk.

  • Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken With Furu (Fermented Bean Curd)

    Taiwanese fried chicken on a blue plate

    Serious Eats / Lorena Masso

    Introduced to the masses as an ode to American fried chicken, the Taiwanese take on popcorn chicken is a ubiquitous presence at night markets throughout the country, flavored with familiar Taiwanese spices and occasionally tossed with glassy sheets of deep-fried emerald green Thai basil for extra flavor. A popular twist is flavoring it with furu or fermented bean curd, which gives each bite a sweet, complex finish that pairs nicely with an ice-cold beer.

  • Hawaiian Huli Huli Grilled Chicken Wings

    Hawaiian huli-huli grilled chicken wings and pineapple on a wooden board

    Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

    What's game day or a party without wings? Instead of the usual Buffalo variety, try these grilled wings glazed with an easy-to-make sweet, sticky, smoky, tangy Hawaiian marinade.

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