A white bowl filled with quick chicken chili with a spoon resting inside and a lime wedge on top.
Cooking Light
1 of 23

Quick Chicken Chili

This quick chicken chili is easy and healthy and made with boneless chicken, plenty of spice, cannellini beans, and green chiles. It’s exactly what you want when you crave something that’s satiating as heck but fast as can be.
Recipe
Two pan seared chicken breasts in a stainless steel skillet with a pair of tongs resting on one of the chicken breasts.
Carl Tremblay
2 of 23

Pan Seared Chicken Breast

This pan seared chicken breast from Cook’s Illustrated calls for just four ingredients—chicken, olive oil, salt, and pepper—but boasts shatteringly crisp skin, tender meat, and a stovetop that isn’t spattered with grease. This is going to change your weeknight chicken game.
Recipe
Plastic container or North African chicken soup with shredded chicken, ras el hanout, couscous, and preserved lemon
Martin Poole
3 of 23

North African Chicken Soup

This North African chicken soup is made with chicken stock, ras el hanout, couscous, and preserved lemon. It’s an easy and inexpensive soup that is just as satisfying at dinner as it is at your desk for lunch the next day.
Recipe
Black pottery bowl filled with the Chinese dish gung bao chicken
William Lingwood
4 of 23

Gung Bao Chicken

This gung bao chicken, made with boneless chicken breast, chiles, Szechuan peppercorns, and peanuts, is authentic Szechuan fare.
Recipe
Three spiced roast chicken thighs, with warm spice, cajun, and spiced curry coatings
Todd Coleman
5 of 23

Spiced Roast Chicken

This spiced roast chicken is like a choose-your-own-adventure in weeknight cooking. Choose your favorite rub—spiced curry, Cajun, or warm spice–slather it on chicken pieces (breasts, thighs, drumsticks, they all work well!), and roast until tender.
Recipe
A bowl inside another bowl filled with Thai chicken salad with peanut dressing on the side.
Allison Day
6 of 23

Thai-Inspired Chicken Salad with Peanut Dressing

This easy Thai-inspired chicken salad with tangy peanut dressing makes lunch something to look forward to, with loads of veggies and chicken.
Recipe
A metal sheet pan covered with 8 golden and crisp chicken thighs.
America’s Test Kitchen
7 of 23

Oven-Roasted Chicken Thighs

This oven roasted chicken thighs so ingenious is the technique. Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are baked until cooked through and then broiled to crisp the skin. The result? Juicy, flavorful chicken. Marvelously crisp skin.
Recipe
Wood bowl with tequila-lime chicken tacos, charred limes, radishes, sour cream
Joshua Resnick
8 of 23

Tequila-Lime Chicken Tacos

These easy chicken tacos, made with marinated grilled chicken and a cilantro-spiked mayonnaise, are an easy meal, perfect for weeknights or casual entertaining.
Recipe
A Chinese chicken lettuce cup topped with cashews and cilantro on a white plate.
Nate and Mary Kate
9 of 23

Chinese-Chicken Lettuce Cups

Chinese cooks don’t use a lot of raw vegetables, but instead prefer to stir-fry or braise them. There are a few exceptions, however, and in Hong Kong, cooks fill crisp iceberg lettuce leaves with savory minced meat.
Recipe
A plate piled with homemade chicken strips and dishes of dipping sauce on the side.
John Lee
10 of 23

Homemade Chicken Strips

Homemade chicken strips. When it comes to this type of quick weeknight dinner, we’re all about respecting the yum factor. This recipe does exactly that.
Recipe
A basket of Sriracha chicken wings, two glasses of beer, and a plate with one eaten and one uneaten chicken wing and a wedge of lime.
Jennifer May
11 of 23

Spicy Sriracha Chicken Wings

Spicy Sriracha chicken wings are a step up from the ubiquitous bar food. Fiery heat with lip-smacking flavor, these crisp little beauties will disappear before your eyes. Pass the napkins!
Recipe
White bowl of sliced parmesan-crusted chicken, lettuce, and red and yellow cherry tomatoes
Con Poulos
12 of 23

Parmesan-Crusted Chicken

This Parmesan-crusted chicken recipe is made from chicken, Parmesan, egg, and nothing else. It’s baked, which means you don’t have to constantly tend it or clean up a spattered stovetop afterward. A swell weeknight dinner from the pantry.
Recipe
Six breaded oven fried chicken thighs with four lemon wedges in a parchment-lined dish.
Bec Hudson
13 of 23

Breaded Oven Fried Chicken Thighs

These breaded oven fried chicken thighs come together quickly with just a handful of pantry ingredients. They have all the crispy goodness of fried chicken, without the mess and hassle of deep frying.
Recipe
A wok filled with kung pao chicken with two chopsticks on the edge
somegirl
14 of 23

Kung Pao Chicken With Peanuts

This Kung Pao chicken is an easy, authentic Chinese dish made with crisp chicken breast, peanuts, and chile peppers in a sauce made from soy sauce, black vinegar, and sesame oil.
Recipe
A white oval serving platter topped with three skewers of chicken yakitori with honey sauce.
Meikyou
15 of 23

Chicken Yakitori with Honey Sauce

This chicken yakitori with honey sauce is a simple Japanese style method for grilling skewered chicken thighs. Served with a soy, honey, and garlic marinade and dipping sauce, this easy recipe belongs in your weeknight dinner rotation.
Recipe
A pile of Cajun fried chicken pieces.
Chris Granger
16 of 23

Cajun Fried Chicken

This Cajun fried chicken recipe is bathed in buttermilk and turns out crisp, slightly spicy, perfectly deep-fried loveliness thanks to its Southern charm and Louisiana personality. Quite literally the best we’ve had.
Recipe
A bowl filled with Vietnamese chicken soup with a spoon resting in it.
Ken Goodman
17 of 23

Vietnamese Chicken Rice Soup

Vietnamese chicken rice soup is a quick and easy version of congee, a sensationally soothing southeast Asian elixir of rice, chicken broth, and ginger.
Recipe
Four pieces of classic chicken piccata topped with parsley and capers on a white oval serving plate.
Stacey Tyzzer
18 of 23

Classic Chicken Piccata

This is a simple, delicious dish that’s quick to make. It’s perfect to serve on a big plate for the whole family to share with a simple green salad.
Recipe
Crispy fried chicken pieces on grease-stained paper.
Ditte Isager
19 of 23

Padma Lakshmi’s Crispy Fried Chicken

The key to moist, plump, juicy fried chicken is the marinating, either in salted water—a brine—or in milk. I've combined the two methods. The combination of salt and milk results in sheer, succulent pleasure because the milk makes the meat even sweeter.
Recipe
6 grilled chicken skewers piled on a wooden cutting board and sprinkled with slices of red onion and cilantro.
Weldon Owen
20 of 23

Chicken Skewers

These chicken skewers are magnificently easy to toss on the grill for a quick dinner. The distinct Thai taste comes from a simple marinade of coconut milk, fish sauce, cilantro, and curry.
Recipe
Port-paprika chicken bites garnished with cilantro, piled on a square white plate with a dish of picks.
Alexandrea Grablewski
21 of 23

Port-Paprika Chicken Bites

These port and paprika chicken bites include Portuguese and Spanish ingredients flavor these tapas. It's also perfect served over rice as an entrée for two.
Recipe
Bowl of cashew chicken with chunks of stir-fried chicken, carrots, sugar snap peas, celery, cashews.
Steven Mark Needham
22 of 23

Cashew Chicken

This cashew chicken is close to the real Cantonese deal. It calls for chicken thighs, ginger, and garlic to be stir-fried with sugar snaps and carrots in a simple, barely there sauce made with rice vinegar and soy sauce. Done in 30 minutes. And darn near keto.
Recipe
A white plate topped with a piece of brown butter flattened chicken, tomato sauce, arugula and red onion salad, and pine nuts.
Donal Skehan
23 of 23

Brown Butter Flattened Chicken

This brown butter flattened chicken is served with a buttery tomato sauce and a pickled red onion and arugula salad. The finished dish rivals a restaurant-quality meal, yet it takes only 30 minutes to toss together.
Recipe



About David Leite

David Leite has received three James Beard Awards for his writing as well as for Leite’s Culinaria. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Martha Stewart Living, Saveur, Bon Appétit, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Yankee, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and more.


Hungry For More?

Garlic-Butter Shrimp Pasta

Only 30 minutes and a few simple ingredients stands between you and a warm bowl of pasta and shrimp bathed in lemon garlic butter. What are you waiting for?

30 mins

Caramel Apple Pie

Classic apple pie just went next level with the addition of sweet caramel on top.

5 hrs

Whole Wheat Pie Crust

There are pie crusts, and there’s this crust–nutty, crisp, buttery, and oh-so-perfect for your favorite pie–sweet or savory.

1 hr 5 mins


Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *