75 Healthy Chicken Recipes Everyone Will Love

Chicken and fish are considered to be one of the healthiest types of meat, per The Washington Post, and with chicken you don't face the risk of high mercury levels or whatever other contaminants are lurking in the water. In addition to being good for your body, chicken tends to be pretty easy on your wallet, as well. Even with rising prices lately, it's still one of the cheapest types of meat available, according to Leite's Culinaria.

Oh, and here's some good news for those who prefer dark meat: Not only do thighs and drumsticks tend to cost less than breasts and wings, but they are also high in nutrients like zinc, iron, and B vitamins, per Healthline. That being said, we've got plenty of recipes for all types of chicken here: dark, light, and even one for the often-overlooked, but super-healthy liver.

Chicken soup has long been credited with healing properties, and, in fact, it's as good a cure for the common cold as anything else science has managed to come up with over the millennia this ailment has been plaguing humankind. While this soup won't make the cold go away (spoiler: nothing else will, either), the warm liquid can help to relieve congestion, soothe soar throats, and tempt the appetites of those feeling poorly. While the quickest way to have hot chicken soup usually involves a can opener, our almost-as-speedy version starts out with leftover cooked chicken. If you want to speed things up even further, you can also use pre-cut or frozen vegetables.

Recipe: 20-Minute Chicken Noodle Soup

Salad can be a fun way to integrate leafy greens into you lunch. Cobb salad, though, is an entire meal on a plate, and a rather satisfying one at that. The lettuce leaves stand in for rice, bread, or pasta, while the star of the show is hearty, yet healthy, boneless skinless chicken supported by a sprinkling of bacon bits, blue cheese crumbles, and chopped hard-boiled eggs. For an even healthier and more flavorful version of this salad, you can swap out the ranch dressing for a lighter, tangier vinaigrette.

Recipe: Cobb Salad

Moo Goo Gai pan is a Cantonese term that basically means "chicken and sliced mushrooms," and both of these ingredients are featured in Americanized versions of the dish. Americans also tend to supplement the main ingredients with a wide variety of other vegetables. That is certainly the case in this recipe, as it calls for green onions, carrots, celery, snow peas, and water chestnuts in addition to the chicken and mushrooms. One bowlful, and you'll likely have achieved your vegetable goals for the day.

Recipe: Easy Moo Goo Gai Pan

Got chicken? Got veggies? Got soy sauce and a few other spices and seasonings on hand? Well, in just a few minutes you can have yourself a tasty stir-fry for dinner. While this recipe calls for bell peppers, broccoli, carrots, and snow peas, feel free to substitute any vegetables you happen to prefer. You can also tweak the seasonings to suit your preferences and cut down or omit the sugar used here to reduce the overall calorie count.

Recipe: Chicken Stir Fry

Chicken wings, if you order them in a restaurant, may not be the most nutritious of meals or appetizers. For one thing, there's a good chance they've been deep-fried and dipped in a heavy coating of batter or breading. For another, they may come with an assortment of extra sauces and dips. This slimmed-down snack, however, is made with wings coated in a spicy dry rub and then oven-baked for an easy snack.

Recipe: Baked Chicken Wings

This chicken adobo recipe, while Latin-inspired, also uses some elements common to Asian cuisine such as soy sauce and coconut milk. It's made with budget-friendly chicken drumsticks and coconut milk, which, while high in saturated fat, is rich in iron and may offer other health benefits. You could, though, swap the canned stuff out for the lighter coconut milk that comes in a carton and just cook the sauce a little longer or use a bit more cornstarch to thicken the sauce.

Recipe: Best Chicken Adobo

Mochiko chicken is basically Hawaii's take on fried chicken. It's made from dark meat marinated in soy sauce flavored with garlic and ginger, then dipped in a rice flour batter and deep fried. The word "mochiko" refers to a type of Japanese rice flour. Here we're swapping out the rice flour for cornstarch, but the biggest change we're making is to ditch the deep-frying in favor of baking the chicken in the oven for a lighter, healthier take on the dish.

Recipe: Simple Mochiko Chicken

While fast food gets a bad rap, nutrition-wise, many fast food chains are now adding healthier options to their menu. At Chick-fil-A, one of the best bets for not busting your diet is a grilled version of their famous chicken sandwich. You know how you can make this sandwich even better? Make your own copycat version. That way you can control exactly what ingredients go into it, skip any condiments you don't like, and use your favorite type of bun or even a lettuce leaf.

Recipe: Copycat Chick-Fil-A Grilled Chicken Sandwich

Chicken shawarma is a Middle Eastern dish that is traditionally cooked on a spit in a giant meat cone, but needless to say, this isn't the kind of thing that can easily be done at home. Instead, this shawarma-type preparation makes use of a Mediterranean-style marinade composed of olive oil, lemon juice, cumin, red pepper, garlic, and paprika, but the chicken itself is cooked in the Instant Pot. If you haven't got one of these appliances, though, that's okay, since you can sauté the chicken or bake it in the oven instead.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Shawarma

While the city of Buffalo, New York may have made chicken wings famous, Frank's Red Hot Sauce doesn't hold the sole monopoly on how you can flavor them. Here we're marinating the wings in soy sauce and honey flavored with garlic and five-spice seasoning (bet you already guessed that last ingredient from the title). Then, in lieu of deep-frying them, we're baking them in the oven for a treat that is as nutritious as it is delicious.

Recipe: Easy Chinese Five Spice Chicken Wings

Fried chicken in its classic form is no one's idea of a health food, but frying is still among the most delicious ways to cook poultry. It's no coincidence, after all, that so many chicken-centric restaurants specialize in this particular preparation. Is there, however, some kind of middle ground where you can still enjoy that fried chicken flavor without all of the calories and fat? Why yes, you can marinate your chicken in buttermilk and dip it in a tasty crumb crust, but bake it in the oven instead of deep frying it. As a bonus, it's a lot less messy and dangerous to cook chicken this way, and you won't have to waste a quart of oil, either.

Recipe: Sheet Pan Fried Chicken

Kabobs are a food that's as fun to make as it is to eat. All you need to do is simply thread together alternating chunks of meat and vegetables on a skewer, then cook the kabobs until everything is done. Here we're using chicken breast meat, but thighs would work just as well. As for the vegetables, bell peppers and onions typically work well, but you might also want to use mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, or even pineapple. To make this recipe even easier, we're also baking the kabobs in the oven so there's no need to bother with setting up an outdoor grill.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Kabobs

While true fajitas are only made with beef (the word itself refers to a cut of steak), over the years the word has come to be applied to any type of Mexican-seasoned meat strips cooked with vegetables and served in a tortilla. Fajita-style chicken is a restaurant favorite, but it's a dish you can easily cook at home, as well. Here we're using a crock pot so the meal practically cooks itself while you're busy doing other things.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Fajitas

Rotisserie chickens are a go-to favorite with anyone who wants a healthy meal in a hurry. The best part is, they're also pretty budget-friendly, since not only do you get dinner tonight, but you also get leftovers for tomorrow! Among the popular ways to repurpose rotisserie chicken is using it to top salads or make sandwiches or quesadillas, but we're pretty partial to this rotisserie chicken soup that even makes use of the bones. In fact, you can skip the step where you de-bone the chicken prior to cooking it. Instead, just toss the leftover chicken in the pot, bones and all, then shred the meat off the bones once the soup's done cooking.

Recipe: Leftover Rotisserie Chicken Soup

Chicken cooked in a crockpot with potatoes and onions, what could be simpler? A basic, hearty meal, and one that probably won't cost too much, particularly if you swap out the boneless, skinless breasts used here for thighs or leg quarters. In fact, you can leave the bones and skin on and remove them once the chicken is done. What really makes this dish a standout, though, is the Mediterranean-style seasoning we're using: garlic, lemon, and oregano, three flavors that could be said to make up the holy trinity of Greek flavoring.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Greek Chicken And Potatoes

Sheet pan cooking has been having a moment lately, and for a good reason. After all, who isn't looking to save a little time by fixing a complete dinner in a single step? To make this meal even simpler, just use a bag or two of pre-prepped vegetables of your choice in addition to the boneless, skinless chicken breasts. While this recipe calls for broccoli and carrots, you might prefer mushrooms, onions, or chunks of potato instead. Sprinkle the meat and produce with olive oil, lemon juice, and your favorite seasonings, then set the timer and wait for dinner to cook itself.

Recipe: Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Breasts

If you're a fan of pulled pork sandwiches, but you're looking for a lighter, healthier, low-fat alternative, may we suggest pulled chicken, instead? These seasoned, shredded chicken breasts make for quite a versatile ingredient, as they can not only be subbed for pork in a barbecue sandwich but can also be used in tacos, quesadillas, salads, casseroles, or to top baked potatoes or pizza. In fact, you might want to make up a batch of this and portion it out in single-serve baggies. Keep these on hand in the freezer for the next time you need a meal in a hurry.

Recipe: Easy Pulled Chicken

In summertime, many people pull out their charcoal or gas grills, and suddenly cooking goes from being a chore to an outdoor sport. While hot dogs and hamburgers are typical backyard barbecue fare — except in high-rent neighborhoods where they can afford to serve steaks — grilled chicken makes for a satisfying and affordable meal that's quite a bit healthier than anything typically served on a bun. Pair this simple grilled chicken with a green salad and you'll have a light, summery meal that any nutritionist would give two thumbs up.

Recipe: Grilled Chicken

If you've promised yourself you're going to start eating healthier, but are afraid that means you're doomed to a lifetime of nothing but plain, boring meats and vegetables, fear not, spice can be your new best friend! This Szechuan chicken recipe, for example, is made with boneless, skinless chicken breasts and a whole bunch of vegetables, but the soy sauce and vinegar can help save your taste buds from boredom. If you want an even bigger flavor boost, though, you might want to add a generous pinch of red pepper flakes or a good squirt of sriracha into the mix.

Recipe: Szechuan Chicken

When we think of chicken, we tend to imagine that it comes in just two varieties: light (breasts and wings) and dark (thighs and drumsticks). Well, chickens have other edible parts, too! Thrifty cooks have been known to make good use of everything from beaks to feet to tailbones (aka the pope's nose), but chicken livers are something you shouldn't overlook if you want a more nutritious diet. They're chock full of vitamins and minerals, and as far as their flavor goes, they're actually surprisingly mild and, well, less livery-tasting than beef liver. These herbed baked livers can be eaten as-is, or you could puree them to make a tasty pâté.

Recipe: Simple Baked Chicken Livers

Street tacos are a dish that's definitely having its day, and it's not always a Tuesday, either. This recipe is for an easy chicken taco filling made in a crock pot, and the chicken is actually cooked in salsa so it's plenty flavorful straight out of the pot. Just wrap it in your favorite kind of tortillas, flour or corn. You can even use hard taco shells if that's your preference. They're your tacos, after all, so there's no right or wrong way to eat them.

Recipe: Easy Slow Cooker Chicken Tacos

While fast food isn't always the healthiest choice, there is a way to enjoy these dishes without having to worry so much about what goes into them. How? Well, you simply make them yourself. With our version of a Chick-Fil-A Cool Wrap, you can pair a healthy, low-fat wrap with plain grilled chicken and lettuce and just a sprinkling of grated cheese. If you leave off any fatty sauces or condiments in favor of low-cal ones like mustard or hot sauce, you'll have a light and healthy lunch that will fill you up for under 300 calories.

Recipe: Copycat Chick-Fil-A Cool Wrap

The name green goddess may seem like an artifact of the hippie days, but this groovy herb dressing actually dates to the 1920s and takes its name from that of an old play-turned-movie that, umm, really hasn't aged very well. Still, the creamy salad topper owes its century-long popularity to the fact that it's pretty tasty stuff. A green goddess Cobb salad is a popular item at Panera Bread, but it's something you can easily make at home, as well. In fact, you can tweak the dressing to make it quite a bit healthier by replacing part or all of the mayonnaise with plain yogurt.

Recipe: Copycat Panera Bread Green Goddess Cobb Salad

Brunswick stew is a southern classic, although the debate still rages on as to whether Brunswick County, Virginia or Brunswick, Georgia can claim it as their own. While the original version very likely included whatever lil' critters came within range of a hunter's shotgun (squirrels, bunnies, possums, that sort of thing), these days we prefer to make ours with chicken. In fact, this very modern version even utilizes an Instant Pot, so this dish of chicken, corn, and lima beans in a tomato-based broth should be ready to eat in under half an hour.

Recipe: Instant Pot Brunswick Stew

If you're wondering what a recipe for Cornish game hen is doing on a list of chicken dishes, it's because Cornish hens are chickens. They're just young ones, is all, kind of the veal version of chicken, which is why they're so small. A single hen weighs in at around two pounds and makes a perfect meal for a solo diner, although it could be stretched to serve two if you pair it with a few sides. While Cornish game hens can be prepared in much the same manner as you'd cook a larger chicken, here we're making use of the Instant Pot for a meal that cooks in under 15 minutes, plus some extra time for the pressure to build and then release, of course.

Recipe: Instant Pot Cornish Hen

One classic Greek dish that Mediterranean food connoisseurs are familiar with is avgolemono, which is a sauce or a soup made with chicken broth and lemon juice and thickened with egg yolks. In the U.S., however, versions of this dish typically include chicken meat as well, plus some rice to bulk them out a bit. This soup recipe is an American-style version of avgolemono and can be thrown together pretty quickly by using leftover rotisserie chicken. Oh, and no worries about separating the yolks and re-purposing the whites here, since we're using the entire egg.

Recipe: Creamy Chicken Lemon Rice Soup

One reason many people buy air fryers is for the health benefits — after all, food that is "fried" without oil is much lower in fat and calories than the deep-fried kind. One thing air fryers don't really do too well, though, is to cook anything with a "wet" batter coating, so you can't really do an air-fried chicken that's a close approximation of Colonel Sanders' famous secret recipe. What you can do, however, is use this appliance to cook herb-crusted boneless, skinless chicken breasts. While they're nothing like typical fried chicken, they're perfectly delicious in their own right and make for a fairly effort-free cooking experience, as well.

Recipe: Air Fryer Chicken Breasts

If you're in the mood for chicken noodle soup, whether because you feel a cold coming on or you just want some good old-fashioned comfort food, you may be tempted to just open a can so you can get a quick fix. If you've got the patience, though, this slow-simmered chicken soup is well worth the hours it takes to cook in the crockpot. The best thing about it is, you only need to spend a few minutes' prep time, especially if you buy the vegetables pre-chopped. That means you can start it in the morning before work and have a nice bowl of soup to look forward to by the time you get home.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Noodle Soup That Requires Little Hands-On Time

Dinner in a flash? Stir-fry's always a good stand-by, particularly if you've remembered to thaw some chicken breasts. If not, the good thing about thin-sliced tenders is, they thaw pretty quickly. Throw them together with some peppers and green onions (aka the no-cry kind), add seasonings like soy sauce, hoisin, and honey, and — here's the kicker — toss in a handful of cashews. These tasty nuts not only add some crunch, but they provide plenty of healthy fat and protein.

Recipe: 15-Minute Cashew Chicken

Honey and garlic may seem like they lie at opposite ends of the taste spectrum. Honey, after all, is smooth and sweet, while garlic is sharp, pungent, and, well, garlicky. Surprisingly enough, though, these flavors work quite well together — it must be an opposites-attract-type thing. Try pairing them in this quick and easy chicken dish and you'll see just what we mean. Be sure to serve this honey-garlic chicken with a side of rice or noodles, too, so you don't lose a drop of the delicious pan sauce.

Recipe: Easy Baked Honey Garlic Chicken

Soup is often thought of as the sidekick to a sandwich or salad or perhaps a starter course if you're having a fancy meal, there are some soups that can stand on their own as an entrée. This enchilada soup is one of the latter kind, as it's chock full of chicken, corn, beans, onions, and peppers. If you want to make this hearty, healthy bowl even more filling, you could add shredded cheese, tortilla strips, and/or sliced avocado.

Recipe: Enchilada Soup

For a fast casual chain restaurant, Panera Bread actually has some pretty healthy items on its menu. If you want to make a DIY version of the chain's Baja Bowl, ours calls for the same ingredients they use: quinoa, black beans, corn, tomatoes, feta cheese, yogurt, and salsa verde. Ours comes complete with baked chicken, as well, which is an upgrade at Panera. The one thing our Baja Bowl is missing is Panera's cilantro-lime rice, but you can doctor up the plain brown rice used here with some chopped cilantro and fresh lime juice and you'll be good to go.

Recipe: Copycat Panera Bread Baja Bowl

Chicken cacciatore is a traditional Italian dish that is typically made with bone-in chicken pieces cooked in a tomato-wine sauce, and that's exactly how Giada de Laurentiis makes it. In our simplified version, however, we're using boneless, skinless chicken breasts to make for a quicker-cooking version. If you really want a cacciatore-ish dish in a rush, though, you can even throw one together using rotisserie chicken. Add a side of pre-cooked pasta, and you'll have a super-speedy dinner that will still look like you spent all day on it — Giada might not approve, but it'll be our little secret.

Recipe: Giada's Chicken Cacciatore

Are fast food salads really a healthy option? Maybe so, maybe not since it all depends on the toppings. Too many croutons, too much cheese, and fatty and/or sugary dressings can make for a salad that's more calorie-heavy than any burger on the menu. Wendy's is particularly notorious for their not-so-healthy salads, with Eat This, Not That! nominating the chain's Apple Pecan Salad as one of the worst ones out there.

The problem with Wendy's salad is its super-sweet dressing, plus the excessive amounts of sweetened dried cranberries and blue cheese crumbles they use. With this DIY salad, however, you can cut down on the high-calorie add-ins and either choose a less-sugary dressing or use a smaller amount cut with some balsamic vinegar.

Recipe: Wendy's Apple Pecan Salad Copycat

When you think of popular British foods, you probably picture something like fish and chips or bangers and mash, but one of the most popular dishes in the U.K. is actually chicken curry. While this dish isn't quite so ubiquitous in the U.S., our quick and easy chicken curry is well worth adding to your dinner repertoire. It's slightly spicy from the garam masala, curry powder, ginger, and red pepper, but the heat is tamped down considerably by the mild and creamy coconut sauce.

Recipe: Chicken Curry

Got an Instant Pot, and looking for a way to put it to good use? As you've probably discovered by now, this appliance isn't suited to cooking every type of food you can think of –  Instant Pot fried chicken makes for a soggy mess, while the appliance isn't the right way to cook filet mignon. These pots do have their uses, however, and they do a great job of cooking up chicken breasts you can keep on hand for meal prep purposes. The chicken takes just a few minutes to cook and even after waiting for the pressure to build and release, you've still saved a little time over baking it in the oven.

Recipe: Instant Pot Chicken

Whoever invented the everything bagel was on to a good thing, since the seemingly random assortment of spices and seeds somehow combine into near-perfect seasoning. Not only does the everything mixture make for a brilliant bagel, but it's also amazing on all manner of other food items. The recipe here is a double-purpose one: Not only do you get the directions for making tasty spice-encrusted, cheese-stuffed chicken breasts, but we also walk you through making an easy five-ingredient everything seasoning that can be used in any number of ways.

Recipe: Everything Bagel Chicken

Biryani is a traditional Indian dish that is prepared in different ways depending on the region. Our chicken biryani recipe does not attempt to recreate any specific version, but is instead an Americanized version using ingredients readily available in this country. It starts with chicken pieces marinated in yogurt, then spices things up with the addition of bay leaves, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, garam masala, garlic, and ginger, While the recipe also calls for super-pricey saffron, you can get a similar yellow color for a lot less money by using turmeric instead. With all of the other seasonings at work in this biryani, you probably won't notice too much difference.

Recipe: Chicken Biryani

If there's one thing slow cookers excel at, that would be making soup. Simmering the meat and veggies all day long extracts every last nutrient, but nothing is lost as all the good stuff goes straight into the broth. This chicken tortilla soup goes together in just a few minutes since it's made from frozen corn, bottled salsa, canned green chiles, and boneless, skinless chicken breasts that can be easily shredded after they're cooked. The hardest part of the prep work involves peeling and chopping an onion (ouch!), but you could even use frozen pre-chopped onions to spare yourself the pain. After that, just set it and forget it for a few hours, then top the soup with cilantro, plain yogurt, or any other healthy toppings you wish.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Tortilla Soup

Wendy's Southwest Avocado Salad may not be the worst fast food offering out there, but it's not exactly a lightweight offering when it comes to calories, either. Thanks to the guacamole, bacon, and cheese, it comes in at 420 calories and 9 grams of saturated fat even without the ranch dressing. Add that, and you're looking at a 560-calorie salad with 11.5 grams of saturated fat (39 grams of total fat). While this copycat recipe as-is makes for a dish with a similar nutritional profile, you can always streamline the salad by using turkey bacon and part-skim cheese, cutting back on the amount of guacamole, and passing up the heavy ranch dressing in favor of a light, tasty lime vinaigrette instead.

Recipe: Wendy's Southwest Avocado Salad Copycat

Everyone's talking about "meal prep" these days like it's some cool new concept, but it's been around since the first woolly mammoth hunter was unable to consume the entire carcass in a single sitting. Cook today, eat tomorrow is a concept that's stood the test of millennia. One thing we have now that makes the process even easier is something any prehistoric chef would have envied: the slow cooker. Simply toss in your chunked mammoth — or, in this case, boneless chicken breasts — then add some seasonings, and a few hours later you'll have the makings of a tasty meal for today, tomorrow, or whenever. (Yay for freezers, too! So much more convenient than waiting around for another ice age.)

Recipe: Juicy Slow Cooker Chicken Breasts

While chicken noodle soup from a can is pretty meh, the chicken noodle soup they dish up at Panera Bread is actually quite tasty. This may be because they use a lot more meat and vegetables, plus the noodles are of the wide egg variety rather than overcooked bits of broken spaghetti. That being said, Panera's soup is not all that cheap. As of the time of writing, the stuff is selling for over $7 per bowl, which is kind of expensive for fast food even if you do get a mini baguette. With our copycat recipe, however, you can have a reasonable facsimile of Panera's chicken noodle soup at a price that won't preclude going back for seconds (or even thirds).

Recipe: Copycat Panera Chicken Noodle Soup

Not too many recipes for food billed as healthy start off with the directive to grab a can of beer, but as it happens, the beer can in this recipe is just used as a prop to keep the chicken upright while it cooks on a grill. You can use any similar-sized can (seltzer would do fine), and if the can is empty, you can fill it with plain tap water to weigh it down. The chicken will still get the benefit of cooking in a standing position, and it will get all the flavor it needs from the spicy dry rub and the wood chips used to smoke it.

Recipe: Beer Can Chicken

Crockpot coconut curry cashew chicken is a dish that is as flavorful as it is alliterative. It's also jam-packed with all kinds of healthy stuff. Not only do you get protein from the chicken and healthy fats from the coconut milk and cashews, but there are also vitamins and minerals galore from the chiles, green beans, bell peppers, onions, and potatoes. Serve this curry over rice for a delicious, nutritious, one-bowl meal.

Recipe: Simple Slow Cooker Coconut Curry Cashew Chicken

Roasting a chicken is one of the simplest ways to make a dish fit for company with very little effort, but there is one way to make the dish even easier. Instead of baking the bird in the oven, you can let your slow cooker do the roasting. That way, the chicken is pretty much guaranteed to come out super-juicy. The one thing it won't have is nice crunchy skin, but you can always give the cooked chicken a quick blast from the broiler to crisp it up in a hurry.

Recipe: Easy Slow Cooker Whole Chicken

If you go hunting for chicken curry recipes, you'll likely find a zillion or so, but you may get discouraged when they all seem to call for a lengthy list of ingredients. It seems some recipe developers just love to show off the entire contents of their well-stocked spice cabinets, but sometimes you just want a curry in a hurry without having to wonder where the fenugreek got to or run out to the store for cardamom pods.

For this simple curry recipe, you only need three spices, and one of them is salt (the others are curry powder and crushed red pepper). Add a package of chicken legs, a can of coconut milk, a drizzle of oil, and some chicken broth or a bouillon cube, and you'll have all you need to make a pretty darn good curry.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Curry

Alex Guarnaschelli may be known for her Italian dishes, but she's quite a fan of Asian cooking, as well. One of the recipes in her repertoire is for a peanut-sauced stir-fry, but our version is actually not a stir-fry at all, since it's made in an Instant Pot. Our recipe also calls for the addition of coconut milk, something that gives it more of a curry-like consistency. We did, however, retain both the chicken and the peanut butter.

Recipe: Alex Guarnaschelli's Chicken Stir Fry With Spicy Peanut Sauce

If you've never spatchcocked a chicken, it might sound like a difficult and rather painful process. It's the type of thing that older cookbooks will tell you to have your butcher do, but unless you habitually shop at a bespoke meat boutique, you may not be able to track down a supermarket butcher who'll be able to spatchcock your plastic-wrapped bird on the spot. Luckily, the process is simple enough to DIY, since all it involves is using shears and a knife to remove the backbone and displace the breastbone. This procedure effectively flattens the chicken, thus allowing it to roast in less time than if you'd left it in its original form.

Recipe: Oven-Roasted Spatchcocked Chicken

Chicken tikka masala may have been created in the Punjab, or possibly in Scotland. It's now perhaps the most British of Indian-inspired dishes, a pub classic that ranks right alongside toad in the hole and Scotch eggs. Our version is made with boneless thighs as well as half the spices in your pantry: cinnamon, cumin, curry powder, garam masala, garlic, ginger, and paprika. Although it gets some heat from a serrano pepper, this dish isn't super-spicy as the pepperiness is tempered by a creamy tomato sauce. You won't need any special appliances for this tikka masala, either, as this recipe utilizes the good old-fashioned pot-on-stovetop method.

Recipe: Simple Chicken Tikka Masala

There's a good way and a bad way to blacken chicken. The latter is easy enough to do, even if inadvertently: Simply cook your bird at high heat and forget to take it out of the oven before it burns to a crisp. Simple, yes, but not too appetizing. A better way to make blackened chicken, though, is to use this recipe where only the exteriors of the spicy chicken breasts get charred while the insides remain tender.

Recipe: Blackened Chicken

Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou are China's three provinces famed for their spicy cooking style, per Jeanie Cho Lee. Of the three, Hunanese food may well be the spiciest. Our American-style Hunan chicken recipe, however, isn't terribly hot, so real heat seekers may wish to up the amount of chili paste called for here. What this dish is, though, is pretty darn healthy due to the broccoli, celery, and bell pepper it contains. Not only do these vegetables pack a nutritional punch, but they also help to stretch the dish so a pound of chicken will feed four people.

Recipe: Spicy Hunan Chicken

Foods from the Mediterranean region have the reputation of being super-nutritious, and this Greek-inspired chicken dish is no exception. It starts with boneless, skinless chicken breasts, piles on lots of vegetables like bell peppers, tomatoes, onions, and artichokes, then drizzles the whole thing with heart-healthy olive oil. Everything gets sprinkled with feta cheese and baked on a single sheet pan to make for a complete meal that tastes good and is good for you, too.

Recipe: Greek Sheet Pan Chicken

Arroz con pollo is a classic Spanish dish that, despite its simple ingredients, may take some time if you're trying to do things the traditional way. Our quick and easy yellow rice and chicken dish, however, allows for a few time-saving shortcuts. The chicken broth and tomatoes both come from a can, the peas are frozen, the chicken is of the boneless, skinless variety, and the yellow rice is a pre-seasoned mix. Everything cooks up in the same pot and once you're done, you'll have a full meal complete with meat, vegetables, and starch.

Recipe: Spanish Yellow Rice And Chicken

This Mexican-spiced chicken stew is something that can be served on its own, perhaps in a bowl over rice, or you could add some beans to turn it into a chili of sorts. It could also be wrapped in a tortilla to make for a burrito or enchilada filling. This recipe keeps things very mild, with the spiciest thing you'll find here being a teensy bit of chili powder. If you want it hotter, though, you can always spice things up with chopped chiles, dried red peppers, and/or hot sauce.

Recipe: Mexican Chicken Stew

Cinnamon is a spice that's nearly ubiquitous in American desserts. Not only do you find it in all the usual suspects like elephant ears and apple crumble, but some cinnamon enthusiasts even add it to chocolate mousse and lemon meringue pie. It's not so surprising, then, to see this spice making its way into savory items, as well. One such dish is this recipe for chicken marinated in cinnamon-spiced apple juice. If you like a side of applesauce with your roast chicken, chances are you'll enjoy these flavors all rolled into one entrée, as well.

Recipe: Baked Chicken With Cinnamon

Country captain chicken is a dish whose origins were long shrouded in mystery, which may have been a good thing. It's often considered to be a southern dish, although the inclusion of curry powder and currants cooked in the sauce speak to some South Asian (or perhaps British) influence, as well. As it turns out, though, country captain chicken was actually created in the City of Brotherly Love, so it's as Philadelphian as a cheesesteak! Our slow cooker version of this not-so-southern classic is light and healthy, with plenty of veggies and chunks of chicken simmered in a tomato-based broth. 

Recipe: Slow Cooker Country Captain Chicken

Jerk is a Jamaican dish where the meat is marinated in a variety of spices and slow-smoked over green pimento wood. We can't exactly duplicate the authentic dish in our own kitchens, so this jerk-flavored chicken is cooked in the oven, instead. The bird is first marinated in a Jamaican-style spice blend that includes allspice, garlic, ginger, thyme, and Scotch bonnet peppers (you can substitute the very similar habaneros), plus a little liquid smoke that's meant to hint at the original method of preparation.

Recipe: Jerk Chicken

If you've got a smoker, then you are ready to take your chicken to a whole new level. This recipe calls for bone-in chicken thighs, which may be one of the cheaper meats in the market. The chicken is marinated overnight in a blend of sweet vermouth, herbs, and aromatics and is then slow-cooked for a few hours while the scent of wood smoke fills the yard. Once they're done, you'll have a dish that tastes as good as it smells.

Recipe: Smoked Chicken Thighs

Our version of green chile chicken stew is something that can be made in any season and any region as it's made from canned green chiles and salsa verde from a jar. To complete the whole green theme, this recipe also calls for lime juice and cilantro. Even though this verdant stew has Mexican-inspired flavors, we think it would make an excellent alternative to corned beef and cabbage for your next St. Patrick's Day celebration.

Recipe: Green Chili Chicken Stew

How does Ina Garten roast a chicken? Well, she starts with a "good" chicken, of course, and rubs it all over with "good" butter. This recipe is our twist on the Barefoot Contessa's version, however, so instead you'll be rubbing the chicken with mayonnaise (whatever kind you have in the fridge, since we're not too judgmental about condiment brands). Our version also calls for stuffing the chicken with oranges and rosemary in place of Garten's preferred thyme and lemons. Despite what Garten might think about these alterations, we feel the end results here are very good, indeed.

Recipe: Ina Garten's Roast Chicken

Souvlaki isn't a complicated cooking technique –- the term basically means meat cooked on skewers, and that's about the most complicated thing you'll have to do here. First you marinate chunks of boneless, skinless chicken breast in bottled tzatziki sauce, then you stick them on skewers, and as a final step you cook them in a pan. This simple recipe also includes a bonus: a tomato-cucumber salad that you can serve with your souvlaki along with more of that tzatziki and a side of pita bread.

Recipe: Greek Chicken Souvlaki

Why do chicken thighs get no love? Go looking for chicken recipes, and it seems like most of them start with "take a pound of boneless, skinless chicken breasts." Well, for every chicken breast out there, there are two legs and hence two thighs. There is an upside to this particular galline body part being in less demand, though, since you can often find thighs on sale at low, low prices. If you're wondering how to prep your bargain bounty, try this recipe for an easy oven-baked version. It comes complete with potatoes that cook alongside the chicken to make for a one-pan meal.

Recipe: Easy Oven-Baked Chicken Thighs

Teriyaki chicken isn't always the most nutritious dish on the menu, primarily due to a sauce that tends to lean heavily on sugar. The great thing about cooking from scratch, though, is that you can tweak the recipe you're using in any way you see fit. While this one-pot chicken and rice dish does call for quite a bit of sugar, you might want to start by using just ½ or even ¼ of the amount specified and then only adding as much sugar as you feel your DIY teriyaki sauce really needs.

Recipe: One-Pot Chicken Teriyaki

Tandoori chicken gets its name from the clay oven in which it is meant to be cooked. As most of us do not have such a thing in our kitchens, we can instead achieve a reasonably tandoori-esque chicken through the use of a yogurt/spice marinade alone. The spices used here are all ones you'll easily be able to buy in most supermarkets, too: black pepper, cayenne, coriander, cumin, garam masala, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. When the chicken has soaked up sufficient marinade, simply bake it in your regular oven, then serve it over rice with a squeeze of lemon.

Recipe: Easy Tandoori Chicken

Chipotle puts out a tasty product, but it's also pretty darn expensive when you consider how much you're paying for a burrito stuffed with rice. If you want a meatier Chipotle-style chicken burrito at home, you can always use this copycat recipe for their chipotle-spiced grilled chicken. (Small-c "chipotle" here, since we're talking about the smoked peppers.) There's no need for an outdoor barbecue to prepare this meat, either, as you can simply "grill" it on the stovetop. Once the chicken is done, shred it, wrap it in a tortilla, and feel free to skimp on the rice or skip it altogether.

Recipe: Copycat Chipotle Chicken

The problem with so many so-called easy meals is that while the dish itself may take just minutes to prepare (stir fries spring to mind), you reach the end of the recipe and it says "serve over cooked rice." Well, that darn rice won't cook itself, so that's another pot to dirty up and another 20 minutes or so to tack onto the cooking time. Not with this dish, though. The chicken, vegetables, and rice all cook up together in the same pot, so when it's done, it's done. In fact, you can even skip the final step of making garlic butter in the microwave. Instead, just toss the garlic and butter into the pot with the hot rice dish, as the residual heat will melt that butter in no time.

Recipe: One-Pot Chicken And Rice

Chicken fries are a pretty cute fast food item — it's always fun when one kind of food pretends to be another. That being said, though, they're not really the healthiest snack out there. The chicken part is fine, but batter-dipping and deep-frying, not so much. With our DIY version, though, we're swapping the batter for a light coating of practically calorie-free mustard plus some crushed pretzels. (Be thrifty and use up those starting-to-go-stale leftovers!) The best part is, these chicken "fries" are actually cooked in the air fryer, so there's no added oil. To make this dish even healthier, skip the sugary dip in favor of a fruit salsa.

Recipe: Crispy Air Fryer Pretzel Chicken Fries

Oyakodon is a Japanese dish that translates to mean "parent and child rice-bowl," referring to the fact that it contains both chicken and egg. In fact, it may be a Japanese version of the Chinese Mother and Child Reunion, a menu item that inspired the Paul Simon song of the same name. With that kind of backstory behind it, you know you want to try it. One caveat, though: you may need to find a grocery that carries Japanese items since you'll need some dashi powder in addition to the sake and mirin used to flavor the dish.

Recipe: Easy Oyakodon Bowl

Cacciatore is an Italian word meaning "hunter style," so it's possible that this dish was originally made with bunnies or wildfowl or something else that's typically hunted. These days, however, it's made with bone-in chicken thighs, so you can exercise your bargain-hunting skills instead by scoring a cheap deal on these. The chicken is then slow-cooked in a sauce made from tomatoes, onions, peppers, and mushrooms. While chicken cacciatore is often served over spaghetti, you can pass on the pasta and enjoy this dish all by itself.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Chicken Cacciatore

Tteokbokki is a dish that's harder to spell than it is to cook. This Korean one-pot meal is made with rice cakes cooked with chicken, onions, and plenty of the tasty chile paste known as gochujang. A bowl of this hearty concoction will fill you up nicely and may even have you reaching for seconds.

Recipe: Zesty Tteokbokki (Spicy Rice Cakes)

Is fried rice still fried rice if it's not fried? Technically, this dish might more accurately be called "Instant Potted" rice, but that's not such a snappy name, now is it? Still, if you're wanting to give the ol' pot a workout, this Thai-inspired dish makes for a tasty mix of chicken, onions, and bell peppers seasoned with ginger and sriracha. It's not exactly a one-pot dish as the rice cooks separately from the chicken, but it is, at least, a one-appliance meal that won't require you to turn on the stove.

Recipe: Easy Instant Pot Thai Fried Rice Recipe

This chicken soup has got a whole lot going on in one pot. Yes, there's a certain amount of heat to it, thanks to some ancho powder, enchilada sauce, and jalapeño, but those are only 3 of the 19 — yes, 19! — ingredients called for here (and that's not even counting the laundry list of optional garnishes). It also calls for a few more spices, these being cinnamon, garlic, and cumin, as well as vegetables galore: beans, carrots, corn, hominy, onions, and tomatoes. Oh yes, and there's chicken, too.

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Soup

Chicken vindaloo isn't exactly what you'd call a simple recipe, as our version of it calls for 17 different ingredients. Still, when you realize that about half of those ingredients are spices and seasonings, you might be willing to believe that it's not too difficult to attempt at home. The chicken is marinated, covered in a multi-spice blend, then cooked in a crockpot with a side of potatoes. Enjoy it on its own or bulk it up with a side of rice or naan.

Recipe: Easy Chicken Vindaloo

While many casseroles are based on rice, pasta, or potatoes, this one is based on sweet potatoes, instead. If you want to tweak the recipe to make it even healthier, you can make sure you're using a low-sugar barbecue sauce or else try making your own. You might even want to replace all or part of the barbecue sauce with a less-sweet condiment such as salsa. If you're looking to cut down on the fat, you can reduce the amount of cheese and/or replace the cream cheese with Neufchâtel and the cheddar with parmesan.

Recipe: Veggie-Packed Barbecue Casserole