Recipes

Our Best Chicken Recipes in 2016

These were our best, brightest, and most awe-inspiring chicken recipes of the year.
Image may contain Plant Citrus Fruit Fruit Food Lime Cutlery Fork Dish and Meal
Alex Lau

There's a reason that everything unknown "tastes like chicken." It's because we want it to taste like chicken. It's the most versatile, customizable, and crowd-pleasing meat on the planet. From battering and frying to coating in koji to smothering in yellow adobo, you can cook chicken in just about any way imaginable, and over the past year, we did. These were our best new chicken recipes in 2016, and yeah, there's soup.

  • Image may contain Dish Food Meal and Plant
    Alex Lau
    3/22

    Filipino Chicken Adobo

    Depending on your personal preference, you can brush off and discard the peppercorns before cooking, or leave them on for stronger flavor.

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  • A pile of fried chicken on a platter topped with sweet pickle slices and served with white BBQ sauce on the side.
    Photograph by Travis Rainey, Prop Styling by Alexandra Massillon, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy
    4/22

    Buttermilk Fried Chicken

    The egg-enriched buttermilk mixture makes for an especially crunchy and craggy coating.

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  • Image may contain Food Dish Meal Plant Cutlery Fork Produce and Seasoning
    Alex Lau
    5/22

    Herbed Chicken Salad over Crispy Rice

    As you’re crisping the rice for this chicken salad recipe, the leeks and carrots may look very dark. Don’t be scared or angry at us; the veggies aren’t burnt, they’re just deeply caramelized and will add lots of flavor to the final dish. Check out step-by-step photos here.

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  • Image may contain Bowl Food Dish Meal Soup Bowl Soup and Plant
    Alex Lau
    6/22

    Elizabeth Street Café's Chicken & Rice Soup

    Sticky rice is worth using for this porridge-y, comforting chicken soup recipe; it releases lots of creamy starches and helps builds nice body as it cooks.

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  • Image may contain Cutlery Fork Food Dish and Meal
    Danny Kim
    7/22

    Pietro’s Chicken Parmesan

    At Pietro’s, the cooks deep fry the chicken cutlets in a large, wide skillet, which allows the oil to come up to temperature very quickly and stay there once the cutlet is added. Smart, but potentially messy (it’s a lot of oil!). If you have a Dutch oven with high sides, that will minimize splatter—we’d feel rotten if you got burned.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Bowl and Fruit
    Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
    8/22

    Braised Chicken Thighs With Squash and Mustard Greens

    Don’t have an acorn squash for this chicken thighs recipe? Use butternut. Not into mustard greens? Use kale, Swiss chard, or spinach.

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  • Image may contain Burger Food Human and Person
    Alex Lau
    11/22

    BA's Best Fried Chicken Sandwich

    This sandwich is engineered for maximum impact. Each element is awesome, but it’s the way they come together that puts it over the top. Mmmmm, yeah.

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  • Image may contain Cutlery Spoon Plant Human Person Food Produce and Vegetable
    Alex Lau
    12/22

    Ginger Cashew Chicken Curry

    Instead of chicken, this curry recipe is really good with boneless pork chops. Cut into ½" pieces and proceed as written. Check out step-by-step photos here.

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  • Image may contain Food Meal Roast Animal Bird Poultry and Fowl
    Alex Lau
    13/22

    Roast Koji Chicken

    If possible, plan in advance for this easy chicken recipe; letting it chill for 2 days after being seasoned has a huge impact on the flavor and also gives the skin time to dehydrate, which magnifies its crispy potential.

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  • Image may contain Bowl Food Dish Meal Human Person Soup Bowl Curry Stew and Plant
    Alex Lau
    14/22

    Chicken Stew with Cannellini Beans and Dried Cherries

    If you’re not following our weekly meal plan and not making the Grilled Cheese (though you really should; it’s delightful), which you need wheat bread for, use country loaf or sourdough bread, crusts removed, for optimal breadcrumbs for this chicken stew recipe. Check out step-by-step photos here.

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  • Image may contain Plant Food Fruit Citrus Fruit and Egg
    Alex Lau
    15/22

    Crispy Chicken Thighs with Bacon and Wilted Escarole

    A single pan leads to many wonders: crackly-skinned chicken, hardy escarole, and a touch of smoky bacon.

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  • Image may contain Plant Bowl Food Produce Curry Dish Meal and Vegetable
    Alex Lau
    16/22

    Yellow Chicken Adobo

    Though widely accepted as the national dish of the Philippines, no two adobos are the same. This one calls for an unapologetic amount of turmeric, which has a somewhat bitter, definitely earthy flavor, and those deep, dark notes are backed up by charred coconut. This recipe is from Bad Saint, one of the Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016.

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  • Image may contain Animal Bird Lobster Seafood Food Sea Life Fowl Poultry and Chicken
    Alex Lau
    21/22

    Jerk Spice–Rubbed Chicken Legs

    We took the traditional Jamaican jerk spice and…simplified it. Before you call the authenticity police, give it a try on roast chicken legs.

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  • Image may contain Food Dish Meal Bowl Curry Stew and Plant
    Michael Graydon & Nikole Herriott
    22/22

    Kimchi-Braised Chicken with Bacon

    To make the finished dish less of a knife-and-fork affair, remove the braised chicken from the bone, shred it with a couple of forks, and then stir it back into the tomato-kimchi sauce.

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