30 Fast Chicken Recipes for Speedy, Tasty Meals
When you want dinner fast but don't want fast food, turn to this collection of quick chicken recipes to create satisfying, flavor-packed dishes in less than an hour. Craving a crispy cutlet? We recommend Roy Choi's katsu, Thomas Keller's schnitzel, or cheesy chicken Parmesan if you've got an air fryer to help your cause. Feeling fancy? You can't go wrong with pan-roasted chicken in a classic white wine-crème fraîche sauce, or Angie Mar's recipe with roasted grapes, garlic, and rosemary. With these 30 chicken recipes, you're sure to find something to tantalize your tastebuds pronto.
Chicken Fricassee Stir-Fry with Asparagus
This quick-cooking recipe from cookbook author Grace Young showcases the technique for a simple stir-fry, where ingredients are continually added to the wok, layering flavor as each cooks perfectly. "Once you understand the basics of stir-frying, you don't have to limit yourself," Young says. Here, tender asparagus joins carrots and chicken in a speedy stir-fry seasoned with white wine instead of rice wine; cream enriches the sauce.
Chicken Breasts with White Wine Pan Sauce with Crème Fraîche and Spring Herbs
This simple white wine pan sauce enriched with crème fraîche and a generous handful of tender fresh herbs like tarragon, dill, and chives makes smart use of the drippings from pan-roasted chicken breasts. The sauce comes together in about 10 minutes and delivers an elegant, silky texture.
Chicken Katsu
For chef Roy Choi, these crispy egg and panko-coated chicken cutlets, generally made with pork in Japan, represent something major. “People think frying chicken cutlets is simple, but it’s like cooking pasta,” says Choi. “It’s a dish that seems remedial, but when you get it right, it changes the whole ball game. I call it the cult of katsu.”
Pan-Roasted Chicken with Grapes, Garlic, and Rosemary
Dinner doesn't get simpler or more elegant than this pan-roasted chicken from 2017 F&W Best New Chef Angie Mar. To make it, a whole chicken is cut into eight pieces, then roasted with grapes, garlic cloves, and sprigs of rosemary to yield crispy-skinned chicken in a schmaltzy pan sauce that begs for a crusty piece of bread.
Peppery Greens Salad with Avocado, Chicken, and Tortilla Croutons
Crispy, pimentón-dusted tortillas stand in for the flatbread traditionally found in the Lebanese bread salad fattoush. Make this recipe with easy homemade Tex-Mex Tortillas or use your favorite store-bought version.
Auntie Georgia's Dakgangjeong (Korean Fried Chicken with Soy Sauce)
A sticky glaze of soy sauce and brown sugar gets subtle heat from fresh jalapeños to give these fried wings the perfect level of spice, sweetness, and salt. Potato starch creates a shatteringly crisp exterior on the wings and stays crunchy for hours — even after they've cooled.
Pulled Chicken Barbecue Sandwiches
Classic eastern North Carolina barbecue sauce has a vinegar — not a tomato — base. It’s delicious tossed with pulled chicken instead of the usual pork, and served the traditional way: piled onto soft buns and smothered under cold, creamy coleslaw.
Sheet-Pan Baked Chicken, Feta, Tomatoes, and Kale with Pasta
Tangy feta and juicy tomatoes roast together in the oven, creating a creamy sauce that clings to ruffly campanelle or corkscrew-shaped cavatappi pasta in this easy bake sheet-pan dinner. The whole dish comes together in under an hour as the chicken, cheese, and aromatics bake in the oven while the pasta and kale quickly cook on the stove.
Classic Chicken Teriyaki
Famed chef Nobu Matsuhisa’s easy teriyaki sauce is made with chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, mirin, and sake. It’s great over tender chicken breasts and charred frying peppers.
Air Fryer Chicken Parmesan
If you haven't made Chicken Parmesan in an air fryer yet, consider this your invitation to get started. This recipe yields crispy, juicy chicken and ultra-melty cheese, which pairs beautifully with the acidity of tomato sauce. As for serving? You can pair the chicken with a salad, such as a classic Caesar, or go for garlicky broccoli, Broccolini, or broccoli rabe.
Vermicelli with Chicken Skewers and Nuoc Cham
In this version of a Vietnamese dish, individual piles of cucumber, fresh herbs, and grilled chicken are arranged on a platter of vermicelli and bean sprouts. Tangy nuoc cham sauce is poured over all. As each diner takes a portion, the components intermingle.
Creamy Chicken Stew
On those hectic chilly weeknights when all you want is something quick, warm, and comforting, this refined creamy chicken stew is all you need. The combination of light and dark chicken meat, earthy mushrooms, and tender potatoes feels like a big hug in the form of dinner.
Chicken Flautas
Rotisserie chicken, shredded cheese, and corn tortillas make these flautas an easy, quick dinner.
Chicken and Shrimp Laksa
Top Chef winner Buddha Lo's homemade laksa paste — made with fresh lemongrass, pungent shrimp paste, and nutty peanuts — forms the base of this fragrant noodle dish, while coconut cream adds a velvety mouthfeel to the aromatic broth. Top it with poached shrimp and chicken, fresh herbs, and fried shallots, then slurp with joy.
Krapow Khai Yat Sai (Thai Stuffed Spicy Basil-Chicken Omelet)
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Maggie Ruggiero / Prop Styling by Christine Keely
In this eye-catching omelet from Jazz Singsanong, owner of Jitlada in Los Angeles, a thin blanket of folded egg is cut open to reveal a filling of ground chicken and Thai basil that’s been lightly caramelized and flavored with oyster sauce.
Gnocchi with Roast Chicken, Bacon, and Kale
This comforting gnocchi recipe with chicken, bacon, and kale has it all. Cook the kale and onion in the rendered bacon fat, imbuing them with that smoky flavor while saving the bacon bits for topping. Store-bought gnocchi and rotisserie chicken do much of the heavy lifting here, making this cozy dinner easy to pull off on a weeknight.
Skillet Chicken and Mushroom Pot Pie
We prove that making pot pie doesn’t have to take a long time with this one-skillet version, prepared with store-bought rotisserie chicken and buttered white bread in place of the usual labor-intensive puff pastry crust.
Lu Jitui (Braised Soy Sauce Chicken)
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
This classic comfort dish often found in Taiwanese bento boxes features chicken legs cooked with soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and Shaoxing rice wine. All the ingredients go into the pot at the same time, and with a cook time under an hour, it’s a fantastic weeknight dinner. This recipe serves two people but can be easily doubled as needed.
Panko-Coated Chicken Schnitzel
© Quentin Bacon
Chef Thomas Keller uses panko breadcrumbs to give chicken a crunchy crust. “Pounding chicken breasts to a uniform thickness cuts down on cooking time,” he says.
Maple-Glazed Chicken Breasts with Mustard Jus
Chef David Slater glazes chicken breasts with maple syrup, sherry vinegar, and orange juice infused with anise and other spices. Then he serves them with a confited chicken leg, caramelized root vegetables, braised kale, and crisp Benton's bacon. For ease, glaze the chicken breasts with a sweet-tangy blend of syrup and vinegar and skip the confited leg and root vegetables.
Quick Skillet-Roasted Chicken with Spring Vegetables
Tender vegetables simmer in a mixture of chicken drippings and butter in this simple, speedy dish. The attached drumette gives these airline chicken breasts more flavor; though bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs make a good substitute.
Chicken Scarpariello
Scarpariello is a classic Italian-American dish that's easy to pull off at home with jarred pickled peppers and sweet Italian sausage. This one-pot meal requires no chopping at all — just dump and stir.
Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken
Lemongrass is known for its citrusy and herbal flavors, and it works beautifully here paired with garlic to amp up the flavor of chicken breasts. This spicy lemongrass paste is also wonderful rubbed on pork tenderloin or any firm, white-fleshed fish, such as snapper, sea bass, or halibut.
General Tso's Chicken
This version of the Chinese-American restaurant staple is lighter than take-out because the chicken is only lightly coated in cornstarch and is pan-fried rather than deep-fried.
Florentine Butter Chicken
This recipe is inspired by F&W editor in chief Hunter Lewis' trip to 150-year-old Trattoria Sostanza in Florence. Cultured butter has a slightly higher smoke point and, when combined with olive oil, provides enough cooking time to finish the chicken and the sauce simultaneously.
Chicken and Sun-Dried Tomato Meatballs
With the help of the food processor and using just one skillet, these flavorful meatballs (and sauce!) are ready in just half an hour. They're great served with pasta or crusty bread.
Chicken Dijon
© Johnny Valiant
Cookbook author Melissa Clark likes using only drumsticks in this mustardy stew — thickened with tangy crème fraîche — so that all the meat cooks at the same rate.
Sheet-Pan Chicken and Mushrooms with Parsley Sauce
Cookbook author Julia Turshen amps up the flavors in her simple chicken and mushroom pan roast with lemons and a bright and fresh parsley sauce that takes just minutes to make.
Sautéed Chicken Breasts with Fennel and Rosemary
The Mediterranean flavors of fennel, garlic, and rosemary are perfect with chicken. The fennel and chicken are sautéed and then briefly braised in chicken broth, which becomes a tasty light sauce.
Curried Chicken on Pita
This quick weeknight chicken recipe gets a kick from curry powder and jalapeños. Serve with grilled pita, lettuce leaves, tomato wedges, and cucumber slices.
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