Chicken, it must be the most used and versatile protein on the planet. Who doesn’t love chicken? I know I do. One of the many things I love about it is how it can go from Asian cuisine to French, to American, to the Carribean, to Indian and everything in between. What’s not to love?
Today, in celebration of the love I have for chicken I am going to share with you my 5 favourite chicken recipes. Some of these you may have seen me talk about before and some may be completely new to you. Either way, I hope that you enjoy this post as much as I’ve enjoyed creating, cooking and tasting all these recipes.
Here are…
I can’t think of another chicken dish that is more misunderstood or that carries with it more mystique than Jerk Chicken. To some, even saying the words is a challenge to their taste buds. But, to those in the know, Jerk Chicken isn’t scary at all (unless you go for the extra hot version) it is a flavourful and powerful Carribean dish that is worth a taste.
Although Jerk Chicken is generally spicy hot, it is also spicy as in there an abundance of spices used to make it. The main spice used to flavour Jerk Chicken is allspice or pimento. Traditionally the chicken is not only marinated in a combination of allspice, other spices, and chili but it is also cooked over a pimento wood fire.
Pimento wood comes from the tree that grows the allspice berry. You can buy pimento wood chips which can be added to a BBQ or smoker to give Jerk Chicken that authentic flavour. In the recipe below I don’t use pimento smoke or wood to flavour the chicken. I cook mine in the oven. However, what this version lacks in pimento wood smoke, it makes up in bursting flavour.
Oh, and the peppers used for Jerk Chicken are Scotch Bonnet Peppers. If you can’t find these, Habanero Peppers will make a decent stand-in.
If you don’t like fried chicken, I don’t want to be friends with you. There’s no other way to put it.
Buttermilk fried chicken is special in that the chicken is marinated in buttermilk prior to being fried. This keeps the chicken really tender and moist while also imparting a nice mild fresh flavour.
The other key to delicious crispy fried chicken is that the chicken has to be left in the flour to dry for at least 30 minutes before being fried. This creates this really intense coating that gets extra crisp when it hits the hot oil.
I use a deep fryer to cook my chicken but if you don’t have one it’s not a problem. That’s what cast iron skillets are for. Don’t have one of those either? A deep pot will do. Just heat the oil up slowly over medium heat to 350°f and fry the chicken for about 12 minutes or until it reaches an internal temperature of 165°F.
Once the chicken is cooked put it on a rack or in a basket. It is important to get air circulating around the chicken as quickly after cooking as possible. This will help to ensure that the crust stays nice and crisp.
There is a faction of people out there who get down with breaded chicken wings. To those people, I say “Get over it!’ Chicken wings are much better when they have no breading and are deep-fried to crisp, delicious perfection.
When I am making chicken wings at home, I often deep-fry them (sometimes I just roast them in the oven) but once they’re cooked, I toss them with sauce and I usually pop them in a very hot oven, maybe even under the broiler. This bakes a layer of sauce on to the wing that gets really sticky and caramelized. After that, I toss the wings in sauce again and serve. Delicious!
The sauce that I make for my absolute favourite Chicken Wings is a combination of equal parts Franks Red Hot or Louisiana Hot Sauce and Honey. I put this in a pot and simmer it for 5-10 minutes or until it is nice and thick. Sometimes, if I am feeling a little extra decadent I will finish the sauce with a bit of butter. This makes it richer and gives it a more silky feel.
I also generally serve the wings with a homemade blue cheese dressing. It’s made of blue cheese, sour cream, mayo, and herbs.
If you are looking for a delicious twist on your everyday Chicken Wings, look no further!
You can find the full recipe and walkthrough right here.
I did an entire post about perfectly roasting a chicken so I’m not going to go too in-depth here. I’ll share the link to that post so you can check it out.
What I will say is that there are few things better in this world than a perfectly roasted chicken. It is misleading in its simplicity in that it is made with only 2-3 ingredients but it takes serious patience and skill to get it just right.
Start by drying the chicken skin. Rub it all over with olive oil and salt. Roast it, turning every 15-20 minutes. Sounds easy, but is it?
Give it a shot!
Butter chicken was originally created in Delhi in the 1950s as a way for a chef to save and reuse leftover tandoori chicken. The Chef realized that if he stored the chicken in a tomato gravy overnight the chicken would remain tender and juicy. This caught on like wildfire.
Today, butter chicken is one of the most commonly known and most popular Indian dishes around the world and for good reason. It is really, really delicious.
There are all kinds of bottled butter chicken sauces out there and I’m sure that some of them may actually be good, but other than needing a few special ingredients this isn’t difficult to make. The recipe below has everything you need, and for more specific instructions check out the video.
When looking for the spices it’s best to try and find an Indian grocer in your area. The spices are usually better quality than at the bulk store or grocery store and they are usually much cheaper. If you can’t find what you need in your town check out this amazon shopping list I made that has everything you need.
People say that everything tastes like chicken, but really, chicken is made to taste like everything. That is the beauty of it. No matter where you are in the world, or what you like to cook and eat, you can find something to do with chicken.
I hope that you enjoyed this post, but more importantly, I hope that you have found one or two recipes that you will actually use and come back to time and time again.
What’s your favourite chicken recipe?
Thank you as always for reading and supporting the blog.
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