Twelve easy chicken recipes worth mastering
From curry to soup, one-pot wonders and the classic roast, whichever way you like your chook, The Australian’s food writers have you covered.
Roasted, broiled, tossed in a salad, swimming in soup, covered in pastry … there are plenty of ways to enjoy chicken. Instead of copping out with a ‘bachelor’s handbag’ from the supermarket, take inspiration from these dishes by esteemed food writers such as David Herbert, Elizabeth Hewson, Alice Zavlasky, Jen Petrovic, and Yotam Ottolenghi.
David Herbert’s perfect roast chicken dinner
Roasting a chicken is a skill worth adding to your repertoire, especially in this economy. David Herbert’s bare-bones recipe only requires five ingredients (chicken, lemon, garlic, rosemary, bacon), the genius is in the technique. In just over an hour, you’ll have a belter of a bird.
“Try to source the best-quality chook you can: the better the bird, the better the dinner. Often I’ll simply serve it with the juices that accumulate during the resting period.”
Elizabeth Hewson’s one-tray chicken
Home-cook Elizabeth Hewson, who confesses to being a newcomer to one-tray cooking, extols the virtues of this particular dish.
“It’s everything I want in a chicken dish – crispy skin, tender meat, sweet, sticky tomatoes that burst in your mouth, and flavour-packed, golden potatoes, all of which swim in a zesty sauce that demands every last bit be mopped up,” she writes for the Australian.
Most importantly, though, it’s easy.
Read the full recipe here.
Guest chef Belinda Jeffery’s one-pan chicken
It‘s another one-pan wonder, this time from guest chef Belinda Jeffery, who put her own spin on a recipe from Darina Allen’s book, One Pot Feeds All.
“The chicken and potatoes are slightly crusty with a deep, smoky flavour from the paprika,” writes Jeffery, who recommends smooshing the roasted garlic cloves from their skins onto the chicken/
Read the full recipe here.
Balinese yellow chicken curry
This healthy, aromatic curry is infused with Balinese spices. It’s taken from Mimi Spencer and Sam Rice’s cookbook The Midlife Kitchen: Health-boosting recipes for midlife & beyond. You’ll need to make the curry paste yourself, but Spencer and Rice say it’s worth the effort.
Read the full recipe here.
Jen Petrovic’s chicken curry
Guest chef Jen Petrovic says that to enhance the flavour of this dish, keep it in the fridge for a few days before eating.
“I work with an Indian chef who says no reputable Indian restaurant would ever serve a curry on the day it is made.”
Read the full recipe here.
David Herbert’s chicken pie
For this recipe, David Herbert recommends using a combination of chicken breast fillets and boned skinless thighs.
“If the pastry doesn’t fit the top of the pie, don’t try to stretch it – cut it into triangles and overlap them slightly.”
Read the full recipe here.
Mark Labrooy’s chicken curry pie
Yesterday’s chicken curry could be “one of the best” pies you’ve ever eaten. That’s according to Chef Mark Labrooy, co-owner of Three Blue Ducks, Sydney and The Farm, Byron Bay.
This self-supporting pie doesn‘t require a baking dish, but Labrooy recommends making the chicken curry a day in advance so that it can cool before being added to the pastry.
Serve along blanched bok choy.
Read the full recipe here.
Yotam Ottolenghi & Noor Murad’s blackened chicken with caramel
This sweet and smokey dish comes from Yotam Ottolenghi and Noor Murad’s book Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Extra Good Things.
“Don’t be afraid to really char your chicken thighs here (making sure to ventilate your kitchen well!) This will add an intense flavour alongside the vibrant dressing and make for a very punchy eating experience.”
Read the full recipe here.
David Herbert’s Portuguese chicken
Burnished-skinned, richly-flavoured, and moderately spiced. David Herbert’s Portuguese chicken is irresistible. The chicken should be marinated for a few hours and cooked in a hot oven.
Herbert suggests a crisp cucumber and fennel salad as a companion. Read the full recipe here.
Olivia Andrews’ corn & chicken soup
Here’s one for a cold snap. With this chicken and corn soup, Olivia Andrews gives you permission to whip out that takeaway barbecued chicken. “This crowd-pleaser provides the perfect opportunity to sneak in extra vegetables.”
Read the full recipe here.
David Herbert’s hearty chicken soup
This painless, nutritious winter soup is chock full of vegetables. It calls for 1kg of boned chicken thighs, skin removed, and can be made ahead of time.
Read the full recipe here.
Nornie Bero’s Semur chicken
Sumer chicken is always on the menu at Nornie Bero‘s Melbourne restaurant Mabu Mabu. Bero writes, “The Asian flavours of lemongrass, soy, and chilli feature in many Torres Strait Island dishes, influenced by Japanese fishers and divers who have been living on the islands since the 19th century, as well as by visitors from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.”
In this recipe, Bero has added native vegetables such as karkalla and warrigal greens – keep an eye out for them at farmers’ markets. If you can’t find them, green vegetables such as bok choy or silverbeet make worthy replacements.
Read the full recipe here.