Easy Chicken Dinner Recipes: 11 Ideas from Around the World

Chicken turns up in almost every cuisine, and it adapts to all of them. This page brings together every chicken recipe on World Recipe Club, from a 35-minute skillet dinner to a slow Ethiopian stew, with a short note on each so you can pick the right one for the time you have and the mood you’re in. Each recipe gives metric weights alongside cups, clear signs for when each stage is done, and notes on serving and storing.

Pick by time

• Under 45 minutes of cooking: marry me chicken, Thai green curry and chicken souvlaki (the souvlaki needs marinating first).
• About an hour: honey sesame chicken, Korean fried chicken, chicken adobo and chicken tikka masala.
• Slower, for weekends or a crowd: Moroccan chicken tajine, chicken döner, coxinhas and doro wat.

Quick weeknight dinners

Marry me chicken

Seared chicken cutlets finished in a creamy pan sauce with garlic, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan, a pinch of chilli flakes and fresh basil. It takes about 35 minutes in one large skillet, and most of the skill is in getting a good golden sear and keeping the sauce at a simmer once the cheese goes in, so it stays smooth. Cook it when you want something rich and comforting without much washing-up. Breasts are sliced into thin cutlets so they cook quickly and evenly; boneless thighs work too. Serve it with pasta, mashed potato or crusty bread for the sauce. Get the recipe: marry me chicken.

Thai green curry

Green curry paste fried in thick coconut cream until it smells fragrant, then simmered with sliced chicken thighs, Thai eggplant, bamboo shoots and makrut lime leaves, and finished with Thai basil. It’s ready in about 40 minutes. Cook it when you want big, bright flavours fast. The curry should taste hot first, then salty, with only a hint of sweetness, and the recipe shows how to adjust it with fish sauce and palm sugar. It also has a vegan version with tofu and pumpkin. Serve it with jasmine rice. Get the recipe: Thai green curry.

Greek chicken souvlaki

Chunks of chicken thigh marinated in olive oil, lemon, garlic and Greek oregano, threaded on skewers and grilled until charred at the edges. The marinating takes 1–4 hours, but the cooking only takes about 12 minutes, so it’s a good one to start in the morning and finish after work. Cook it in summer on the barbecue, or year-round on a griddle pan or under the grill. Serve it in warm pita with tomato, red onion and homemade tzatziki, or with a salad and rice. Get the recipe: Greek chicken souvlaki.

Worth the extra hour

Chinese honey sesame chicken

Bite-sized pieces of chicken thigh in a light cornstarch coating, fried twice for a crisp crust, then tossed at the last moment in a thick honey, soy, garlic and ginger sauce with toasted sesame seeds. The whole thing takes about an hour. Cook it when you’d otherwise order takeaway: it’s sweet, sticky and crunchy, and the double fry keeps the coating crisp under the sauce for longer. Serve it straight away with steamed rice and something green. Get the recipe: Chinese honey sesame chicken.

Korean fried chicken

Wings or boneless thighs in a thin potato starch batter, fried twice for a light, crackly crust, then tossed in a glossy glaze of gochujang, garlic and rice syrup. There’s also a soy-garlic sauce for anyone who doesn’t want the heat, and an air fryer option. It takes about an hour and serves four as a main or six to eight as a snack. Cook it for a match, a party or a Friday night. Serve it with pickled radish, a cold drink and plenty of napkins. Get the recipe: Korean fried chicken.

Filipino chicken adobo

Bone-in thighs and drumsticks browned, then braised in Filipino cane vinegar, soy sauce, a whole head of garlic, black peppercorns and bay leaves, with the sauce reduced at the end to a dark, tangy glaze. It takes about an hour and ten minutes, mostly hands-off. Cook it when you want a big, sharp, savoury flavour from a short list of cupboard ingredients. Adobo is also a good make-ahead dish, because it tastes even better the next day. Serve it with plenty of white rice to soak up the sauce. Get the recipe: Filipino chicken adobo.

Chicken tikka masala

Chicken thighs marinated in spiced yogurt, charred under a hot grill, then simmered in a masala of slowly browned onion, ginger, garlic, tomato and cream, and finished with garam masala and kasuri methi. Allow at least an hour of marinating and about 50 minutes of cooking. Cook it when you want a curry-house favourite at home. Charring the chicken first gives the smoky edges that set it apart from a simple chicken curry, and the recipe explains how it differs from butter chicken. Serve it with basmati rice or naan. Get the recipe: chicken tikka masala.

Slow cooking, weekends and crowds

Moroccan chicken tajine with apricots

Bone-in chicken thighs simmered with onion, ginger, cinnamon and saffron until the meat comes away from the bone, then finished with honeyed apricots, a little preserved lemon and toasted almonds. It takes about an hour and a half, mostly simmering, in a Dutch oven or a clay tagine. Cook it when you want something that tastes slow-cooked without giving up a whole afternoon. Serve it with couscous or bread. If you’re new to Moroccan cooking, our Moroccan spice guide and tagine guide explain the spices and the pot. Get the recipe: Moroccan chicken tajine with apricots.

Oven chicken döner

Strips of chicken thigh marinated in yogurt, garlic, lemon, tomato paste and warm spices, packed into a tight log and baked in a parchment parcel, then sliced thinly and seared for crisp edges, the way it would come off a spit. It takes about an hour and a half, plus marinating, and makes six to eight wraps. Cook it when you’re feeding a group: everyone fills their own flatbread with salad, sumac onions, garlic yogurt sauce and chilli sauce. The sliced chicken freezes well, too. Get the recipe: oven chicken döner kebab.

Brazilian chicken coxinhas

Teardrop-shaped snacks made from a soft dough of flour cooked in chicken stock, wrapped around seasoned shredded chicken and a little creamy Catupiry, then breaded and fried until golden. The recipe makes 18 and takes a little over two hours. Cook them for a party, or make a big batch on a quiet weekend: they freeze well before frying and go straight from the freezer into the oil. Serve them warm, with hot sauce or a squeeze of lime. Get the recipe: Brazilian chicken coxinhas.

Ethiopian doro wat

Bone-in chicken and hard-boiled eggs simmered in a thick, brick-red sauce of slowly cooked onions, berbere and niter kibbeh, the spiced clarified butter. It’s the slowest recipe here, about two and a half hours, because the onions need close to an hour to cook down. That’s where the depth comes from. Cook it for a special meal when you have time to stir and wait. It serves six and is traditionally eaten with injera. If berbere and niter kibbeh are new to you, our world pantry guide explains both. Get the recipe: Ethiopian doro wat.

Thighs or breasts?

Most of these recipes use thighs, and that’s deliberate. Thighs have more fat and connective tissue, so they stay juicy through braising, grilling and frying, and they’re hard to overcook. Chicken is safe to eat at 74°C (165°F), but thighs are more tender at 80–85°C, once the connective tissue has softened. Breasts cook faster and are leaner, which suits quick methods like the cutlets in marry me chicken. If you swap one for the other in a recipe, watch the timing: breast meat dries out quickly once it passes 74°C.

Keeping and reheating chicken dishes

Cool leftovers and refrigerate them within 2 hours of cooking. Most cooked chicken dishes keep for 3–4 days in the fridge by USDA guidance; the UK Food Standards Agency advises eating leftovers within 2 days. Stews and braises such as adobo, the tajine and doro wat freeze well. Reheat them until they’re piping hot all the way through. Fried chicken and coxinhas are best reheated in a hot oven or air fryer, not the microwave, so the coating crisps up again. Our make-ahead, storage and freezing guide has the details.

For more ideas, browse our lunch and dinner recipes, or explore by cuisine, starting with our Asian recipes.

Photo: Maksim Goncharenok on Pexels