Serves 4

You will need at least a 6-quart Dutch oven with a tight-fitting lid for this recipe. If you choose not to serve the skin with the chicken, simply remove it before carving. The amount of jus will vary depending on the size of the chicken; season it with about 1⁄4 teaspoon lemon juice for every 1⁄4 cup.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: The basic method for poulet en cocotte, or French chicken in a pot, is simple: place a seasoned chicken in a pot, scatter in some vegetables, cover, and bake. When done right, this dish forgoes crisp skin for unbelievably tender, succulent meat and rich, concentrated flavor. The key is a dry cooking environment; unlike braising, little to no liquid is added. Our main challenge was to prevent the humidity in the pot from diluting the flavor of the meat as it cooked. By removing the chunks of vegetables we had been adding—the liquid they released made the pot too steamy—and cooking the chicken by itself in a tightly sealed pot, we got the rich, concentrated flavor we sought. Cooking the bird at a low 250 degrees ensured the breast meat didn’t dry out. Finally, we found that we could add a small amount of potently flavored aromatics if they were lightly browned with the chicken to remove most of their moisture.

Serves 4
We skewer the onion slices with a toothpick to keep them from falling apart on the grill. You won’t need an entire red onion for this recipe; you can use the remainder to make Pico de Gallo (see related content).

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
This chain-restaurant favorite combines honey-mustard chicken breasts, bacon, and melted Monterey Jack cheese. For a grilled version, we butterfly boneless, skinless chicken breasts to provide more surface area for tasty char, and we marinate them in a simple mixture of honey, Dijon, salt, and pepper. While the chicken cooks on the hotter side of the grill, we let red onion slices—basted with the reserved fat from cooking the bacon—soften on the cooler side of the grill. To finish, we slide the chicken away from the fire and top it with the smoky onions and a mixture of cooked diced bacon and spicy shredded pepper Jack cheese.

SERVES 4
This chicken can be served with a simply prepared vegetable for a light dinner. It can also be used in a sandwich or tossed with greens for a salad. The chicken should be marinated no less than 30 minutes and no more than 1 hour.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Our perfectly grilled chicken breast recipe had to produce moist, tender chicken whose flavor could stand on its own. We discovered that placing the breasts on the cooler side of the grill and covering them with a disposable pan trapped the heat and kept the breasts moist while cooking. To finish our grilled chicken breast recipe, we gave the breasts a quick sear afterward on the hot part of the grill for color and true grilled flavor.

Serves 4
If part-skim mozzarella isn’t available at the deli counter, buy a 16-ounce block and cut it into 1-ounce slices. You will need cooking spray for this recipe.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
With its fried exterior and blanket of melted cheese, chicken Parmesan is a perfect candidate for slimming down. We tried lower-fat recipes, but all were scantily clad in a crust of dusty crumbs that either fell away from the meat or turned to mush at first contact with tomato sauce. For a dish we’d actually want to eat, we used fat-free mayonnaise instead of eggs and flour to bind the bread crumbs to our chicken cutlets on just one side. Instead of pan-frying, we oven-fried the chicken and used toasted bread crumbs to achieve a crispy exterior. We also didn’t skimp on the cheese—a full ounce of part-skim mozzarella, thinly sliced from the deli, blanketed each cutlet perfectly.

Traditional chicken Parmesan has 570 calories, 37 grams of fat, and 8 grams of saturated fat per main-course serving. Our Low-Fat Chicken Parmesan has 390 calories, 12 grams of fat, and 4.5 grams of saturated fat per main-course serving.

SERVES 3 TO 4
If you like, substitute an equal amount of basil for tarragon and replace the thyme with rosemary, oregano, or sage. Do not use dried herbs, which lose potency during cooking and turn the dish gritty. For best flavor, buy a high-quality chicken such as Bell & Evans. The chicken should not exceed 5 pounds or it won’t fit in the skillet. The chicken may slightly overhang the skillet at first, but once browned it will fit.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For a roast chicken recipe that gets the entire bird—not just the breast—seasoned throughout, we butterflied the chicken and made shallow cuts in the dark meat. A thick herb paste not only adhered to the now flat chicken but also penetrated the pockets created by the cuts, giving us the flavorful and aromatic chicken recipe we were looking for.

Serves 4
Don’t skimp on the marinating time; any less than 3 hours and the chicken won’t be as flavorful or tender. Conversely, marinating for more than 6 hours will make the chicken mushy. Serve with Yogurt-Herb Dipping Sauce (see related recipe).

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
To keep the chicken in our Grilled Chicken Kebabs recipe from drying out, we marinated it in a blend of yogurt, olive oil, garlic, and herbs. The tangy, mildly acidic yogurt tenderized the chicken in our recipe and added valuable flavor—as long as the chicken only marinated for three to six hours. For the vegetable component of our kebabs recipe, we preferred firm vegetables like sweet red onion and red bell pepper. When cut into similarly sized pieces, they cooked evenly and became soft—but not mushy—by the time the chicken was cooked through.

Serves 4
We like to serve these fajitas with crumbled queso fresco or feta in addition to the other garnishes listed.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
To create indoor chicken fajitas that didn’t require a slew of compensatory garnishes to be tasty, we took a fresh look at the key ingredients. For well-charred, juicy chicken we marinated boneless, skinless breasts in a potent mix of smoked paprika, garlic, cumin, cayenne, and sugar before searing them hard on one side and finishing them gently in a low oven. We revamped the usual bland mix of bell pepper and onion by charring poblano chiles and thinly sliced onion, and then cooking them down with cream and lime. Finally, we finish the dish with small amounts of complementary garnishes: pickled radish, queso fresco, and cilantro leaves.

Serves 4 to 6
Any combination of split breasts and leg quarters can be used in this recipe.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
To save time and boost flavor, we ditched the original marinade and made a paste of the prunes, olives, capers, garlic, and oregano, which we spread on the chicken and caramelized into the sauce. To boost meatiness and complexity, we added anchovies and pepper flakes and browned the chicken skin in a skillet before baking it through.

Serves 4
Light coconut milk can be substituted for regular coconut milk. Serve this dish over rice.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines, and chicken adobo is among the most popular. The dish consists of chicken simmered in a mixture of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves, and black pepper. The problem with most recipes we found was that they were aggressively tart and salty. Our secret to taming both of these elements was coconut milk. The coconut milk’s richness tempered the bracing acidity of the vinegar and masked the briny soy sauce, bringing the sauce into balance.

Serves 4
The flat pad thai–style rice noodles that are used in this recipe can be found in the Asian foods section of most supermarkets. If you can’t find broccolini, you can substitute an equal amount of conventional broccoli, but be sure to trim and peel the stalks before cutting.

Pairs with:
Wente Vineyards Riverbank Riesling
Translating Thai street food into a quick weeknight dinner is easy—once you admit that most of what you thought you knew about stir-frying is wrong.