Hello! Mia here, filling in for Emily.
A wild, groundbreaking statement: I love chicken. I love how readily available and relatively inexpensive it is. I love chicken breasts, I love chicken thighs, I love chicken wings. I often think about what Fuchsia Dunlop wrote in her cookbook “The Food of Sichuan.” “The chicken has a place at the heart of Chinese gastronomy: Not only is its meat enjoyed in countless dishes,” she writes, “but its natural juices are thought to possess the very essence of flavor.” The very essence of flavor! And chicken plays so nicely with other flavors, textures and aromas across countless cuisines. Three cheers for chicken!
So today’s lineup of weeknight-friendly recipes includes five New York Times Cooking chicken recipes — the New York Times chickens, if you will — that I cook again and again. Several are made in one pan, most should be eaten with rice and all are fantastic.
(And for my vegetarian friends, three quick-fire favorites: mattar paneer, one-pan creamed spinach with eggs and chile crisp fettuccine Alfredo with spinach.)
1. Sheet-Pan Paprika Chicken With Tomatoes and Parmesan
I’ve made some version of this Melissa Clark classic more times than perhaps any other sheet-pan chicken dish. I say “some version” because the recipe lends itself so well to my whims, whether that’s adding fennel or cumin seeds to the sweet and smoked paprika mix, throwing in sliced onions or broccoli florets, or swapping in plain old white vinegar (instead of apple cider vinegar) for an extra sour bite. When I don’t have Parm — awful, I know — I serve this chicken with an artsy swoop of plain yogurt or labne.
2. Panang Curry
Red curry paste on its own is generally great, but when you boost it with additional spices and salty things — as Naz Deravian does here with cumin, coriander and peanuts — it really comes alive, taking on real warmth and dimension. Add coconut milk, lime, brown sugar and fish sauce, and you have a complex, velvety sauce for chicken. Serve with lots and lots of rice.
3. Oyakodon (Chicken and Egg Rice Bowl)
Bryan Washington’s recipe is the closest thing I’ve found to my mom’s, which she wrote down on an index card that lives pinned to my fridge. It’s sweet, salty, savory and a snap to make. Another fun fact: This dish is so good that the best man at my wedding included a mention of it in his toast (I had made it for dinner when he came to visit).
4. Sheet-Pan Chicken With Apple, Fennel and Onion
I know it’s not apple season yet, but please bookmark this one for when apple-picking season is in full swing and you come home with so many apples because everyone in your friend group has given you theirs after labeling you “the food person.” This Colu Henry dish is fast, beautiful and exactly what I make when I think I have the energy to make an apple pie but definitely do not.
5. Nasi Goreng Ayam (Indonesian Chicken Fried Rice)
If I have boneless, skinless thighs and leftover rice in the fridge, it’s Kayla Stewart’s nasi goreng ayam, adapted from a recipe by Lara Lee, for dinner. The white pepper and kecap manis are absolutely worth seeking out: The white pepper adds a pungency and brightness that black pepper doesn’t quite match, and the kecap manis gives the dish a caramel sweetness to balance the spice and salt. (By the way, mix some leftover kecap manis with your favorite hot sauce for a killer sauce for chicken tenders.)
We wrote a cookbook! “Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast, Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat” comes out on Oct. 8. Preorder it now.
