31 Chicken Breast Recipes to Make for Dinner Tonight (2024)

Chicken breasts are convenient, but they can also be your worst enemy in the kitchen. They have the potential to be tender, juicy, and flavorful, but if you're not careful they can turn out dry, rubbery, and tough. Have no fear! We have dozens of recipes that will reignite your love for chicken breast. Reimagine chicken with these flavor-packed, well-spiced, tender, and juicy cutlets.

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Quick Skillet-Roasted Chicken with Spring Vegetables

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Tender vegetables simmer in a mixture of chicken drippings and butter in this simple, speedy dish. The attached drumette gives these airline chicken breasts more flavor; though bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs make a good substitute.

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Yogurt-Marinated Grilled Chicken

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Yogurt is ideal to use in a marinade for both its flavor and ability to tenderize meat. It tenderizes more slowly and gently than citrus juice or vinegar, so you can marinate the chicken overnight without it getting tough. The resulting meat is full of flavor from the garlic, cumin, and cayenne, and juicy — even if it's a little overcooked. This recipe calls for a whole chicken, but the marinade works equally well with skin-on boneless breasts.

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Grilled Chicken with Banana Pepper Dip and Fattoush

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2001 F&W Best New Chef Anita Lo's cookbook SOLO celebrates the joy of cooking for one, just like this weeknight-friendly chicken dish with a twist. "The banana pepper dip in this recipe is perhaps my favorite recipe that my partner's mother, Bonnie Attea, makes," Lo says. "It's a three-ingredient wonder that makes a weeknight chicken breast exciting."

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Smoky Stuffed Chicken with Serrano Ham and Olives

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To ensure that the stuffed breasts stay juicy, pull them out of the oven when an instant-read thermometer reaches 155°F; it will carry over to 160°F as the chicken rests. Serve the chicken breasts when they're fresh from the oven with golden, crispy skin, with a generous spoonful of the garlicky pan juices.

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Cider-Glazed Chicken Breasts with Apple-Kohlrabi Slaw

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Suffused with sweet-tart apple flavors and paired with a bright-tasting slaw, these cider-glazed chicken breasts offer a weeknight chicken dinner that's approachable and elegant.

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Chicken Breasts with White Wine Pan Sauce, Crème Fraîche, and Spring Herbs

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This simple white wine pan sauce enriched with créme fraîche and a generous handful of tender fresh herbs like tarragon, dill, and chives makes smart use of the pan drippings from pan-roasted chicken breasts. The sauce comes together in about 10 minutes and delivers an elegant, silky texture.

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Grown-Up Chicken Nuggets with Herb and Radish Salad

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Cookbook author Molly Stevens fillets chicken breast for crispy grown-up chicken nuggets dredged in panko and fried in olive oil and butter. Her favorite way to serve them is stacked alongside a bright and punchy herb and radish salad dressed in a lemon vinaigrette. If you like, you can also skip making nuggets and fry the cutlets whole.

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Hawaij-Spiced Fried Chicken Sandwiches

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In these decadent fried chicken sandwiches from Hakim Sulaimani, proprietor of Yafa Cafe in Brooklyn, boneless, skinless chicken breasts are infused with golden color and warming flavors from a buttermilk brine seasoned with hawaij, a Yemeni spice mixture usually consisting of cardamom, turmeric, black pepper, cloves, and coriander.

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Florentine Butter Chicken

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This recipe is inspired by F&W editor in chief Hunter Lewis' trip to 150-year-old Trattoria Sostanza in Florence. Cultured butter has a slightly higher smoke point and, when combined with olive oil, provides enough cooking time to finish the chicken and the sauce simultaneously.

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Chicken Piccata with Radishes

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Chefs Vinny Dotolo and Jon Shook of Animal restaurant in Los Angeles created an easy version of this Italian-American staple perfect for the home cook.The chicken is important, but it's the buttery, tangy sauce that makes this dish so special.

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Air Fryer Chicken

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Air-frying chicken gives you the ease of cooking something in the oven with the speed of sautéing. Incredibly versatile, this chicken is excellent on its own or as the base for a more elaborate meal.

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Grilled Chicken Breasts with Lemon and Thyme

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A bold mixture of red pepper flakes, garlic, thyme, lemon juice, and olive oil serves as a spicy marinade for these bone-in chicken breasts.

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Berber-Spiced Chicken Breasts

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Expert griller Steven Raichlen rubs the chicken breasts with a blend of North African spices that, when cooked on the grill, forms a crispy crust full of what Raichlen calls "gutsy, in-your-face flavors."

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Thai Chicken with Basil

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An abundance of whole basil leaves joins chicken and fiery red chiles for a quick, delicious, and decidedly spicy stir-fry. Holy basil is the most authentic choice, but any variety will do.

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Ultimate Buttermilk-Marinated Fried Chicken Breasts

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2019 F&W Best New Chef Caroline Glover butterflies chicken breast for a quick and even cook. To ensure a clean cut, pat the meat dry, then place a clean paper towel under the chicken while you cut through the breast. Glover gives butterflied chicken breast an initial soak in a simple brine and a second soak in buttermilk to deliver juicy, perfectly seasoned chicken that fries up incredibly crispy.

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Grilled Chicken Breasts with Sautéed Mushrooms

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Before grilling the chicken in this recipe, chef Francis Mallmann tucks orange zest and just-picked oregano under the skin. The fresh flavor of citrus and allium contrasts excellently with the crispy, smoky bird.

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Garlicky Lemongrass Chicken

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Lemongrass is known for its citrusy and herbal flavors, and it works beautifully here paired with garlic to amp up the flavor of chicken breasts. This spicy lemongrass paste is also wonderful rubbed on pork tenderloin or any firm, white-fleshed fish, such as snapper, sea bass, or halibut.

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Chinese Poached Chicken Breasts with Star Anise

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Chicken breasts poached in a broth flavored with star anise, cinnamon, ginger, scallions, and soy sauce is a Chinese classic. Traditionally you would save, not serve, the broth — it improves each time you use it — but we can never resist serving it with the chicken as a light sauce.

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Chicken and Andouille Étouffée

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Étouffée — from the French word for smother, stew, or braise — is a classic Cajun dish of shellfish (or sometimes chicken) served over rice. This recipe calls for chicken breast, whole wheat flour, and only three ounces of andouille sausage to make the dish lighter.

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Pickle-Brined Chicken

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"When you have leftover pickle juice, isn't it a waste not to use it to make chicken taste delicious?" asks chef Frank Falcinelli. He brines chicken breast in dill pickle juice for flavor and moisture, then serves it on top of super-tender leg meat he's shredded and mixed with sautéed chard.

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Maple-Glazed Chicken Breasts with Mustard Jus

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Chef David Slater glazes chicken breasts with maple syrup, sherry vinegar, and orange juice infused with anise and other spices. Then he serves them with a confited chicken leg, caramelized root vegetables, braised kale, and crisp Benton's bacon. For ease, glaze the chicken breasts with a sweet-tangy blend of syrup and vinegar and skip the confited leg and root vegetables.

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Twice-Glazed Barbecued Chicken

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Instead of the usual smoky-sweet tomato-based barbecue sauce, chef Mike Sheerin bases his version on oyster sauce, soy sauce, and roasted garlic, with toasted black peppercorns added for heat. The sauce is superb glazed on chicken, but would also be great on pork or steak.

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Green Chile–Chicken Enchiladas

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Modern Family TV star Jesse Tyler Ferguson hails from New Mexico, which explains his penchant for these deliciously cheesy and spicy chicken enchiladas. He often makes them with canned cream of chicken soup, but they're even better with a quick and easy homemade sauce that mimics the soup yet has better flavor.

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Oven-Fried Chicken Breasts

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"I admit that nothing can stand in for good fried chicken," says chef John Currence. "But this is a hell of an impostor." He adds sweet tea to his marinade; the tannins help tenderize the poultry while the sugar gives it a light cure. The accompanying gravy gets a ton of flavor from strips of caramelized onion.

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Grilled Chicken with Thai Cilantro Dipping Sauce

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Cilantro stems get in the act here; they're pureed with the leaves, jalapeños, garlic, fish sauce, and sesame oil to make a flavorful coating for grilled chicken. The dipping sauce, which also contains cilantro, is a classic Thai sweet-and-sour sauce.

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Slow Cooker Ethiopian-Spiced Chicken and Black Lentil Stew

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In this intensely comforting spiced chicken and black lentil stew, fresh ginger, garlic, tomatoes, and white wine are infused with berbere, an Ethiopian spice blend. If you can't get your hands on berbere, you can substitute an equal amount of garam masala for a similar flavor profile in the slow cooker.

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Creamy Chicken and Bacon Pasta with Artichoke Hearts and Spinach

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Salty, smoky, thick-cut bacon adds depth to this savory chicken pasta, while artichoke hearts and spinach help to lighten the dish.

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Middle Eastern-Inspired Chicken with Tahini Sauce

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When tahini is blended with nonfat Greek yogurt, it becomes a luscious sauce for cardamom-spiced grilled chicken breast. Make the sauce ahead for easier mealtime prep.

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Hot-and-Crunchy Chicken Cones

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Chef Jeff Blank has put Hot-and-Crunchy Cones on the map. Here, fried chicken is coated in an ingenious mix of cornflakes, slivered almonds, and sesame seeds, then wrapped in a tortilla with a mango-jalapeño slaw.

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Chicken and Smoked Sausage Gumbo

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The flavor of browned roux is essential to the traditional taste of Louisiana gumbo, so don't worry if the flour mixture looks like peanut butter by the time the vegetables have softened. That's just as it should be.

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Cheese-Stuffed Chicken Cutlets with Mustard Sauce

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In this lovely riff on classic chicken cordon bleu, the heavy ham and Swiss filling is replaced with creamy havarti and thyme. Instead of weighing down the cutlets with thick breading, they're sautéed in a light flour and egg coating.

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