So you bought a whole chicken. Now what? Often, we make fantastic dishes from chicken thighs or stuff breasts with cheese or seasonings for flavor. But whether you’re whipping up a chicken dish in less than 30 minutes, or making chicken recipes from around the world, cooking with an entire chicken doesn’t have to be intimidating. From traditional southern fried chicken hailing from a North Carolina BBQ restaurant, to Chinese chicken baked in salt, we’ve rounded up our best whole chicken recipes so you can make use of the whole bird.
Similar to a shrub—a fruit syrup punctuated by vinegar—my Blue Q sauce makes a bracing drink when mixed with club soda or booze. It’s also the first step in a fruity vinaigrette. And as much as it loves smoke, this sauce sees my oven more than my grill. Keep in mind this is not a marinade. Brush it on toward the end of cooking and let the chicken soak up more of the sauce before serving. The final soak is key. Get the recipe for Blueberry Barbecue Chicken »
Encasing a whole chicken in salt before cooking insulates the bird, allowing for gentle, even cooking and resulting in extra moist meat. In Hainan, the bird is typically prepared in a wok set over low heat, but it can also be baked in the oven, as we do here. You can reuse the salt up to three times for other salt-baked birds; otherwise discard it. Get the recipe for Chinese Salt-Baked Chicken With Congee and Pickled Mustard Greens »
Chicken braised with wine and tomatoes is easy enough to put together on a weeknight (this recipe is ready in an hour), and you can adapt it for a whole chicken or your preferred mix of breasts, thighs, or drumsticks. Do go for bone-in meat for a richer and more flavorful sauce. Get the recipe for Chicken Cacciatore »
Parker's BBQ in Wilson, North Carolina, famous for its Family Platter with shatteringly crisp fried chicken, goes through seven to eight thousand chickens a week. A favorite of chef Elizabeth Karmel's, this super-simple recipe lets the flavor of the chicken shine. Get the recipe for Parker's BBQ Fried Chicken »
At chef John Fleer's restaurant Rhubarb, in Asheville, North Carolina, dried morels are pulverized and rubbed onto the chicken before roasting to perfume the bird and help produce evenly browned skin. Fresh morels soak up the juices released from the chicken as it roasts. If fresh morels are not available, 1 oz. of dried and reconstituted morels will yield about 4 oz. of fresh. Get the recipe for Roasted Morel-Rubbed Chicken with Charred Lemon, Asparagus, and Potatoes »
In Mexico's most iconic molé, mulato, ancho, and pasilla chiles combine with warm spices to create a velvety smooth sauce that's ideal for spooning over chicken.
Our version of this classic uses peeled garlic; after removing the chicken from the pan, keep cooking the garlic until the cloves have all but melted. Then, a quick spin with a whisk makes a smooth sauce well worth the effort of all that peeling. Get the recipe for Chicken With 40 Cloves of Garlic »
