In busy weeknights, chicken dinner recipe still win
Chicken is in a lot more dinners than almost anything else for a reason. It’s cheap, it will absorb any flavour it receives, and it’s quick and easy to prepare—even on a real weeknight. If you’re looking for a healthy chicken dinner recipe follow this guide thoughroly. These chicken dinner ideas are also forgiving — it’s easy to take the time to turn them a bit darker in the kitchen or add an extra splash of broth to the pan without making a huge change in the outcome.
1. Baked chicken with Roasted Vegetables
The one you will gravitate to if you want large, hot spices without having to tend to several pots. Simply mix together some yoghurt, garlic, ginger and some tandoori-style spices – cumin, chilli powder, a little turmeric – and allow bone-in chicken pieces to marinate while the oven warms up. Place potatoes, cauliflower or peppers on the same tray, set the chicken in the midst of them and cook it all together until the edges crisp slightly.
This is one of the easier chicken dinner recipes in regular rotation, because it’s easy to clean up (one tray, one oven).
2. Braised Chicken with Lemon and Green Olives
Tandoori chicken is up there if it comes to spicy chicken dinner recipes. While the onions and garlic soften in a hot skillet, chicken thighs are browned skin-side down until golden, and then pulled out — the fond left on does most of the work here. Chicken is added in with a little of the broth, slices of lemon and a good handful of green olives, and then it’s just a question of letting it simmer, covered, until the meat begins to fall apart with a fork.
3. Garlic Butter Chicken with Green Beans
If chopping isn’t enough this skillet dinner is super easy to put together and will have a light bite the nights you should be able to manage without. As soon as the chicken breasts or thin cutlets are seared in the pan of butter and olive oil, they come out of the pan and the garlic, a few splashes of chicken broth and the green beans cook down in the same pan. Put the chicken back to go through it all and you will have an entire meal – protein and vegetable – in one pan, with little or no dishes to clean.
4. Honey Mustard Chicken Thighs
For a reason, this is a favourite: sweet, tangy and almost all cooked in the oven. It is made with honey, mustard, a little olive oil and garlic, and the thighs of chicken are covered and baked to make a little caramel sauce at the edges. It requires minimal preparation and is one of the easiest simple chicken meals to prepare from time. Very little preparation is required and is a safer choice from the simple chicken meals for beginners.
5. Lemon Herb Chicken and Rice
This is a sort of dinner in a bowl. Chicken thighs are seared first, then rice and broth, lemon zest and thyme or parsley, and then, everything is cooked together at a low temperature. When the rice has soaked up broth, the chicken is cooked and the entire kitchen smells like what you would find at a neighbourhood restaurant.