Chicken Thigh

Radishes are routinely part of the salsa and condiment spreads available at the best taquerias. Here, I use them as part of a fresh topping for earthy chicken tostadas that is anything but routine. Achiote paste, a popular Yucatecan seasoning made from ground annatto seeds, is available at Mexican stores.

Using chicken thighs instead of breasts ensures juicy cutlets.

This weeknight chicken soup goes Greek with orzo, lemon juice, and a handful of fresh dill.

This fresh seasonal sauce—so good you'll be glad to have leftovers—features less sugar than traditional barbecue sauces. Serve the moist, flavorful chicken on warmed burger buns. Wear rubber gloves when mincing the jalapeño so you don't burn your hands. When prepping the fresh cherries, wear a dark shirt, use a good cherry pitter, and work over two bowls: one for the pits and stems and the other for the usable flesh. Feel into the center of each cherry after pitting and de-stemming to make sure that no pit remains.

I didn't think it was possible to love artichokes more than I already did until I lived in Italy. There they harvest artichokes in both spring and fall, and that abundance graces their cuisine. Artichokes also enhance their health, as they stimulate the gallbladder to produce bile, which escorts toxins out of the body and also helps break down fats in the diet. Here, artichoke hearts are combined with chicken, chickpeas, and olives to create a rich, nourishing stew, seasoned with a potpourri of heady and healthful spices, including turmeric, cumin, coriander, and mint. For a wonderful pairing, serve it over Brown Rice Pilaf with Saffron and Ginger .

This sausage uses chicken and schmaltz, along with plentiful sage, garlic, ginger and pepper. And salt of course—sausage needs salt. My optimal salt level is 1.75 percent, so I multiply the weight of the meat (in ounces or grams) by 0.0175 to get that amount of the salt needed (also in ounces or grams). If you like less salt take it back to 1.5%. This seasoning makes a great breakfast sausage as well as an excellent grilling sausage. If you have a sausage stuffer and like to link sausage, by all means stuff this sausage into casing. I like to cook this in patties and cook them either in a sauté pan or on the grill. The schmaltz can be replaced with pork fat or pork belly, if you have access to thighs but not schmaltz, but I think it's most intensely flavored using chicken fat. I'm fanatical about keeping sausage fixings cold all the way through the making, and I'm especially crazy about it here, because chicken fat is pourable at room temperature. Thus it's important to keep everything—the fat, the meat, even the seasonings—close to frozen while you're making this. I freeze the fat, cut it in chunks and then grind it frozen. After grinding this can be mixed by hand using a stiff spatula, dough spatula or wooden spoon, but a standing mixer with the paddle attachment works best. Either way, make sure the mixing bowl is cold.

The addition of celery root is a great twist on the familiar flavors in this dish.

A simple curry paste gives this northern Thai-inspired soup surprising depth of flavor.

Jarred kimchi delivers flavor and color in this roast chicken dish.

This richly spiced one-pot meal is quick and easy enough for a weeknight.

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of barbecue chicken recipes out there, and we've certainly had our share, so we can say with authority that this spicy sweet-and-sour grilled chicken is the best we've had to date. It's got enough heat to titillate your taste buds, but not so much that kids will steer clear. The additions of tomato paste and soy sauce provide deep, dark, low notes that keep the sauce from squealing. In other words, it's heat with harmony.

Want super-crisp chicken without having to add much fat? Start with a room-temperature pan: As the skillet becomes hot, the chicken skin will gradually render its fat, becoming browned and crackling.

This sweet, sour, and salty chicken gets its name from the rich, dark soy sauce. It’s quick to prepare, and the one-pan prep makes it easy to clean up. “Using a splatter screen (or a large, inverted strainer/colander) is helpful for reducing the mess when browning the chicken,” says Epicurious member Joy Vaughns. Serve the chicken with steamed rice and a crunchy green vegetable.

This spicy standout nails the difficult balance of sweet and fiery that characterizes the best jerk, cutting the heat of the Scotch bonnet chiles with a mixture of allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, and brown sugar. The soy sauce adds a sticky-salty-caramel note when the meat is grilled. Because jerk seasoning can burn easily, make sure to use indirect heat when grilling the meat. Serve with rice, beans, and plenty of ice-cold beer. (And be sure to use gloves when handling the peppers.)

Chicken makes this ceremonial Aztec soup healthier than the pork-based original. While this does require some preparation, the extra time and effort pay off with an intense, flavorful entrée.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Mediterranean classics, check out the video classes.

The creamy peanut marinade comes together in just minutes. For maximum flavor, we like to soak the chicken for at least three hours.

All the flavors of chicken pot pie, but handheld!

Chicken thighs are more succulent than breasts and stand up to reheating without drying out.

Oil-poach garlic to make confit, which yields tender, sweet cloves and infused oil. Add the cloves to pan sauces, use the oil for drizzling, or purée them both into a dressing.