Whole Chicken

Long on flavor and short on time, this classic French dish makes a smart weeknight dinner. Bright with tarragon, it's a great way to welcome spring.

If four people eat a mix of light and dark skinless meat, you'll have enough leftovers for two more meals. Bonus: Your oven does all but 10 minutes of the work.

This recipe was created by chef Ryan Hardy of the Little Nell in Aspen, Colorado. It's part of a special menu he created for Epicurious's Wine.Dine.Donate program.

Serve this Basque-style dish with rice or bread to soak up all the juices.

This dish, inspired by a recipe from Gray Kunz's Elements of Taste, is a great alternative to roasting a whole chicken. To ensure that the bird lies flat and cooks evenly in the pan, we've used the spatchcock technique, which entails simply removing the backbone of the chicken and tucking the legs up and out of the way. Don't worry if the instructions seem a bit confusing when you're reading through the recipe — the steps become obvious once you have a chicken in front of you.

In this homey recipe, chicken is cooked with a thick creamy sauce. Kishk is traditionally eaten cold, but it's equally delicious warm.

Roasting the chickens and using both dark and white meat results in chicken salad with deep flavor. (Buying rotisserie chickens will cut down on the timing, but be sure to choose minimally seasoned birds.) Fennel, standing in for the usual celery, along with fennel seed and fresh basil, adds an unexpected note of sophistication.

You can omit the salt in this recipe if the recipe you are using calls for it.

What to drink: The same type of wine the chicken is cooked in — a dry Riesling from Alsace.

It's traditional to serve a whole chicken, including the head and feet, for Chinese New Year. The white meat symbolizes purity, and serving the entire bird represents unity. Plunging the chicken into ice water after poaching ensures that the meat is perfectly juicy and tender. A very simple but powerful dipping sauce tops it off. Use only a tiny amount — it's quite strong.

From the rich broth to the velvety cubes of winter melon — a gourd commonly used in Chinese cuisine for the wonderfully soft texture it takes on during cooking — this wholesome soup is immensely satisfying. Although the winter melon's delicate white flesh has no distinct taste of its own, it absorbs the broth's flavor. We recommend buying a good-quality organic free-range chicken to get the best results. Since Chinese ham is unavailable in the United States, we substitute Smithfield ham. But other cured hams, such as prosciutto, also work well.

Now that I'm married to a chef (Laurent Gras of New York's Bistro du Vent), the inevitable question from friends is, "What do you cook for your husband when he's such a whiz in the kitchen?" Well, I always joke that I'm the Sunday sous-chef, as I'm the one making supper on the day of rest. Here's a roast chicken recipe of mine that seems to meet with his approval.

This dish, typical of West Africa, is traditionally accompanied by foo-foo (a porridgelike side dish made from corn, sweet potato, plantain, or cassava meal). We strongly recommend serving the stew with rice to sop up the delicious sauce.

Serve this aromatic chicken with a side of Yellow Rice.

Julie Fendrich of Denver, Colorado, writes: "My husband and I love going to Brix in Denver's Cherry Creek neighborhood. We are absolutely crazy about the Moroccan chicken. Any chance the restaurant might share the recipe?" Harissa, a spicy sauce from North Africa, adds heat to the marinade and tastes great drizzled over both the chicken and the couscous. The chicken needs to marinate overnight, so plan accordingly.

Xinxim de Galinha We debated whether to simmer or boil the coconut milk for this dish, fearing flavor loss or curdling. We ended up adding it at room temperature, with great results.