Poultry

“Club” Chicken Salad

This easy salad starts with a rotisserie chicken from the grocery store. I improvised this, and you should too! You can’t really mess it up.

“Polynesian” Chicken

This has nothing to do with Polynesia — it originated in an American Chinese restaurant. I like it because it’s mostly vegetables (julienned into a crunchy, colorful stir-fry in a simple Chinese brown sauce), but it includes the richness and crunch of deep-fried chicken.

Braised Chicken with Shiitakes & Ginger

Savory and succulent. The juicy savoriness of shiitake mushrooms is unparalleled, and everyone should be cooking with oyster sauce. It’s a great ‘secret ingredient’ that will add so much flavor to your cooking.

Chicken & Dumplings

This is my adaptation of an old recipe from Gourmet Magazine, and it’s the best version of chicken and dumplings that I know. The stew is rich and flavorful, and the dumplings are light and fluffy with a slight bite from the addition of cornmeal. It’s just perfect.

Chicken Ballotine

You’d be hard pressed to present a more impressive main dish than this, served with a Bearnaise sauce you cooked while the ballotine was in the oven. Such a show-stopping dish doesn’t need fancy sides: some buttered peas, some potatoes browned carefully in butter. It’s delicious, rich and sophisticated: absolutely as elegant as beef Wellington or a lobster dish, and much less expensive.

Chicken Breasts Nanette

No one seems to know who “Nanette” was, but this recipe has been floating around for years. It appears under this name in the 1959 Gourmet Cookbook, and as “Brandied Chicken Breasts” in the 1975 edition of Joy of Cooking. It disappeared from later editions, like so many other rich and lovely dishes. I think you’ll like it.

Chicken Fricassee on Toast

This is an easy and elegant supper, needing only a green vegetable and a dry white wine to complete the meal.

Chicken Fricassee with Lemon & Mustard

Here’s a lovely and easy French recipe, straight from Paris and the (sadly now-closed) bistro A La Pomponnette in Monmartre. It makes a nice main dish for a dinner party. The sauce is lush and plentiful, so be sure to serve with potatoes, rice or buttered noodles (and some good bread to mop it up).