14 Celebrity Chef's Favorite Chicken Dishes

It's hard to think of an ingredient that's more universally loved than chicken. It's a dish that takes on countless forms in many cuisines around the world, from slow-cooked stews to simple roasts and crispy, deep-fried perfection. It can be comforting and homey or jazzed up into elevated gourmet creations. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that some of the world's top chefs have strong opinions about their favorite chicken dishes, whether they're making them from scratch or ordering them off a menu.

When you think of celebrity chef's signature iconic dishes, many are elaborate creations that helped put them on the culinary map. However, their personal favorites are often much more relatable, particularly when it comes to chicken. Many gravitate toward nostalgic childhood favorites, simple comfort food, and even fast-food guilty pleasures. Think dishes like chicken parm, butter chicken, and chicken fingers. Of course, some chefs don't mind if the dish requires a bit of legwork, provided the end result is delicious. If you're curious about how top culinary stars like their chicken, these are 14 celebrity chef's favorite chicken dishes.

Born to Chinese-Thai parents in Los Angeles, Jet Tila grew up surrounded by Asian cuisine. He would later go on to become an esteemed chef and cooking show star renowned for his Pan-Asian creations. It makes sense then that his favorite chicken dish comes from Thailand. On an episode of "Ready Jet Cook," he said, "Khao soi is hands down my favorite noodle dish to eat and cook." He went on to explain that the dish has its roots in Northern Thailand, which is where his mom's side of the family comes from, so it's especially close to his heart.

Khao soi gai is a flavorful curry dish that features chicken and egg noodles in a creamy coconut curry broth. It starts with a base of coconut milk cooked with curry paste — Tila prefers a mix of yellow curry and massaman curry. Then, chicken leg quarters are added to the mix. More coconut milk is added, along with ingredients like fish sauce, tamarind paste, sugar, lime leaves, and chicken stock. Once the chicken is cooked through, the soup is served with fresh egg noodles and mustard greens. Toppings can include crispy fried noodles, sliced shallots, and cilantro.

Ina Garten built an empire creating comforting home-cooked meals. Among her creations there are plenty of chicken dishes that are simple to make, yet ultra-satisfying. Take, for example, Garten's easy three-ingredient chicken dish that features just chicken breasts, goat cheese, and basil. However, there's one dish that she goes back to time after time and that's Parmesan chicken. In a TikTok video, she said, "I don't think there's any dish I've made more than Parmesan chicken ... everybody loves this."

There's nothing overly complicated about Garten's Parmesan chicken. She simply pounds chicken breasts to tenderize them and make them even, then coats them in flour, dips them in eggs beaten with a bit of water, and gives them a final coating in a mix of seasoned breadcrumbs and finely grated Parmesan cheese. The final step is frying the chicken breasts in olive oil and butter until they're brown and crispy on both sides. Garten likes to top her chicken parm with baby greens tossed in a tangy lemon vinaigrette. As she said on TikTok, "The hot chicken and the cold salad is just a great combination."

Food Network star and cookbook author Aarti Sequeira often draws on her Indian heritage, as well as her experience living in Dubai and the United States, to create unique dishes that fuse global flavors. But when it comes to her favorite chicken dish, it's a classic family recipe that you can also find at nearly every Indian restaurant. On an episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Made," she stated that the best dish she makes is tandoori chicken. She said, "This is a hallowed recipe in the Sequeira household."

Tandoori chicken consists of chicken meat marinated in yogurt and spices. It's typically cooked in a clay tandoor oven, which can get screaming hot. If you don't have a tandoor oven, you can do like Sequeira does and use a broiler or grill. Her marinade features a slew of spices mixed into the yogurt including guajillo chiles, cloves, cardamom, coriander, fenugreek, paprika, cinnamon, and turmeric. She marinates the chicken in the mixture overnight, roasts it, and serves it with a sauce made from some of the reserved marinade. It's a bit labor intensive to put it all together, but Sequeira said it's absolutely worth it.

Anyone who is familiar with Marcus Samuelsson knows he's a huge fan of fried chicken. After all, his Red Rooster Harlem restaurant is famous for its delectable "yardbird," along with other classic dishes that represent Harlem's diverse culinary landscape. In a YouTube video, Samuelsson said he grew to love fried chicken after moving to America. He said, "I want to listen to some really good music, sit outside, eat it with my hands, and just share it with some friends. You know, that's living. That's good life."

Over the years, Samuelsson has created numerous recipes for fried chicken. His signature yardbird features chicken thighs and drumsticks marinated in buttermilk, coconut milk, garlic, and a spice blend that includes Ethiopian berbere spice (a nod to the chef's birthplace), paprika, cumin, celery salt, and granulated garlic. The chicken is then dredged in flour and deep fried until golden and crispy. Samulesson's game-day fried chicken consists of fried chicken glazed with miso hot honey, topped with caviar, and served with a coconut dip. He's also created fried chicken inspired by Mexican mole sauce, coconut fried chicken, and fried chicken with cricket flour.

When Julia Child moved to Paris, she made it her mission to unlock the secrets of French cooking. She enrolled in Le Cordon Bleu cooking school and would later co-author the cookbook "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." When she returned to the United States, she became the host of "The French Chef," a television show where she shared how to make some of her favorite French dishes. One of those was coq au vin, which she called "one of the most delicious chicken dishes you'll ever put in your mouth."

Coq au vin is a rich stew made with chicken, bacon, mushrooms, onions, and wine. While you can use either white or red wine, Child preferred using red wine for coq au vin. She recommended a young, full-bodied wine like Cotes du Rhone or a California red. She also liked to flame her browned chicken in cognac. Other classic ingredients for coq au vin include beef or chicken stock, thyme, garlic, bay leaf, and tomato paste. Traditionally, the mixture is simmered until the chicken is tender, then thickened with a beurre manié (butter and flour paste) to give it a beautiful glossy texture.

Globetrotting chef Andrew Zimmern has tried a plethora of dishes around the world, from shark sandwiches in Trinidad and Tobago to huaraches in Mexico City and, of course, amazing eats in his hometown of the Twin Cities. You would think that choosing a favorite dish would be difficult. On an episode of "The Best Thing I Ever Made," however, Zimmern said that the recipe he's happiest to have brought home from his travels is something he calls grandmother's Chinese chicken wings from Hong Kong. He said, "This is, for my money, one of the world's greatest recipes."

Zimmern described his favorite chicken dish as, "A Chinese master sauce reduced around chicken wings." The chicken wings are dry seared, then simmered in a pan with sake, soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, oyster sauce, ginger, dried chile, star anise, cinnamon, and a bit of water. The sauce is cooked down until it's sticky and lacquer-like, then the heat goes up so that the chicken fat emulsifies into the wings. Zimmern said it gives the wings a mouthfeel that you just don't get with other recipes. The final touch is a sprinkling of sliced green onions and sesame seeds.

As an accomplished chef, cookbook author, and a regular on Food Network shows, Alex Guarnaschelli knows a thing or two about good eats. When it comes to chicken, the dish that she loves most is breaded chicken marsala. In an Instagram reel posted by the Food Network, she called it her "absolute favorite chicken recipe" and stated that she believes it can stand the test of a special birthday dinner. It's easy to see why she loves the dish. It's rich in umami flavors, has a kick of acidity, and a gorgeous crispy exterior.

While many chicken marsala dishes feature chicken cutlets in a creamy wine and mushroom sauce, Guarnaschelli's recipe is a dry, baked version. Her first step is to create a marinade with soy sauce, Marsala wine, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, hot sauce, and canola oil. She marinates whole, skinless chicken pieces in the sauce for at least three hours. Then, she combines toasted breadcrumbs with melted butter and rolls the marinated chicken in the mixture. The final step is baking the chicken on high heat in the oven until it's cooked through and the outside is brown and crunchy.

Superstar chef Gordon Ramsay is pretty vocal when it comes to the dishes he likes (and the ones he doesn't). That's how we know that his favorite foods are a spectrum of iconic dishes. One of the dishes at the top of his list is butter chicken. On an episode of "Next Level Kitchen," Ramsay said that he actually traveled all the way to India just so he could learn how to get the dish right. He also told Josh Scherer of "Mythical Kitchen" that he would include butter chicken on the menu for his final meal.

Butter chicken (a.k.a., murgh makhani) is a curry dish that features chunks of chicken in a creamy tomato gravy that's laden with spices, and it gets its richness from butter. It's typically made by marinating pieces of boneless chicken breast in yogurt and spices like garam masala, turmeric, cumin, and coriander. Ramsay recommends leaving the chicken in the marinade overnight. Then, the chicken is sauteed or grilled and simmered in a smooth sauce that includes butter, tomatoes, onions, ginger, garlic, and more spices. Many people finish the dish with cream for extra decadence.

Aarón Sánchez comes from a long line of Mexican chefs. His grandmother wrote cookbooks, and his mother owned a restaurant in New York City. Unsurprisingly, he's extremely passionate about Mexican cuisine. He's written two cookbooks featuring Mexican dishes and co-hosts a podcast called, "Cooking in Mexican from A to Z" with his mother. One of his all-time favorite dishes is one he remembers from his youth — chicken flautas. In a Facebook post, he said, "I love them because they're crunchy, delicious, and remind me of home."

Flautas are essentially rolled-up tacos that are deep fried. They're typically filled with cooked, shredded chicken, although you can also find flautas with other meats or beans. Sánchez's recipe includes chicken that's seasoned with adobo sauce, grilled, shredded, and tossed in a garlic chipotle sauce. The meat is tightly rolled in corn tortillas, and the flautas are fried until crispy and golden. Toppings include pickled red onions, guacamole, queso fresco, crema, and hot sauce. Sanchez also recommends garnishing the flautas with cilantro and freshly squeezed lime juice for extra hits of freshness and acidity.

When Kristen Kish won Season 10 of "Top Chef," she probably never imagined that one day she would be hosting the show — and that's just one of the many things she's achieved since her big win. She also went on to open Arlo Grey in Austin, Texas, has published a cookbook, and has appeared on numerous other television shows. Peruse the menu at Arlo Grey and you might assume Kish's favorite chicken dish is something sophisticated and globally inspired. The truth is, she often craves something much more pedestrian.

When Kirk Bachmann of "The Ultimate Dish" podcast asked Kish what her favorite dish was, she said, "My ultimate dish for myself is, without question, hands-down, delivery or takeout chicken fingers, french fries, ranch dressing, and mayonnaise." She told the host that it just hits right every time. She's also not opposed to supermarket chicken fingers, telling Boston Magazine that she's a huge fan of the frozen variety that you can deep fry. She said, "Quite frankly, when chefs get done working, they like something really fast and simple and sometimes that comes from the freezer aisle. And that's okay."

When Chowhound writer Tysen Ling did a deep dive into Alton Brown's favorite foods, he discovered that the chef and Food Network star has some pretty eclectic tastes, ranging from fried chicken to caviar. That's probably not surprising, considering the chef is constantly experimenting with different dishes and cooking techniques. Out of all the dishes that Brown has made over the years though, one flavorful spiced chicken dish stands out for him.

When Brown appeared on "The Best Thing I Ever Made," the dish he called out as the most impressive he's ever cooked was chicken with smoked paprika. He said, "This is my favorite chicken dinner and most certainly the best chicken dinner I've ever made." The dish consists of chicken thighs marinated in a paste of smoked paprika, neutral oil like canola, and salt. Brown stuffs a tapenade of chopped green olives, lemon zest, and grated garlic under the skin, and then cooks the chicken on a rack over a bed of sliced potatoes and onions. As the chicken cooks, the skin crisps up the fat drips onto the potatoes and onions, creating a smoky, flavorful base.

Cat Cora has helmed the kitchens of Michelin-starred restaurants, hosted numerous cooking shows, and was the first woman to win "Iron Chef." The critically acclaimed culinary star could probably cook any chicken dish you could dream of and pull it off with precision. Like many chefs, however, she likes to cook easy-going recipes at home. One of her favorites is kota kapama, a Greek chicken dish that she learned from her mother and grandmother.

Also known as cinnamon stewed chicken, kota kapama is simple to make, but goes big on flavor. Cora starts the dish by coating pieces of chicken in a rub that consists of cinnamon, black pepper, and sea salt. Then she sears the chicken in a skillet, sets it aside, and uses the same skillet to create the sauce. Onions and garlic go in, then white wine to deglaze. When the alcohol is cooked out, she adds chicken stock and tomato sauce. The browned chicken goes back in and everything is left to simmer until the sauce is thick. The rich, aromatic stew can be served on orzo or rice.

Many celebrity chefs have a strong social media presence, and Bobby Flay is no exception. The restaurateur and Food Network star regularly posts on platforms like TikTok and Instagram with recipes and cooking tips. Once he even did a walk-through of his pantry so that fans could discover some of Flay's favorite ingredients. In an Instagram post from 2020, the chef revealed that chicken piccata is a dish that he holds in high regard. He said, "If you have a repertoire of five dishes in your kitchen arsenal, this should be one of them."

Although the name might lead you to believe that chicken piccata hails from Italy, it was actually created in America by Italian immigrants. It consists of chicken cutlets that are pounded thin, then dredged in flour, beaten eggs, and breadcrumbs and pan-fried until crispy and brown. The sauce is what really sets this dish apart though. Flay suggests using the same pan you fried the cutlets in and adding wine to deglaze, and then lemon juice and capers. When the liquid is almost gone, cold butter goes into the pan to make a luscious velvety sauce that's both rich and tangy.

Few chefs have had as much influence on Italian-American cuisine as Lidia Bastianich. Through her cookbooks, television shows, and restaurants, she's helped shape the way Americans think about Italian food. Despite her extensive culinary expertise, some of her favorite dishes remain the simplest. Take for example her mother's chicken and potatoes, a dish that's been in her family for generations. On her website, she said she and her brother demanded it every week, then their children craved it, and now the younger generation also asks for it.

There's nothing overly complicated about the dish that Bastianich's family adores. It consists of bone-in chicken pieces cooked in a skillet with oil and bacon that's been rolled up and skewered with toothpicks. When the chicken is brown and the bacon is slightly crispy, they're removed from the pan to make way for small red potatoes that have been sliced lengthwise and tossed in oil. When the potatoes have crisped up, onion wedges and rosemary are added along with the chicken and bacon. Everything is covered and cooked until you have a beautiful mix of crispy, yet tender elements.