Easy Chicken Dinner Ideas
Chicken is the answer to "what's for dinner?" more often than anything else, and for good reason: it's affordable, it takes on any flavor, and almost everyone at the table will eat it.
Some of these are hands-off bakes, some are done in one pan, and a few are family recipes.
Chicken Crescents
Creamy chicken and cream cheese rolled into crescent dough, then coated in butter and stuffing crumbs for a crunchy, golden bite.
Hawaiian Haystacks
Creamy chicken gravy over rice, with a table full of toppings so everyone builds their own plate.
One Pan Baked Parmesan Chicken and Vegetables
Crispy parmesan-crusted chicken baked on one pan with red potatoes and asparagus, so dinner and cleanup are both easy.
Ritz Chicken
Chicken breasts coated in buttery crushed Ritz crackers and baked until golden, with only a handful of ingredients.
Chicken Enchiladas
Layered corn tortillas, creamy green chile chicken sauce, and lots of melted cheese, all made from pantry staples.
One-Pan Chicken Fajitas
Sheet-pan fajitas with almost no cleanup — the kind of dinner that keeps a meal plan from falling apart on a Tuesday.
Tips
- Buy a family pack and freeze it in recipe-sized portions. Thaw one overnight in the fridge and dinner is already half decided.
- A rotisserie chicken from the store works in most shredded-chicken recipes and saves 30 minutes.
- Chicken breasts are done at 165°F. A cheap instant-read thermometer ends the guessing.
Still can't decide?
Let the dinner picker choose, or get the What's For Dinner app to roll from your own list and let the whole household vote.
More dinner ideas
- Easy weeknight dinners · 5 recipes
- Quick dinners · 4 recipes
- One-pan dinners · 3 recipes
- Comfort food dinners · 3 recipes