Spicy Chicken Dinners

Easy Curried Chicken with Peanuts and Peppers

Between cubed chicken breast, vegetables, curry, and peanuts, this recipe has everything you need for a complete and healthy meal in one bowl.

The peppers, onions, ginger, and garlic add to the tang of the sauce, while peanuts and peanut butter tone down the heat from cayenne pepper. Adjust the amount of heat once the chicken is ready, and add fresh cilantro and parsley to help tone it down.

To balance out the heat serve with this creamy asparagus risotto.

Ready in 30 minutes.

Paprika and Cayenne Chicken

This one-pan dish packs a true punch. Cayenne and paprika make a tasty sauce with chicken broth, onions, tomatoes, and garlic. Once the chicken is browned, the drippings and chicken fat add an extra layer of flavor to the sauce and help thicken it out. The dish takes 55 minutes of prep and cooking.

Taste before serving and if you find it too spicy add 1/2 cup of heavy cream to ease out some of the heat. Serve with sweet baked potatoes.

Thai Lime Roast Chicken

Try this whole chicken with a sweet-and-spicy marinade for a hot bird that's crispy on the outside. This Thai-inspired recipe requires a total of 2 hours and 40 minutes to make, but you can use the same oven to bake some potatoes and roast maple vegetables at the same time. Simply check on everything a couple of times, and before you know it you'll have quite a spread.

This chicken is on the milder side of spiciness but you can adjust the number of chilies you're using to as little as just 1 or to as many as you think you can handle.

Spicy Spatchocked Chicken

Spatchcocked is not only a fun word to say but also a fun way of preparing a chicken. By simply butterflying the whole bird you reduce the cooking time almost in half (depending on method) but also allow alternative methods to be used, like grilling or pan-frying the entire chicken.

Ask your butcher to open-up the chicken and gently separate the skin from the meat. This is where a spicy lime marinade is going to sit and from where the meat is going to absorb the flavors. Roast in 45 minutes and taste the heat level. If you think you can handle more sprinkle more chile pepper flakes.

Serve with mashed potatoes with garlic and Parmesan and asparagus with white sauce.

Blackened Chicken

Louisiana-style blackened chicken will not disappoint any spice enthusiast. Coated in a rub of black onion seed, cayenne, coriander, thyme, paprika, garlic, and cinnamon, the chicken breasts are packed with flavor. Seared first, then baked until done, they're also quick and easy. Serve the chicken over rice with chili flakes, and add a touch of lime zest for extra zing.

Spicy Crockpot Chicken Soup

Our spicy crockpot soup needs 6 hours in the crockpot and very little supervision, which makes it convenient. Gather all the ingredients and cook them on high for 1 hour, then set the crockpot on low and give the soup an extra 5 hours. Black pepper and cayenne give the right amount of spiciness, and the potatoes and veggies give it a beautiful coarse texture.

Serve it with warm bread and butter, or a side of saffron rice.

Ají de Gallina (Peruvian Creamy Spicy Chicken)

This Peruvian classic is a creamy chicken in a mildly spiced sauce. Ají amarillo (yellow pepper) is the chile used to flavor this sauce; you can use it raw or bottled. Blended walnuts, slices of bread, onions, and chicken broth make the base for a creamy sauce that takes on a bright yellow color thanks to the yellow chilies.

The ají de gallina (Peruvian creamy spicy chicken) recipe has potatoes in it, but it's traditionally served along with white rice and black olives. Aji de gallina is very filling, so it doesn't require any side dishes. Taste the sauce before adding the chicken to adjust the heat level. Enjoy after 1 hour of prep and cooking.

Goan-Style Spicy Chicken

This dish is living testimony of the interesting fusions that took place in Goa, India, during Portuguese colonization. The sauce is very similar in flavor to African peri-peri made out of bird's eye chiles, but despite the number of chilies used it is still really pleasant to eat and not too overpowering. For our recipe, you need 6 chilies of your choice to make a thick sauce with 30 garlic cloves, ginger and green chiles.

The chicken marinates in salt and lemon and then rests overnight in the fridge coated in a spicy, garlicky paste. You can either deep-fry it or bake it.

Serve it with creamy tzatziki and a classic egg potato salad.

Pollo Rojo

Our "red chicken" is a simple everyday Mexican way of cooking poultry using a flavorful sauce of chilies, garlic, cumin, oregano, and onions. However, the secret ingredient here isn't the chilies but the good-quality powdered cocoa that gives the sauce a special finish and balances out the power of the chiles and the pungency of the garlic.

This chicken is great served with Spanish rice, or with corn tortillas, lime wedges, and avocado. Prep and cooking time is 55 minutes.

Buffalo Chicken Meatloaf

This unusual take on meatloaf uses ground chicken and spices to make a flavorful, spicy dish with all the ingredients you'd normally find in a beef meatloaf. What's not usually in a beef meatloaf are hot wing sauce and cayenne pepper, which are tamed by blue cheese, blue cheese salad dressing, and breadcrumbs.

Meatloaf is a great weeknight meal alongside creamy mashed potatoes and a romaine lettuce salad.

Spicy Chicken Katsu in Sesame Buns

Although the chicken itself is seasoned with salt and pepper only, the addition of sambal in the steamed buns makes this fried-chicken sandwich one for the books. Sambal is a paste made out of shallots, chilies, garlic, lemongrass, turmeric, galangal, sugar, and tamarind, and even if there are hundreds of variations, what ties them all together are the generous amounts of chilies used.

The flavor and texture combos in this dish are amazing: the acidity of the pickles with the heat of the sambal, a chicken that's both crunchy and juicy inside of soft and chewy warm buns.

Spicy Chicken Lasagna

Less Italian and more Tex-Mex, this lasagna preparation is a real treat. Use oven-ready lasagna noodles to speed things up. The recipe features spicy chicken, a creamy tomatillo sauce, and a generous amount of Mexican cheese. Adjust the level of heat in your chicken before assembling the lasagna by using more chile, powder, or flakes.

Make a Caprese salad and slice some fresh bread to enjoy with this uniquely spicy chicken lasagna.

Spicy Plum Chicken Thighs

The unusual combination of plums and Thai chile makes for a great grilling sauce for tender chicken thighs. The end result is juicy and tender meat that melts in your hands while you suck on the delicious sweet and spicy plum sauce.

Grill some vegetables while you're at it and serve with a refreshing and creamy potato and dill salad.