7 Spicy Chicken Dinners That Will Leave You Craving Chicken Tonight

Chicken is easy to cook, full of protein and has such a mild flavor that it takes on spices, rubs or sauces easily. Adaptable and versatile, chicken is a great animal protein with a lot of nutritional value and considerably fewer calories per 100 grams than beef.

Our recipe selection offers 13 recipes for chicken that also use hot and spicy ingredients. If you're a heat enthusiast, this is where you'll surely find a recipe that suits your palate.

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01 of 07

Paprika and Cayenne Chicken

Chicken Stewed in Paprika and Cayenne Pepper Sauce. jon whitaker | Getty Images

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.
02 of 07

Thai Lime Roast Chicken

The Picture Pantry/Ivan Danik / Getty Images

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.
03 of 07

Spicy Crockpot Chicken Soup

Wanwisa Hernandez-EyeEm-Getty Images

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.
04 of 07

Ají de Gallina (Peruvian Creamy Spicy Chicken)

The Spruce

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.

Continue to 5 of 7 below.
05 of 07

Pollo Rojo

Garnished with onions, this Chicken in Red Sauce bears the colors of the Mexican flag: green, white, and red. photo (c) Rick on Flickr,

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.
06 of 07

Buffalo Chicken Meatloaf

The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

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.
07 of 07

Spicy Chicken Katsu in Sesame Buns

Chicken Katsu Steamed Buns with pickles, cilantro and chili paste. Grilled Cheese Social

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.