Customer Reviews

The Best Chicken Recipes (Best Recipe Classic)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

If I didn't own so many Cook's Illustrated books, this book would be five stars. Because I own the other books, I've seen many of the recipes before. Repeats aside, this is still a wonderful book to own. There are a range of recipes from beginner to more advanced, all presented in an easy to understand format.

The Chicken 101 section is extremely helpful. It has step-by-steps for butchering, brining, etc. I wish they would've included instructions for trussing.

There are some hidden gems in the book like a primer on gas griling. As with all CI books, there are some best equipment and ingredient recommendations sprinkled throughout. The recipes are solid and almost fail-proof. I love the CI method: provide all the background info on the recipe and then a straight-forward recipe.

The book covers everything from chicken as appetizers to leftover chicken recipes. Cool chapters are Express Lane Chicken and Chicken Dinners for Two.

You'll never think of chicken as bland or boring again! Each of these recipies is carefully tested and bound to make you enthusiastic again about this often-overlooked main dinner course. From soups to slow cooker recipies, this oversize book has everything. I like the informative "Chicken 101" section nearly as well as the wonderful recipies. There are drawings that illustrate some of the preparation steps, and a few color photos as well. There are even cooking tips for other foods, like the one that cleverly tells how to peel boiled eggs quickly. Includes index and conversion chart.

America's Test Kitchen roasted some 40 chickens to find a foolproof recipe for roast chicken - and this is an example of just one of the exhaustive testing methods conducted on each and every recipe featured in BEST CHICKEN RECIPES - making it the best. Chapters divided by type of chicken - roasted and baked, fried, or stir-fried for example - make it easy to locate dishes by method, while a peppering of color photos and clear step-by-step 'how to' explanations make for an exceptionally easy presentation. Highly recommended: any general-interest library catering to any level of home cook needs this.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I bought this cookbook as a gift for my niece as she was running out of ideas for chicken recipes. She loved receiving it and immediately tried a few of the dishes with great success. Cook's Illustrated and their TV program, America's Test Kitchen, always have great recipes so buying this book was a no brainer!

For the most part this book is great, wonderful recipes, detailed step-by-step instructions, all using chicken. It even tells you how to carve up a whole bird and how to purchase quality meat. My husband hates all meat except fish and poultry, so it's a challenge to come up with new chicken dishes and not get bored with dinner. This book solved my problem. A word of warning to those who are looking for quick meals; you won't find them here except for a very short chapter. There a lot of steps to most of these recipes, and some of them are just not to our liking. Some, like the chicken enchiladas, are delicious! The enchiladas were worth the time I put into them, but some of these aren't. I spent an hour and a half on the orange honey-glazed chicken, only to find that we aren't "sweet chicken" people. It's not the fault of the book that we don't like that particular recipe, it's just that you can easily spend an entire evening on one recipe trying to figure out if it's any good, and coming from someone who loves to spend a night in the kitchen, it can be a bit much on a weeknight.

As with all the Cook's Illustrated books and magazines, there are gadget and cookware reviews throughout, which I love. That's what makes reading their publications truly different than other cookbooks. They put a lot of work into explaining their techniques and it really does make for a nice presentation. If I didn't work full-time and had a few hours a day to prepare meals, this book would be perfect. In all fairness, the title isn't "The Best QUICK Chicken Recipes." As it is, I think I will save this for weekends when I have more time.

Although I was a bit skeptical that anyone could find an entire cookbook's worth of recipes for chicken, I had previously purchased the Best Skillet and the Best Light Recipe books from this series and was very impressed with the quality and results from the authors. I am happy to report that I was not disappointed with the Best Chicken Recipes cookbook. All of the recipes tried so far have been absolutely delicious and easy to follow. There are no difficult techniques or hard to find ingredients involved. One of the features of all of the recipes in these series of cookbooks is an introduction to a particular recipe or technique. If you've got the time to read it, you will learn a lot about the process used by the authors in order to come up with the best ingredient or techniques in the finished result. The first recipe made was by my husband who is at the beginner moving onto intermediate skill level in the kitchen. He tried a recipe with stuffed chicken breasts, and I must tell you, it was high-end restaurant quality. I asked him to make them again. Yesterday I tried the chicken enchilada recipe and it was as good as any I've had in "authentic" Mexican restaurants. I highly recommend this book for anyone who enjoys to cook - new cooks will appreciate the explanations and tips, and more seasoned cooks will appreciate the diversity of recipes which make this suppertime staple exciting again.

Cooks Illustrated cookbooks are without fail, excellent. They try out all of the possibilities for you and then tell you which works best and why. Cannot beat it !! Good illustrations, good range of recipes.

We have had really good sucess using this book. They really know how to do the recipes. They explain why they do things. While there are not tons of recipes, the ones in this book taste great and that is what the any good cookbook should do.

BOOK WAS DELIVERED IN CONDITION AS DECRIBED(NEW). I WOULD ABSOLUTELY BUY AGAIN FROM THE SELLER.

I am a huge fan of Cook's Illustrated on the web and TV. Every recipe I have tried from them has been a winner. The content of the book is wonderful but come on "Cooks" you eat with your eyes first! I'd rather pay more and see 20 less recipes and an increased number of better quality photos. I actually bought this as a gift and ended up keeping it because it was not a gift quality product. If you are a recipe purest and don't care about presentation I'd recommend the book, if not skip it. I would not purchase another publication from Cook's.