Anne Morgan These are the best Delia Smith chicken recipes I have actually cooked, from the Sunday roast I make most weeks to the basque chicken I save for when people come over. Each one links to the full article with ingredients, method, and my notes.
Her chicken recipes cover everything from a 15-minute curry to a 6-hour slow cooker braise. Start with the roast if you want a foundation, or skip to the one-pot dishes if you need dinner without thinking.
1. Roast Chicken
The one to learn first. Delia roasts a whole bird with lemon, thyme, and garlic at 200°C, then makes a crème fraîche pan sauce from the sticky bits in the tin. I come back to this every Sunday because the method is so reliable that I stopped thinking about it years ago.
Serves 4, prep 15 min, cook 60 min, 450 kcal. From How To Cook Book One.
2. Chicken Basque
A whole jointed chicken sits on brown rice, chorizo, peppers, and olives, covered and left alone for 45 minutes until the rice absorbs everything. The orange wedges are not decoration: they soften in the steam and run juice into the rice.
Serves 6, prep 20 min, cook 50 min, 670 kcal. From the Summer Collection.
3. Coq au Vin
Chicken braised in red wine with bacon, mushrooms, and button onions until the sauce goes glossy and dark. This is the recipe I make when I want the kitchen to smell like a French bistro without actually knowing how to cook French food.
Serves 6-8, prep 20 min, cook 60 min, 400 kcal.
4. Slow Cooker Chicken Casserole
Delia’s chicken casserole adapted for the slow cooker with thighs, potatoes, carrots, leeks, and a rosemary stock. You brown the chicken in the morning, tip everything in, and come home to a house that smells incredible.
Serves 4, prep 20 min, cook 6 hours, 160 kcal per serving.
5. Chicken Marengo
A French classic made with flour-dusted chicken thighs, cremini mushrooms, and a wine and tomato sauce. The story goes that it was invented for Napoleon after a battle, but all I care about is that the sauce is thick enough to coat every piece.
Serves 6, prep 10 min, cook 60 min, 480 kcal.
6. Spanish Chicken
Bone-in chicken with chorizo, butter beans, saffron, and tinned tomatoes. This chicken and chorizo dish is filling enough to serve without any sides, though a piece of crusty bread for the sauce is hard to resist.
Serves 4, prep 20 min, cook 90 min, 580 kcal.
7. Chicken Paprika
A quick midweek supper for two: one chicken joint browned and simmered in paprika, cayenne, tomatoes, and cream. This spiced chicken recipe takes about 45 minutes from start to plate and the sauce is rich enough to soak through a bowl of egg noodles.
Serves 2, prep 15 min, cook 45 min, 450 kcal.
8. Moroccan Chicken
Preserved lemons and chicken thighs in a one-pan supper with a warm, aromatic sauce. If you have never cooked with preserved lemons before, this is the recipe that will convert you because they give a salty, fermented citrus flavour that fresh lemons cannot match.
Serves 2, prep 15 min, cook 60 min, 380 kcal.
9. Chicken Tagine
Saffron, preserved lemons, and green olives in a golden Moroccan braise. If you liked the Moroccan chicken above, this one takes it further with saffron turning the sauce a deep yellow and the olives adding a briny sharpness.
Serves 4, prep 20 min, cook 55 min, 350 kcal.
10. Chicken Curry
A mild Caribbean-style curry with coconut milk, mango chunks, and Poudre de Colombo spice. This creamy chicken curry is ready in 15 minutes if you use leftover roast chicken, making it one of the fastest recipes on this list.
Serves 2, prep 10 min, cook 15 min, 390 kcal.
11. Leftover Chicken Curry
The recipe I make every Monday after a roast. Apricot jam, mango chutney, sultanas, and toasted almonds in a fruity sauce that turns cold chicken into something worth sitting down for.
Serves 4, prep 10 min, cook 45 min, 350 kcal.
12. BBQ Chicken
Drumsticks baked in an apricot barbecue glaze with dark brown sugar, soy sauce, and fresh ginger. The glaze caramelises in the oven without burning, which is why I prefer this to grilling outdoors where the sugar always catches.
Serves 6, prep 10 min, cook 25 min, 265 kcal.
13. Chicken Tray Bake
Chicken quarters, new potatoes, garlic cloves, and lemon wedges all roasted together in one tin. Everything goes in at the same time and comes out together, which makes it the laziest good dinner I know.
Serves 4, prep 15 min, cook 50 min, 550 kcal.
14. Chicken and Mushroom Pie
Tender chicken and whole button mushrooms in a creamy tarragon sauce under golden puff pastry. The tarragon gives the filling a gentle aniseed note that most chicken pie recipes miss.
Serves 4, prep 30 min, cook 35 min, 650 kcal.
15. Coronation Chicken
Delia’s curried chicken salad with mayonnaise, yoghurt, Madras curry powder, and mango chutney. I make this for every summer party because you can prepare it the day before and it actually tastes better after a night in the fridge.
Serves 6, prep 25 min, cook 8 min, 340 kcal.
16. Chicken Caesar Salad
Delia’s classic caesar from the Summer Collection turned into a full meal with grilled chicken breast sliced on top. The dressing is made from scratch with anchovies, garlic, and Parmesan.
Serves 2, prep 15 min, cook 15 min, 480 kcal.
17. Chicken Waldorf Salad
Cold chicken with celery, walnuts, grapes, and a tarragon dressing made in a pestle and mortar. This is the salad I take to picnics because it travels well and tastes better at room temperature than cold from the fridge.
Serves 4, prep 20 min, no cooking, 380 kcal.
18. Chicken Liver Pâté
Smooth, rich chicken livers blended with butter, Cognac, and thyme, then sealed under a layer of clarified butter. It keeps in the fridge for a week, which means you always have something decent to put on toast when people turn up unannounced.
Serves 4, prep 30 min, cook 40 min, 300 kcal.
19. Paella
Delia’s oven-baked chicken paella with chorizo, king prawns, and saffron rice. The oven does the work instead of the hob, so you get golden chicken and perfectly absorbed rice without standing over a pan for 40 minutes.
Serves 4, prep 30 min, cook 45 min, 650 kcal.
