I’ve cooked chicken a lot of different ways: grilled, smoked, fried, roasted, seared, pounded thin, chopped for stir-fries, thrown into tacos, glazed with teriyaki, covered in barbecue sauce, and probably overcooked more times than I’d like to admit.
The useful part is that every style teaches you something.
Southern cooking teaches you about brining. Schnitzel teaches you why thickness matters. Stir-fries teach you about surface area and cutting against the grain. BBQ teaches you temperature control. Teriyaki teaches you what happens when sugar meets high heat.
Eventually you stop collecting chicken recipes and start understanding chicken.
These are 20 things I’ve picked up that make almost any chicken recipe better.
