Top ways to cook chicken for every cut

How to cook whole chicken

Roasting: a whole roast chicken delivers golden, crispy skin, tender meat, and plenty of leftovers for midweek meals, making it brilliant for batch cooking, cutting food waste and stretching the pennies. Try our recipe for Mexican-style fajita roast chicken or Tom Kerridge's richly seasoned herby roast chicken. Don't discard the carcass – use it to add flavour to this leftover orzo chicken soup.

Poaching: For beautifully tender meat and a gorgeous broth that you can turn into soups throughout the week, opt for poaching your chicken. Place a whole chicken in a large pan, cover with cold water and add aromatics, like carrot, leek, bay leaves, peppercorns and a good pinch of salt, then bring slowly to a gentle simmer. Simmer with the lid on for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, until the juices run clear when a knife is inserted into the thickest part.

How to cook chicken thighs, drumsticks and legs

Slow-cooking: Using these cuts with the bone in adds rich, deep flavour to your dish and tender, juicy meat that falls off the bone – perfect for stews and casseroles, like these rosemary-roasted chicken legs with butterbeans.

Roasting: Succulent, juicy and flavoursome, these cuts will leave you with plenty of delicious sticky juices to pack your dish with flavour. Use them in one-tray or one-pot recipes for simple, quick flavour, like our chicken Provencal-style traybake or creamy one-pot chicken. Alternatively, marinate ahead, as in this sticky BBQ chicken thigh recipe, or coat with Chinese five spice, bake and shred into these weekend tacos.

Grilling: For gorgeous crispy chicken skin and tender meat, season skin-on thighs, drumsticks or legs with salt, pepper and a little olive oil, then grill on the barbecue until smoky and delicious.

Don’t hold back on flavour: whether it’s a Smokehouse BBQ Seasoning rub or a Honey and Chipotle Marinade, chicken loves bold seasoning. Our marinades and pastes take the guesswork out of great flavour.

Juicy, never dry – that’s the goal, so try not to overcook it. Check your chicken is cooked by inserting a skewer or sharp knife into the thickest part. If the juices run clear, it's ready to take off the heat.

Make it go further: roast a whole chicken and turn leftovers into pasta, salads or sandwiches. With clever planning and a few storecupboard heroes, one chicken can do the work of many meals.

Get the best from every cut: from tender breast fillets to juicy thighs, each cut has its place in your recipe roster. Pan-fry breasts for a speedy midweek dish or slow-cook thighs for rich, comforting flavour.