Maybe your metric of a perfectly spiced meal is based on how much sweat you wipe from your brow, or perhaps your palate prefers a more mild zing. Wherever your ideal dinner falls on the Scoville scale, this collection of spicy chicken recipes is guaranteed to enliven and delight your tastebuds. Experience the tongue-tingling heat of Szechuan peppercorns in Kung Pao Chicken, use Calabrian chiles to perk up chicken soup, or dabble with Scotch bonnet peppers for Caribbean classics like jerk chicken. Each dish can be customized to your liking by using more or less of the hot stuff, opting to seed the chiles or not, or pairing the incendiary element with cooling condiments like sour cream or yogurt. Read on to choose your own fiery chicken adventure.
Marry Me Chicken
Morgan Hunt Glaze / Prop Styling by Joshua Hoggle / Food Styling by Marianne Williams
We spiced up this modern classic chicken dish — seared chicken breasts that finish cooking in a delectable sun-dried tomato cream sauce — with flavorful Calabrian chiles and medallions of creamy goat cheese.
Jamaican Jerk Chicken
Our fiery hot jerk chicken starts with marinating the meat in a bold spice blend that includes two whole Scotch bonnet peppers before it’s grilled to perfection. The end result is wonderfully spicy, smoky, and fragrant — everything you want the dish to be.
Pollo con Chile
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Audrey Taylor
Nestle shredded chicken in a lightly charred tomato salsa loaded with three kinds of peppers — serranos, a jalapeño, and chiles de árbol — for a zippy dish that’s balanced out by grilled vegetables, beans, and warm tortillas.
Al Pastor–Style Chicken Skewers
Greg Dupree / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Fragrant, juicy, and gloriously spicy, these easy-to-make chicken skewers deliver big time on the flavor front. The al pastor marinade, or adobado, has a ton of depth and hits you with a good bit of heat on the back end.
Pepper Jelly–Glazed Chicken Thighs with Grilled Peppers
For a one-two punch of heat, we pair sweet, spicy, and sticky pepper jelly–glazed chicken thighs with grilled shishito peppers, Anaheim chiles, and scallions. A squeeze of grilled limes over the cooked chicken adds smoky acidity to the dish. Serve the chicken and vegetables with rice for a simple dinner in 35 minutes.
Air Fryer Lemon Pepper Chicken Wings with Hot Honey Glaze
Toss sweet, buttery wings with lemon pepper seasoning and cook in an air fryer until crispy, then blanket with hot honey and serve with more of the glaze for dipping. Add color and brightness to the dish with a cilantro garnish.
Rowdy Rooster Fried Chicken Sandwiches
Chintan Pandya layers the flavor — and heat — for his perfectly orchestrated fried chicken sandwiches. Boneless, skinless chicken thigh pieces are twice marinated and fried until deep brown, locking in flavor and moisture with a crunchy exterior. After a quick dip in Kashmiri chile-spiced melted butter, they’re met with a bright mint chutney, amchur onions, and scallion-laced yogurt atop a soft, yielding bun.
Spicy Chicken Curry
Chicken thighs and drumsticks simmer in a deeply flavorful sauce seasoned with both fresh and dried chiles, garlic, ginger, and an array of spices for this cozy, warming dish that’s easy to make ahead.
Chicken Yassa with Fonio
Morgan Hunt Glaze / Food Styling by Jennifer Wendorf / Prop Styling by Josh Hoggle
Mawa McQueen’s version of this African staple brings together caramelized onions, garlic, and tomato into a jammy, rich base for tender braised chicken seasoned with lemon and chile.
Spicy Lemongrass Chicken
Kelsey Hansen / Food Styling by Annie Probst / Prop Styling by Sue Mitchell
The late, legendary chef Charles Phan was firm in his beliefs about the right and wrong way to stir-fry. “A wok isn’t like a salad bowl with a flame under it. You don’t want to throw everything in at once and toss. You need to layer flavors by adding ingredients in the right order.” In this case, that means lemongrass, aromatics, and plenty of chiles.
Nashville Hot Chicken
Robby Lozano / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
Nashville hot chicken is typically deep-fried and coated in a spicy mixture made from oil, cayenne pepper, and other spices. It varies in heat, and this spicy, extra-crunchy version will burn your mouth and thrill your stomach.
Adobo Chicken Wings
These Adobo Chicken Wings are flavored to the bone thanks to a stint in an umami-rich soy sauce and vinegar marinade. While they bake, the marinade is cooked down to concentrate its flavors — the better for tossing the cooked wings in — adding a final sticky, finger-licking layer of deliciousness. Serrano slices bring the heat in the accompanying Filipino pico and garnish.
Thai Red Curry
Jennifer Causey / Food Styling by Emily Nabors Hall / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
Classic Thai red curry relies on dried chiles for its iconic heat and bright scarlet hue. This recipe calls for six dried, unseeded Thai red chiles along with two fresh New Mexico chiles; feel free to add more for an even zingier dish.
Piri Piri Chicken
Cara Cormack
For these zippy chicken and shishito skewers, African bird’s eye chiles — aka piri piri peppers — are the starring ingredient in the meat’s marinade, which also doubles as a sauce for serving.
Buffalo Wings
Matt Taylor-Gross / Food Styling by Amelia Rampe
Fry chicken drumettes and wing flats then toss them in hot sauce (like Frank’s RedHot) for the classic heat that pairs perfectly with blue cheese dressing and celery.
Obe Ata (Nigerian Chicken, Tomato, and Pepper Stew)
Christopher Testani / Food Styling by Victoria Granof / Prop Styling by Thom Driver
Simileoluwa Adebajo’s heat-packed West African chicken stew is redolent with fruity habanero chiles in the aromatic tomato-red bell pepper sauce — leave the seeds intact if you dare. Fresh ginger adds an underlying brightness to complement the sweet and mildly acidic canned tomatoes.
Kung Pao Chicken
At Brooklyn’s Birds of a Feather, chef Ziqiang Lu’s stellar Kung Pao Chicken pairs tingly-hot Szechuan peppercorns with slightly sweet dark soy sauce and Shaoxing wine to build deep flavor.
Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken)
Food & Wine / Photo by Morgan Hunt Glaze / Food Styling by Julian Hensarling / Prop Styling by Christina Daley
This rich curry by F&W editor Chandra Ram features chicken coated in a spiced tomato sauce and topped with toasted cashews — an untraditional touch of chipotle chiles in adobo sauce adds mild heat and smokiness. Best of all, it’s ready in just 35 minutes.
Hot Honey Chicken Thighs with Lemon-Oregano Potatoes
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Margaret Monroe Dickey / Prop Styling by Christine Keely
Perfectly crisp, golden chicken thighs cook skin-side down, undisturbed, to allow the fat to render, which is then used to season the potatoes. A simple hot honey–lemon drizzle and crumbles of salty feta finish this one-skillet dish.
Spicy Chicken Noodle Soup
Victor Protasio / Food Styling by Chelsea Zimmer / Prop Styling by Claire Spollen
Gerard Craft sears juicy chicken thighs until their skin is crispy, then shreds the meat into a rich, Parmesan-suffused chicken stock. He serves it with fresh basil, al dente spaghetti or angel hair pasta, more Parmesan, and a soft-cooked egg, but it’s the final dollop of spicy Calabrian chile paste that lends a touch of heat — add more or less to adjust the fiery factor.
Air Fryer Fried Chicken with Hot Honey
This low-fuss air-fried chicken recipe begins with a hot sauce-buttermilk soak, then is dredged in a well-seasoned flour mixture and beaten egg. The finished chicken is paired with hot honey mixed with guajillo chile and apple cider vinegar for extra smoky, tangy flavor.
Poul Nan Sos (Haitian Chicken in Sauce)
Here, bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks are marinated overnight with onions, garlic, thyme, and chiles along with citrus, which is then rubbed forcefully onto the meat to access the fragrant oils. After the chicken takes on all that flavor, it’s stewed with the marinade and loads of bell peppers for a satisfying, thrilling stew.
Braised Chicken all’Arrabbiata
All’Arrabbiata means “in an angry style” in Italian. Poblano and crushed red pepper set the mood of flaming fury in chef Robert Holt’s at-home version of this braised chicken dish.
Grilled Chicken Thighs with Spicy Miso Mayo
Chef Ricardo Zarate’s Southeast Asian chicken spends three hours in a garlicky yuzu-based marinade before it hits the grill. The beloved hot sauce sriracha perks up the accompanying miso mayonnaise.
Chicken Wings with Angry Sauce
Two Korean-based ingredients, gochujang (chile paste) and gochugaru (chile powder), create the perfect balance between fiery and sweet. If you’d like, you can make the sauce one day ahead of time and refrigerate it overnight.
Spicy Coconut Chicken Stew with Corn
Fresh Thai chiles meld with spinach, basil, and lime juice in this sweet and spicy coconut milk-based stew. Shredded rotisserie chicken makes preparing it a snap; the dish is table-ready in about half an hour.
Spicy Barbecued Chicken with Miso Corn
A generous amount of crushed red pepper brings the heat to a quick marinade for Judy Joo’s Korean-style grilled chicken; brown sugar ensures the meat gets extra crusty. The spice is balanced by fresh ears of corn slathered in umami-rich miso butter.
