5 Weeknight Chicken Breast Recipes That Don’t Skimp on Flavor

The chicken breasts are rubbed with a Greek-inspired seasoning blend with lemon zest and fresh oregano before being seared in a skillet. You’ll slice the cooked chicken and then serve it on top of a hearty farro salad studded with cucumbers, tomato, feta cheese, and jarred pepperoncini peppers, all drizzled with a lemony dressing. To me, leftovers are the best part of this salad: It holds up so well and makes a great lunch the next day.

In this pasta dish, you’ll cook the pasta right in the sauce for easier cleanup and extra-concentrated flavors. The chicken breasts are cut into small pieces and sautéed until just cooked through and then added back in at the end with roasted cherry tomatoes and spinach. Top individual servings with Parmesan cheese and fresh basil for a surefire crowd-pleaser.

For this riff on the Philly cheesesteak, chicken breasts are sliced thin before sautéing so they cook superquickly. The thinly sliced chicken is piled into rolls with lots of sautéed onions and bell peppers and topped with two melty cheeses (provolone for sharp tang and American for creaminess); what could be better? I’ll tell you: slathering those rolls with a briny cherry pepper mayonnaise. These sandwiches are next-level.

This soup is the ultimate comfort food. You’ll cut the chicken breasts in half lengthwise for a faster cooking time and then poach them right in the simmering soup while the broccoli cooks. Pull them out, shred them, and add them back in with cream and shredded cheese. Serve the soup with black pepper and hot sauce to add some spice.

This flavor-packed recipe is inspired by Charles Phan’s Vietnamese fish sauce–caramel braise. Fish sauce is the key ingredient in this salty-sweet dish, adding a balancing savory depth to the brown sugar–based sauce. Bite-size pieces of chicken breast cook directly in the syrupy mixture, thoroughly coating and imbuing the chicken with irresistible umami flavor.