A Bird in the Hand: Chicken recipes for every day and every mood

by Diana Henry

As featured in the Daily Telegraph's 'Best cookbooks to turn to in isolation' Diana Henry named Best Cookery Writer at Fortnum & Mason Food & Drink Awards 2015Winner - James Beard Best Book, Single Subject The Guild of Food Writers named Diana Henry as Cookery Journalist of the Year 2015Chicken is one of the most popular foods we love to cook and comforting, quick, celebratory and casual. Plundering the globe, there is no shortage of brilliant ways to cook it, whether you need a quick supper on the table after work, something for a lazy summer barbecue or a feast to nourish family and friends. From quick Vietnamese lemon grass and chilli chicken thighs and a smoky chicken salad with roast peppers and almonds, through to a complete feast with pomegranate, barley and feta stuffed roast chicken with Georgian aubergines, there is no eating or entertaining occasion that isn't covered in this book. In A Bird in the Hand, Diana Henry o­ffers a host of new, easy and not-so-very-well-known dishes, starring the bird we all love.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Reference, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Food and Wine

398 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 12, 2015

Reviews

[reading is my hustle · Rating 5 out of 5]

winner winner chicken dinner

this cookbook is worth it for the mustard chicken recipe alone. the tarragon baked chicken w/tarragon + chicken pot-roasted in milk, bay, and nutmeg are also tops.

[Yasmeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book will please people who love chicken. I bookmarked a couple of recipes I'm curious to try:
Brazilian Chicken
Chicken, Date, and Lentil Brown Rice Pilaf W/ Saffron Butter

[Janette Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it - timeless recepies

[Margaret Gerberding · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am always on the lookout for new chicken recipes. We eat chicken a lot: it is cheap and everyone likes it. This book had a few new ones for me to try!

[Karen Cotton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tasty chicken

Lots of absolutely brilliant choices for chicken - where on earth do you begin!! Looking forward to trying a while range of dishes!

[Phaedra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of inspiration here, although most of this I wouldn't be breaking out on a weeknight or even for picky kids. For myself though the book was lovely and plenty of things called my name. Nothing seemed fussy or too many steps

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensive and inspiring with saliva inducing photography. Plenty of delicious ideas that are very different from my household's usual chicken meals. A couple of ingredients are expensive or hard to source, and some of the recipes weren't allergy-friendly. However, any proficient home cook should be able to substitute or omit in those cases.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

First Impressions Upon Read-Through:
Gorgeous, hardcover cookbook! Could even be a display piece.

Not spiral bound, but it does lay open pretty well.

Matte pages with about half of the recipes photographed. Gorgeous, gorgeous, hunger-enducing photographs!

Unfortunately, plenty of recipes calling for ingredients that I just don't keep around, including quite a few references to Indian or Moroccan ingredients. The author is British; perhaps some of these things are easier to find there than in the American South (where I am)?

Recipes I Tried:
Chicken with Thyme and Lemon and Smashed Garlic Potatoes: chicken as excellent, with crispy skin & juicy insides. Potatoes were mediocre. Not bad, but not as good as another recipe I already have for garlicky potatoes.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book with beautiful pictures and an impressive roster of recipes and flavors. So far I've only made one recipe and it was a huge success. Once winter hits I plan on making more of her recipes that require I turn on the oven (a no-go when it's 90 outside and the air conditioning is running full force!). I like how many of the recipes involve new flavor ideas and draw influences from a wide range of cuisine: Turkish, Japanese, French, Spanish... Plenty of complicated recipes for when you have guests over, but also a great number of weeknight recipes and "Sunday evening" recipes that require a bit of prep and then spending the rest of the afternoon sneaking peeks at the meal simming or roasting in the oven.

[Joanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are so many interesting and unique recipes to spice up your everyday chicken dishes in this book. So many of them are a bit too exotic for my family's taste, the first half of the book are recipes that I would never imagine myself trying. The photographs are inspirational, elevating the humble bird into something really beautiful and expensive looking. I'm sure most people will really love this cookbook, we are just more on the plain side of the road.

[Lucylu57 · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you cook chicken? Pretty much any way you want. It's about as versatile as an ingredient can get.

How do you cook chicken that everyone will want third helpings of? Get your hands on a copy of this book. Sooooo good. Fairly simple recipes (none that spill over onto a second page), delicious results. Use the best-quality ingredients you can find - the simpler the recipe, the more that's going to make or break the dish. (Now, pardon me while I go have another helping...)

[Graham Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I say I've read this, that's not strictly true. Does anyone truly "read" a cook book? The recipes here are fabulous and easy to do. If you like chicken, this is a must. I saw Diana Henry on the BBC programme "Saturday Kitchen". She is so full of enthusiasm for her cooking. I just had to order this book immediately. I am, so far, not at all disappointed with this.

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book got great reviews on Food52 in the Piglet contest. I was eh on it and this is someone who cooks a LOT of chicken. I marked a few down to try but when I was making my meal plan for the next two weeks, nothing really demanded to be made, so I returned it without copying any of them and have no inclination to check it out again.

[Leonard · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't read every recipe in this book, and I have yet to try any of them, but they were very appetizing and some included ingredients like, for example "verjuice" which I've never heard of before. Interesting possibilities for the palate.

[Darcie K · Rating 5 out of 5]

Don't know what to make for dinner? Look no further than this book! Excellent recipes and a million different ways to prepare chicken. I loved this book so much that I bought a copy for myself and a friend after I read the library's copy. Yum yum yum!

[Jill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing fussy, nothing intimidating. Just bright and diverse recipes written in a welcoming, friendly tone. Woe unto me should I ever call chicken boring again.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Every kind of chicken recipe you can imagine, and some you never thought of. Exhaustive and beautifully done! I'd love to have a copy on my shelf.

[Morgan Sohl · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is awesome especially since I became super bored of chicken lately

[Janet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not mark a single recipe to try until I reached page 168, but then I went crazy and found about ten--all in the chapters "summer and smoke" and "pure comfort." Ahhh.

[Gervy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too tricky for me. Maybe I need Chicken 101 :(

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favourite recipe books

[Alena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Everything I have made turns out not just good, but amazing! Creative, easy, delicious, worth of its place in the Piglet Awards 2016.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting recipes but she has a very different definition of easy weeknight recipe than I do.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

it's a beautiful cookbook, would try the buttermilk chicken