Use your rice cooker to make the ultimate, easy chicken recipe

“Have you seen that woman who cooks an entire chicken in a rice cooker?”

I was at dinner the other evening when Joe Zee, the friend seated next to me, leaned over to show me an Instagram reel. It featured a London-based content creator named Shu Lin, making a recipe for salt-baked chicken in her rice cooker.

“I think I’ve made it a dozen times,” he said. “It’s really fantastic.”

The dish had all the hallmarks of a successful viral recipe: nostalgia, ease, a handful of ingredients and a kitchen appliance I already own.

Salt-baked chicken is a traditional Hakka dish, made by covering a chicken in seasoned salt and baking it until cooked through and tender. But I’d never seen it done in a rice cooker before.

The chicken requires minimal ingredients, including a marinade packet with ginger, salt and a variety of other seasonings, available at most Asian grocery stores. You cut up fresh ginger, scallions and shallots, stuff some into a whole chicken and drop the remaining aromatics into the bottom of a rice cooker. Cover the chicken with the contents of the seasoning packet and a neutral oil, then let the chicken cook in the rice cooker for 40 minutes.

The result is an incredibly moist and tender chicken you can serve over rice, eat alongside vegetables or on top of a salad. If you make rice, be sure to reserve the cooking liquid that collects at the bottom of the rice cooker to spoon over the chicken and fold through the rice.

You’ll find the recipe for the rice cooker hakka-style chicken below, along with a handful of other quick and easy chicken recipes.

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Hakka-Inspired Rice Cooker Chicken

(Jenn Harris / Los Angeles Times)

This quick and easy chicken dish is cooked entirely in the rice cooker. It pairs well with a ginger and scallion sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil or your favorite chile crisp.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour and 10 minutes.

Gochujang Glazed Grilled Chicken

(Genevieve Ko / Los Angeles Times)

Former cooking editor Genevieve Ko created this simple chicken dish flavored with gochujang. The Korean fermented soybean paste with red chiles gives the chicken a sweet and spicy kick.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 30 minutes. Serves 4.

Greek-Ish Grilled Half-Chickens

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Former cooking columnist Ben Mims marinates a half chicken in oil, red wine vinegar, dried oregano and plenty of garlic and lemon zest. The marinade penetrates the chicken on the grill. It’s the perfect dish to pair with French fries, roasted potatoes or rice.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 2 hours 30 minutes. Serves 4 to 8.

Skillet Chicken Thighs With Peas & Pickled Chiles

(Mark Weinberg )

In Ali Slagle’s recipe, rendered chicken skin makes crispy chicken thighs and the ideal fat for sautéing the peas and pickled chiles. The chicken is finished with crumbles of a salty cheese like feta, cotija or ricotta salata.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 40 minutes. Serves 4.

Roasted Chicken and Potatoes With Salsa Verde

(Danielle Campbell / For The Times)

Chef and recipe developer Danielle Campbell serves her roast chicken with potatoes browned in rendered chicken fat and olive oil. Her accompanying salsa verde is a bright and spicy, versatile condiment you can use with a multitude of dishes throughout the week.
Get the recipe.
Cook time: 1 hour. Serves 4.