Meet Airline Chicken: The Mile-High Chicken Recipe That 'Recaptures The Golden Era of Air Travel'

Plane food isn't often desirable. If you think back to some of the best meals of your life, likely none of them were on a plane—but dining on an airplane used to be a coveted experience.

On recent flights, I’ve survived off Biscoff cookies and coffee. While connecting airports, I looked for sudsy beverages and a Chick-fil-A. Eating while flying can be rough, but it wasn’t always this way. One Allrecipes member remembers “flying in my ‘good’ clothes and having actual knives and forks with actual plates and real food.” And that real food was often a specific cut of chicken, commonly known now as airline chicken. 

“While we will never recapture that golden era of air travel and being able to fly anywhere we want without an ID, we can, however, with some very basic knife skills, recreate one of the classic dishes from that time,” says Chef John, who took inspiration from the days when flying was a luxury activity and came up with a delicious airline chicken recipe that resembles the original meal.

If you remember eating airline chicken, or if you want to enjoy a meal that’s been lost to time, this recipe is a great place to start. 

What Is Airline Chicken?

“Airline chicken was born out of necessity,” says Chef John. “Since food for air travel needs to be prepared far in advance, airlines back in the day created a special cut of chicken breast that wouldn't dry out as much as normal.” The result is a tender, juicy chicken breast that is far better than you expect. 

This special cut of breast includes the drumette, which also makes it easier to eat with your hands while sitting in an airplane seat. The drumette is the top section of a chicken wing—the first wing joint—which attaches the wing to the breast. This will be the main difference with a cut of airline chicken: the breast is presented with part of the wing.

You can’t really find this cut in grocery stores, so you’ll likely need to do it yourself or find a good butcher that sells it. Luckily, Chef John offers lots of details on how to perform this cut using a whole chicken. 

Airline chicken is also easy to prep ahead of time and store in the fridge for when you need something to cook. That's partly the point of this chicken. Simply season the chicken as normal, then store in a zip-top bag or airtight container in the refrigerator for one to two days.

How to Make Chef John’s Airline Chicken

This recipe is not hard to get down, but it might be a little tricky if you’ve never butchered a chicken before. With cooking and especially butchering, I always believe that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. 

This recipe uses plenty of herbs, seasonings, and butter to make it delicious. This recipe actually includes a “double butter sauce,” as Chef John calls it, because you baste the chicken in butter and use the pan juices to make a sauce. 

This chicken dinner only uses one pan to cook the chicken and make the sauce. If you want to cook the chicken partly through on the stove, then finish it off in the oven, this works also. Just make sure you cook your chicken to 165 degrees F (73 degrees C).

1. Cut your chicken as the recipe directs, creating an airline cut out of the chicken breast and drumette. 
2. Next comes a trick from Chef John: He adds a trick to this recipe to make it even better. Opposite the skin side of the chicken breast is a tenderloin often used for chicken tenders or nuggets. Remove this tenderloin from the bottom side of the breast and season with olive oil, kosher salt, black pepper, herbes de Provence, and cayenne pepper. Then, gently lift the skin up from the breast and place the seasoned tenderloin under the skin. The result is a chicken breast seasoned from the inside out.
3. Heat oil in a pan over medium-high, and cook your chicken breasts skin-side down for about 6 or 7 minutes. Then, reduce heat to medium, flip your chicken, and cook for 7 to 10 more minutes. Add butter and herbs to the pan and baste your chicken through the process. 
4. Remove the chicken from the pan to create a sauce. Pour chicken stock into the pan, turn on high heat, and let boil for a few minutes. Whisk more butter into the pan as a final touch and add to your chicken. 

Community Tips and Praise

Other home cooks love this recipe! See what praise and tricks they can offer.

• “Thanks for bringing back an old memory! It has been years, but I used to make these about 50 at a time when I went to chef school for the food line, but with a red bell pepper sauce back in '95-'97,” says reviewer Rick Gosnell. “They always sold out! And you can use the wingbone as a handle!”
• “I’ve been purchasing the cut from the chef at our county club for the past several months. It’s my favorite cut of chicken,” says reviewer Christy Schafer. “I reduce chicken stock and add 1/2 cup dry white wine to pan sauce. Makes a beautiful presentation at a dinner party. I will add cayenne next time. Thanks for bringing back my favorite cut of chicken!”
• “Definitely watch the video,” says Jolene Gunn Baughman, which is attached to the recipe. “I watched after the fact and butchered my first chicken! But the video makes it clear, simple and is VERY entertaining. Love this recipe as is.”