TheMealDB API

Overview

Measurement Record

What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.

Request

GET https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/search.php?s=chicken

Result

HTTP 200 · application/json · 59,786 bytes · compressed

Response time

267 ms (median of 3) · fastest 263 ms

Transport

TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Google Trust Services

Browser CORS

Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *

Served by

cloudflare

Recorded

2026-08-10

Fields Returned

Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.

Captured Response

Captured from a real request to https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/search.php?s=chicken on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.

{
  "meals": [
    {
      "idMeal": "52795",
      "strMeal": "Chicken Handi",
      "strMealAlternate": null,
      "strCategory": "Chicken",
      "strArea": "India",
      "strCountry": "India",
      "strInstructions": "Take a large pot or wok, big enough to cook all the chicken, and heat the oil in it. Once the oil is hot, add sliced onion and fry them until deep golden bro…",
      "strMealThumb": "https://www.themealdb.com/images/media/meals/wyxwsp1486979827.jpg",
      "strTags": null,
      "strYoutube": "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO0issT0Rmc",
      "strIngredient1": "Chicken",
      "strIngredient2": "Onion",
      "strIngredient3": "Tomatoes",
      "strIngredient4": "Garlic",
      "…": "(40 more fields)"
    }
  ]
}

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

const url = "https://www.themealdb.com/";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
  "X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

import requests

url = "https://www.themealdb.com/"
headers = {"X-API-Key": "YOUR_API_KEY"}

response = requests.get(url, headers=headers, timeout=30)
response.raise_for_status()
data = response.json()
print(data)

curl "https://www.themealdb.com/api/json/v1/1/search.php?s=chicken"

What Can You Build?

// Find recipes by ingredient or keyword
const headers = { 'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_API_KEY' };
const query = 'pasta';
const response = await fetch(`https://www.themealdb.com/api.php`, { headers });
const data = await response.json();
const recipes = data.recipes || data.meals || data.results || [];
recipes.slice(0, 5).forEach(r => {
  console.log(`🍽️ ${r.title || r.strMeal}: ${r.description || ''}`);
});

// Look up nutrition data for a food item
const headers = { 'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_API_KEY' };
const food = 'banana';
const response = await fetch(`https://www.themealdb.com/api.php`, { headers });
const data = await response.json();
const nutrition = data.nutrition || data;
console.log(`Nutrition for ${food}:`);
console.log('Calories:', nutrition.calories || nutrition.kcal || 'N/A');
console.log('Protein:', nutrition.protein || 'N/A');

// Generate a daily meal plan
const headers = { 'X-Api-Key': 'YOUR_API_KEY' };
const response = await fetch(`https://www.themealdb.com/api.php`, { headers });
const data = await response.json();
const meals = data.meals || data.recipes || [];
const mealPlan = { breakfast: meals[0], lunch: meals[1], dinner: meals[2] };
Object.entries(mealPlan).forEach(([time, meal]) => {
  console.log(`${time}: ${meal?.title || meal?.strMeal || 'TBD'}`);
});

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.