chef knives and cutting surfaces
I believe that there are two major options:


Wood cutting boards
Plastic cutting boards


Either of these will provide a perfectly appropriate surface for you to use your knives against.

From a food safety point of view, both can be excellent, although they have different pros and cons.

There is some evidence that wood cutting boards actually inhibit pathogen growth.  They can be sanded down for maintenance, and sanitized with a light bleach solution, but should not be placed into the dishwasher, which may be an inconvenience for your lifestyle.  Some larger wood cutting blocks are also a very nice aesthetic statement.

Plastic cutting boards can be very effective, and can be placed in the dishwasher, and are easy to sanitize.  Some people are concerned that once they get deep cuts within them, this can harbor pathogens even through cleaning cycles, so they have a limited lifetime.  They also are not as pretty as wood, although often far lower in cost.

Most sanitation guides will recommend that you reserve one cutting board for meat (or in a large kitchen, one for meat, one for poultry, and one for fish), and another for vegetables.  This is often easiest with color coded cutting boards, which plastic makes easy.

My personal preference is for the very thin, flexible plastic cutting boards.  They are inexpensive, easy to move around, dishwasher safe, and can be rolled up to easily dump the product into a pot or container.   They may not have an infinite lifespan, but they are very inexpensive.

Since you do not wish to use your good cutting block for chicken, I recommend the thin, flexible style of cutting board--you can use your block for vegetables, bread, and so on.