I use pretty much a mixture of everything to get into the box.
If I see a gap, I'll play the ball into it and hit it first time. If the defense is solid I'll play it out to the wings so I can cross the ball in. Sometimes, if I get close enough and it looks like I'm going to get tackles, I'll just smash it, and I've scored some great goals from outside the area using this.
Mostly though, I use a mixture of skill and passing to get into the box.