Here's a hack I performed on a recipe for an appetizer portion of skewered chunked chicken thighs that the great live-fire cooks and cookbook writers Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby wrote many years ago, and that I have slowly altered into a main-course grilled dinner. The skinless chicken browns nicely over a medium flame, and the sugary soy basting sauce lacquers it beautifully in the final few minutes of cooking. It's terrific with rice, or as a topping for a salad of sturdy greens. You may wish to double the recipe for Sriracha-roasted cashews. Those are addictive, and for them you will find many delicious uses.

This chicken, which is the brainchild of my aunt Sonia, is legendary among our cousins. Until recently, though, no one knew what, exactly, went into it. Whenever my aunt would make it on a family vacation, she’d disappear for a half-hour and reemerge with a Ziploc bag filled with the marinade and the chicken breasts. No one (not even her only daughter, Isha) was allowed to know the contents. The marinating chicken would smell so good, I’d legitimately have thoughts about eating it raw, carpaccio-style (which is disgusting, I know!). Well, folks, I am here to tell you that, after much negotiation, I have finally pried that chicken recipe out of Sonia’s hands. Both the marinade and the cooking method (low and sort of slow) feel ingenious to me, and the payoff is huge: Charred, spicy, slightly funky, juicy chicken that is equally wonderful by itself or rolled up in a roti, taco-style, and served with various salads and chutneys. —Priya Krishna

Eggs “rancher’s style” is a traditional, hearty Mexican breakfast typically enjoyed after a hard morning’s work. But huevos rancheros also makes for a satisfying and comforting weeknight dinner. The simple yet flavorful homemade salsa comes together quickly and is smartly used in three ways: a quick simmer transforms the salsa into the warm ranchero sauce; it adds a zesty flavor that shines through in the smoky refried beans; and it gives a final fresh finish as a tangy topping. Any leftover ranchero sauce and refried beans make for great dips the next day.

So yummy

This is a quick from-scratch mac and cheese ideal for kids — or anyone craving the simple, pure cheesiness of creamy mac and cheese. A standard white sauce comes together with the kitchen staples of butter, flour and milk and can take any blend of cheeses, which should include a large portion of sharp yellow Cheddar for its distinctive mac-and-cheese taste and texture. But this is a great way to use up any odds and ends of cheese in your fridge. A bit of American cheese makes the sauce stretchy and extra smooth, while Gruyère and Swiss add a nice nuttiness and Parmesan and pecorino some deep savory notes.

Homemade biscuits are what take us into the kitchen today to cook: fat, flaky mounds of quick bread, golden brown, with a significant crumb. Composed of flour, baking powder, fat and a liquid, then baked in a hot oven, they are an excellent sop for syrup, molasses or honey. They are marvelous layered with country ham or smothered in white sausage gravy, with eggs, with grits. They make a great Thanksgiving side. And if you've never made them before, you'll be delighted to know that biscuits are easy to make. Really. Tip: Freeze the butter and then grate it. Use a fork to mix up the dough. Works like a charm and no need to wash the bowl of a food processor!

For me, a chocolate cake is the basic unit of celebration. The chocolate Guinness cake here is simple but deeply pleasurable, and has earned its place as a stand-alone treat.

Requiring just one pan, this recipe yields supremely crisp, juicy chicken thighs and hot honey schmaltz, which serves as a warm vinaigrette for sturdy greens and a sauce for your — let’s say it again — supremely crisp, juicy chicken thighs. Squint and the flavors are reminiscent of fried chicken with a side of braised collards: Crackly chicken cozied up next to spicy, tangy and a little-sweet greens fortified by animal fat. Make your honey-schmaltz as spicy as you wish: Green chiles will pack more heat than red.

Kids didn't like, hh and I did. Heavy. And I even halved the butter. And I doubled the recipe.

hh and I liked (4 stars), kids not as much (2stars) Yvonne Maffei's, 90 mins. Deglet Noors dates shine when they are cooked in chutneys, desserts or North African dishes like this whole roast chicken. The chicken is cooked with fluffy couscous that absorbs the sweetness of dates and the butteriness of toasted almonds. Supermarket Deglet Noors are often dark brown and hard, because they have been kept well past their natural point of ripeness; seek out soft, light-colored ones for the best flavor. —Julia Moskin

Emulsifying creamy carbonara sauce can feel trickier than treading a tightrope, but this skillet pasta recipe fulfills those cravings with ease, and all in one pan. Start by searing some sliced bacon until crisp, toasting orzo in the rendered bacon fat, then simmering with stock until pasta is al dente. Next, you’ll stir in a few handfuls of Parmesan, then crack eggs right into the nearly cooked pasta. The whites will cook until creamy, but the yolks should remain runny, so that as you eat, the yolk mingles with the pasta for silky spoonfuls.

Your typical sheet-pan chicken recipe roasts everything together on a pan at once. This version pairs potatoes with the poultry, and tops everything off with fresh herbs and arugula, making it a true one-pan meal, salad included. A savory yogurt sauce adds a creamy touch, but it’s optional if you’re not a yogurt sauce fan. Feel free to double the recipe if you’re feeding a crowd, though make sure to use two sheet pans so that everything is spread out in one layer, which is critical for browning.

This nutty midnight pasta is a dream to cook, as it requires just a handful of pantry staples and one pot. Peanut butter (the less fancy, the better) anchors a creamy sauce swathed in umami. Accentuated by a good, salty Parmesan, these noodles recall those cheesy peanut butter sandwich crackers. They make an ideal dinner for one, but the amounts can easily be doubled or quadrupled as needed. For an equally gripping vegan alternative, try swapping out the butter for olive oil and the cheese for nutritional yeast.

45mins This speedy, no-fuss meal comes together in one pan with a minimal ingredient list — and barely requires any chopping. The chicken skin crisps as it roasts and the chickpeas, garlic and spinach soak up any juices at the bottom of the pan. A squeeze of fresh lemon juice at the end brightens up the whole dish. Make sure to stir the chickpeas and spinach together gently at the end to avoid breaking up the chickpeas too much. For added flavor, you could dust the chicken with smoked paprika, ground turmeric or your favorite spice blend before cooking. Serve this dish with yogurt and hot sauce on the side, and flatbread, if you like.

Think of this warming dish as a relay race, each ingredient handing its flavor to the next. During the (almost!) hands-off cooking, a head of garlic and a whole chicken stuffed with a Parmesan rind roast, then give themselves to salted water, which in turn flavors the egg noodles that soften around the bird. Salt and water are your best tools here: Season the chicken, season the water and season both again. Don’t hesitate to add more water as the noodles are cooking to make sure they’re submerged. Every brand will absorb a slightly different amount of liquid, and you want a result that’s splashy enough to take on all the Parmesan you will grate at the table. Use your largest pot so everything fits. A 7- to 9-quart Dutch oven has ideal proportions with its wide base and chicken-height sides. You can substitute any short, quick-cooking pasta for egg noodles, and introduce sautéed mushrooms, spinach or herbs at the end. Total Time 2 hours Prep Time 5 minutes Cook Time 1 hour 55 minu

5/25/24 - Too greasy per hh. Downgraded from 5 to 4 stars as a result. Try with 1/2 the oil in the ginger/scallion sauce. Hainanese chicken rice, from the island of Hainan off the coast of southern China, is a beloved dish of silky poached whole chicken and gingery rice cooked with the bird’s cooking broth and rendered fat. This streamlined version simmers the two together in a single pot to make it a meal fast enough for weeknights. With endless variations throughout the world, most notably in Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia, one constant is dipping sauces for the meat. There’s often three: ginger-scallion or ginger-garlic sauce, sweetened dark soy and red chile sauce. Here, hot oil is poured over minced ginger and scallions to create an aromatic blend that brings a warming edge to the comforting rice and meat. The slick of oil that remains is used to quickly stir-fry vegetables to turn this into a complete meal. Any leftover sauce is great over fish, tofu, eggs and noodles.

The perfect clean out your fridge dish! Nearly any veggies work in this recipe. I have made it without the chicken and added an extra can of chickpeas. Once I made it with only half a bag of frozen peas, a leftover sweet potato I had and a sad looking bag of spinach – it was still very good. Honestly, it’s the fresh addition of cilantro or basil and lime juice at the end that adds brightness to the dish. I hope you come up with your favorite veggie combo or get that fridge cleaned out with this dish!

This carbonara swaps out spaghetti for smooth, velvety orzo. It’s up to you how much you want to treat this eggy, peppery comfort like pasta or like risotto, where orzo is used like rice (minus all that stirring). For more of a risotto flavor, you could cook a finely diced shallot, maybe even some celery or celery seed, in the guanciale fat before adding the orzo, then add a splash of white wine. This creamy pantry dish is best eaten right off the heat, but it is odd how, even straight out of the fridge, it still stays glossy somehow, like a dreamy pasta salad.

Bacon and Cheddar, that time-honored pairing, meet up once more in this easy, spicy skillet dip. Grated Cheddar, the sharper the better, and crisp bacon slivers are folded into a mix of cream cheese and sour cream that’s been zipped up with hot sauce. You can prepare the dip a few hours in advance, then broil it just before serving so that the Cheddar emerges melted, singed and bubbly on top. Marinated cherry tomatoes (or you can substitute prepared salsa), scallions and more bacon make for a colorful, juicy garnish. Serve it with anything you love to dip: Chips, veggies or crackers are all welcome.

In this quick and spicy weeknight noodle dish, sizzling hot oil is poured over red-pepper flakes, orange peel, crunchy peanuts, soy sauce and sesame oil. While you brown the ground chicken, the mixture sits, and the flavors become more pronounced and fiery. Tossed with soft noodles and browned chicken, the bright chile-peanut oil shines. If you crave something green, throw in a quick-cooking green vegetable when you break up the chicken in Step 3. You can also swap the chicken with ground pork or beef, or crumbled tofu.

In this recipe, which Pierre Franey brought to The Times in 1992 in one of his 60-Minute Gourmet columns, two teaspoons of lemon zest are added to a simple sauce of lemon juice, thyme, garlic and shallots. It is, at once, lively and elegant. To round it out, it needs a sturdy accompaniment. Mr. Franey suggested mashed potatoes with garlic and basil, with just a little olive oil swirled in.

COOK RICE EARLY; THIS RECIPE ISN"T QUICK A layer of crunchy, golden rice at the bottom of a pan is revered across many cultures, be it a Persian tahdig, Korean nurungji or Spanish socarrat, and you can get a similar result by baking oiled rice at high heat on a sheet pan. Here, bone-in chicken legs are coated in a mix of turmeric, ginger and garlic and nestled into a pan of scallion-flecked short-grain rice. As it all roasts, the spiced chicken fat seasons the rice, which turns especially crisp where it meets the edges and bottom of the pan while staying soft and chewy on top. Dabbed with more turmeric-ginger mixture at the end, it’s a richly flavored and textured chicken and rice dish all made in one pan.

Saucy and savory with just ground beef, beans and cheese, this easy recipe is inspired by Los Angeles-style burritos, which restaurant critic Jonathan Gold once summarized as “the rough equivalent of a hardhat’s lunch pail, a method of constructing a filling, portable meal from a tortilla, last night’s beans and a spoonful of stew if there was one.” This burrito’s filling eschews guacamole, sour cream, rice and raw vegetables which means it freezes well for up to 3 months. The seared ground beef is simply spiced, but feel free to swap in a stewed meat like birria or tinga de pollo or make it vegetarian with just beans and cheese. www.google.com/search?q=how+to+wrap+a+burrito&sca_esv=599...

After the death in 2013 of Marcella Hazan, the cookbook author who changed the way Americans cook Italian food, The Times asked readers which of her recipes had become staples in their kitchens. Many people answered with one word: “Bolognese.” Ms. Hazan had a few recipes for the classic sauce, and they are all outstanding. This one appeared in her book “Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking,” and one reader called it “the gold standard.” Try it and see for yourself. —The New York Times

This comforting one-pot chicken dish features fragrant coconut rice infused with aromatic ginger, garlic and scallion, and studded with toasty cashews. The cashews soften as the rice steams, adding subtle nuttiness to the dish. Chicken thighs absorb the coconut milk as they cook, which keeps the meat tender and juicy. Fresh chopped cilantro brightens the dish, while hot sauce adds nice heat and tang to balance the creamy, rich and slightly sweet rice.

The trick to creating deeply browned, pan-seared broccoli involves two things: high heat and no touching. Allowing your florets and stems to sear in an even layer, undisturbed, gives them time to blister without cooking all the way through, so they retain some crunch. While many pasta sauces are finished with starchy pasta water, this one isn’t, since the hot water would strip the broccoli of that color and crunch you worked so hard to achieve. Instead, toss the cooked pasta in the skillet with the broccoli, walnuts and cheese. A drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon will provide any additional moisture you need.

This large, fluffy pancake is excellent for breakfast, brunch, lunch and dessert any time of year. And it comes together in about five blessed minutes. Just dump all of the ingredients into a blender, give it a good whirl, pour it into a heated skillet sizzling with butter, and pop it into the oven. Twenty-five minutes later? Bliss. It's wonderful simply with sugar, syrup or preserves, but you also can serve it with fresh berries and whipped cream, apple slices cooked in butter and sugar or banana slices lightly cooked then dusted with brown sugar.

One of the most popular and traditional burritos of the El Paso-Ciudad Juárez borderlands, this chile verde burrito is referred to as a purist burrito: It has no toppings, no garnishes and no salsas or crema to drizzle on top. It is neat, clean, slim and tightly packed; its filling is intensely flavorful, but delicate in its texture and bite. Everything in it is cooked al punto, on point: The Anaheim chiles are fire-roasted to bring out their exuberance, tenderly cooked over soft heat with almost-caramelized onions and soft-to-the-bite potatoes, and then coated in creamy crema. The fact that the best renditions of this burrito are made with freshly made flour tortillas makes the experience sublime.

With a top as craggy as a rocky hiking trail, these homemade energy bars combine a generous helping of nuts and dried fruit with just a bit of batter to bind them. A little sweet from maple syrup and chewy fruit, these bars also get a touch of saltiness to highlight the toasty flavor of the nuts. Use your favorite blends and try swapping the cinnamon for other spices you like. Sturdy but by no means tough, these treats hold up in backpacks, pockets or any way you need to tote them. Some suggest cooking at lower temp or for only 10mins.   Cut before they fully cool. Skip the spray, also sub honey for the maple syrup.

did for family christmas 2023

NOTE/IMPORTANT: if using spring form pan, wrap bottom (exterior) in foil else butter will leak. Cinnamon rolls are always a good idea, but traditional yeast-risen versions aren't exactly a treat you can make on a whim. This recipe, however, comes together in under an hour. Adapted from “At Home With Magnolia: Classic American Recipes From the Owner of Magnolia Bakery” by Allysa Torey, this formula uses baking powder and baking soda to make the dough rise quickly. Toasted pecans add crunch to the cinnamon-sugar filling, and a tangy cream cheese glaze blankets the top of the rolls. The end result is tender, chewy and cakey rolls that taste best when unspooled bit by bit and eaten with your fingers. —Margaux Laskey Made 11/24/24 and they were GREAT - but next time, only make 1/2 the glaze/frosting (recipe below is now adjusted for this so make it as shown). Also made it make 10 pcs and was great.

The word “buttery” in the title refers to croissants, which make an especially rich foundation for this golden-topped baked breakfast classic. Toasting the croissants before building the casserole adds caramelized notes that can stand up to the bits of browned sausage, sage and melted Gruyère strewn throughout. Make this the night before a special breakfast or brunch, then pop it in the oven an hour before you plan to serve it.