Recipes By Sarah Copeland
45 recipes found
Quick Chicken Paprikas
If you’re curious about cooking Hungarian food at home, chicken paprikas, or paprikás csirke, is a great place to start, delivering the bold flavor you expect from the country’s cuisine. An old-world classic with deep paprika flavor and a creamy finish, it has been a staple in Hungarian-American families for generations. Traditionally made with whole chicken legs, boneless chicken breasts are used in this easy version, making a classic comfort food dish doable any day of the week. Sour cream, used by Hungarians the way the French use heavy cream, gives the sauce a tangy richness that’s hard to beat. When sweating the onions, ghee (though not traditional) is used for its rich flavor and high smoke point, but if you don’t keep ghee at home, use equal parts canola or vegetable oil and butter.
Gulyásleves (Beef and Potato Soup With Paprika)
Soups and stews are the stalwart of Hungarian cuisine, and none is more famous than gulyásleves, or goulash, a shepherd's soup of beef, peppers, vegetables and loads of paprika. Long beloved by Hungarians, a once nomadic culture, because meat could be dried, transported, then rehydrated in soup over an open fire in a bogrács, or giant kettle. Unlike American goulash, traditional gulyásleves is more soup than stew with a deeply burnished orange broth that is its hallmark. Use the freshest paprika you can get your hands on, and blend both sweet and smoked paprika for depth and richness. (If you like heat, you can also add 1 teaspoon of hot paprika.) Caraway seed, while nearly undetectable in the finished dish, is also vital. Searing the beef chuck in larger pieces before cubing it is not traditional, but doing so, then finishing it in the oven, where temperatures remain constant while the meat and vegetables soften, yields deep flavor and particularly tender meat. Serve this classic with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkling of fresh dill.
Csülkös Bableves (Creamy Ham and Bean Soup)
Of the many bean soups in Hungary, two prominent ones include this creamy ham-and-bean soup, thickened with a roux of fat, flour and paprika, and babgulyás, with a rich, paprika-hued broth akin to gulyás (known in America as goulash). Though every region’s recipes have their nuances, csülkös bableves is always satisfying. Its flavor relies on smoked pork, though the bulk of the soup is made with cost-friendly beans, onion, celery and carrots. Most versions call for dried pinto or cranberry beans, which turn creamy and rich when slow simmered, but any similar dried bean may be used. Hungary is a pork-producing country where lard would have once been the fat used for the roux, but this version can be made with olive oil and bacon for added smokiness. Using smoked paprika as the garnish on the finished soup also amps up the flavor.
French Dip Sandwiches
A classic French dip sandwich traditionally starts with high-heat roasting or slow-simmering a sirloin or ribeye loin in aromatics for several hours. For a quicker version that is no less delicious, use premium deli roast beef. A simple jus, or gravy, made of beef broth, soy sauce and Worcestershire seasoned with onions, garlic and thyme, is served alongside for dipping so you can enjoy this classic any day of the week. The jus can be made up to four days ahead; refrigerate in an airtight container and rewarm on a warm stove.
Italian Beef Sandwiches
These classic Midwestern sandwiches, which are thought to have originated in Chicago in the early 1900s, are made from slow-roasting tougher cuts of beef in a flavorful broth until tender. The cooked beef, which can be thinly sliced or shredded, is piled on soft rolls and layered with pickled hot peppers, provolone and tangy giardiniera. You’ll often find this sandwich doused in the cooking jus (or gravy, as Chicagoans call it) or with the jus alongside, for dipping. (This is a streamlined riff, but for a classic version, rub the meat with a mixture of 2 teaspoons coriander, and 1 tablespoon each dried oregano, dried garlic powder, smoked paprika, and fennel seed along with the salt and pepper in Step 1. Rub into the meat and keep covered for up to two days before cooking.) Pickled green hot peppers are traditional, but any kind of pickled pepper will bring a welcome bit of heat and crunch.
Sheet-Pan Roast Chicken With Tangy Greens
Chicken quarters are the unsung hero of weeknight dinners. In under an hour, they roast evenly, yielding consistently crisp skin with juicy insides. Curry powder and red-pepper flakes meld with the cooking juices, creating an effortless sauce directly in the pan, perfect for serving over the meat and tossing with greens for a fast, flavor-drenched side. The pickle brine from a jar of bread-and-butter pickles (or a splash of standard apple cider vinegar) lends a tangy finish to the greens. For this recipe, choose slightly larger and fattier chicken leg quarters to ensure enough pan drippings — and luscious schmaltz in every bite.
Chicken Broccoli Rice Casserole
This comfort food classic is streamlined for weeknight ease, giving you a complete one-pot meal in just a few steps. You’ll find all the cheesy, creamy notes of the childhood favorite without the long prep time, and there’s no need to make a roux. Here, the chicken stock, half-and-half and shredded cheese create an instant sauce without the need to stir a pot on the stove. For a quicker version, trim the chicken cutlets into bite-size pieces before stirring in, then reduce the second cooking time to 15 minutes. Serve with a side salad, if desired.
Chicken Potpie
Chicken potpie is a classic American comfort food that may prompt visions of long labor and many dirty dishes, but it can be a rewarding one-pot meal with the use of store-bought dough. This quick version uses mirepoix, a flavor base traditionally made from celery, carrots and onion, with mushrooms added for depth and body. Flour, stock and heavy cream are added to create gravy, though you can substitute sour cream or half-and-half for the cream, depending on what you have on hand. The chicken simmers gently in the gravy before being topped with puffed pastry and baked. For the puff pastry, don’t worry too much about the size of the store-bought pastry; just make sure that it covers the top with some room to spare, as it will shrink as it cooks.
Baked Eggs for a Crowd
The French long ago mastered eggs en cocotte —slightly coddled eggs baked at high heat with butter and cream, which thicken to a gravy as it cooks. There’s no finer way to enjoy an egg. To pull this off for a crowd, a large casserole dish coated with butter and partly filled with heavy cream acts as a bath in which to gently cook the eggs. To dress them up, add smoked salmon, a handful of kale or spinach leaves, thinly sliced ham, halved cherry tomatoes or sliced, cooked mushrooms to the mix before you crack in the eggs. Really anything goes here, but keep the accoutrements light and let the eggs take center stage. Finish with flaky sea salt (those large crystals melt on your tongue in just the right way) and any fresh herb you love.
Seared Chicken Breast With Potatoes and Capers
Pan-seared chicken is a skill with countless rewards. (If this is your first time making chicken this way, you’ll understand why fast.) You'll want to start the chicken on the stovetop and finish it in the oven. Then, once it's perfectly cooked, you can pair it with almost anything, whether a simple green salad or a side of smashed potatoes loaded with butter, mustard, capers and chopped lemon, as it is here. The trick is to steam, not boil, the potatoes, which gets them soft and smashable quickly. You need very little water (an inch or so), so there’s no waiting around for water to boil, and, best of all, you won’t lose any of that rich potato flavor.
Parmesan Chicken Breast With Tomato and Herb Salad
For better weeknight chicken, dredge it in flour loaded with freshly grated Parmesan and shallow-fry it. The cheese works to create a sort of frico, so you don’t need bread crumbs for a deeply flavorful crust. While you could make this entirely on the stovetop, you risk overcooking the Parmesan, and under- or overcooking the meat. Instead, finish it in the oven, which yields a juicy, tender breast and keeps the Parmesan from getting too dark. Serve with perfectly ripe beefsteak and cherry tomatoes, jumbled together with salt and herbs and a splash of vinegar to make the tomatoes pop.
Cheese Grits With Saucy Black Beans, Avocado and Radish
Cheesy grits are a filling, versatile vegetarian staple. They can be dressed up or down, and topped with heaps of your favorite things. If you have it, Manchego provides creaminess and rich, salt flavor, but a combination of Cheddar and Parmesan works equally well. If you’re using a vegan cheese, opt for one with the creamiest texture like a soy mozzarella, Cheddar or Cheddar Jack. To finish, let your favorite taco toppings guide you—avocados, radish and scallions are a surefire trifecta, but a spoonful of pico de gallo or salsa would be welcome here, too. You could also amp up the beans big time, adding chopped garlic, ground cumin or oodles more heat, but don’t go so crazy that you can’t pull this off on a weeknight with ease.
Sweet and Spicy Tofu With Soba Noodles
If you don’t cook tofu often (or even if you do), this unfussy tofu dish is for you: There’s no flour-dredging or shallow-frying, and no marinating at all. As long as you pat the tofu dry (a bit fussy, but not by much), the vegetable oil’s high smoke point will yield crisp edges, while the sesame oil imparts flavor, putting you well on your way to making tofu taste great. What’s more, a ginger-and-garlic-laced soy sauce coats noodles and tofu alike, giving you chopstick after chopstick of toothsome pleasure. Serve these warm or cold, and be generous with the cool, crispy vegetables on top, especially for summer picnics where you can stretch this to serve 6 or even 8 as a side.
One-Pan Bruschetta Spaghetti
Spaghetti in the dead of summer, when tomatoes are at peak ripeness and break down quickly to coat any pasta in irresistible flavor, is the best time to eat spaghetti. You won’t need a lot of time to make this, just one big pan (use your largest and deepest) and the resolve not to eat the whole pile of noodles yourself. You'll want a slightly larger cast-iron skillet here — either a 12-inch version, or a deep 10-inch — to avoid spillage. Make sure to cover the pasta with a lid or foil so it cooks faster, and to stir from time to time. Since you’re not draining the noodles as you would in a traditional pasta dish, it’s good to know that different noodle shapes, sizes and brands may soak up liquid differently and that some tomatoes may be juicier than others. Simmer as long as needed get the sauce to a consistency that’s just right for you.
Skillet Chicken With Cumin, Paprika and Mint
Chicken shawarma, a rotisserie favorite heady with spice and flavor, is usually cooked on a spit, then shaved into sandwiches and salads. But it also belongs on a bed of rice, cooked in a pan for a filling family meal that’s easy to return to again and again. White rice does a fine job rounding out this meal, and cooks quickly. But, if brown rice is more your speed, look for the sprouted short-grain variety, which cooks faster than regular brown rice and reaches al dente just as the chicken begins to split into tender morsels. (To cook the rice even faster, soak it while you marinate the chicken.) Cooking this on the stove yields crisp rice bits along the bottom of the pan, especially nice against the tender, flavorful chicken. Since even the best shawarma is only as good as its bright flavors, be generous with mint, parsley, yogurt and lime: the more, the better.
Green Shakshuka With Avocado and Lime
This easy twist on classic North African shakshuka (traditionally eggs baked in tomato-pepper sauce, with cumin, paprika and cayenne) starts with an onion-garlic-chard sautéed until gently wilted: a nest of sorts for steam-poaching eggs. Once the eggs go in, be sure to keep the flame low and keep the pan covered while cooking, so the eggs stay soft and almost oozy at their yolk, and the Cotija melts a bit. The chard and the half-and-half create a sort of light broth at the bottom of the shakshuka, which holds so much flavor and is one of the dish’s charms. Lastly, be daring with smoked hot sauce at the end: It’ll push the creamy avocado, cheese and eggs to their peak.
Skillet Chicken With Orzo, Dill and Feta
Chicken and orzo is timeless combination, simple and satisfying. In this recipe, you could use chicken thighs, but drumsticks make this dish super family-friendly. Of course, if you have a crowd that doesn’t love the classic feta-dill pairing, feel free to change the toppings. Mint or parsley work just as well for the herbs, and any salty, crumbly cheese is lovely here. You can dress this up as you like with cucumbers or cherry tomatoes, or green olives, served alongside or pitted, chopped and tossed in instead. Besides the obvious perk of its being a one-pot dinner, this recipe yields great leftovers. For the next day’s lunch, pull any remaining chicken off the bone, chop it, skin and all, and toss with the remaining orzo, vegetables and cheese. Know that the orzo — a very small pasta, not rice — soaks up all the liquid and flavor as it sits and cools, so you may need a drizzle of oil and lemon juice over the top to serve it the second day.
Curried Swordfish With Tomatoes, Greens and Garlic Toast
For a decade, swordfish was dangerously overfished. Over time, the North Atlantic swordfish stock has been rebuilt, and swordfish caught by American vessels are now sustainably fished. One thing hasn’t changed: Handled incorrectly, swordfish can be tough or dry. Searing, then steaming with the moisture that comes from braising greens and ripe, on-the-vine tomatoes, yields a moist and succulent steak. Make sure to use small grape or cherry tomatoes. When the tomatoes burst, the juices meld with the curry powder and the fat (ghee or oil) for a flavorful, spoonable sauce. Drizzle any extra over garlicky bread with a generous squeeze of lemon. If you don’t have ghee, cook the fish in a mixture of butter and vegetable oil, which will give you all the high-heat flexibility of ghee with the rich, flavorful finish of butter.
One-Pan Shrimp Enchiladas Verde
If the only thing holding you back from making enchilada verde tonight is the idea of standing over the countertop, stuffing and rolling tortillas, read on. These layered lasagna-style enchiladas cut your work in half. Instead, put all your effort into making a nearly effortless verde sauce with pan-roasted tomatillos, jalapeño and onion. Once that’s done, there is little to do but layer and simmer: The shrimp cooks in minutes in the tomatillo bath. For the best flavor, look for wild-caught Gulf or Argentine shrimp. Then, the only challenge here is deciding how to portion fairly for four people (hint: be generous). If you make this in cast-iron, store any leftovers in glass or plastic in the fridge — the sauce is too acidic to spend a long time in a cast-iron pan — and reheat lightly over a very low flame. (Note, too, that the sauce can be made up to two days ahead, and refrigerated.)
Skillet Lasagna With Spinach and Summer Squash
Lasagna in the summer? It’s fine food for those long, breezy summer days when you need to fill your belly without turning on the oven. This one-pan stovetop lasagna is a true crowd-pleaser, with rich tomato, oozing cheese and just enough squash and spinach to skip salad for the night. Using no-cook lasagna, you can cook this entirely over a low flame, covered. (Use foil if you don’t have a lid that fits your pan.) Be sure to start with a well-seasoned cast-iron pan, and never let the tomato sauce boil, which can be hard on your pan and on the flavor of your sauce. If your cast-iron seasoning isn’t in tip-top shape, try this in a stainless-steel skillet instead; you’ll still get all the depth and aroma, and that same stove-to-table ease that will make this a repeat meal all year long.
Spaghetti With Burrata and Garlic-Chile Oil
Burrata — a cousin of mozzarella with a creamy core — is a splurge, but it does all the heavy lifting in this simple dish, adding a rich finish that renders a basic bowl of whole-wheat noodles sophisticated. A spicy-sweet seasoned oil made by sautéing fennel, garlic and red-pepper flakes in good-quality olive oil over low heat is drizzled over the top, complementing the velvety texture of the cheese and the nuttiness of the noodles.
Turkish Eggs With Olives, Feta and Tomatoes (Menemen)
Scrambled eggs lend themselves to customization because they're a blank, breakfast- or brunch-friendly canvas. Almost any stir-in works: Add cheese or butter for richness, vegetables for heft and herbs and spices for flavor. If you like a little bit of everything in yours, then menemen –– the traditional Turkish egg dish loaded with peppers and tomatoes –– is for you. This version uses plump olives, crumbled feta and a pile of fresh herbs -- and comes together in less than 30 minutes.
Grilled Salmon With Kale Chips
Don’t mask salmon, or cook it to bits in a hot oven. Let it shine by grilling it on a bed of kale. The technique gives you quick, crisp chips, and a soft, perfectly cooked piece of fish that won’t stick to the grill. Then smother it in herbs: basil, mint, dill, cilantro, even sorrel, if that’s what came in your farm box. You can serve this with potatoes, corn, salad or toasted bread, or any simple side you can throw together quickly.
Tofu Makhani (Indian Butter Tofu)
This recipe is a vegetarian riff on butter chicken, or murgh makhani, a classic Indian dish in which chicken simmers in a rich, dairy-laden tomato sauce that’s seasoned with heady spices like turmeric, cumin, garam masala and cardamom. This weeknight-friendly version has a toned-down ingredient list, and the tofu doesn’t require hours of marinating, which means you can get everything on the table in under an hour if you start the rice as the tomatoes are cooking down. Heavy cream gives this dish a rich finish, but full-fat coconut milk makes a fine substitute. Whatever you do, don’t substitute anything for the butter or ghee (sorry, vegans) — it’s the signature ingredient.