Stovetop
661 recipes found
Pecan Pralines
To make pralines is to show a great deal of love and care for the recipient of these resplendent treats. This incredible tradition should be embraced: They are perfect to wrap in glassine bags and hand out one by one, or place in a tin by the dozen as gifts. They’re also perfect to eat standing up in your kitchen. A nod to the Louisiana gas station treats of yore, this version cuts through the sweetness with a bit of salt and vanilla paste. For Southerners, the pralines feel like a bit of a homecoming in their warm, sweet (with a bit of salty) nature.
Chicken Cook-Up Rice
Hearty and satisfying, this one-pot meal combines tender coconut rice and black-eyed peas with chicken. Marinated in a slightly spicy and herbaceous green seasoning, the meat ends up deeply flavorful. The term “cook-up” is a Caribbean expression for a dish that incorporates the ingredients at hand, so it changes from cook to cook. Different iterations vary among the islands, including the types of beans and meat used. This version of cook-up rice is inspired by a one-pot Guyanese rice dish generally made on the weekends and also on New Year's Eve. With a tradition similar to American Southerners preparing black-eyed peas for a lucky new year, this beautiful dish is hearty and satisfying.
Flour Tortillas
Homemade flour tortillas give every single store-bought one a run for its money and will elevate any burrito or quesadilla you make. The process is somewhat laborious, and it can be challenging to get them to be perfectly round, but perfection is not necessary, as you are going to roll or fold them anyway and your shapes will improve as you practice. This recipe uses vegetable shortening, which makes the tortillas accessible to vegetarians and non vegetarians alike. Taking a cue from the El Paso and Ciudad Juárez region, these tortillas de harina fronterizas are made with hot water and baking powder and the dough rests twice, the second time with the portioned dough nicely rubbed in fat. Follow these simple steps, give the dough a chance to rest and make sure the tortilla is fully cooked: When done on the outside, brown freckles appear on both sides, and it’ll be cooked through on the inside when it puffs. The results will be worth your while, as the tortillas will be soft and pillowy. Tuck any leftovers into a sealed container and enjoy the fruits of your labor for days.
Lemony Pasta With Braised White Beans
Braising canned white beans with garlic, chile flakes and olive oil is a classic recipe — a speedy, meatless, very satisfying weeknight meal. This version turns the mix into a sauce for pasta, brightened by lemon juice and zest, and rounded out with fresh parsley or arugula and cherry tomatoes, a juicy contrast to the velvety beans. The pasta water also plays an important role here, keeping the beans from becoming pasty. Use the best olive oil you can, especially for drizzling at the end. That’s where you’ll really taste it, and a robust, herbal oil will add a lot of character to this simple dish.
Turkey, Farro and Chickpea Soup
Filled with spices and nubby with grains and beans, this easy soup is a satisfying way to use up as much of your leftover Thanksgiving turkey as you’re willing to spare from future sandwiches. Pearled or semi-pearled farro will soften in about half an hour, but you can use other grains here as long as you adjust the cooking time. White rice will be ready in 15 to 20 minutes, while brown rice and barley need about 45 minutes to an hour. (You might need to add a little water if the liquid level in the pot reduces too much.) And if you want to make this aromatic soup when you don’t have leftover turkey on hand, cooked chicken is a perfect substitute.
Mongolian Beef
Despite its name, this simple stir-fry of sliced beef coated in a velvety and sweet sesame-soy sauce didn’t originate in Mongolia. Wu Zhaonan, a Chinese comedian who fled Beijing when the communist party took over in 1949, opened a tea shop in Taipei, Taiwan, where he served Beijing-style barbecue in which meat and vegetables are cooked on a high-heat griddle. Political reasons prevented the use of the Chinese city in the name, so he called it Mongolian barbecue instead. (Actual Mongolian barbecue is called khorkhog.) The dish eventually made its way to the United States in the 1960s, where restaurants made use of giant flat-top grills, often a focal point of the dining experience. This rendition of Mongolian beef calls for flank steak and uses soy, sesame oil, brown sugar, mirin and a significant amount of chiles. Serve it over a bowl of steamed jasmine rice to balance out the intense flavors.
Quinoa
Quinoa is a small but mighty seed: Hearty, plump, protein-rich and gluten-free, use it as you might use rice or whole grains in salads and soups, or as a side. A ratio of one part quinoa to one-and-a-half parts water will create quinoa that’s fluffy with enough bite to maintain its shape. It’s important to rinse and dry the quinoa before cooking to remove its naturally occurring bitter, soapy coating. Optionally, you can also toast the quinoa — as with nuts or sesame seeds — to enhance the seeds’ nuttiness. Cooked and cooled quinoa will keep refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
Cranberry Sauce With Orange and Golden Raisins
This classic cranberry sauce, adapted from “Jambalaya,” a cookbook by the Junior League of New Orleans, is an ideal combination of tart, bitter and sweet flavors, with chewy bits of raisin and orange peel that provide much-needed textural contrast on the Thanksgiving table. A Saffitz family favorite, prepared every year by Claire Saffitz’s mother, Sauci, it keeps for weeks, so make it as far ahead as you like. (Watch Claire make Thanksgiving dinner from start to finish on YouTube.)
Crispy Ginger Sticky Rice
Inspired by a Chinese classic that translates to “flavorful rice,” this dish lives up to the name. Chewy sticky rice has a natural faint sweetness and here it goes savory with bacon and mushrooms. A heaping mound of ginger sizzles in oil to mellow its sharp, hot bite to a fragrant crisp. Speckled throughout the rice, the ginger offers a tiny crunch and surprising pop of warmth. You can keep the rice warm for an hour on the stovetop or for a few hours longer if you return it to the rice cooker and turn on the warm setting. Stir in the ginger just before serving to keep it crispy. Serve it as stuffing in a Thanksgiving spread, with other dishes for a feast or simply on its own.
Make-Ahead White Wine Gravy
A flavorful make-ahead gravy depends entirely on a concentrated stock, so try to use homemade rather than store-bought. And remember: Chilling the gravy before reheating it will cause it to thicken, so it’s a good idea to reserve a little bit of stock for thinning it out to the desired consistency before serving. (Watch Claire make Thanksgiving dinner from start to finish on YouTube.)
Smooth and Creamy Mashed Potatoes
This recipe uses a masher and a mixer instead of a ricer or food mill to make smooth and creamy mashed potatoes. As long as you don’t mix excessively, the potatoes will come out light, not gummy. (Watch Claire make Thanksgiving dinner from start to finish on YouTube.)
Lomo Saltado (Tomato Beef Stir-Fry)
Lomo saltado might be the most well-known and beloved example of Chifa cuisine, a hybrid of Peruvian and Chinese culinary traditions. It’s a quick stir-fry made with marinated beef, juicy tomatoes, sautéed red onion, sweet peppers and potatoes or French fries, all tossed in a chile-and-soy-based sauce. Rice is served alongside to help soak up the bountiful sauce. A fresh, fruity, vibrantly yellow tropical chile called aji amarillo is usually called for, but this recipe calls for aji amarillo paste, which is more widely available. (Serrano chile works here, too.) Lomo saltado often has a subtle smoky flavor from engulfing the steak and sauce with flames in a wok, often with the South American brandy called pisco. This recipe is streamlined for home cooks, but if you’re familiar and comfortable with the technique, you may want to try it out.
Vegetable Stock
Vegetable stock doesn’t need the whole vegetable drawer to be savory and flavorful; browned onions, garlic and mushrooms achieve that here, boosted by caramelized tomato paste. The other key ingredient is salt, which transforms the liquid from flat to well-rounded, so if your stock seems watery, the answer might not be simmering more but rather adding salt. This stock tastes neutral enough to be used in any recipe that calls for vegetable stock, though you can shift its personality with additional ingredients; see Tip for some ideas.
Orzotto Alla Carbonara
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.
Brown-Butter Mashed Potatoes
The simple act of browning butter takes this holiday mainstay from simple to superb in a matter of minutes. Russet potatoes are the perfect blank canvas for the toasty, nutty notes of the brown butter, which is lifted to a starring role as it permeates the potatoes and pools on top. Mashed potato purists may say that using a ricer or food mill is the only way to achieve a creamy texture, but a hand mixer or potato masher works just as well, as long as you don’t overmix and your potatoes stay hot. Make sure to create divots for the pools of brown butter that sit atop the dish, which make each spoonful feel extra luxe.
Gumbo
While there are no hard and set rules, it’s generally agreed that roux and the “holy trinity” of celery, onion and green bell pepper are the foundation of gumbo, a pleasantly spicy, thick soup that was declared Louisiana’s official state dish in 2004. From there, gumbo can include a wide range of meat, seafood and vegetables. (Chicken, andouille sausage and shrimp are highlighted in this version.) The roux — a combination of vegetable oil and flour, in this case — takes time and patience, as it needs to be continuously stirred to achieve a deep shade of brown. To break up the work, the roux can be prepared up to a week in advance, and the gumbo can be made the day before eating. (Second-day gumbo has an even deeper flavor.) Filè powder, which is ground sassafras leaves found in the spice aisle or online, is optional, but if using, sprinkle some over each bowl, or stir it into the pot off the heat to thicken and flavor the soup.
Coq au Vin Blanc Meatballs
Coq au vin blanc, a creamy, delicate French dish, is very different from the classic coq au vin made with red wine. Turning it into an easy skillet dinner of chicken meatballs in mushroom sauce is the kind of trick that has made Half Baked Harvest a wildly popular recipe site in the last decade. Tieghan Gerard, its creator, is a home cook from a big family who has sold millions of cookbooks. The meatballs are seasoned just with salt and pepper, making them superquick, but the sauce is spiked with enough herbs, white wine and Dijon mustard to give the dish depth. You can easily substitute ground turkey.
Bangers and Mash
The “bangers” in this classic British pub dish get their name from English sausages during World War I. Made with filler ingredients and a high water content, they would often explode, or “bang,” when cooked. The name as well as the appeal of this comforting dish stuck. Any sausages will work here, but pork sausages provide the most flavorful pan drippings for the onion gravy, the rich, brown sauce that really makes bangers and mash special. Serve with steamed peas or roasted broccoli on the side.
Cabbage Soup
Cabbage soup has been a staple in Eastern European cuisines as far back as the Middle Ages, when cabbage was one of the most readily available fresh vegetables. Even today, there is something undeniably comforting and restorative about this brothy yet hearty soup. While some variations call for chicken broth, this one is entirely vegan (though chicken broth certainly works if that’s what you have on hand). Cook the recipe as written, or make it your own by adding other vegetables from your fridge, or a can of rinsed white beans to make it more filling.
Tortellini Soup
Store-bought cheese tortellini make this easy vegetarian soup a breeze to put together at home. The stuffed pasta cooks in minutes and floats in a creamy, tomato-y broth that’s loaded with vegetables. A splash of vinegar enhances the tomato flavor and provides a bit more acidity, and chopped herbs, added at the end, offer some freshness. This soup works well with substitutions like swapping kale or other hearty greens for the spinach, for instance, so feel free to use whatever produce you have on hand. Whatever you do, don’t skimp on the grated Parmesan at the table.
Rice Pudding
The size and quality of the rice matters in this classic pudding: A medium-grain rice is starchy enough to thicken it, but it won’t soften so much that it completely disintegrates. Using a 2-quart saucepan is also important. If the pan is larger or wider, the liquid will evaporate faster than the rice cooks. If you prefer a looser pudding, or plan on serving it cold (it thickens as it sits), remove it from the heat as soon as the rice softens; or cook it a bit longer if you like a thicker pudding. For an extra-rich dessert, stir in egg yolks and butter, or further elevate it by adding some rum-soaked raisins.
Crispy Green Bean and Potato Sabzi
Indian cooking is filled with one-pan sabzis that come together fast and deliver big, complex flavor. This variation on a potato and green bean sabzi has a twist: almond butter, which gives the vegetables a nutty, almost tempura-like coating, made fragrant with warm spices, ginger and garlic. The green bean and potato combination makes for a nice contrast of textures, but you can easily make swaps: potatoes for sweet potatoes, green beans for broccoli. Chaat masala — a salty, tart and delightfully funky spice blend — is widely available in South Asian grocery stores or online and is well worth having in your pantry to give sabzis like this one some extra sparkle.
Iwuk Edesi (One-Pot Rice With Chicken)
Preparing this rice and chicken one-pot meal from “My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora” by Yewande Komolafe (Ten Speed Press, 2023) is an experience: the rich fragrances of these ingredients will slowly fill your kitchen as the rice softens. Iwuk edesi is a dish rooted in Efik and Ibibio cuisine, a gift from the southeastern region of the country. It is often found on buka menus and is sometimes called “native rice.” If you use another type of meat, the cooking times may differ, but the method essentially stays the same. This is a solid standalone meal, best enjoyed straight off the stove, but is equally satisfying the next day as leftovers.
Jammy Tomato Breakfast Eggs
Over the nearly two decades that Yewande Komolafe was unable to visit Nigeria, where she grew up, she was fortunate enough to have her parents visit at least once a year, she writes in her cookbook,“My Everyday Lagos: Nigerian Cooking at Home and in the Diaspora” (Ten Speed Press, 2023). She and her brother Seeni would host them and attempt to rekindle some sense of Lagosian tranquility through cooking together. Their mother would typically make breakfast: a skillet full of tomatoey Naija eggs served with thick slices of yam or whatever sweet American white bread they could find that most closely resembled agége bread. The scent of her dried herb seasoning blend, mixed and packed right before her trip, would hang in the air as she cooked. In those moments, she knew that even if she couldn’t visit home, a weekend tradition of home had come to her.