Running the Home Kitchen Like a Restaurant

One thing I have quickly figured out about being a parent is that the days are unpredictable. I can no longer count on having a quiet hour to prepare dinner in the evenings. Rather, my quiet hour may come in the morning, after lunch or who knows when.
I don’t want to fall back on takeout [...]

Variations on a Theme: Chicken Salad

One thing I’ve noticed, as I have cooked more and more, is that very few recipes are truly original. Most are just variations on a simple theme. Once I have learned the core recipe or technique, it then becomes a simple matter to vary the recipe to suit my tastes, the ingredients I have on [...]

Christopher Walken Cooks a Chicken

I love this video of Christopher Walken cooking a chicken with pears in his home, not only because Christopher Walken is so cool but also because the video is so home-video-like. I also like to sometimes narrate my recipes while I’m cooking them, but of course, I am not a cool movie star and neither [...]

Simple Is Satisfying — Chicken Roasted with Salsa

The more I cook, the more I come to believe that the simplest dishes are the most satisfying both to make and to eat. Of course, I have tried those recipes that seem to have a million steps, or that ask you to stuff something or roll something or layer something, or that require a [...]

Chinese Lantern Festival & Chicken Stock

This week has been rather uneventful, what with me struggling to get over my recent bout of ickiness and my husband traveling quite a lot. Partly out of boredom and partly because I’m sure you’re obsessed with the minutiae of my cooking life, I added a new page to my blog listing all of my [...]

Chicken Soup for the Body

Your mother was right — when you’re sick, chicken soup is the best medicine. There’s no denying that when you’re feeling stuffed up and miserable, a bowl of chicken soup can bring relief. (My husband and I both confirmed this in independent taste tests yesterday, he with a bowl of Chinese chicken dumpling soup, I [...]

Spanish-style Chicken Salad (Cook’s Illustrated)

I served this chicken salad at my tapas party last weekend, and it was a big hit. Not only was it a vibrant red color, but it tasted great too. Of course, the moment of embarassment came when one of my guests asked me how I had gotten the roasted chicken so moist. I had [...]

Oven-Barbecued Chicken (The Best 30-Minute Recipe)

This is a simple technique for recreating barbecued chicken when grilling is not an option. I have tried this method with skin-on, bone-in chicken breasts and with skinless, boneless chicken breasts, and while it works well with either, the bone-in chicken breasts definitely have more flavor. (Thanks to Cook’s Illustrated for the idea.)

Preheat the oven [...]

Chicken & Biscuits (The Best 30 Minute Recipe)

This is like a poor man’s version of Chicken Pot Pie, for when you don’t have the time or inclination to make pie crust for dinner. (Personally, I prefer biscuits to pie on most days.) It’s homey, warming comfort food, great for a cold winter night, and quick enough to get on the table after [...]

White Chicken Chili (Cook’s Illustrated)

As promised, I tried the White Chicken Chili recipe from the January 2007 issue of Cook’s Illustrated for my family pre-Christmas dinner. Everybody loved the chili — it worked great with cornbread — but I had to make a few adjustments to the recipe as a I cooked to get it to better suit what [...]