Instead of the normal tedium of pairing a stir-fry with white rice, we decided to replicate a dish we’ve seen in many of our favorite Chinatown restaurants: a pan-fried noodle cake, crispy and crunchy on the outside and tender and chewy in the middle. Topped with a classic pairing of chicken and bok choy in a sweet, spicy sauce, this Chinese noodle dish is a worthwhile departure from the usual stir-fry and rice combination.
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One bite of this exceptionally crunchy, sweet-spicy style of fried chicken and you'll understand its cult-like popularity. A thin, crispy exterior and a spicy-sweet-salty sauce are the hallmarks of Korean fried chicken. The biggest challenge is preventing the sauce from destroying the crust. To help the coating withstand a wet sauce, we double-fry the wings, which removes more water from the skin than a single fry does, making the coating extra-crispy. The Korean chile paste known as gochujang gives our sauce the proper spicy, fermented notes, while sugar tempers the heat, and garlic and ginger—cooked briefly with sesame oil—provide depth.
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Order pork lo mein from your typical take-out joint, and the dish invariably disappoints with greasy flavors and sodden vegetables. We wanted a version representative of the best any good Chinese home cook could turn out: chewy noodles tossed in a salty-sweet sauce and accented with bits of smoky char siu (barbecued pork) and still-crisp cabbage. Fresh Chinese noodles gave us the good, wheaty taste and firm texture we were after, and we also discovered that dried linguine worked just as well and was easier to find. We used our meat marinade as a sauce base, with a little chicken broth and a teaspoon of cornstarch for added body. After less than an hour of active cooking time, we had a pork lo mein with the flavor and texture that Chinese takeout rarely delivers.
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With its complex spice blends and exotic names, it may seem like preparing favorite Indian dishes in your home kitchen is too difficult, but it’s not. In this course, we translate these ingredients and techniques into easy Indian recipes that you can make at home. Learn how to toast, bloom, and grind your own spices for authentic Indian flavor, all with easy to find ingredients. Learn how to make ghee, a fat with a high smoke point and great flavor, and here’s a hint: it is clarified butter and simple to make at home. Discover that the equipment necessary to produce great tasting Indian dishes is probably already in your kitchen and that the ingredients used are easy to find in your local grocery store. Finally, follow our recipes to find out which chicken is best for Chicken Biryani, what is tandoor-style chicken, and how to prepare chicken tikka masala with that delicious sauce.
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Sizzling Garlic Shrimp is a classic tapas restaurant dish is known for its dramatic entrances: The potent aroma of garlic and the sound of the sizzling shrimp precede its arrival. For an equally impressive and flavorful version that we could make at home, we began by briefly marinating the shrimp with garlic, olive oil, and salt. Soaking the shrimp for at least half an hour allowed the flavors to permeate completely. Next, we focused on the cooking oil. We infused the oil with fragrant flavor by heating smashed cloves in the oil, then fried up slices of garlicfor a crunchy contrast to the shrimp. A bay leaf contributed a savory boost, and dried chile added mild heat. With the flavor down, we introduced the shrimp, cooking them gently before ramping up the heat to achieve a lively sizzle. A splash of sherry vinegar and minced parsley added before the skillet left the stove offered a fresh, tangy finish.
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A complex and flavorful curry with vegetables front and center requires a few tricks—the bar is definitely higher here compared with a meat-based curry, where deeper, more complex flavor is inherently easier to achieve. We developed this bold curry for vegetable lovers unwilling to make compromises on flavor but also reluctant to spend hours in the kitchen. This recipe, which is more streamlined than most, uses supermarket staples and store-bought curry powder and garam masala, which we toast in a dry skillet to ramp up their flavor. With chickpeas, potatoes, cauliflower, and peas, it offers an interesting and appealing combination of textures and flavors.
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A true Baja California experience requires sunny, breezy patios and a plate of tacos. We aimed to re-create the feel of a Baja-style fish taco in our home kitchen, instead bringing veggies to the forefront. We thought that battered cauliflower bites, drizzled with a cool and creamy vegan sauce, were the perfect vegan stand-in for the fish. We wanted to avoid the mess of deep-frying, so we cut the cauliflower into large florets and roasted them. To boost their flavor, we dunked the pieces in canned coconut milk seasoned with garlic and spices and then rolled them in a mixture of panko bread crumbs and shredded coconut. Not only did this add richness and the flavors of a cabana-shaded getaway, but it also mimicked the crisp exterior texture of batter-fried fish. A bed of crunchy slaw with juicy mango and spicy jalapeño provided the perfect balance of sweetness and heat. By using equal parts vegan mayonnaise and dairy-free sour cream, plus cilantro and a bit of lime zest, we were able to whip up a vegan crema to top it all off. Just add cerveza and sunshine. For a spicier slaw, mince and add the jalapeno ribs and seeds.
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Beans and rice—a humble comfort food—sounds like a simple proposition, but more often than not, the dish ends up soggy, mushy, and completely bland, and there's not much comforting about it. This recipe for Cuban-style beans and rice employs a couple techniques that you learned about earlier in this lesson. First, the beans are brined. After brining, they're simmered—not boiled, which would cause them to blow out—on the stovetop with aromatic vegetables until the beans are just tender. Finally, the precooked beans are simmered with the rice in a low oven—not on the stovetop—where the steady, gentle heat keeps the pot's contents from cooking too vigorously (and precludes the need for constant burner adjustments). The result is perfectly tender beans and fluffy rice. Lean salt pork, aromatic vegetables (onion, green bell pepper, and garlic—known as sofrito in Cuban and Latin American cooking), and a good dose of ground cumin provide the flavor backbone for our recipe for Cuban-Style Black Beans and Rice. It's a great accompaniment to just about any kind of meat, poultry, or fish preparation, or it can be served as a main course along with a simple salad.
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Stuffed grape leaves, known in Greece as dolmathes, should boast seasoned, tender leaves wrapped around a flavorful rice filling, but too often, store-bought versions are drowning in oil and suffer from mushy leaves and overcooked rice. We wanted the grape leaves to be tender and stuffed with flavorful, chewy rice. These grape leaves make a great appetizer or light lunch, and they can be made ahead.
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Any authentic Mexican restaurant worth its salt features enchiladas verdes on the menu. The dish is made of corn tortillas wrapped around a luxurious cheese and green chile filling. The tortillas are then blanketed with a sauce made from roast green chiles, herbs, and fresh tomatillos. For our version, we chose to include chicken in our filling, and reached for easy to use boneless, skinless chicken breasts, then worked on achieving a streamlined sauce that tastes as good as our favorite Mexican restaurants’.
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While not a traditional dish from India’s long gastronomic history, chicken tikka masala has earned its rightful place as one of the most popular Indian dishes out there. It’s no wonder we looked to our test cooks to develop a good recipe to make at home. Find out how to make chicken tikka masala using easy-to-find ingredients and equipment already in your kitchen. We’ll teach you how to make the tikka masala sauce, what chicken to use, and how to coax big flavor from your spices jars.
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Tabbouleh has long been a meze staple in the Middle East, but these days it can be found in the refrigerator case of virtually every American supermarket. Its brief (and healthful) ingredient list explains its popularity: Chopped fresh parsley and mint, tomatoes, onion, and bits of nutty bulgur are tossed with lemon and olive oil for a refreshing appetizer or side dish. Bulgur is made by boiling, drying, and grinding wheat kernels, so it only needs to be reconstituted in cool water. But specific advice on how to prepare the grains is all over the map. We experimented with innumerable permutations of time and amount of water until we found the best of each. And instead of water, we used a combination of lemon juice and the water drained from our tomatoes, which we salted to draw out their liquid. Soaking the grains in a flavorful liquid only made sense for a salad that can taste washed out. Next up, we found the optimal quantities of herbs that put the emphasis on the bright, peppery parsley but didn’t discount the lemony bulgur and refreshing mint. As for the rest of the salad, extra-virgin olive oil tempered the tart lemon juice, and a few chopped ripe tomatoes—salted to draw out their liquid—and sliced scallions rounded out the mix. A smidge of cayenne pepper along with the usual salt and pepper added zing. We added the mix-ins while the bulgur was still soaking, which allowed the whole lot time to mingle, resulting in a perfectly well-balanced dish.
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