Recipes & Food

The full name of this dish is poulet directeur général, translated from French as “chicken for the director general” and known in English as CEO chicken because it was often reserved for high-ranking officials, business elites and important guests. This meal of chicken, plantains and vegetables bound in a fragrant tomato gravy was often a marker of privilege and exclusivity, and is now common in Cameroon and its diaspora.

Start your day with a delicious twist on classic English muffins, made effortlessly with just two ingredients: self-rising flour and Greek yogurt. These homemade muffins are airy, tender, and perfect for toasting,

This classic Shanghainese dish, adapted from “My Shanghai: Recipes and Stories from a City on the Water” by Betty Liu (Harper, 2021), features pork belly braised in light and dark soy sauces, Shaoxing wine and rock sugar until it’s deeply flavored, caramelized and glossy, a popular method called “red cooking.” There are endless variations of this dish throughout Shanghai: Some include hard-boiled eggs, tofu knots or salted yellow croaker fish.

Cozy as it may be, to call this vegetarian recipe a chowder may be a bit of a stretch. There is no dairy, corn or seafood in its ingredient list.

Like magic, a faster path to Jamaican curry chicken appears with the presence of a pressure cooker and the absence of chicken bones. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs and potatoes tenderize quickly in a sweat of onion, garlic and ginger.

During Chinese New Year, long noodles are eaten in all corners of China “Longevity noodles,” also presented at birthday celebrations, are never cut or broken by the cook, and if they can be eaten without biting through the strands, it’s considered even more auspicious Longevity noodles are usually stir fried, presenting challenges to the home cook

Rich, fudgy chocolate tahini cookies that taste like a brownie! Vegan, gluten-free, and made in 1 bowl with 8 ingredients in 20 minutes!

Easy but exciting, this five-ingredient pasta dish is spiked with spicy gochujang, a Korean red chile paste that provides heat and complexity Chopping the shrimp into bite-size pieces before cooking ensures that they will distribute more evenly in the finished dish, leaving you with perfect bite after perfect bite Once that’s done, sear the chopped shrimp in olive oil, set them aside, then toss in scallions, halved cherry tomatoes, gochujang and a splash of pasta water for a supereasy pan sauce

This recipe came to The Times in a 2006 magazine article about the 75th anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking, the soup-to-nuts cookbook found on practically every home cook's shelf since its first publication in 1931 Like many of the book's beloved recipes, this dish is a crowd-pleasing, homespun classic that is incredibly simple to put together First, make a quick chili of beef, black beans, corn, green pepper and onion seasoned with chile power and cumin

This is the bean soup for when you need something cozy and fast. Inspired by sopa Tarasca, a bean, tomato and chile soup from the Purépecha people of Michoacán in western Mexico, this version uses canned pinto beans and chipotles in adobo for convenience that doesn’t sacrifice flavor.

Turmeric milk is a simple infusion of warm milk with turmeric that exists with countless variations in homes across India, where it's known as haldi doodh The drink might include black pepper, and a touch of jaggery or honey to sweeten it This hybridized version lies somewhere closer to a masala chai with a dose of black tea and a spoon of fresh grated ginger

There is no high drama about simmering a stew However fine, stew is a homey, intimate exchange, a paean to the way living things improve when their boundaries relax, when they incorporate some of the character and flavor of others Soulful, a word inextricably linked with a good sturdy stew, is the payoff to the cook who plans a little and has the patience to abide.

How to make the viral 2024 Olympic chocolate muffins at home.

Vindaloo, a popular Indian curry layered with heady spices, vinegar and aromatics, is the inspiration behind this vibrant beef chili. Dried chiles and whole spices are lightly toasted then puréed with garlic, ginger and vinegar to create a vindaloo paste that’s both spicy and tangy.

Hungarian goulash, a stew of paprika-spiced braised meat and vegetables, likely arrived in the United States with a wave of immigrants in the late 1800s The dish began a game of telephone, slowly evolving into something new entirely While American-style goulash may not bear much resemblance to its Hungarian namesake, the hearty one-pot dish has endured as an easy and comforting family weeknight dinner

A great chili should be richly spiced, with layers of deep, savory flavor Here, that big flavor comes from the usual contenders, but also from the unexpected additions of unsweetened cocoa, soy sauce and Worcestershire, which provide complexity This recipe makes a thick, comforting chili that can be prepared in a slow cooker or in a Dutch oven on the stovetop

And most of them are ready in under an hour.

Crisp at the edges and soft in the center, this chocolate cookie is lumpy with hooks of broken pretzels and melty chocolate chips Built on a foundation of beating an egg with sugar until pale and full of tiny bubbles, it combines all the satisfying richness of a brownie with an almost airy lightness Baking soda also helps lift the dense, dark dough in the oven

Sancocho, a word often used as slang by Puerto Ricans to mean a big old mix of things, is a rustic stew eaten across the Caribbean and made with every imaginable combination of proteins and vegetables My father cooked his with beef, corn and noodles; my mom with chicken breasts, lean pork and sweet plantains; my grandmother with beef, pork on the bone and yautia As such, I’ve rarely used a recipe, so this one is based largely on observation, taste memory and what I like

With minimal prep and a quick cook time, this shrimp stew feels elegant for such an easy weeknight meal You can also take the dish in a number of directions: Substitute the shrimp with an equal amount of flaky white fish or even seared scallops, or stretch the dish into a meal for six by stirring in some butter and serving over cooked spaghetti or rigatoni A good glug of your best olive oil would also be welcome.

For the fastest path to deliciousness, select ingredients that punch above their weight This weeknight recipe leans on just five primary ingredients — ground chicken, lettuce and rice form the foundation; kimchi adds depth and hoisin lends sweetness — for a fresh spread that cooks in just 15 minutes Bracing and assertive, kimchi doesn’t slip into this dish; it dominates

Like coq au vin, its sister dish from the Burgundy region of France, beef Bourguignon is a stew of meat slowly simmered in hearty red wine along with pearl onions, mushrooms and crisp, cubed bacon Use a good wine here, something simple but drinkable It makes all the difference in the finished dish

Humble green cabbage wedges are roasted to charred perfection and made dinner party-worthy with a drizzle of tamarind and a crunchy, Indian-inspired peanut-sesame topping. Roasting cabbage at a relatively low temperature followed by a shorter burst of high heat allows even the toughest parts of the cabbage to turn melt-in-your-mouth tender while delivering deeply browned, crisp outer leaves and gloriously charred bits.

I think of this recipe, adapted from my book “Big Vegan Flavor” (Avery Books, 2024), as a spin on a North Indian chana masala with the addition of spinach and coconut milk and a South Indian-style tadka to finish. Tadka, perhaps my favorite and most used flavor-infusion technique from Indian cooking, is the process of blooming spices (and sometimes aromatics) in a fat, such as oil.

Gochujang, a Korean fermented chile paste, enlivens a straightforward dinner of roast chicken and vegetables with a salty, spicy and umami-rich layer of flavor Freshly grated ginger, sliced scallions and quick-pickled radishes elevate the flavor even further This recipe calls for a wintry mix of squash and turnips, but equal amounts of root vegetables like carrots, potatoes and beets, or lighter vegetables like cauliflower, brussels sprouts or broccoli will work well too.

This breakfast startles in the best way: It tastes like cozy, steaming porridge, but looks and feels like delightful buttermilk pancakes Tiny quick oats soaked in buttermilk, along with flax and honey, lend a unique tenderness Biting into a round, crackly with butter and caramelized from honey on the outside, reveals the pleasant, familiar creaminess of oatmeal in the center

Whether or not you’ve fallen for this cheesy white-bean tomato bake, we’d like you to meet its bolder counterpart, smoky and spiced, with lots of melty cheese Black beans shine in a deep-red mixture of fried garlic, caramelized tomato paste, smoked paprika and cumin The whole skillet gets coated in a generous sprinkling of sharp Cheddar or Manchego cheese, then baked until melted

Also known as McBitty's Bean Burgers, these veggie burgers from Mark Bittman are loaded with black beans, porcini mushrooms, garlic, smoked paprika (or chili powder) and soy sauce, for a satisfying patty you can serve with all the usual burger fixings.

A sweet, soft mix of cabbage and leeks forms the base of this homey one-pot dish Using vegetable broth instead of water as the liquid in the pot deepens the flavor, which is rounded out with salty, nutty Gruyère cheese and sour cream, and finished with smoked paprika and dill (or another fresh herb) You can use any short pasta here, just keep an eye on it so it doesn’t overcook; it should be just tender without being mushy.

Edna Lewis mastered dozens of bread and biscuit recipes over the years, and in “The Taste of Country Cooking,” she offers two for biscuits; this is the flannel-soft version Be sure to use homemade baking powder, which you can make easily by sifting together 2 parts cream of tartar with 1 part baking soda It leaves no chemical or metallic taste.