what is the one best recipe that you own or cant live without?? (ingredients, turkey)

[zebrashoes]

Hi I am newly married and I am wanting to try a bunch of random recipes so I can start cooking more. If yall dont mind sharing what is the best recipe you have? I plan on printing them off and eventually trying them all. Thanks guys

[ivanabacowboy]

One of the best, and exceptionally easy. 40 Clove Chicken.

Sprinkle chicken pieces (split breasts, quarters, breasts etc with skin on) with salt and pepper and coat with olive oil (about a cup or so); brown in a Dutch oven (or any large pan with a lid, or even a roaster). Top with about 40 (yes 40) cloves of smashed garlic (just take the flat side of a Chef's knife blade or a meat mallet and smush them), a handful of sprigs of fresh thyme, and a few splashes (maybe 1/2-3/4 cup) white wine. Cut a lemon in half (or quarters or whatever) and squeeze over top. Throw the lemon halves in the pan. Cover. Bake at 350' about 90 minutes. Discard the thyme sprigs and lemon halves. You can serve the garlic sauce alongside the chicken if you want.

Serve with French or Italian rolls to soak up the garlic sauce (sort of a simplified garlic bread lol!).

That much garlic sounds scarey. But baking it in olive oil for 90 minutes actually brings out a sweet side. And your house will smell very good. ;-)

[SXMGirl]

We don't eat many fancy meals anymore, but my suggestion would be to get really good spices. I use Penzey's spices on almost everything, and use their Shallot Pepper most of the time. It's good on chicken and meats. They have stores in many cities across the country, but if you get their mailings, they usually have a coupon for a free spice. Congratulations on your marriage. I wish you a lifetime of happiness.

[Laura707]

See my thread here... there are lots in there...
Some of my most often used recipes

Feel free to take any in there you want. (that roll recipe is also in there.)

[sbbet]

Every new cook needs one or two really good cookbooks. The Joy of Cooking really came to my rescue when I was first married. It was basic and explained everything.

Favorite recipe: anything on my Cuisnart grill. The grill is a perfect size for 2.

Chicken breasts: rub 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts with an herb mixture of garlic powder, paprika, cajun seasoning and grill until done. I use a meat thermometer to check for doneness. Sometimes I use a store marinade.

It does a mean sandwich too.

[zebrashoes]

Originally Posted by Laura707

See my thread here... there are lots in there...
Some of my most often used recipes

Feel free to take any in there you want. (that roll recipe is also in there.)

Thanks.....Those recipes look so good. Especially the coleslaw. I cant wait to try it. Bytheway when you do your rolls what do you cook them on. Do you just roll them in a ball in put them on a backing sheet or do you put them in muffin tins. I am just curious. Now my only problem is making my rolls look pretty.

[spiderbear]

I just celebrated my one year anniversary so I know how giddy you must be...congrats!

I have to agree with everyone here, from Joy of Cooking to chicken with 40 cloves.

My potsticker recipe is one that I can't live without, it's posted in the healthy recipes thread. It's saved me so many nights when I had no desire to cook, really wanted chinese takeout, but didn't want to waste the money. Same with the lettuce wraps recipe.

When I started cooking for two, the one thing that I really found helps is to find a few spices that you can use on everything, and learn to make a handful of sauces. I use Durkee citrus grill, and montreal steak on just about everything. I can make a quick pan gravy, alfredo, beurre blanc, a merlot and roasted garlic marinara, and beurre rouge (I know how to make more, but these are my staples). These can all be modified into other sauces.

I also make balsamic lime and honey dressing, as well as a tart lemon caesar vin. It makes salads killer, and something you actually want to eat.

The thing I recommend to most people is start simple, stay classic. Stay far, far away from Women's Day or Rachel Ray recipes. The classics are so much simpler, easier, healthier, and much more stunning. Anyone can throw together something from a packet.

Once you've conquered your comfort zone, go classic ethnic. Korean BBQ everyone loves, but most people have never been exposed to. It's the most foolproof thing in my itinerary. Pad thai and ma po tofu are also big winners. I learned to make fresh pasta and pizza dough, and that's made italian night a big hit around here. Epicurious.com is my favorite source for recipes, because it's all very classic, with a few new twists.

Start small..and uh, oh yeah, make him start cooking too! It's really nice when they know a little bit more than just how to boil water.

[spiderbear]

Oh, and I almost forgot. Do not discount the simple sandwich!

Find a mayo you like and mix in various seasonings to make an aioli. Jarred basil pesto, sundried tomato pesto, lemon and garlic, olive tapenade.. Use on your favorite sandwiches, and voila! I make a copycat sierra turkey from Panera..it's a simple turkey sandwich with a chipotle mayo. Make one big muffaletta for lunch..they can be sliced into enough pieces to take to work all week.

[ivanabacowboy]

When I was just starting out cooking wayyyyyy back when, I actually was very intimidated by the large "all-purpose" and "how to do everything" type books (Betty Crocker, BHG, Joy of Cooking, Bittman etc). Just far too much information to process, some "basic" recipes that were anything BUT basic. And trying to just cram in too much stuff I knew I would never do anything with (an 8 page spread on things to do with brussels sprouts when I personally can't stand even stand brussels sprouts lol!). Any many pages of useless information. I may have been a beginner back then, but I knew if most of the recipes used a 10-inch skillet for example that one would be a good thing to have in my kitchen-without a full page explanation of "why you need a 10-inch skillet" type stuff.

IMHO it is better to be an expert on a few dishes than attempt to be a master of many. The difference between knowing a little about a lot, and knowing a lot about a little. ;-)

What I also found helpful is to start with recipes I knew my family had made that I liked. As an added bonus: said family member would always be more than willing to show me how to prepare the recipe and their "shortcuts". So by the time I made it on my own, I "knew" what I was doing. Calling hubby's mother and saying "I loved that meat loaf you made for dinner last month. Can you show me how to make it and give me the recipe?" is priceless and can't be replaced by a cookbook regardless who writes it.

Of course all of the preceding is just my opinion so take it for what it is worth.

That said, one recommendation for a new cookbooks for a beginner, which which will seem counterintuitive for someone just starting out but may be one of the best choices you can make:

Bon Appetit Fast Easy Fresh: Recommending Bon Appetit (the cousin to Gourmet magazine) seems totally counterintuitive to someone just starting out. Some of their other books are-make no mistake. However, this particular book features recipes that all have short ingredients lists (many like under 5 ingredients plus salt and pepper), fairly simple prep, and use "fresh" ingredients (ie instead of canned cream of something use real mushrooms, flour and milk!). This is their version of "what to do for dinner in 30 minutes with real food". An added bonus: this book has a number of recipes that serve 2. It was published in 2008, which also means you wont encounter what you do in a lot of cookbooks-ingredients that are no longer available (ie maybe they don't make a 5 ounce can of whatever anymore) or are definitely out of taste (oh the horror of a meat and gelatin and olive recipe in a Farm Journal cookbook I have from about 1970 lol!)

Actually which brings up a point. The majority of recipes out there serve anywhere between 4 and 12. If you are just starting out, you will have a few flops. Even experienced cooks have flops lol! Flopping with a recipe with 2 servings worth of ingredients is preferable to flopping with a recipe where you have invested a fortune in ingredients, have enough to feed the neighborhood, and no one even likes it and even Fido won't go near it lol! And cutting down larger recipes isn't always as easy as it seems-sometimes it is, but often it isn't as simple as just cutting the ingredients.

That said-you can definitely cut the 40 clove chicken recipe to serve just 2. I just made it the other night for 2. Use 2 chicken quarters or breasts (skin on, bone in). Use the same amount of all the other ingredients (with the oil tho, you want just enough to really "coat" the chicken and leave a thin film in the pan). Cook for the same time-you can use any basic skillet or pot don't need a roaster or anything, just be sure the pan/pot is oven-safe and the chicken sits side by side rather than on top of each other. This works because a) a chicken quarter takes the same amount of time to cook regardless how many pieces you are making and b) the other ingredients just basically form a "sauce" and there isn't enough liquid in the recipe to have to cut down to prevent the chicken from boiling. In fact, when I make it, I usually dont even measure, enough oil to drip off a thin layer into the pan, a good glug of wine, a small handful of thyme. ;-)

Which brings observation 2: Cooking is an art, baking is a science. When cooking, feel free to substitute, tweak and make minor adjustments. When baking, until you get very experienced (and sometimes not even then lol!), dont even try. Baking relies on very specific proportions, one wrong proportion and your cake won't rise or your fudge won't set for example. But a few extra tablespoons of liquid or a few hundred more cloves garlic (lol! love garlic...) in a roasted chicken recipe will not matter in the least.

[user_id]

Basic Sauteed chicken with sauce:

Heat 2~3 tablespoons of real butter (won't taste good with oil, or fake butter) in a covered sauteed pan (stainless or copper). Once to medium heat add dry boneless chicken breast and cook uncovered on each side a few minutes or until a golden brown (the bottom of the pan should get nice and brown too, you'll use that later). Once browned cover and look for an additional 15 minutes or so (or until done).

Once the chicken is done take out of pan and put in a covered container. Keep a couple of tablespoons of fat in the pan and then add onions or shallots and cook briefly. Add 1/2 cups or so of a white wine (don't use a sweet wine) and 1 cup or so of brown stock**. Raise heat and boil down to around 1/2 cup. Turn off heat and mix in some salt, pepper, thyme and parsley (ideally fresh, but dry will work fine) and 1 tablespoon of butter. There are a lot of various you can make to the sauce, like adding mushrooms. Or instead of adding the stock, boil down the wine to around 3~4 tablespoons and add 1 cup of cream and boil down until its thicken (and then add the same herbs).


**Ideally you'd use a stock you made yourself. But the canned stuff will work.