How To

It's packed with rich and smoky flavor.

Everything you need to know about grilling eggplant, summer squash, bell peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, and more.

You just need 5 ingredients and there's no baking required.

Ready the vanilla ice cream.

A loaf of tender, warm bread in less than an hour? It's not magic — it's no-time bread!

Spread it onto bread, fold into omelets, or eat spoonfuls with ricotta.

Have you ever tried making your own crackers? Your very own crispy, crunchy, seed-topped crackers? My recommendation: try it. Definitely. Crackers are surprisingly easy to make at home with just five basic ingredients, a rolling pin, and a baking sheet. There is no kneading required nor yeast needed; just mix the dough for a minute, then roll, cut, and bake it. Make yourself a quick batch tonight and have homemade crackers for lunches, snacks, and dinners all week long.

Kombu broth, or dashi, is as quintessential to Japanese cooking as chicken broth is to American cooks.

It's foolproof!

While the idea of churning my own butter appeals to the part of me that obsessed over the Little House on the Prairie books as kid, I think that if Laura Ingalls Wilder landed in the present day, she’d ditch that butter churn for a blender in a heartbeat. In a blender, making your own butter becomes a practical, everyday affair for us modern-day home cooks. Find a sale on your favorite heavy cream? Have half a carton leftover from the weekend? Treat yourself to some homemade butter.

Learning how to properly brown ground beef for tacos, salads, and soups is a meal prep game-changer.

This is the recipe that can make *anyone* a jam maker.

Here’s the easiest way to cook mahi mahi, yielding flaky pan-seared fillets with a lemon butter sauce.

Toss the frozen shrimp straight onto the sheet pan.

Feels goods, right?

Make soft, creamy steel-cut oats in under 20 minutes.

Millet is an ancient seed, originally hailing from Africa and northern China, and it remains a staple in the diets of about a third of the world’s population. Rich in iron, B vitamins and calcium, millet has a mild corn flavor and is naturally gluten-free. Sure, on first glance you might be tempted to think that raw millet looks like birdseed.

Just 3 ingredients!

No tempering needed.

For whenever a craving strikes.

A pan sauce feels like something you read on a menu, doesn’t it? A bit of fancy chef magic that should only be attempted by trained professionals. But here’s the real secret: pan sauces are so incredibly simple. And fast. In the time it takes your steak or pork chop to rest, you can turn those pan drippings into a fantastic sauce, no culinary school degree required. Liquid, in a combination of wine or stock, is used to deglaze the pan and a little butter is added to make things rich.

Teff is a gluten-free whole grain that’s starting to get more attention these days. And for good reason: these tiny grains pack a big nutritional punch since they’re made up primarily of the bran and germ, where all the good-for-you stuff is. Making teff porridge is easy. Before cooking, first toast the teff for two minutes in a pan, then transfer in a saucepan and bring to a boil for 15 to 20 minutes.

Memorize this recipe and ditch delivery.

They're stuffed with fresh herbs and two kinds of cheese.

You likely have everything you need.

If you peek inside my cupboards, you’ll see countless little jars of herb and honey concoctions that are both delicious and healing. Making herb-infused honey has become one of my favorite ways to use leftover sprigs of thyme from cooking dinner, a handful of wild mint found while foraging, or the buds of an edible flower bouquet. There are five steps in making herb-infused honey.

They're also vegan.

Want to make pasta, but lack the motivation to do all that mixing and kneading by hand? No problem. If you have a food processor, you can have a batch of pasta dough ready in about two minutes flat. The fast-working action of the food processor blade mixes those eggs into the flour faster than your fingers ever could — and gives the dough a good kneading at the same time. The resulting dough is soft and supple.

It's the high-protein, make-ahead breakfast you need.

I’m lucky enough that I live in temperate California with weather that’s suitable for grilling pretty much all year long, save for a few rainy days here and there. When we decided to grill the turkey for our Thanksgiving gathering this year, I was really excited about it — it’s the perfect excuse to be outdoors yet still be getting the centerpiece of Thanksgiving dinner cooked.

Pounding chicken breast into thin, even pieces will make you a better weeknight cook.

Red beans and rice for Mardi Gras at home.

There's a much smarter way to buy it.

All the flavor of hot wings without any of the fuss.

Do you really need a reason to bake a single dark, chocolatey brownie? One that requires only pantry staples and a toaster oven? A brownie that you don’t have to share? Fine, I’ll give you a few — it’s better than a box mix and only takes about 20 minutes total to make, bake, and cool. Brownies are the champions of chocolate cravings, and this one is chewy, chocolatey, and fast. Baking in a toaster oven has a few benefits.

The best jam you can make with just fruit, lemon, and sugar.

Dutch crunch is the delightful sandwich bread you didn't know you needed.

A crock of slow-cooked grits is a dream to wake up to and an easy, no-fuss base for weeknight dinners.

Layered jello molds are easier to make than you think.

If you're looking for a quick way to preserve a bunch of cherry tomatoes, pickling is a unique way to put them to good use.

This has become our favorite cooking technique for vegetables! Not only does it require less hands-on work than sautéing on the stove top, but vegetables develop a nice char under the broiler. This translates into smoky flavor in our dishes. We also like the texture contrast. Since broiling is a quick cooking method, the outsides of the veggies soften while the insides stay relatively crisp. Yum! Want more smart tutorials for getting things done around the home?

File under: Another trick we learned from Alton Brown.

It’s no pretty jar of jam or row of canned tomatoes, I know, but I suspect that making your own fruit-flavored vodkas might just be the most fun way to preserve. It’s very easy and simple; choose some ripe fruits, cover them with vodka, and wait for a few days until the vodka tastes good.

Imagine the tines of your forking breaking through, almost snapping, the velvety crust of a fruit tart. It crumbles a bit, but is far from dry — each bite more rich and buttery than the last. That tender crust is typically known as pâte sablée. Unlike a flaky pie crust, pâte sablée is crisp and more cookie-like. The name literally means “sandy,” although it’s anything but.

This faster take on pizza won't heat up the house.

Meat pounded thin, lightly breaded, and fried to golden crunchy perfection is an essential technique that lays the groundwork for classic dishes like chicken Parmesan.

A quick soak in an easy brine makes for perfect grilled pork chops every single time.

Like a tomato and mayo sandwich, in pie form.

You only need two ingredients.

From the ingredients you use to the foods you put them on, flavored salts are wide open to your imagination. Start with a flaky salt, add herbs, spices, or other ingredients, and you have a quick, unique way to season everything from sliced tomatoes to chocolate cakes. They make wonderful edible gifts, too. Here’s a step-by-step recipe with basic ratios to get you started, plus tips for how to use seasoned salts, and a few of our favorite ingredient combinations.

There may be a million ways to roast a chicken, but there is one in particular that truly stands head and shoulders above the rest: the Zuni chicken. This method was originally developed by Judy Rodgers for her San Francisco restaurant The Zuni Cafe, but it has since traveled far beyond that kitchen. It involves salting the chicken days ahead and flipping it a few times during roasting, but the extra TLC is worth it. Simply put, this makes one of the best roast chickens ever.

Give a warm welcome to your new favorite weeknight side dish. Stir-frying a big bag of spinach has become one of my favorite ways to get greens on the plate, and a few slices of garlic in the mix makes the spinach feel all grown up. To prepare, you’ll only need five ingredients, high heat, and a wok, and stir-frying spinach should only takes two-minutes. Even in the world of fast stir-fries, spinach is a speedy dish.

These oven-dried tomatoes are nothing like their sun-dried cousins.

This Tennessee classic is a labor of love, but it just gets better after it's made. So bake a cake and nibble away all week long.

Learn how to (finally) make that perfect pot of oatmeal — even before you've had your coffee.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever actually made a soufflé. Yeah, me neither. Not until, that is, I took a class years ago with Paule Caillat in Paris and realized what a cozy, simple, weeknight dish a cheese soufflé actually is. In case you’ve never had one, a cheese soufflé is like a giant cheese puff, a hot cheese pudding with a crispy top and creamy, melting cloud inside.

Knowing how to make chocolate pudding from scratch is like having the golden key to winning dessert.

Boneless wings are the secret to breaking your drive-thru or chicken wing habit.

When you make vanilla ice cream at home, with good milk and cream, and real vanilla bean, it's anything but plain!

Baked oatmeal is the queen of make-ahead, easy-to-adapt breakfasts.

You might know it as sugar pie!

The slow cooker is what brought homemade chicken stock into my everyday life. It’s just so easy! Throw everything — chicken bones, carrots, celery, onions, and maybe a bay leaf if you have one — into the slow cooker and let it do its thing. Hours later, you have beautiful, golden stock that’s guaranteed to be better than anything you can buy at the store. Here’s what to do.

Crash hot potatoes are like a cross between a fluffy baked potato and a greasy, golden french fry.

Rice is rice, right? Not quite. Short-grain Japanese rice is quite different from long-grain basmati or jasmine rice, so achieving the right texture — glossy and tender but not sticky — calls for a particular cooking method. A fancy rice cooker makes the process easy, but it isn’t a necessity. Making perfect Japanese rice on the stove is simple, requiring only a good pot and careful listening skills.