Roasting

I don’t just like asparagus — I love it! It’s a bit of an obsession for me. I’ll eat it broiled, roasted, steamed, baked, and even raw. To that roster of preparations is the recent addition of oven-baked asparagus fries in all their golden, crispy-brown glory. With the help of a breadcrumb trick that you can make use of beyond this recipe, I present the crispiest, crunchiest, tastiest asparagus I’ve made to date — and folks, it’s all done in the oven.

I adore Indian food, and while my tastes range wide in that nation’s incredibly diverse cuisine, I have to admit that the rich, Westernized chicken tikka masala was my gateway love and still a guilty pleasure. But what does it look like when you flip the bowl and leave the curry until last? Can chicken curry be a lighter, fresher meal?

Let’s talk about the fajita effect. It’s the restaurant moment when a server swaggers by with a sizzling platter of fajitas and all heads turn to the sound and aroma of seasoned meat, peppers, and onions parading past the table. If you were smart enough to order that platter, you gloat as you pile warm tortillas with all the toppings and meat fresh from the skillet.

Grab that last bit of leftover chili or a can from the pantry, and the nub of cheddar hanging out in the fridge, because they are the duo that’s going to make tonight’s mild-mannered chicken breast something to talk about. Chili and cheese stuffed chicken breast may never win any beauty awards, but that’s just fine because — as this quick dinner proves — it’s what’s on the inside that counts.

This is the kind of dinner that’s meant for cool fall evenings. Sweet, spicy pork chops are nestled in caramelized sweet potatoes and red onion, making for a complete meal worthy of a casual dinner party or a cozy Sunday night dinner at home. If you want better pork chops — meaning meat that’s extra tender and extra juicy — brining alone with help you get there. This quick version takes just 30 minutes.

Sheet pan dinners are the ultimate one-pan meal. They can easily be adapted to please picky eaters, involve mostly hands-off cooking, and turn out reliably satisfying results. With a trusty sheet pan, five or six pantry staples, and 30 minutes of cooking, you can have a hearty dinner on the table any night of the week. Sheet pans, baking sheets, and jelly roll pans are often confused with each other.

Think of this sheet pan sweet potato and black bean hash as your invitation to do dinner for breakfast, or even vice versa. It's fragrantly spiced and cooks up fast.

The secret to this sheet pan recipe is twofold: the skin-on chicken thighs and the mixture of fresh sage and scallions.

Sometimes, the craving for ramen comes with the desire to make it at home — and not just from rectangular packages or Styrofoam cups. We’re talking about a homemade ramen that’s rich and satisfying and on par with what you have at restaurants and ramen shops. The key to making good ramen at home is making good broth, and making good broth at home doesn’t require 12 hours of cooking, nor a plethora of bones.

With just a few sheets of aluminum foil, you can assemble frozen shrimp into ready-to-roast packets that turn into buttery, lemony shrimp scampi.

If you’re planning a date night in, there’s no better person to turn to for reliably delicious, easy-to-follow recipes than Ina Garten. This month the star of Food Network’s Barefoot Contessa will debut her tenth cookbook, Cooking for Jeffrey, an ode to her husband and the many memories they’ve shared over the course of their life together.

While a big roast turkey might be the centerpiece of Thanksgiving, vegetables are just as important, as they bring balance to the meal and color to your plate. Roasted Brussels sprouts are just the ticket; there’s little chopping to do and they retain their cute shape even after cooking. We’re taking them one step further by adding a drizzle of a sweet and tangy honey-mustard glaze, making them a breakout star on the Thanksgiving table.

Taco pie is simple — the spiced ground beef filling we all know and love on top of something starchy, baked up with a thick layer of cheese — but what if you replaced the starch with something a little lighter? What if we packed more vegetables into this Tex-Mex treat?

There are many reasons to seek out the tacos at Tacos Oscar, a roving taqueria run by Oscar Michel and Jake Weiss. Any great taco begins with the tortillas, and here they are handmade and pressed to order. The two former line cooks from Oakland’s Boot & Shoe Service also excel at fillings, which run the gamut from more traditional options like carnitas to less conventional combinations like Peruvian bean, nopal salad, roasted tomato salsa, cotija, and queso fresco.

I used to use quesadillas as a vessel for leftover chicken — usually the leftover bits of a whole roasted bird from earlier in the week. This recipe, though, was the impetus for cooking chicken for the sole purpose of making quesadillas, and now I’m dedicated to the concept. The cilantro-lime chicken thighs are excellent in their own right, but they’re even better teamed up with buttery, flaky tortillas and melty Monterey Jack cheese.

Roasted broccoli is a dinner staple in our household. It’s one of the easiest ways to get some greens on our plates — especially on those nights when our dinner timeline is particularly tight. I can grab a bag or two of frozen broccoli and we can eat as we normally do, but with a fraction of the prep. Since we eat it so regularly, I’ve tried plenty of variations on roasted broccoli. To date, this sesame-ginger roasted broccoli is my family’s favorite.

We already know the mighty chickpea to be a versatile legume, transforming itself into everything from creamy hummus to crunchy orbs inspired by Cheetos, but it manages to surprise us with another trick up its sleeve. In this case, it’s a slightly sweet and toasty spread, packed with protein and fiber. While it may sound strange to be spreading a sweet chickpea-based butter onto bread, you’ll be pleased once you try it.

Winter produce can start to feel tired almost as soon as winter fully sets in. But roasted vegetable boredom usually leads me to experimentation and, if I’m lucky, occasional breakthroughs, like these roasted carrots with orange. Storage carrots — dense and super orange compared to their younger counterparts with leaves still attached — are an affordable winter staple.

For a fast way to way mix up your weeknight chicken routine, look no further than this boldly seasoned dish. Thanks to a quick honey-chipotle marinade, meaty chicken thighs and chunks of sweet potatoes pick up spicy, smoky flavor with a bit of sweetness. And since we’re making this on a sheet pan, your whole dinner is ready at once — easy prep and easy cleanup!

Does okra intimidate you a little? This glorious vegetarian Southern meal makes okra the easy way, roasted with black-eyed peas and tomatoes for a one-pan winner.

A juicy pork loin doesn’t require a whole lot of fuss for it to be delicious, so we’re keeping things simple with a classic rub of garlic, rosemary, salt, and pepper. To make things even simpler, the pork cooks alongside halved red potatoes for a one-pan meal. About an hour later you’ve got meat with a golden-brown crust and potatoes with crispy edges and fluffy centers.

If you had any questions about what to make for dinner tonight, consider them answered. This recipe takes sirloin steak, one of the best cuts of meat for your budget, and transforms it into the hearty filling for this dinner-ready sandwich. Stuffed into an onion bun and stacked high with tangy quick-pickled onions, an ultra-luxe spread, and peppery arugula, it’s our new favorite way to serve steak for dinner.

Who doesn’t love dinner in just one bowl? We have a vegetarian spectacular for you today, one that looks fancy as all get-out, but hello! It only takes 30 minutes to make, and it’s gilded with a sauce of tahini and golden turmeric that’s as easy as open sesame! This bowl is perfect as a weeknight meal because it is endlessly adaptable.

In my never-ending quest to get my children to eat more green vegetables, I discovered the best broccoli sub sandwich that not only works as a quick and easy vegetarian dinner option, but also works as a tasty sub to serve at parties. Garlicky roasted broccoli is already a dinner staple that my kids love. Partnering it with tangy feta cheese, a special sauce (read: doctored-up mayo), and crunchy fried onions, this staple becomes more than just broccoli on a sub roll.

You know lemons as the sunny citrus fruit that bring a pop of bright flavor to any dish with just a small squeeze of juice. Now I want to introduce you to another of side of lemons — the mellow, sweet side coaxed out from roasting. When partnered with roasted garlic and a few glugs of olive oil, in no time it’s transformed into a rich, sweet sauce with a faint bitter edge. Let me be clear about one thing: There is no wrong way to use this sauce.

The first time I made these pepperoni chips for a dinner party with friends, I put them down alongside the cheese and olives, turned back into the kitchen to get my wine glass, and by the time I returned, the chips were gone. I really am not kidding. These crispy, crunchy, salty, spicy little guys are sure to be a hit among anyone you serve them to. Not only do they require just one ingredient, but they also happen to be gluten-free.

Add a spoonful of smoky, roasted tomatillo sauce to your plate and dinner instantly becomes a lot more exciting. Blended together with tangy tomatillos, poblano pepper, and a pop of garlic, this everyday sauce hits your tongue with punchy flavor that’s just the right balance of sweet and smoky, with a hint of heat. One of the first things that seems to come to mind when we think about tomatillo sauce is tacos. It’s an obvious pairing, and one that I cannot recommend enough.

Why is it that salads almost always taste better at restaurants? Among other reasons, there’s a level of complexity to them that we don’t typically get at home. This cauliflower salad is proof. It comes to us from Chef Christopher Gould at Central Provisions, a James Beard Award Best New Restaurant finalist in Portland, Maine, with inventive small plates and craft cocktails.

One of the easiest, tastiest sheet pan chicken dinners picks up big flavor from a couple of basics in your spice cabinet and takes your tastebuds on a trip to Greece. Inspired by souvlaki — the traditional skewered chicken highlighted with lemon, sweet herbs, and garlic — juicy chicken thighs are infused with the same classic flavors and get cooked until the skin is irresistibly crisp.

Whether served hot or cold, brimming with meat or completely vegetarian, the beet soup known as borscht has become a staple of the Ashkenazi Jewish repertoire. Perhaps that is because, amidst a sea of brown, heavy dishes — potato kugel, challah, cholent, latkes, and so on — borscht’s ruby color and tangy-sweet flavor offers a bright counterpoint. I love to make borscht, but I do not fancy the cold version that is popular during the warm summer months.

In Tuscany, cooks don’t have a lot of uses for hard-shelled winter squash. It is typically roasted as a side dish or turned into soup. At our Brooklyn farmer’s market in autumn and winter, the stands are filled with a huge variety of squashes, each one more attractive and tasty than the other. In the States, we cook with squash all the time, and the entire family benefits. This pasta balances the somewhat sweet squash with sausage, kale, and Romano cheese.

This dish ensures those who aren't eating turkey have something to call their own.

Autumn is a time of harvest and gathering to celebrate the cornucopia of America’s bounty. Despite this, vegetarian mains on the Thanksgiving table are usually a sad substitute for the classic roast turkey. This year choose to embrace the variety of textures, flavors, and colors found at the fall farmers market by preparing a vegetarian stuffed pumpkin, impressive enough to intrigue the entire table.

Roasting a whole head of cauliflower is a transformative experience, both for the cook and the cauliflower. At first you might be befuddled as to why anyone might want to cook an entire head of cauliflower whole, but as you pull the burnished heads of tender, aromatic cauliflower from the oven, you start to understand.

We’re in the thick of winter squash season and our quest to insert it into as many meals as we can hasn’t slowed down. Salads, soups, and pastas embracing butternut, acorn, and more are on rotation for lunch and dinner, but for breakfast we’re turning to these: a twist on the classic egg-in-a-hole or egg-in-a-basket.

We can all agree on the perfection of a roast chicken dinner. Juicy, tender chicken, a crackle of golden chicken skin, all on top of a bed of supple, caramelized vegetables. It’s hard to think of a more iconic poultry dish, except for maybe Thanksgiving Turkey. This Dutch oven roasting trick was something I picked up while working on a cookbook a few years ago.

The trick is in how you cook the cabbage!

This is how you do shrimp tacos in salad form. All the very best elements — juicy, spice-dusted shrimp, crisp cabbage slaw, tangy crema, and creamy avocado — come together in one big bowl to form a seriously feel-good dinner salad that’s crisp, spicy, and fresh all at once. This is the sort of meal that will add brightness to your day, even if the weather is gloomy and gray, as it instantly transports you to that SoCal sunshine.

You know that bag of carrots sitting in the corner of your fridge? The ones you keep there as a backup vegetable to have on hand just in case because they last forever? (I know it’s not just me who does this). This salad is going to forever change the way you look at those carrots. They’re tossed with a sprinkle of coriander and roasted until lightly charred and paired with warm chickpeas that have been infused with the aroma of sunny citrus.

Add this one to the dinner plan ASAP!

Beet salad sounds like such a cliché dish, but I think there’s good reason for its popularity. When rock-hard beets are roasted until soft and sweet, then tossed with a vinaigrette to cut through all the sweetness, there’s something amazing that happens. Skipping the fast-wilting lettuce in favor of slabs of creamy feta cheese and a big handful of fresh, fragrant herbs really makes this salad special and beautiful.

There is one important thing you should know about getting this chicken on the dinner table: You’re gonna need to put out plenty of extra napkins. Because as any really good firecracker chicken recipe should be, this one is all about the vibrant, sticky sauce. It’s a weeknight version of the takeout favorite that partners a pack of meaty, wallet-friendly chicken thighs with a bright, glossy sauce that’s sweet, tangy, and a little bit spicy.

This may look like an inconspicuous tray of roasted veggies, but it is anything but bland and boring. These earthy mushrooms and sweet cherry tomatoes are caramelized with lots of fresh thyme and garlic and then finished with a hit of brightening balsamic vinegar. It’s so simple, you’ll wonder why it’s been missing from your life for so long! Pile it on toast, spoon it over grilled chicken or steak, toss it with pasta, or just eat it straight from the sheet pan with a fork.

When cilantro and lime are paired together in a recipe, I expect my tastebuds to tingle with vibrant, bright flavors that make every bite feel like the best I’ve ever had. And boy do these pork chops deliver. Bite after bite, they treat you to a burst of citrusy tang. This simple pan sauce might make your mouth pucker, but paired with lean, mild pork chops, it’s absolute perfection. This is about to become you’re new favorite way to eat a pork chop — no doubt about it.

These might be the fastest tacos we've ever made.

Don’t spend any more of your life reserving home fries for weekends only. This big-batch, sheet pan method lets you cook your home fries once and eat them all week long. Home fries — crispy, creamy potatoes cooked with peppers and onions — are one of our favorite breakfast starters. You can eat them straight up topped with a fried or hard-boiled egg, or wrap them in a tortilla or pita for an on-the-go breakfast that’s heavy on the veg.

Sheet pan dinners are easy by nature but this one is especially stress-free, thanks to quick-cooking boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Brushed with a sweet and tangy balsamic glaze and baked alongside crispy potato wedges and tender peppers and onions, the crowd-pleasing protein makes for our smartest sheet pan meal yet. Yes, all the ingredients cook on one pan — but that doesn’t mean you have to add them all at once.

At first glance this recipe looks and feels so classic Ottolenghi — one you’d find in the pages of one of his first three tomes. It’s full of fresh ingredients and layers upon layers of flavors and textures, something I’ve come to expect from him. But what makes this warm, herb-heavy salad different is that it comes together in way less time and calls for just 10 ingredients.

There’s something so deeply satisfying about roasting a chicken. It’s a simple act that results in an impressive, dinner party-worthy meal that also feels so homey and comforting. This roast chicken from Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook, Everyday Dorie, is easy and classic, but she elevates it with a few special tricks to ensure it’s extra special.

If your weeknight pasta routine has become, well, routine, consider adding this flavorful shrimp dish to the roster. Inspired by Bonefish Grill’s cult-favorite Bang Bang shrimp — beloved for its creamy, sweet, and spicy chili sauce — this recipe is cheaper than dining out, better for you than takeout, and simple enough for even the busiest of nights. While Bonefish Grill’s Bang Bang Shrimp is obsession-worthy, it’s definitely more of a special-occasion dish.

Wild rice, roasted squash, dried fruit, and nuts make for the perfect fall pilaf.

Whether you follow a gluten-free or low-carb diet — or simply want a new way to eat pizza — cauliflower crust is the answer. The problem is, most of them suck. They take forever to make and yield subpar results: bland, limp crusts that can barely handle sauce and cheese. Unfortunately, store-bought varieties are just as disappointing. I was determined to make a simplified, far-more-delicious version — one with super-crispy edges and maximum flavor. This recipe is that and more.

In the hierarchy of all the ways to cook a potato, oven-baked wedges are at the very top. They’re the best of both worlds: their crispy, salty exteriors are reminiscent of french fries, but their irresistibly creamy, soft and tender centers might just remind you of a baked potato. Here’s how to master the art of oven-baked potato wedges. Russet potatoes are the best pick for potato wedges, both for their texture and size.

The combination of bacon and asparagus is a stellar spring pairing and a great way to celebrate the arrival of longer, warmer days. Asparagus is also one of the easiest vegetables to prep, making it a great side dish contender during this time of year, when it’s inexpensive and readily available. Plus, it’s quick to cook: You can have juicy, vibrant asparagus wrapped in perfectly crisp bacon in less than 15 minutes. Here’s how to do it.

We rolled up to Sugar’s Place in the middle of the day in the middle of July. Across the street from the Mississippi College School of Law in Jackson, this little restaurant has some of the best soul food I’ve ever eaten. I walked in with no appetite and left wishing I had eaten more. And I couldn’t stop thinking about its baked chicken. Chef-owner mother-son team Glenda Cage Barner and Donovan Barner worked some magic with those chicken legs.

Although cauliflower is being served up 100 different ways than how I personally grew up eating it (plain and steamed or raw with a dip), I still have yet to cultivate the enthusiasm that says, “Today we’re cooking cauliflower!” The vegetable just doesn’t excite me. But you know what does? Maple syrup and Sriracha and the existence of the word caramelized.