I Am... 5 Ingredient Honey Garlic Chicken
Sweet and sticky, savory and garlicky, 5 ingredient honey garlic chicken is always the answer when you need a quick weeknight dinner. This is the best 5 ingredient back pocket recipe. Honey garlic is my jam: I can eat it on literally everything, including toast. It’s one of the easiest most flavorful sauces you can make at home and is a definite crowd pleaser. Bonus, it's also one of the cheapest mains you can make out there (unless you're buying very fancy honey).
How to make honey garlic chicken
- Cook the chicken. Lightly pat your chicken dry, season it on all sides with salt and pepper then cook it in a pan with a bit of oil. When it’s cooked through, it’s time to add the garlic.
- Cook the garlic. Add the garlic to the pan (add a bit of oil if the pan is dry) and cook until it’s soft but not brown and smells amazingly garlicky.
- Add the sauce. Stir in honey, soy sauce, and vinegar and let it bubble away and thicken, coating all the nooks and crannies of the chicken.
- Enjoy! Remove the chicken from the pan along with all the sauce and enjoy!
Honey garlic chicken ingredients
- chicken - I used bone in skin on thighs because I love how much flavor you get from bone in chicken and I love chicken skin! You can use literally any part of the chicken that is your favorite. I’ve included a handy cooking time chart just below.
- garlic - this is a garlicky honey garlic with 6 fresh cloves. You can add more or have less based on your garlic preferences. For me, the more garlic the better. Oh, and save yourself some time and get a garlic press, it’s a prep game changer!
- honey - mild, pure, 100% clover honey is what I reach for when cooking so the flavors don’t overwhelm the dish. Because we’re cooking the honey you don’t need raw honey, save that for your tea, toast, or oatmeal.
- vinegar - vinegar adds a bit of acid and tang to this sauce and balances it out so it’s not just all sweet. I like to use rice vinegar but you can sub white vinegar or white wine vinegar too. Or lemon or lime if that's easier.
- soy sauce - just a touch of soy sauce for umami and flavor. As always, use a soy sauce you love the flavor of and go for a naturally brewed soy sauce.
Pan-fried chicken cooking time chart
- boneless breast: 10-15 minutes, flipping as needed
- boneless thighs: 6-10 minutes, flipping as needed
- bone-in thighs: 20-25 minutes, flipping as needed
- drumsticks: 20-25 minutes, flipping as needed
- wings: 10-15 minutes, flipping as needed
Air fryer honey garlic chicken
Mix together the garlic, honey, rice vinegar, and soy sauce, and coat the chicken evenly. Add the chicken, skin side down, along with the sauce, to a heat safe container that fits inside the air fryer. Cook for 15-20 minutes at 350°F, flipping halfway, or until the internal temp reaches 165°F. Remove, stir up the sauce and spoon it over the tops and enjoy.Baked honey garlic chicken
Mix together the garlic, honey, rice vinegar, and soy sauce, and coat the chicken evenly. Add the chicken, along with the sauce, to an oven safe casserole dish. Bake the thighs at 425°F for 20-30 minutes, or until the internal temp reaches 165°F. Remove, stir up the sauce and spoon it over the tops and enjoy.Instant Pot honey garlic chicken
Mix together the garlic, honey, rice vinegar, and soy sauce, and coat the chicken evenly. Add the chicken skin side up, along with the sauce, to the insert of the instant pot. Cook on High Pressure for 7 minutes and then do quick release. Carefully open the Instant Pot. If desired, reduce the sauce down a bit. Remove the thighs, and turn the pot up to sauté high and reduce the sauce, stirring, until desired thickness. Enjoy!Raw vs real vs fake honey
There's all kinds of honey out there and it can get confusing. You should use what you like and can afford, but if you're curious, here are some quick tips on honey (feel free to discuss in the comments):- There's lots of honey out there that are primarily or even completely corn or other syrups
- Avoid honey with more than one ingredient
- Choose local honey if you can get it for the best honey quality
- There is no such thing as truly organic or raw honey
- But! Unpasteurized honey may be closer to the real thing if that's what you're looking for
- Good honey does tend to crystallize
- To decrystallize your honey, soak in warm (120ºF) water for up to 30 mins, stirring or shaking every few minutes to distribute the heat.
Side dishes
Honey garlic chicken should be served with a carb (we like basic white rice but brown is great too) and a nice quickly blanched green such as the broccoli you see here. It's basic good comfort food:Why you should make homemade honey garlic chicken
- super easy, barely an inconvenience
- making it at home means your chicken can be extra saucy
- you can customize it to your own taste with extra garlic or not too much garlic
- it’s faster than delivery
- the pure satisfaction of a home cooked meal
Honey Garlic Chicken
The best 5 ingredient back pocket recipe.
- 1 lb chicken (of choice)
- 6 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1/3 cup honey
- 1 tbsp rice vinegar (or vinegar of choice)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
Pat the chicken dry and season all sides with salt and pepper. Heat a skillet over medium high and add a bit of oil. When hot, add the chicken, skin side down if using skin on chicken and cook, until golden and cooked through, flipping as needed. See chart for approximate cook times.
When the chicken is cooked through, push the chicken to one side of the pan and add the garlic and cook, stirring, until soft and fragrant. Stir in the honey, vinegar, and soy sauce and let bubble and simmer, stirring. Coat the chicken in the sauce and let it thicken slightly. Remove from the pan, being sure to scoop up the extra sauce and enjoy!
I Am... A Super Simple Thai Basil Chicken Recipe
If you’re looking for a super flavorful quick and easy dinner, this Thai basil chicken stir fry is for you I LOVE Thai basil chicken. It gets my heart rate going not only because it’s perfectly spicy but also because it’s delicious. This is a super easy stir fry that is an incredible taste payoff for minimal prep. Goodbye delivery and hello home cooked meal!
What is Thai basil chicken?
Thai basil chicken is a super popular Thai stir-fry dish that’s eaten both at home, in restaurants, and from street food stalls. The main ingredients are chicken, Thai basil, garlic, Thai chilis, and sauce. Sometimes it’s served up with a crispy fried egg. It’s one of our go-tos when we’re craving Thai food.How to Make Thai Basil Chicken Stir Fry
1. Prep all of the ingredients: make the sauce by mixing together oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar in a small bowl. Mince the garlic (a garlic press is your friend!), chop the chilies, wash and dry the basil, and cut your chicken pieces up into even chunks. 2. Fry the aromatics: heat up some oil a wok or frying pan then very briefly lightly fry the garlic and chilis. 3. Fry the chicken: add the chicken and cook, stirring until golden and cooked. 4. Sauce: stir in the sauce and reduce. 5. Basil: take the pan off the heat and mix in the basil. Enjoy! Faster than getting your delivery order, am I right?!What You Need to Make Thai Basil Chicken
Sugar, oil, garlic, chicken thighs – you can sub chicken breast too but chicken thighs are juicier and more flavorful. Oyster Sauce Oyster sauce is a thick and flavorful brown sauce that can be found in the Asian aisle of any grocery store. If you see the Lee Kum Kee bottle with the two people in boats, go for that one. It’s the premium oyster sauce which lists oysters as its first ingredient, unlike the one with the red panda label which has oysters listed further down the list. Dark Soy Sauce You need both soy sauce and dark soy sauce for this dish - regular soy sauce adds salt and umami soy flavor; the dark adds a hint of caramel and color. If you don’t have dark soy sauce at home, you can skip out on it – your stir fry just won’t be as dark and glossy brown – but you should also give it a try. You can buy dark soy sauce easily online, and it will take your Asian/Chinese food to the next level. Once you buy a bottle, you can also use it for: Soy Sauce Chow Mein, Zha Jiang Mian, and Taiwanese 3 Cup Chicken. Thai Chilies Thai red chilies are very, very spicy. Frying them mellows out the spice a little, but if you’re not a spice fiend, seed your chillies (use gloves!) or decrease the amount. Thai Basil The correct kind of basil to use for pad krapow gai is Thai holy basil. It can be incredibly difficult to buy outside of Thailand so the best sub you can use is regular Thai basil. Thai basil has a very slight licorice/fennel flavor to it that is super distinct. They sell Thai basil at most Asian grocery stores but if you can’t find it, you can sub regular sweet basil instead.Ground chicken vs chicken thighs vs chicken breasts
You’ll see Thai basil chicken made with ground chicken or cut up pieces of chicken thighs or breasts. In Thailand, the meat is cut up quite small, which is why you see minced/ground chicken as the most used protein for Thai basil chicken in North America. I’ve made it with both and it’s really about what you prefer. If you don’t want to break out your knife to chop your chicken, using ground chicken is not just acceptable, pretty much standard everywhere including Thailand. And if you like your chopped chicken in larger or smaller pieces, that’s alright too! I tend to like my chicken pieces on the heartier side and Mike likes ground chicken so we make it both ways.What to eat it with
This recipe makes just enough sauce to coat the chicken plus a little extra for spooning on to your fluffy white rice. It’s a pretty flavorful (and by that I mean salty) so don’t be tempted to up the sauce amounts, it will be enough! Speaking of sauce, this is meant to be eaten with fluffy white rice! The sauce and chicken go perfectly with the blank canvas rice provides. Of course if you want you can have it over your grain of choice or even noodles. Add some cucumbers for a bit of freshness and crunch or a crispy fried egg for some extra savory goodness. Like all stir-fries, once you get going, it goes fast, so be sure to have all your ingredients prepped and sauces measured out before you even turn on the heat.Is it spicy?
Yes, traditionally it is, but it doesn’t have to be. If you aren’t a spice head, feel free to decrease the chili amount, de-seed the chilis, or leave them out entirely. chicken and rice forever, xoxo stephThai Basil Chicken Recipe
This quick and easy Thai classic is an incredible taste payoff for minimal work.
- 2 tsp oyster sauce
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp dark soy sauce
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tbsp oil
- 5 cloves garlic (minced)
- 3-4 Thai bird’s eye chili (deseeded and finely chopped, see note)
- 1/2 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (cut into 1 inch chunks)
- 20-30 leaves Thai basil
- crispy fried egg (if desired)
- rice (to serve)
In a small bowl, mix together 2 tablespoons of water with the oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, and sugar.
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan over medium high heat. When hot and shimmery, add the garlic and chili, stirring, for about 10-30 seconds – you don’t want them to burn or brown.
Add in the chicken and cook, tossing, until golden brown and cooked through.
Add the sauce and cook until the sauce reduces slightly and coats the chicken.
Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the basil.
Enjoy immediately with fluffy white rice and a crispy egg, if desired.
Estimated nutrition does not include rice or egg.
I Am... Creamy Spinach Chicken Pot Pie Pasta
If you love creamy, hearty pastas, this creamy chicken pasta with spinach is going to change your life, or at the very least, it'll make a really good dinner. Mike and I are avid skiers, and that means that in the winter, we’re always hungry. Well, maybe not Mike, but I’m always starving. After coming off the mountain, I need to eat, like, five minutes ago. As much as I love après, I love homemade food like this creamy, satisfying chicken and spinach pasta even more. It’s been my absolute food fixation as of late. It’s amazing because I prep it in advance so it’s ready to go. Mike cooks the pasta and sauces—saucing pasta is a true skill, and he’s the best at it—and then we’re ready to eat. By the way, if you love pasta recipes, check out our cookbook That Noodle Life for more of these!
Creamy Chicken and Spinach Pasta
This pasta is kind of a take on chicken pot pie. Essentially, it’s all the goodness of chicken pot pie: tender chunks of chicken and vegetables in a creamy sauce, but with pasta instead of pie crust. Somehow, it’s more filling and satisfying than pie. Plus, you don’t have to do any pie-crusting, which is a plus in my books. If you’ve ever made chicken pot pie filling, this recipe is essentially the same idea.Chicken Pot Pie Pasta Ingredients
- Chicken – I like buying skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs because they’re super economical and delicious. I’ll debone the thighs, cut up the meat and skin into bite-size pieces, and use the bones for stock. If that sounds like too much work, buy boneless, skinless thighs and cut them into bite-size pieces. Or, if you’re really in a rush, ground chicken can work too, although it'll be a different texture.
- Butter – We’re going to use butter two ways: to cook the aromatics and to make a roux to thicken the sauce.
- Aromatics – A mix of onions, garlic, and carrots adds sweetness and flavor.
- Flour – You need flour to make a roux, which is a fancy French way of saying you’re making a thickener for the sauce.
- Chicken stock and milk – Chicken stock adds an extra boost of chicken flavor, and milk adds creaminess.
- Cheese – Any kind of shredded cheese will work here, but it’s best if you stick to white cheeses: mozzarella, Parmesan, Gouda, Gruyère, and the like.
- Pasta – Short, spoonable pasta with lots of nooks and crannies for the sauce to hide in. Here we went with blah blah blah. Some shapes you can try are mezze penne, ziti, rigatoni, fusilli, and cavatappi.
How to Make Creamy Chicken Spinach Pasta
- Prep – Start by prepping the aromatics: peel and dice an onion and two carrots, then peel and mince the garlic. Roughly chop the spinach and shred the cheese, then set aside. Cut the chicken thighs into small, even pieces. You don’t need to be too particular about the size.
- Sauté – Sauté the onion, garlic, and carrots in butter until slightly soft and aromatic. Add the chicken to the pan, season with salt and pepper, and cook lightly, stirring as needed. At this point, the chicken doesn’t need to cook through, as it will continue cooking as the sauce thickens.
- Stir – When the chicken is lightly cooked, melt in some butter. Once melted, sprinkle in the flour and stir until it coats all the pieces of chicken and vegetables.
- Add – Slowly stream in the chicken stock and milk, stirring well. Let the sauce come up to a gentle simmer. When it starts to bubble, turn down the heat and let it simmer and thicken.
- Boil – While the sauce is thickening, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta 3 minutes shy of al dente. Reserve some of the starchy pasta water, then drain the pasta.
- Finish – When the pasta is ready, add the shredded cheese and chopped spinach to the sauce. Stir until the cheese melts and the spinach wilts. Taste and season with salt and pepper if needed.
- Sauce – Add the drained pasta directly to the pot with the sauce. Stir and continue to cook over medium-low heat until the pasta is al dente, about 3 minutes. Loosen the sauce with reserved pasta water if needed.
- Enjoy – Serve it up and enjoy!
My fave pasta shape
We love any kind of pasta that has lots of nooks and crannies for the sauce to sneak into. No long noodles here—short, scoopable pasta is what we’re after. Some of our favorites are the mezze kind. Mezze, in pasta talk, means half sleeves, or short. Mezze pasta shapes are shorter and smaller. We love mezze maniche, mezze rigatoni, mezze rigate, and mezze penne. Other short pasta shapes work great too: macaroni, fusilli, gemelli, cavatapi, conchigliette (shells), and fiorelli.What to Serve with Chicken Pot Pie Pasta
This is an all-in-one meal with protein, vegetables, and carbs, so you don’t need anything else. But if you want to go all out, a simple kale salad and some homemade focaccia would take this from a weeknight dinner to a sit-down, semi-fancy affair. xoxo -stephCreamy Chicken Pot Pie Pasta
If you love creamy, hearty pastas, this simple creamy chicken pasta with spinach is going to change your life.
- 3 tbsp butter (divided)
- 1/2 medium onion (peeled and diced)
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 carrot (peeled and diced)
- 1.25 lb boneless skinless chicken thighs (1/2 in cubed)
- 5 tbsp flour
- 1.25 cups chicken stock
- 3/4 cups milk
- 2 cups shredded cheese (of choice)
- 4 oz baby spinach (chopped)
- 1 lb pasta (of choice)
In a large Dutch oven, melt 2 tablespoons of the butter over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and translucent. Stir in the carrots and cook for 2–3 minutes.
Add the chicken, season with salt and pepper, and lightly cook, stirring as needed. The chicken doesn’t need to cook through at this point, as the chicken will cook in the sauce as it continues to simmer.
Add the remaining butter and stir until melted. Sprinkle in the flour and stir into the chicken and vegetables until evenly coated.
Slowly stream in the chicken stock while stirring. Stir in the milk and let simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, about 5 minutes.
While the sauce is thickening, bring a pot of salted water to a boil and cook the pasta 3 minutes shy of al dente, according to the package directions.
Add the shredded cheese and spinach to the sauce. Stir until the cheese melts and the spinach wilts. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.
Reserve 2 cups of the pasta water, then drain the pasta. Add the pasta to the sauce and continue cooking until al dente, about 3 minutes. Add reserved pasta water as needed to loosen the sauce. Stir and toss until glossy, creamy, and perfectly al dente. Enjoy hot!
I Am... Tiktok’s Viral Dumpling Bake
The coziest one pan dinner is this viral dumpling bake from Tiktok: juicy dumplings nested in a creamy, sweet-n-spicy sauce, perfect for scooping onto rice. I’m a sucker for viral recipes. I don’t know, there’s just something about my personality that is easily influenced by hype. It’s a curse because I’ve been burned more times than I want to recall. But, I can’t help it, in the words of Ariana Grande, “I see it, I want it, I like it, I got it.” In this case, it’s the TikTok viral dumpling bake. I resisted for so long — the dumpling bake went viral several months ago near the beginning of the year. I saw it and immediately thought that I would never make it. Ever. I love love love dumplings and they’re already super easy to cook in a multitude of classic ways so my brain thought, why would I do a silly baked dumpling trend? Then, I kept seeing it and seeing it and we had a can of coconut milk in the pantry and a tub of red curry paste in the fridge and it was inevitable.
What is the viral dumpling bake?
A one pan dumpling bake, as the name implies, is a dish of baked dumplings, specifically gyoza or potstickers. Aromatics, coconut milk, curry paste, and dumplings all get put in an oven safe dish and bake. The flavorful curry paste mixes with the coconut milk into a creamy, spicy sauce that thickens slightly in the oven while the dumpings become plump and juicy on the bottom and slightly crispy on top.Where did the viral dumpling bake trend come from?
As with most trending recipes, it’s a little hard to trace the original source, but from what I can tell, Danielle Brown, from Heathy Girl Kitchen came up with the idea on TikTok.Ingredients for viral dumpling bake
- Dumplings - frozen dumplings are the best for this dish because, really, it’s all about getting dinner on the table quick. Save those homemade dumplings for another day. Bags of frozen dumplings, specifically potstickers or gyoza, can be found at most grocery stores, so buy a bag of your favorites. More on dumplings below.
- Red curry paste - red curry is the backbone of all the flavor in this dish. Red curry paste combined with coconut milk is a weeknight superstar. A little bit spicy, super aromatic, and delicious. You can get this is at all Asian grocery stores and in most major grocery stores in the Asian foods aisle. It’s also on amazon! It comes shelf-stable in a little tub or a can and keeps in the fridge once opened for future use.
- Coconut milk - a can of coconut milk is going to bring so much richness and creaminess to this dumpling bake. Coconut milk can sometimes be confusing. What you want is the one that comes in a can in the aisles, not the tetra packs you find in the fridges.
- Aromatics - grated ginger and minced garlic are going to add a layer of freshness, but let’s be real, if you don’t want to break out the cutting board, you don’t have to because the red curry paste is going to be plenty flavorful. That being said, I’m always going to champion grating fresh ginger and mincing garlic because fresh is best.
- Toppings - finish off the dumpling bake with a generous sprinkle of freshly chopped cilantro, thinly sliced green onions, toasted sesame seeds, and a drizzle of chili crisp. To be honest, these toppings are completely optional, but they add a bit of pizzaz and make your dumpling bake super pretty, so I think they’re well worth it!
What size pan for viral dumpling bake?
You want a pan or dish that’s not too big and not too small — the dumplings need to be half submerged in the sauce. A square 9x9 casserole dish works perfectly as does an 11x7 rectangle or a 12 inch oval or circular pan. You can play around here, what you’re looking for is a big enough dish to accommodate all of your dumplings in a single layer.Which frozen dumplings are the best?
There are SO many frozen dumplings out there, so the best is definitely a personal preference sort of thing. But, that being said, I do have some favorites and some tips on how to find good frozen dumplings. First off, go to your local Asian grocery store. There, in the frozen section, they’ll have an entire aisle of frozen dumplings. In the case of the viral dumpling bake, I think the best dumplings are gyoza or potstickers. They come in that classic curved moon dumpling shape and bake up nicely because they typically have thinner dumpling skins. The fillings are endless, so just go with what sounds good to you. Classic is pork and cabbage/vegetable and chicken with cabbage is just as tasty. If you dont want to go to the Asian grocery store, you’re in luck because you can pretty much find frozen dumplings everywhere these days. Two of our favorites are new-ish dumpling brands: MìLà and Lao Ban. You can find both brands at major grocery stores, Whole Foods, and Costco (depending on location). They both make a variety of dumplings, so be sure to pick up the potstickers for this particular recipe. Also, shout out to Trader Joe’s frozen gyoza potstickers which always hit in a pinch. You can even make your own, it's easier than you think!How to make the viral dumpling bake
- Prep - preheat the oven to 375°F. While the oven is warming up, mince up some garlic (or use a garlic press) and grate some fresh ginger.
- Assemble - In a baking dish, whisk together the coconut milk, red curry paste, garlic, and ginger. Scatter in the leafy greens and stir to coat. Add the dumplings, straight from the freezer, nestling them in, then spooning some sauce on the tops.
- Bake - cover the dish and bake until the dumplings cook through and the sauce thickens slightly, about 20 minutes, depending on the dumplings. If you like you can take the foil off for the last 5 minutes to get some extra browning on the tops of the dumplings.
- Top - finish with freshly chopped cilantro, thinly sliced green onions, toasted sesame oil, and a bit of extra chili crisp.
- Enjoy - enjoy hot either on its own or spooned over rice or noodles.
What to serve with the viral dumpling bake
Any sort of saucy dumpling goes great with simple steamed rice https://weightloss-update.fit/how-to-make-fluffy-white-rice-perfectly-every-single-time/If you want to go all out and make a feast
That’s it! Are you going to succumb to the siren song of viral dumplings? Or do you have more self-control? I was on the fence but I have given in to the dark side of baked dumplings and I’m not coming back :) xoxo stephViral Dumpling Bake Recipe
The coziest one pan dinner
- 1 bag frozen gyoza (/ dumplings of choice~ 1lb)
- 1 can coconut milk (~ 14oz)
- 2 tbsp Thai red curry paste
- 3 cloves garlic (minced)
- 2 tsp ginger (grated)
- 3 cups spinach (or leafy greens of choice)
- green onions (sliced, to finish)
Preheat the oven to 375°F.
While the oven is heating, in a baking dish, add the coconut milk, curry paste, minced garlic, and ginger. Whisk the ingredients until combined.
Add the vegetables to the dish and toss to coat.
Nestle in the frozen dumplings (no need to defrost), spooning some of the liquid on top of the dumplings.
Cover the dish with an oven safe lid (or foil) and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until the dumplings cook through.
When the dumplings are ready (cut one open to check), finish with green onions and chili crisp. Enjoy!
Estimated nutrition is a guideline only and will vary considerably based on the dumplings you use. The numbers below are based on Trader Joes frozen dumplings and reduced fat coconut milk.
I Am... Jordan Marsh’s Blueberry Muffins Recipe
These blueberry muffins were so dreamy. Cake-y and moist with pockets of blueberry jammy goodness and a crispy sugary top. Recently, I was plagued by a mad craving for muffins. Mike and I were on a walk and I had a muffin emergency. We hopped into a random bakery and I couldn't decide which muffin so I asked Mike what his go-to muffin choice was. He very decisively said, "blueberry." I asked why and it turns out that Mike used to exclusively bake blueberry muffins when he went through a blueberry muffin phase. He practically knew a muffin recipe by heart (this one) and it turned out to be so good I had to share.
Who is Jordan Marsh
I was determined to make the muffins that Mike made in his youth, so after a quick google search, he determined that they were the Jordan Marsh muffins. It turns out, Jordan Marsh's blueberry muffins are famous. Very famous, in fact. Jordan Marsh was a fancy New England department store with a flagship store in downtown Boston. That flagship store had a bakery on the top floor that was famous for blueberry muffins. They were gigantic, addictive, and worthy of making pilgrimages for.How to make blueberry muffins
- Cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla.
- Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder
- Add the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk: flour milk, flour, milk, ending on flour.
- Fold in the blueberries.
- Line a standard muffin tin with 6 liners, and fill equally with the batter.
- Sprinkle sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins,
- Bake at 375ºF for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and toothpick comes out clean.
- Remove muffins from the tin, cool, and enjoy!
What is sanding sugar?
Sanding sugar is coarse heat resistant sugar that you can use to add a crunchy texture and a little extra sweetness to cookies, muffins, and other desserts. While it's not absolutely essential, it definitely makes this recipe. You can find sanding sugar at most grocery stores, Michaels/other craft stores, and of course, online.When is blueberry season?
Blueberry season is different depending on where you live. In the southern parts of the USA, peak blueberry season is May to July and gradually goes longer as you go up north. Washington, Oregon, and BC blueberries can extend well into October. In the winter blueberries come from south of the equator which adds to pricing, and you might want to use frozen blueberries instead. If you do, thaw them out for about 15 min and roll them in flour so they won't turn the batter purple.Wild vs cultivated blueberries
Most blueberries at the store are cultivated blueberries (highbush), which are great. But, if you see them, wild blueberries (lowbush) are amazing: more flavorful and contain more anti-oxidants. Give them a try!Muffin Tins
PS - I couldn't find our muffin pan but made do with these little individual tins that I have that turned out to be perfect. To be honest, they kind of work just like a muffin pan but better because they stack. I also played around with using parchment paper instead of regular muffin papers and that worked too. I can't decide which I like better but it's nice to know that I can make muffins even if I don't have the papers.Blueberry Muffin Recipe
The very best blueberry muffins by the genius of Jordan Marsh
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter (room temp)
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup milk
- 1 cup blueberries (washed and dried)
- 1 tbsp coarse sanding sugar (or as desired, for topping)
Heat the oven to 375°F. Cream the butter and sugar until light. Add the egg, beating well. Add the vanilla.
Sift together the flour, salt and baking powder, and add to the creamed mixture alternating with the milk: flour, milk, flour, milk, ending on flour.
Fold in the blueberries.
Line a standard muffin tin with 6 liners, and fill equally with the batter. Sprinkle the sanding sugar over the tops of the muffins.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the tops are golden and toothpick comes out clean. Remove muffins from tin, cool, and enjoy!
I Am... The Best Dishes We Ate in 2025
I can’t believe we are at the end of another year. Is it me, or is time flying by? So much food, so little time. Mike and I were lucky enough to enjoy so much amazing food in 2025, but these are our top 10 bites. This is our 2025, wrapped, food edition!
Japanese Musk Melon
2025 was the year that my Japanese musk melon dreams came true. We got one of those insanely expensive melons from a department store, on sale, nonetheless, and carefully carried it home on the subway. Slicing into it released an intense wave of sweet melon aroma and was instant melon love. Aside from a slice that Mike ate, I consumed the whole thing in one sitting, full of melon and happy beyond belief. Read more about musk melon here.Same Day Fresh Corn
If you haven’t had freshly picked corn - I’m talking about corn picked hours, or even minutes just before you eat it - you haven’t had corn. The feeling of a warm from the sun ear of corn wafting with the sweet smell of corn is amazing. Fresh corn is snappy and sweet. It’s almost like it’s a completely different vegetable. You can eat it raw, right off the cob and it makes me appreciate living in driving distance to fresh corn fields. Read more about our fresh corn drive-thru experience here.Takja BBQ House
Mike and I both love Korean BBQ and Takja, in Toronto does KBBQ right. If you love high-quality marbled beef, you’ll love it here. Unlike those all-you-can-eat places, Takja does not let you cook your own meat. It’s too precious. Once you have Takja’s perfectly cooked kalbi with house-fermented ssamjang and kimchi, you’ll be forever spoiled and never want to wield the tongs ever again. Read more about Takja here.Butter Tart from Bà Nội
If you’ve never had a butter tart and you have a chance to, I would skip it because to be honest, butter tarts are rarely good. But when they are, they’re transcendental. Such is the butter tart from Bà Nội, a tiny bakery in Toronto. The tart crust is firm, flaky, and almost crunchy. The filling is the perfect amount of squishy yet firm deliciously buttery caramelized butterscotch. I dream of this butter tart. I wish I had one right now. Read more about Bà Nội here.Kakigori at Azuki to Kouri
If you’re obsessed with kakigori (Japanese shaved ice) like I am, you NEED to go to Tokyo. The shaved ice is on another level. I told Mike about Azuki to Kouri in a “we’ll never get in but I dream of going” conversation. But! He surprised me by somehow scoring a reservation. I ordered TWO kakigori and trust me, it was the right move. I had the azuki (sweet red bean) and kabocha (pumpkin). Both of them were amaze but the kabocha was what I dream of. Layers and layers of perfectly airy, flaky ice, sweet and creamy roasted kabocha, crunchy caramelized puff pastry, candied nuts, and a crown of brûléed chiboust pastry cream all come together into a brilliant dessert filled with complementing and contrasting flavors, textures, and temperatures. Truly, it was one of the best desserts of the year and maybe even my life? Take me back!Sushi Mugen∞
Sushi just hits different in Tokyo. Combine omakase sushi with a vinyl listening bar and you get Sushi Mugen. Located in the backroom of an unassuming glass block adorned cafe space, the eight seat sushi counter is intimate and feels almost like you’ve been transported into the future, to what they think a modern retro sushi bar would look like. I love omakase and Mugen is an excellent example. You sit down, relax and enjoy as you eat your way through the ocean. The fish is incredibly seasonal and the shari (sushi rice) is firm, slightly warm, and pleasantly vinegary. Good music, good sushi, good drinks, and good company. This was, hands down, one of our favorite meals of 2025.Homemade Dubai Chocolate
Everyone’s forgotten about Dubai chocolate, but here I am, stuck in 2024, still making homemade Dubai chocolate bars, just mini. Somehow I convinced myself that I could be a chocolatier and got some acetate chocolate molds and a semi-professional chocolate smoothing paddle. Lil mini dark chocolate shells filled with pistachio goodness and crispy kadyif are so incredibly addictive. I have a supply in the fridge because I like my chocolate cold, like a monster. Make your own Dubai chocolate here.Udon in Tokyo
If you’ve ever perused must-go-to restaurants in Tokyo, you’ve most likely seen the viral wide udon located in Ginza. Mike and I have been there and it’s very good, but waiting for udon when there are so many other places to eat always seems like a tragedy. One of our favorite bowls of udon was in Ikebukuro at Himokawa-Kiryu. They specialize in himokawa udon, which is wide and slippery, thin, and chewy. At Kiryu, you can get a duo of udon, extra-wide and regular. The himokawa udon at Kiryu is extremely wide. We’re talking wider than a lasagna noodle wide. The tsuyu (dipping sauce) is delicate yet flavorful, the tempura is hot and crispy, and everything is just chef’s kiss.Yakiniku in Tokyo
If you love beef, you NEED to go to Japan for yakiniku. Yakiniku is the Japanese take on Korean BBQ. It’s same-same, but completely different. The quality of beef is insane. You know those stories you hear about cows being massaged and happily enjoying the best grass ever? They really are tastier. We ate our way through all of Tokyo's yakiniku restaurants (more on that soon) but our favorites were the misuji at Yoroniku, all the good vibes and creative dishes at the Ushigoro chain, and, just like the kakigori, Mike used his reservation scoring superpowers to get us a spot at the bar at Jambo and it lived up to all the hype I heard about and more. We had so many plans and restaurants to go to and somehow we just ended up at yakiniku every night in Tokyo.Air Fryer Chicken Thighs
Shout out to our air fryer chicken thighs. Super simple air-fried chicken thighs was our most go-to meal in 2025 when we were lazy and couldn’t come up with anything creative to make. Crispy, juicy, super simple and super satisfying with a side of rotating vegetables and ricej. Mostly we just seasoned bone in, skin on thighs with salt and pepper and popped them in at 390ºF for 23 minutes, but if you want a lemon-y, garlic-y version, we have a recipe for that! That’s it. 2025 was full of good food and I’m looking forward to 2026 being delicious too. Happy New Year and I hope your 2026 is full of deliciousness! -xoxo steph Read More →
I Am... Best Air Fryer Korean Fried Chicken
You’re 30 minutes away from the easiest air fryer (or oven baked) Korean fried chicken. Believe it or not, the air fryer is the best tool to make amazing homemade Korean fried chicken. If you’ve never tried it, its an extra crunchy double fried chicken tossed in a sweet and spicy sauce, all done up in an air fryer. It's like the best hot wings ever.
What is Korean fried chicken?
Korean fried chicken is double (and at some places, tripled) fried extra crispy wings and drummettes that are then coated in a sticky, sweet, and spicy sauce. Today we are making the most common sauce, which is basically sweet and spicy. It’s like buffalo wings amped up with the power of gochujang.Air fryer Korean fried chicken
We've always loved the idea of making Korean fried chicken at home, but even with as much as we cook, deep frying is never fun, so we've never done it. Steph suggested using the air fryer, which I thought was a genius idea, and I developed this double air fry technique that produced a pretty darn crispy chicken that I think rivals the best of the best deep fried versions while being way healthier.How to make Korean fried chicken
The secret of Korean fried chicken is the double frying. Double frying in the air fryer works just as well as it does with deep frying, but way easier. The secret is to coat your chicken after the first fry using a spray/mist of oil. It's not totally necessary, but it really helps. To make Korean fried chicken in an air fryer:- Coat the chicken. I coated the chicken first with oil to help with heat transfer, then salt and pepper, then corn or potato starch, which is what Asian-style chicken is classically made with for a lighter, crispier outer shell.
- Air fry the chicken. 400ºF for 15 minutes. There’s no need to preheat the air fryer.
- Make the sauce. While the chicken is air frying, make the sauce by combining all the sauce ingredients, then heating it up to a very slight boil (or even just microwaving it for a minute).
- Flip the chicken. When 15 minutes is up, flip the chicken and continue air frying for another 5 minutes. Remove and let cool for 5 minutes.
- Double fry and sauce. After the chicken has cooled, spray it with oil again, then air fry it for the final time at 400ºF for 5 minutes. Remove and toss in sauce, then enjoy immediately.
How to make a lot of wings
Sometimes you need to make multiple pounds of wings. Air fryers tend to have small baskets that fit one pound just about perfectly. You could easily do small batches until you achieve your desired wing quantity, but there are a couple of other options. You can:- make multiple levels of wings with air fryer racks (be sure to buy the right size for your baskets), which we love. It takes a little more time and it's best if you swap the rack positions halfway for even browning, but it's amazing for doubling or tripling your air fryer wing output.
- use a baking sheet with a rack and an oven on convection mode to simulate a giant air fryer.
- use a baking sheet with a rack and a conventional oven, this will take longer (up to 30-50 minutes depending on how crispy you want your wings) but it's still a lot less labor than standing by the air fryer swapping out baskets of wings.
Korean fried chicken sauce
The magical sauce that goes on Korean fried chicken is a mixture of honey, brown sugar, gochujang, and ketchup. Really: ketchup is a very important ingredient if you want to keep things authentic. It's important to note that this is just one possible sauce – there are other sauces for Korean fried chicken out there, but this one (in America, at least) is the iconic one.What is gochujang?
Gochujang is very slightly spicy fermented Korean paste that goes great in everything. We also use it for our sweet and spicy gochujang honey roast chicken and potatoes, our 10 minute spicy beef weeknight stir fry udon, and our kimchi stew with mochi egg recipe.. Traditionally it comes in tubs, but these days you can find it in much more convenient squeeze bottles in the Asian aisle of literally any grocery store.What if I don't have spray oil?
Spray oil is really good, cheap, and irreplaceable in the kitchen – especially if you have an air fryer. It's not worse for you than any other kind of oil, as long as you know when to use it and its limitations. We like a nice high smoke point propellant free oil, but you can use any oil you want (except olive because of its low smoke point) and you can even make your own.Deep/pan fry Korean fried chicken
If you don’t have an air fryer (they're pretty cheap these days though) you can easily do it the classic way: fry the chicken until golden brown, then remove and let cool a bit before dropping it back in for a few more minutes. Then toss in sauce.Oven baked korean fried chicken
If you don't have an air fryer, you can use an oven to bake these wings. Just follow the recipe as is, but preheat the oven to 425ºF and bake the wings on the middle rack for 30 minutes, then turn them and continue for another 10-20 minutes (50 minutes total). Toss them in the sauce once they are cool enough to handle.Will this sauce work with any kind of fried chicken?
Yes! If you are feeling lazy, you can just make the sauce and toss it in grocery store or chain fried chicken. It won’t be as good or quite the same, but still pretty awesome.How does it compare to delivery?
Korean fried chicken is available as a delivery, so why do all this work you ask? Because it's not really that much work, it's cheaper, and believe me, this chicken is going to knock the socks off the delivery stuff. -MikeAir Fryer Korean Fried Chicken
The greatest fried chicken in the world, hot and fresh at home via the power of air frying
- air fryer
- 1 lb chicken wings
- 1 tbsp oil
- 3 tbsp corn starch
For the sauce
- 1 tbsp ketchup
- 1 tbsp gochujang (see note)
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 0.5 tbsp soy sauce
- 0.5 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 0.5 tbsp ginger (grated)
- 2 cloves garlic (crushed)
Coat the chicken with the oil, then season with salt and pepper. Toss with corn starch.
Spray the air fryer basket with oil or use a paper towel to wipe a thin coat of oil onto it. Arrange the chicken in a single layer and air fry the chicken at 400ºF for 15 minutes.
While the chicken is air frying, combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan and heat over medium heat until it comes to a brief boil. Remove from heat and set aside.
When the 15 minutes is up, flip the chicken and air fry another 5 minutes, then transfer the chicken onto a plate or rack to cool for 5 minutes.
After the chicken has cooled, spray the chicken with a very light coating of oil (optional), place the chicken back in the air fryer and fry another 5 minutes at 400ºF.
Toss in the sauce, making sure to get every nook and cranny. Enjoy immediately with wedges of lime and slices of green onion.
Gochujang is available at all supermarkets in the Asian aisle or online via Amazon.
I Am... Tiktok Soup Dumpling Lasagna Recipe
Tiktok soup dumpling lasagna is here to stay. I LOVE dumplings. To me, they are the perfect food: juicy meat and a tiny bit of vegetables all wrapped up in a noodle-y dumpling wrapper. Dumplings are an instant hunger fixer. Mike and I always, always have a bag of frozen dumplings in the freezer. One of my all time favorite dumpling types is xiao long bao (aka Shanghai soup dumplings). If you’re into Shanghai food or even remotely into dumplings, you’ve probably heard about them. Soup dumplings are notoriously finicky to make and most people just go out to dedicated XLB restaurants like Din Tai Fung or buy frozen ones to steam at home. Making soup dumplings from scratch is no joke: you need to make a rich gelatin stock, chop a bunch of aromatics, and make thin and pliable dumpling wrappers. All of that is before you even think about shaping the dumplings, which, is an art. I tried it…once. Let’s just leave it at that. Like most delicious things nowadays, there’s always a hack and although this recipe looks nothing like soup dumplings, I can honestly say it’s legit delicious.
What is dumpling lasagna?
Dumpling lasagna is exactly what it sounds like: an extra large dumpling, in lasagna form. Think: layers of thin noodle-y wonton wrappers layered with a savory gingery pork mix and tender cabbage. Instead of baking, this lasagna steams up into a tender, layered, spoonable dumpling. Douse your dumpling lasagna with chili crisp and a big splash of soy sauce and black vinegar and get ready for heaven.Who invented dumpling lasagna?
I first saw it on TikTok via april_eatz. She wanted an easy-to-make dumpling, so instead of folding up individual dumplings, she layered a pork dumpling mixture with cabbage and wonton wrappers. It took off and it looks like dumpling lasagna is here to stay.TikTok soup dumpling ingredients
- ground pork - ground pork is the perfect dumpling filling. It’s flavorful and has just the right amount of fat content. You don’t want a super lean meat for dumpling filling because the fat is what makes everything juicy and tender.
- wonton wrappers - super easy to find wonton wrappers are going to be our noodle layers. If you’ve never bought them before, just head to the area where they keep the tofu. They come in little square refrigerated packages. I LOVE wonton wrappers. They’re incredibly versatile: you can make wonton soup, spicy chili oil wonton, crisp salad topper strips and even classic mini lasagna cups.
- vegetables and aromatics - finely chopped (or sliced, if you prefer) cabbage adds a bit of heft and sweet juiciness and fresh ginger and thinly sliced green onions add a nice aromatic bite.
- seasoning - using a mix of soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, toasted sesame oil, salt, and white pepper are going to give this lasagna dumpling a super authentic, savory, deeply delicious flavor. If you don’t have Shaoxing wine, you can skip it, but if you’re a fan of Chinese food, Shaoxing wine is a great ingredient to keep in your pantry. It’s available online and in all Asian grocery stores. It’s hard to describe its flavor, but it’s nutty, sweet, earthy, and aromatic. When you get take out Chinese food and there’s a flavor that you can’t quite put your finger on, but love, it’s probably Shaoxing wine. You can read more about it here.
- chicken stock - a splash of chicken stock gives the dumpling lasagna some liquid so they can steam up extra juicy.
- toppings - chili crisp, soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, toasted sesame seeds, sliced green onions, basically anything and everything that you like in your dumpling dipping sauce.
How to make TikTok soup dumplings
- Prep - start off by prepping the dumpling filling mix: thinly slice or chop the cabbage, slice the green onions, and mince the ginger. Set up a steamer over medium high heat by adding 2 inches of water to a large, wide pot. Set a wire rack inside the pot and make sure you have a lid that fits over top.
- Mix - add everything to a large bowl and mix in the ground pork, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine, toasted sesame oil, salt and a bit of pepper.
- Layer - grab 4 ramekins and alternate layers of wonton wrappers and the pork filling. before the last layer of wonton wrappers, add 3 tablespoons of chicken stock to each ramekin. Finish off with a layer of 2 wonton wrappers per ramekin.
- Steam - bring the water to a boil and then turn the heat down to medium-high. Steam the dumping lasagnas for 20 mins or until cooked through.
- Enjoy - carefully remove the ramekins from the steamer and let cool slightly. Enjoy the lasagna dumplings topped with chili crisp and desired toppings.
Big soup dumpling lasagna
Most of the dumpling lasagnas floating around out there are for individual sized dumplings in small ramekins or cocottes, but if you don’t have ramekins, you can make a giant dumpling lasagna. The only thing is, it’s a bit difficult to steam a large pan. If you can steam a large pan, I recommend it, but if you can’t, you can also bake your dumpling lasagna. For a big dumpling lasagna, layer all the ingredients in a casserole dish and top with 1 cup of chicken stock. Cover with foil and bake in a 350°F oven for 30 minutes, then remove the foil and check to see if the pork is cooked through. When cooked through, remove from the oven, top with dumpling sauce, chili crisp, and toasted sesame seeds. Scoop up and enjoy hot. Depending on the size of your casserole you may need to double up the ingredients. That’s it! I hope you enjoy this, I love both lasagna and dumplings so I had fun making and eating these guys. We had a chill, rainy winter lunch over lasagna dumplings and they really warmed me up, inside and out. Mike liked them too! xoxo stephTiktok Soup Dumpling Lasagna Recipe
Dumpling lasagna is an easy to make version of classic xiao long bao, but lasagna.
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 1 cup cabbage (finely chopped)
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 1 tbsp ginger (minced)
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
- 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp white pepper (or black pepper)
- 1 package fresh wonton wrappers
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
Lay out 3 ramekins or small heat proof bowls about 3.5" wide and 2" deep.
In a large bowl, mix together the ground pork, cabbage, green onions, ginger, soy sauce, Shaoxing wine (if using), toasted sesame oil, salt, and white pepper. If you don’t have white pepper, you can sub in black pepper.
Into the ramekins, add a 1 tbsp layer of the pork dumpling mix, then top with a wonton wrapper. Continue alternating pork and wonton wrappers until you almost reach the top, about 8 layers. Just after the final layer of pork mixture, add about 2.5 tbsp chicken stock to each of the ramekins.
Finish with a layer of 2 wonton wrappers.
Steam for 20 minutes or until the pork is cooked through.
Remove from the steamer, let cool slightly, and enjoy with desired toppings.
I Am... Tiktok Creamy Udon Noodles
You need to try this viral creamy tiktok udon: silken tofu blended into a creamy, thick sauce poured straight over hot udon noodles and saucy, spicy ground pork. I love udon. It truly is the best Japanese noodle: thick, chewy, and just begging to be covered in sauce and slurped up. I feel like udon is having a moment and I am so happy for it! Forget ramen or soba, udon is the most elite of all the noodles because it is so thick. You can use udon in almost any recipe but lately I’ve been seeing creamy mapo tofu udon making its way across the internet universe and of course I had to try it.
What is creamy TikTok udon?
Creamy TikTok udon is essentially deconstructed mapo tofu with udon noodles. The sauce is simply silken tofu blended into a creamy, thick sauce that’s poured straight over hot udon noodles and saucy, spicy ground pork. Everything gets mixed up and it’s creamy, saucy, spicy, super addictive and protein forward. If you’ve ever had Sichuan food, specifically mapo tofu, then you can probably imagine what these noodles taste like.Who created creamy TikTok udon?
As far as I can tell, the original idea for creamy mapo tofu udon was first posted by @audreyishome. Blending up silken tofu is a pretty common thing in Asian recipes and combining silky tofu sauce with mapo seasoned meat over udon noodles is a truly genius idea.Creamy TikTok udon ingredients
If you regularly cook Chinese food at home, you’ll probably have all of these ingredients in your panty. If you don’t, you’ll need to make a stop at your friendly local Asian grocery store to pick stuff up. Trust me, it’s worth it!- aromatics - starting off with some standards, we’ll need minced garlic and some thinly sliced green onions.
- doubanjiang - doubanjiang is a spicy fermented mix of soy and broad beans. It’s been called the soul of Sichuan cooking and it’s what will give your spicy pork a glorious red hue. When shopping, look for the Pixian (an area in China) variety if you can. It’s kind of like how, if you can, you want to buy champagne from the Champagne region in France. But, like champagne, if you can only find sparkling wine, don’t sweat it, the more commonly found Lee Kum Kee also sells a Cantonese style doubanjiang that they call chili bean sauce/toban djan. Read more about here.
- ground pork - ground pork because ground pork is what’s typically used for mapo tofu. Super simple to find and it cooks up quickly.
- silken tofu - silken tofu is the key to this recipe. It’s what gives the udon the creaminess and coats each noodle with goodness. Look in the fridge aisle for soft or silken tofu. It should be very soft and jiggly and will blend perfectly into a creamy sauce.
- udon - the best udon to use are those frozen bricks of sanuki udon that you’ll find in the freezer aisles at Asian grocery stores. They taste WAY better than those sad vacuum sealed packages of udon you usually see. Typically they’re shipped straight from Japan or Korea and are really easy to prepare because they’re fully cooked. All you need to do before eating is reheat them fully.
How to make creamy TikTok udon
- Fry - Heat up a bit of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat and sauté the minced garlic and sliced green onions. Add the doubanjiang and cook, stirring. Add the ground pork and cook, breaking up into small pieces. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the pork is cooked through. Deglaze the pan with a splash of water, then remove the pan from the heat and set aside.
- Blend - Blend the silken tofu with a pinch of salt, until completely smooth and creamy.
- Boil - Boil the frozen udon noodles until heated through, then drain well.
- Assemble - Add the drained udon noodles to a bowl and top with the spicy pork and creamy tofu sauce.
- Enjoy - finish off your bowl of noodles with any desired toppings (sliced green onions, crushed Sichuan peppercorns), mix well, and enjoy while hot!
Pro version
In the version that Audrey makes, she uses also adds in Shaoxing wine, black vinegar, Sichuan peppercorn powder, and extra chili powder to season the pork mix. If you have these ingredients or pick them up, you should definitely use them, but sometimes even one extra ingredient to buy tips you over to the “do not make” category and I don’t want these noodles to be hard to make, so I’ve left them out of this version of the recipe. If you want to add Shaoxing wine and black vinegar, add 2 tsp of each to the pork while you’re frying it up. Taste the pork, then sprinkle on a bit of chili powder and Sichuan peppercorn powder to taste before continuing with the rest of the recipe.And if you want some more udon inspiration, try these recipes:
- udon carbonara (pictured below)
- Japanese yakiudon
- Everything bagel udon
- Thai curry udon
- cacio e pepe udon
- spicy kimchi udon
Creamy Mapo Tofu Udon
Silky tofu sauce with mapo seasoned meat over udon noodles is a truly genius idea.
- 2 tsp neutral oil
- 2 cloves garlic (minced)
- 1 green onion (thinly sliced)
- 1 tbsp doubanjiang (spicy bean paste)
- 1/2 lb ground pork
- 2 tsp Shaoxing wine (optional)
- 2 tsp black vinegar (optional)
- 1/4 tsp sichuan peppercorns (ground, optional)
- 14 oz silken tofu ((1 package))
- 2 bricks frozen udon (sanuki preferred)
Take the tofu out of the fridge and set aside. Fill a large pot of water and bring it to a boil.
In a frying pan, heat up 2 tsp of oil over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and sliced green onions and fry slightly, while stirring, until soft, about 1 minute.
Add the doubanjiang and continue to fry, stirring, until the doubanjiang oils start to render.
Add the pork to the pan and season with salt and pepper. Cook the pork, breaking it up and cooking it throughly. Add the Shaoxing wine and black vinegar, if using. If not, add a splash of (1 tbsp) water to the pan to deglaze. Remove the pork from the heat and set aside.
Add the tofu to a blender with a pinch of salt and blend until completely smooth then set aside.
Add the frozen bricks of udon to the boiling water and heat through, according to the package directions. When hot, drain well, and divide into two bowls, then evenly divide the spicy pork between the two bowls.
Top with the creamy tofu sauce. Finish with sliced green onions if desired, mix well and enjoy hot!
I Am... Best Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
I am straight up obsessed with chocolate chip cookies. Chocolate chip cookie day is today, Aug 4. Is another quintessential cookie out there? I think I would even go as far as saying that in a game of MFK of chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin, I’d definitely M chocolate chip cookies, F oatmeal raisin, and K peanut butter. Chocolate chip cookies just that good. If I could only ever have one cookie for the rest of my life, it would be a brown butter chocolate chip cookie.
I really, really love chocolate chip cookies
There are over 10 chocolate chip cookie recipes on I am a Food Blog (some of them are slight variations, but all with chocolate chip cookie bases) and I think it’s safe to say that I have tested, made, and eaten a LOT of chocolate chip cookies in my life. I’m even on a never ending quest to find the best store bought chocolate chip cookie in the world. [caption id="attachment_30570" align="alignnone" width="1450"] Slab's famous Chocolate Chip Cookie[/caption] The thing is, every single time I think I’ve found the one cookie to rule them all, I can’t help but wonder if there’s something better out there. Damn, now that I think about it, I have cookie commitment issues. But, I think I’ve found it guys. I think this homemade cookie is absolutely the one. I know I’ve said it before, so don’t think of me as some sort of thirsty cookie lover because this time I’m sure of it. This is the cookie I want to commit to.Why these are the best chocolate chip cookies
The caramelization of the combination of the two sugars, the nuttiness of the browned butter, the immense amount of pools of melted chocolate…swoon. It has slightly crisp buttery edges with a hint of toffee and a soft, dense and chewy center barely held together because of all the chocolate. The tops are craggy with those ever instagramable ripples and it’s just the perfect balance between sweet and salty. This cookie makes my heart beat a little faster. Cue the heavy breathing. SO GOOD. The recipe is an amalgamation of all the cookies that have come before it. It stands of the shoulders of giants. In honor of all the cookies I’ve loved before, this is it: my best salted brown butter chocolate chip cookie recipe.For the best chocolate chip cookies, use brown butter
Browned butter in chocolate chip cookies is definitely a thing and I happen to like the little hint of hazelnut nuttiness it adds, but only if you brown the butter just enough. Plus, there’s the bonus of not having to wait for your butter to come to room temperature when you want cookies. Just make sure you keep an eye on the butter –you can definitely go too far and have blackish bits in your browned butter, which are a big no for me. I like to brown just to the point where there are little flecks of brown. Of course, when you brown butter, you lose moisture, so that moisture is added back in with an extra pat or two of butter after the butter is browned. The extra pat of butter helps cool down the butter too, which is awesome because you don’t want your cookie dough too warm which will cause them to spread.What is brown butter?
Brown butter, also known as beurre noisette (hazelnut butter in French), is an out of the world delicious concoction originally used in savory French foods but is now used everywhere butter is used. It’s deeply golden, flecked with brown bits, nutty, and incredibly aromatic. Brown butter is perfection. Browned butter brings so much flavor to baked goods for just a tiny bit of extra effort. It’ll add a nutty caramel roundness and highlight the brown sugar making these chocolate chip cookies taste caramelized, deep, rich, and intense.How to brown butter
Brown butter is made by melting unsalted butter over very low heat, allowing it to separate into butter fat and milk solids. The milk solids fall to the bottom of the pan where they start to brown until they reach the color of hazelnuts. Here’s a step by step!- Warm: start your butter, cut in in small pieces in a cold pan and warm it slowly so that it melts evenly.
- Sputter: once the butter has melted, it will start to bubble and foam as the water is cooked off and the fat left begins to sputter. The butter will still be yellow. Stir gently and turn down the heat if it starts to splatter too much.
- Foamy: the butter will foam and the foam will change from pale to very yellow as the water is cooked off and you’re left with the milk solids, which you should see floating near the bottom of the pan.
- Brown: the butter will start to look deeply yellow and start to become golden and brown. The milk solids will become even more visible and your place will smell amazingly toasty, nutty, and caramel-y.
- Remove: Once your brown butter is to your liking, take it off the heat and pour it out into a liquid measuring cup as the milk solids will continue to toast in the residual heat.
- Bonus step: for these cookies, we need to add the water content that cooked out of the butter. Check the measurement on the butter and add in small pieces of room-temp butter until you get 1/2 cup of liquid brown butter.
How to make brown butter chocolate chip cookies
- Whisk together the dry ingredients, making sure they are throughly incorporated.
- Brown the butter then add in extra butter to make up for any liquid lost.
- Whisk the browned butter together with the sugars until lump free then whisk in the egg. Stir in the vanilla and fold in the flour and chocolate.
- Shape the cookies using 3 tablespoons of dough, placing one 1.5 tablespoon cookie dough ball on another 1.5 tablespoon cookie dough ball. Chill the dough while you warm the oven.
- Bake the cookies until golden and just firm around the edges, giving the pan a firm bang on the countertop when you take them out of the oven.
- Eat ALL the cookies!
Why these chocolate chip cookies work
Aside from the brown butter, I’d say I have a moderate amount of flour (the amount of flour is what determines if you have a thin or thick cookie) to a very specific amount of brown vs. white sugar. The amount of brown sugar is 3 times the amount of the white. According to the wisdom of the internet, cookies with more brown sugar end up tall and moist, while cookies with more white sugar end up thin and crisp. It’s a science thing. My kind of cookie is on the thicker side but not obscenely thicc like a Levain cookie – that just takes it too far.What kind of chocolate for chocolate chip cookies
Of course you can’t talk about chocolate chip cookies without talking about the chocolate. Chopped chocolate is key to these cookies. No more chocolate chips: just say no! Buy a chunk of semi sweet dark chocolate (we routinely have a Callebaut 811 semisweet dark chocolate slab in the pantry) and chop it yourself. You want that mix of large chunks and thin chocolate shavings to distribute themselves through the cookies so you have barely there streaks of chocolate in the dough to give the cookie a more chocolatey flavor and large chunks to melt into giant gooey pools. Eight ounces seems like the perfect amount of chocolate. You might feel like there’s not enough dough to take all the chocolate, but trust me, there is.How to shape chocolate chip cookie dough so they bake up extra pretty
Lastly, how you shape your cookies before baking is essential to how they come out after baking. If you want a thick and craggy cookie with ripples (like Sarah Keiffer’s famous pan-banging cookies) shape your cookies into little logs/cookie ghosties. These won’t come out quite as ripple-y and ridge-y as the pan banging cookies which are a bit thinner and have you removing and banging the cookies as they bake, but they do have a pleasing ripple or two on the outer edges making them pretty. My favorite way of shaping the balls of dough is using my trusty 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop. I scoop out one ball of dough (with the dough flush to the scoop, so it’s flat bottomed), making sure to get a giant chocolate chunk in there, and place it on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Then I scoop out another ball of dough (again with a large chunk of chocolate) and then smoosh it on top of the other ball, flattening the bottom ball just the tiniest bit. They end up looking like ghosties with a slightly larger bottom and a tall top. When you bake the ghosties, the bottoms spread out slowly and it’ll look like they won’t spread out as large as you want them too, but give them time. The tops of the ghosties will melt down during the final few minutes of baking until everything is uniformly level. When you take the cookies out of the oven, they’ll still be a bit soft and puffy. This is when you bang them against the counter to deflate them a little bit and give them the rings. One or two bangs should do it, then you let the cookies cool on the baking sheet.Tips and tricks for the best brown butter chocolate chip cookies
- Take your egg out of the fridge as your very first step so it can come to room temp. If your egg is too cold it will shock the warm butter and harden it and make your cookies extra puffy and mound up. Room temp ingredients are key. If you want to speed it up a bit, place your egg in a bowl of warm-ish tap water.
- Salted vs unsalted butter. go for unsalted butter so you can control the salt content of your cookies with both salt in the batter and sprinkled on top.
- Chill your dough. Chilling your dough helps develop a deep caramel flavor and gives you crispy edges, chewy insides and crackly tops. The butter has a chance to re-solidify in the fridge, which makes your cookies plush and thick.
- Don’t over mix. If your cookies are extra puffy and don’t flatten out it might be that you over mixed them and whipped in too much air when you were whisking the butter, sugar, and egg.
Other recipes with the delicious nuttiness of brown butter
- snickerdoodles
- dark chocolate macadamia cookies
- toffee chocolate chip cookies
- brown butter brownies
- blueberry oat bars
- pumpkin cupcakes with brown butter frosting
Please make this cookie, I beg you
There you have it! My all time new favorite, salted browned butter chocolate chip cookies. Essentially this is a remake of my ultimate chocolate chip cookie: made sexier with some brown butter, extra (and better) chocolate, and a more pleasing modern cookie shape. Cheers to always improving! I implore you to try this recipe and let me know what you think. Am I crazy or is this cookie the one?Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
These chocolate chip cookies are butter-ly amazing!
- 1.5 cup all purpose flour (200g)
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup butter (plus 1-2 tbsp extra, divided)
- 3/4 cup brown sugar (150g)
- 1/4 cup sugar (50g)
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 2 cup chopped semi sweet dark chocolate (about 8oz)
- flaky sea salt (to finish)
Whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda in a bowl and set aside.
Brown 1/2 cup butter in a saucepan, swirling, until butter foams and starts to turn brown and smells nutty. Transfer butter to a liquid measuring cup and see how much water content you lost. You want to have 1/2 cup of butter, so stir in the remaining 1-2 tablespoons of butter if you need it – the butter you add in should melt slowly and not foam up.
When the butter is melted and slightly cool, whisk in both sugars until incorporated with no lumps. Whisk in the egg until smooth and glossy. Stir in the vanilla and use a rubber spatula to fold in the dry ingredients until no dry spots remain. Fold in the chocolate.
Use a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop and scoop out two balls of dough, so that each cookie is 3 tablespoons large. Smoosh the two balls on top of each other – they should kind of look like a log and you should get about 14-16 cookies depending on how big your chocolate chunks are. Place the logs on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, cover with plastic wrap and let chill in the fridge for 15-30 minutes, or as long as it takes for your oven to heat up.
Arrange the racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and heat to 375°F.
Space out the cookie logs (standing tall) on parchment paper lined rimmed baking sheets, leaving plenty of space in between. Bake, rotating and moving trays halfway if browning unevenly. Bake until golden brown and firm around the edges, 10-12 minutes.
Remove from the oven and bang the pan down against the counter top (this helps create a couple of ripples like you see on Instagram). Sprinkle with flaky sea salt, let cool on the baking sheets and enjoy!
I Am... Tini’s Mac and Cheese Recipe
Tini’s viral mac and cheese is an absolute dream and so rich and delicious. Three kinds of cheese and corkscrew pasta are a match made in heaven. If you’re a mac and cheese lover, this is the recipe you need try.
What is Tini’s mac and cheese?
Tini’s mac and cheese is a viral Tiktok with over 60 million views and counting. It’s viral in the way people wish their videos could go viral. Everybody and their aunt made her mac and cheese for Thanksgiving, so if you want to give it a try, I’ve detailed it for you below! It’s probably the best thing you can bring to a potluck or a cookout or a summer BBQ, for real, for real.Tini’s viral mac and cheese ingredients
- pasta - Tini uses corkscrews aka cavatappi (pictured above) aka the best pasta for mac and cheese because the sauce goes into the center of the tube and when you bite into it, you’re biting into pockets of cheesy creaminess. You can find corkscrews at most grocery stores or online.
- cheese - there are three kinds of cheese in Tini’s mac and cheese: mozzarella, colby jack, and sharp cheddar. Buy blocks of cheese and grate them yourself. After your shred all your cheese, mix them up and divide them into 2 equal portions.
- butter - you need butter to make a roux or white sauce, go for unsalted.
- flour - flour is the other ingredient in roux. The regular all purpose flour in your pantry is perfect.
- evaporated milk - one can of evaporated milk makes everything super creamy.
- heavy cream - using heavy cream instead of milk makes this mac and cheese even creamier and richer.
- seasonings - salt, pepper, garlic powder, smoked paprika. The garlic powder adds garlickiness and the smoked paprika adds a hint of smokiness in the background. Mix up all the seasonings together in a small bowl so it’s easy to add to the pan.
- Dijon mustard - most people don’t know this but almost all mac and cheese recipes contain some kind of mustard. Tini opts for Dijon, which cuts through the richness of the cheese and adds balance to the entire dish.
How to make Tini’s mac and cheese
- Cook the pasta: in a large pot of salted water, cook the pasta over high heat according to the package directions then drain well.
- Make a roux: melt 3 tablespoons of butter in large non stick pan. When it’s melted, add half of the seasoning and stir it around to release the aromatics. Stir in 3 tbsp flour and stir and cook until everything starts bubbling and the raw flour cooks.
- Add the evaporated milk: slowly stream in one can of evaporated milk and whisk immediately. It should start to thicken slightly.
- Add the heavy cream: stir in the heavy cream, whisking it in completely. Whisk in the remaining seasoning and 1 tbsp of Dijon. Let the sauce thicken slightly, whisking occasionally.
- Add the cheese: Add in 1/2 of the cheese, by the handful, whisking in and letting each handful melt before adding more cheese.
- Stir in the pasta: Stir in your cooked pasta making sure all the sauce coats every single noodle.
- Layer the mac and cheese: in an oven safe casserole dish, layer the pasta. Add 1/2 of the mac and cheese to the pan, spreading it out evenly. Then add 1/2 of your remaining shredded cheese. Add the rest of the mac and cheese and finish the top with the last of the shredded cheese.
- Bake: Pop the casserole into a preheated 350°F oven and bake for 25-30 minute or until the top melts and it’s golden and bubbly.
- Broil: Finish it off by broiling for 2 minutes so the mac and cheese gets a nice little crust.
- Enjoy! Add some sliced chives if you want (Tini does!), then scoop and enjoy!
Who is Tini?
Tini is a cook (she was also on Next Level Chef with Gordon Ramsey) with a popular Tiktok account with over 5.5 million followers.Mac and cheese tips and tricks
Shred your own cheese - Pre-shredded cheese usually has cellulose in it to make sure the shreds don’t clump and the cellulose makes your mac and cheese grainy. Layer - Just like lasagna, layering mac and cheese is a pro move. You get pockets of melty cheese and a crispy cheese top. Season - Don’t skip the garlic powder, smoked paprika, and mustard! They really add that extra bit of oomph and flavor that takes this mac and cheese over the top. Trust me, you don’t really taste any of the seasonings in particular, instead they just meld together into a really nice flavor note that makes you want to eat more and more.Make ahead mac and cheese
You can make this entire recipe ahead of time up until the point where you bake it. Cover it tightly and keep in the fridge for up to 3 days before baking. To bake it, cover it with foil and bake it for 30 minutes, remove the foil and continue to bake until the mac and cheese is heats through. Finish by broiling.Do you need to use corkscrews?
I've made this many times now and corkscrews are good but so are traditional macs, mini penne, and rotini. Really any pasta shape you love will be just as good because this mac and cheese is so decadent it won't matter, the pasta is just the vehicle to transport the gooey cheesy deliciousness.Is this too rich/complicated/expensive?
Try this luscious homemade scratch Velveeta mac and cheese as an easy to make alternative that will hit all right notes too. Or for a more refined take, try this Pumpkin Sage Mac and Cheese from our noodle cookbook. Happy mac and cheesing friends! xoxo stephTini’s Mac and Cheese
If you’re a mac and cheese lover, this is the recipe you need
- 1 lb pasta (corkscrew/cavatappi preferred)
- 1 lb mozzarella cheese
- 1 lb colby jack cheese
- 1/2 lb cheddar cheese (sharp preferred)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
- 3 tbsp all purpose flour
- 12 oz evaporated milk (~1 can)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 tbsp mustard (Dijon preferred)
Preheat your oven to 350°F. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Once at a rolling boil, add the pasta and cook it according to the package directions. When done, drain well.
While the water is coming to a boil and the pasta cooks, shred the cheese. Grate the cheese with the coarse side of a box grater. Once you finish grating, mix all the cheese together in a large bowl, then divide into two even portions and set aside.
Make the seasoning mix: in a small bowl, stir together the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and smoked paprika. Set it aside.
In a large pan, melt the butter over medium heat. When melted, add 1/2 of the seasoning mix. Stir, bringing out the aromatics. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly, until everything bubbles slightly and looks incorporated.
Slowly stream in the evaporated milk while whisking to ensure there are no lumps. Next, add the heavy cream, whisking constantly. Whisk in the Dijon and remaining seasoning mix. Let the sauce come to a simmer and thicken, giving it an occasional whisk.
Add HALF of the cheese. Turn the heat to low (or remove it from the heat if needed) and slowly melt in 1/2 of the cheese, handful by handful, making sure the cheese melts before adding more.
Stir in the drained pasta, making sure to coat all the noodles in sauce.
Grab your casserole dish and add 1/2 of the mac and cheese to the bottom of the dish, spreading evenly. Layer on 1/2 of the remaining cheese then the remaining mac and cheese.
Finish by evenly layering on the last of the shredded cheese.
Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until the top melts and bubbles. Broil for 2 minutes to give it a crispy crust, the remove, let sit for a bit so you don’t burn yourself, scoop and enjoy!
Serves about 10 as a side or 5-6 as a main dish.
I Am... 56 Last Minute Christmas Dinner Ideas
Did you wait too long to plan a Christmas/Holiday dinner? You don't have to resort to takeout or delivery, these recipes can all be done in a few hours and taste just as good as turkey.
