Category: Recipes by Ingredient + Prep

Recipes by Ingredient

Crispy Roast Chicken

I was intrigued with this roast chicken recipe from Tasty because the 450°F oven temperature was pretty high. Their goal was to make the skin crispy. I’ve always preferred a slow-cook and would always baste the chicken and flavor the inside with aromatics; I suppose those steps never really gave me crispy skin, but I’ve always thought it was just the way it was.

How can you have crispy skin and still a juicy meat? I can now tell you that this is how.

To catch all the chicken juice, I opted for sweet potatoes. I peeled them and sliced them in large rounds. I threw in half a red onion and leftover chopped celery just because they’re all I had left in the fridge. I was skeptical about how the potatoes would get cooked without extra seasoning, but I held off on adding any extras–the chicken juice was actually enough to cook and season the potatoes!

If you’re using other heartier root vegetables, feel free to return them to the oven if they still need a few minutes of roasting; a little olive oil and more seasoning probably won’t hurt either.

Ingredients:
1 whole air-chilled chicken
salt, pepper
some vegetables for roasting

1. A day ahead of roasting your chicken, dry it thoroughly with paper towels, including inside the cavity. Season well and rub all over with salt and pepper, including inside the cavity. Using a toothpick, pierce the chicken all over. Place on a baking dish and put in the fridge, uncovered, for at least 8 hours.
2. The day of roasting your chicken, take the chicken out of the fridge and let it sit in room temperature for at least an hour. Truss your chicken with butcher’s twine. Place the chicken on a rack–breast side down–where the baking pan is lined with chopped vegetables so that they can catch the chicken juice while roasting.
3. Preheat the oven at 450°F. Roast chicken for an hour. Your chicken is done when the thickest part of the leg registers at 165°F with a food thermometer. Remove from the oven and let the chicken rest for another 20 minutes.

Instant Pot: Thai Chicken Red Curry

Feel free to add cooked noodles to this dish before serving; no earlier though because the noodles will absorb all the broth.

Ingredients:
4 cups chicken broth
1 14-ounce coconut milk
1/4 cup soy sauce
a jigger of fish sauce
2 tbsps honey
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
1/4 cup Thai red curry paste
2 pieces of boneless and skinless chicken breasts
8 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1 inch fresh ginger, grated
1 clove garlic, minced or grated
juice of 1 lime
a handful fresh baby spinach
a handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
chopped peanuts
toasted sesame oil

1. Combine the chicken broth, coconut milk, soy sauce, fish sauce, honey, peanut butter, and curry paste in the Instant Pot. Add the chicken, cremini mushrooms, red peppers, ginger, and garlic.
2. Cover and lock the lid properly. Select the Pressure Cook function for 15 minutes. When it’s done, do a quick release after venting and letting the steam out.
3. Remove the chicken and shred meat with a fork. Add shredded chicken back in and set the Instant Pot to sauté. Stir in the lime juice, spinach, and cilantro until warm.
4. Ladle the soup into bowls and sprinkle with peanuts and toasted sesame oil.

Soy-Braised Beef Short Ribs

I rarely watch food and travel shows because I dislike how I feel after—like I haven’t been anywhere at all, or eaten anything good ever. With the exceptions of the earlier Anthony Bourdain shows and David Chang’s Asian experience peppered in Ugly Delicious, most shows have the same formula and get boring after a while.

I liked Samin Nosrat’s book Salt, Fat, Acid, and Heat and so I was at least curious as to how it would be translated by Netflix. The “Fat” episode was a good pilot for me because I immediately got her style. I love when she tastes something and her honest reaction is shown. I felt like I would react the same way if I was in her position. By the time I was done with the “Salt” episode, all I wanted was to travel back to Japan and cook this soy-braised ribs recipe.

I altered her recipe to suit my timing and didn’t add the leftover marinade as part of the braising juice that you see in her original version. I simply added more dashi halfway through so as not to burn the meat while helping them cook through with all the steam.

Every time I braised meats, it almost always involves tomatoes and red wine–it’s my go-to method when the weather is colder outside. I was intrigued by this dish because it used neither of them, and the result is a much cleaner and subtler flavor, yet packed with all that umami.

Ingredients:
3 lbs beef short ribs on the bone, 2-3 inches thick
salt
canola oil
¼ cup soy sauce
¼ cup dark brown sugar
¼ cup mirin
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
4 garlic cloves, finely grated
¼ tsp cayenne
About 2 cups dashi broth made from
kombu
a handful of cilantro, finely chopped
2 scallions, chopped

1. The morning you want to serve the ribs, salt them and let them sit in room temperature for 30 minutes, lightly covered. Keep in mind that the marinade consists mostly of soy sauce, which is salty, so use only about half as much salt as you otherwise would.
2. In the meantime, whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar, mirin, sesame oil, ginger, garlic, and cayenne. Place the meat in a large bowl and pour in the marinade. I let them marinate until 4 hours before dinner time.
3. When ready to cook, preheat oven to 400°F.
4. Using a heated cast-iron skillet, add just enough oil to coat the bottom. Working in batches so as not to crowd pan, brown a few short ribs at a time on all three meaty sides, about 3-5 minutes per side.
5. Transfer the ribs, bone-side down, to a large Dutch oven, snug but in one layer. Add enough dashi to go about half an inch up the sides of the ribs, then cover with lid. Slide into the oven and cook until the liquid simmers, about 30 minutes, then reduce heat to 325°F and cook until meat is very tender and falling off the bone, 3 to 4 hours more. Check halfway to add more dashi if it’s drying up.
6. Serve warm with rice, garnished with cilantro and slivered scallions, and with blanched haricot verts and quick-pickled Persian cucumbers.

Beef Sesame Stir-Fry with Broccoli and Snap Peas

Post-yoga quick stir-fry dinner because I am so, so tired and sleepy.

Ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 pound chuck or rib steak, thinly sliced against the grain
1 small knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
red pepper flakes
1 head broccoli, cut into small florets
a couple of handfuls of snap peas
1 carrot, shaved into ribbons
3 scallions, roughly chopped
sesame oil
salt, pepper

1. Heat some oil in a large wok until hot. Add the beef, ginger, some black pepper and red pepper flakes, and cook until crisp on the outside but still pink inside, about 2 minutes. Season with salt, and remove to a plate.
2. Add some more oil to the wok again until hot. Add the broccoli and snap peas, and cook, tossing until crisp-tender, 2 minutes. Add 1/4 cup water and steam the broccoli and snap peas until bright green and some of the liquid has evaporated, 2 minutes more.
3. Add back the beef, ginger, carrots and soy sauce mixture to the pan, and toss over medium heat until coated and thickened a little, about 1 to 2 minutes. Sprinkle with scallions, and drizzle with sesame oil, if using. Toss to coat and serve warm with rice or noodles.

Shanghainese Sticky Pork Belly Recipe

What do you feed a boy who just biked 108 miles with an elevation gain of 6,421 feet?

Ingredients:
2 pounds pork belly, skin on, in a single piece
2 tbsps vegetable oil
2 tbsps brown sugar
1/2 inch knob ginger, peeled and finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, finely sliced
2 scallions, white part only, finely sliced
2 star anise pods
1 cinnamon stick
3 tbsps Shaoxing wine
1/4 cup light soy sauce
Steamed rice for serving

1. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil over high heat. Add pork belly and cook for 5 minutes. Remove to drain and allow to cool slightly. Slice belly into 1-inch cubes.
2. Wipe off the same sauce pan and heat the oil over medium heat. Add brown sugar and stir until mixture begins to caramelize, about 1 minute.
3. Increase heat to high. Add ginger and garlic, and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add star anise and cinnamon stick and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Add pork cubes, stirring until the meat is well-coated in caramel. Add soy sauce and Shaoxing wine and stir to combine.
4. Add enough water to cover the pork and bring it to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer uncovered for 2 hours, stirring occasionally until sauce has thickened and is dark brown and glossy. If liquid begins to dry out, add enough water and continue simmering until sauce is sticky.
5. Serve pork on top of rice, sprinkle with scallions, and top with remaining sticky sauce.