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New York Times
28-04-2025
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
17 Easy, Healthy Chicken Dinners That Are Anything but Boring
These recipes are light and nourishing and bring some weeknight dinner excitement to the table. Martha Rose Shulman's lemon and garlic chicken with cherry tomatoes. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Published April 28, 2025 Updated April 28, 2025 It's easy to hear the word 'chicken' around dinnertime and feel immediately bored. But what if, instead, we chose to see chicken in a more positive light? It's a nutritious main that can be transformed into thousands of healthy meals. Of course, healthy can look like different things to different people, but the recipes below are both light and nourishing, and prove that relying on an old standby doesn't have to mean meals that lack variety or excitement. Alex Lau for The New York Times Transform store-bought rotisserie chicken into something truly special with this Zainab Shah recipe. Smashing cucumbers, then salting them and letting them rest for 20 minutes, draws out their moisture, ensuring that they're crisp and well seasoned. This salad is even better after a couple days in the fridge, especially after soaking up the savory soy sauce, nutty sesame oil and spicy crushed red pepper. Recipe: Smashed Cucumber and Chicken Salad David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Store-bought sazón, a popular spice mix in Puerto Rico and throughout Latin America, can vary in flavor, but you can also make your own, with this recipe from Von Diaz. Use it as a marinade for chicken, and enjoy fragrant, well-seasoned breasts or thighs that can top salads or nutty grains like brown rice. Recipe: Sazón Chicken Breasts David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Here, Kay Chun makes use of the electric pressure cooker and boneless, skinless chicken thighs to speed up a normally long-simmering recipe. What emerges after a half an hour is tender, falling apart chicken in a creamy, savory rice porridge. Topping this with a fresh ginger and scallion sauce adds a fun zippiness. Recipe: Instant Pot Chicken Juk With Scallion Sauce Julia Gartland for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Lidey Heuck uses avocado, rather than mayonnaise, as the base of this creamy green goddess dressing, run through with scallions, capers and garlic. Mix the dressing with shredded rotisserie chicken or leftover chicken breasts. Recipe: Green Goddess Chicken Salad Sandwiches Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist; Hadas Smirnoff. Prop Stylist: Megan Hedgepeth. This Sam Sifton recipe means you can have shawarma at home — no rotisserie required. The chicken is marinated for as little as an hour, but if you're really thinking ahead, make it in the morning and let the chicken marinate while you're at work, then serve with plenty of condiments: tahini sauce, chopped cucumbers and olives, and plenty of fresh herbs. Recipe: Oven-Roasted Chicken Shawarma David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. This simple recipe from Christian Reynoso is a perfect way to celebrate warm weather. A spicy marinade of brown mustard seed, soy sauce, garlic and ginger penetrates the meat and imbues it with flavor. Then, that sauce takes on charred depth after it's fired on the grill. Serve this with seasonal grilled vegetables or a punchy salad. Recipe: Hot-Mustard Grilled Chicken Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. The secret to making breast meat as tender and flavorful as dark meat, you'll see in this Eric Kim recipe, is pineapple. Fresh pineapple contains a group of enzymes called bromelain, which can break down the fibrous tissues. Make sure you marinate the meat for just the recommended 15 minutes. Much longer, and the meat will take on a gluey texture. Recipe: Pineapple-Marinated Chicken Breasts Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Cyd Raftus McDowell. When you're looking for a childhood comfort — or feeding an actual child — but want something lighter, go for these air-fryer chicken tenders. Eleanore Park's recipe has you start with a simple base of panko, paprika, and salt and pepper for the breading, but experiment with adding whatever herbs and spices you like. Recipe: Air-Fryer Chicken Tenders James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. Yasmin Fahr's chicken thighs are tangy, spicy, creamy and sweet all at once thanks to honey, pickled jalapeño (both the brine and the pepper), and feta. Just make sure to cut the broccoli small, so it's ready at the same time as the chicken. Recipe: Spicy Honey Chicken With Broccoli James Ransom for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Nargisse Benkabbou takes a popular Moroccan street food, tayb o'hari, and turns it into a salad. Canned chickpeas are warmed in olive oil, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper, and served over greens and herbs. Use canned green chiles or even mix in green salsa or hot sauce to streamline the dressing. Recipe: Chickpea-Chicken Salad With Green Harissa Dressing Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. The countdown to tomato season starts as soon as the weather warms up, but you can pregame with this Martha Rose Shulman recipe, which makes use of readily available cherry tomatoes. They get jammy and saucy when you cook them, bursting over the chicken breasts. Recipe: Lemon and Garlic Chicken With Cherry Tomatoes Bryan Gardner for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. It's rare to find salads that can hold up after being dressed, but the celery in Sue Li's recipe stays satisfyingly crisp for a few days under the tahini and wasabi based dressing. Feel free to dial it up or down — and to tuck any leftovers into a sandwich for lunch. Recipe: Chicken and Celery Salad With Wasabi-Tahini Dressing Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Here's another one for grilling season (though it can also be made on the skillet or in the oven). A combination of tahini, honey and olive oil takes on a gorgeous caramelized flavor, thanks to the sugar in the honey. Round them out, as the recipe's creator Yasmin Fahr suggests, with a side salad or roasted vegetables. Recipe: Grilled Tahini-Honey Chicken Thighs David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. This Ali Slagle soup has enough tang to feel welcome even as the weather warms up. Boneless chicken thighs and greens get a bright punch from hot pickled peppers and their brine. Onion, tomato paste and cumin give the dish rich savoriness. Recipe: Quick-Braised Chicken With Greens Nico Schinco for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Barrett Washburne. In this Alexa Weibel recipe, two big-league ingredients — punchy kimchi and sweet-savory hoisin sauce — team up beautifully to lend flavor to simple ground chicken, rice and lettuce. The kimchi has two jobs, getting cooked with the chicken and then serving as a garnish, while the hoisin sauce tames the tang and spice. Recipe: Kimchi Chicken Lettuce Wraps Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Susan Spungen. The coconut broth in Ali Slagle's recipe takes its cues from Thai tom kha gai and adds gingery chicken meatballs, which can be made in the pot. Many commenters suggest instead using a sheet pan so you don't have to work in batches to brown them or worry about oil splatter. Lots of spinach tossed in at the end lends a vibrant green color. Recipe: Thai-Inspired Chicken Meatball Soup Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Chris Lanier. Prop Stylist: Carla Gonzalez-Hart. This Yewande Komolafe dish proves that if you use powerful ingredients, you can get away with a short grocery list. Here, gochujang lends not just spice, but umami. Again, you can substitute whichever vegetables are seasonal or currently lingering in your refrigerator. Recipe: Sheet-Pan Gochujang Chicken and Roasted Vegetables Follow New York Times Cooking on Instagram , Facebook , YouTube , TikTok and Pinterest . Get regular updates from New York Times Cooking, with recipe suggestions, cooking tips and shopping advice .
New York Times
31-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
How to Plan and Cook Thanksgiving
Everything you need to know to plan your holiday menu, prepare the food and serve it all with style. Kim Severson's dry-brined turkey. Ryan Liebe for The New York Times Published March 31, 2025 Updated March 31, 2025 [This article was originally published on Nov. 10, 2015.] From turkey to the trimmings, Sam Sifton, Melissa Clark, Julia Moskin, Eric Asimov and the editors of New York Times Cooking tell you everything you need to know to plan your Thanksgiving menu, prepare the food and serve it all with style and grace. First things first: Who will be at your table, and what are you going to eat? Here are some suggestions on how to build a successful Thanksgiving plan, whether this is your first holiday as the cook or your 10th. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Planning a really good menu is the stealth approach to being a really good cook. What leaves an impression is not only the dishes you can make, but also how they taste, look and feel when assembled into a meal. Avoid repeating ingredients. If you are serving pecan pie for dessert, don't put out spiced pecans as an hors d'oeuvre. Both may be fabulously delicious, but the pie just won't be as appealing by the time dessert rolls around. Consider variety, especially as those at the table may have different tastes, allergies and aversions. If there are vegetarians and vegans present, you can and must plan for them, too. If you're unsure how to start, think about colors. Thanksgiving is heavy on dishes that are white (mashed potatoes, creamed onions) and brown (turkey, stuffing, gravy) dishes. It needs the ruby red of cranberry sauce, the warm orange of pumpkin pie and sweet potatoes, to make it interesting. Add something green and snappy. Next, think about texture. If you already have a creamy vegetable side dish, add one that's roasted or caramelized. Finally, throw in a surprising flavor. Be truly daring and add a seriously spicy dish like our fiery sweet potatoes. Pickles and relishes like piccalilli or chutney add a puckery note. If you're hosting a small group this year, you get to make a much more interesting meal. Since you don't have to cook in bulk, try out recipes that are a little more creative than classic. Have a guest bring the mashed potatoes, so you can make a sweet potato gratin instead. Buy some puff pastry and play around with it to make cheese straws, baked brie puffs or a simple, showstopping tart. Roast a turkey breast and use the extra oven space to bake a dressing that's new to you. (If you already have a signature dressing, make both — having two is a Thanksgiving dream.) Take the opportunity to fuss over the table and the guests a little more than usual. Get out the linen napkins, polish the candlesticks, dust off the ramekins and serve individual stuffing cups or chocolate lava cakes to each guest. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. If you're a novice, stick to the essentials: turkey, dressing, a cranberry sauce, potatoes, gravy and a vegetable of some kind. To tamp down any anxiety about multitasking, think of yourself as making a simple roast chicken dinner with a couple of extra sides. There is no need to bake a pie. Ask someone to bring one, or buy a good one the day before the feast. (If you feel the need to make one, though, ask a guest to bring a side dish of some sort, working with them fairly closely to make sure that it fits into your overall menu.) The inexperienced cook should consider the casserole. Thanksgiving dinner can feel like a high-stakes race. In this sprint, the casserole is your greatest friend. It does not have to include cream soup or canned vegetables. It does not have to be layered or topped with a crust. It can be messy in the pan and still look and taste great on the plate. Just think of a casserole as a roasting pan where almost anything can be assembled and even cooked well in advance, then left in the refrigerator until you remember its existence about an hour before Thanksgiving dinner. Starchy vegetable purées (celery root, carrot, potatoes, squash) work especially well, but almost any baked or braised side dish can fit this model: mashed potatoes with plenty of butter and sour cream; red cabbage with apples, which can be braised in the oven instead of on the stove, then refrigerated; cubed squash with fresh rosemary and garlic (pictured above), which keep their pungency. Just leave plenty of time to reheat the casseroles at 400 degrees before the meal. Many casseroles (except very dense ones like mashed potatoes) can go into the oven when the turkey comes out. Remove them from the fridge first thing Thanksgiving morning so they are not completely chilled. Seasoned cooks should pick a dish or two each year that will stretch their skills. The payoffs in terms of flavor and self-satisfaction are worth their weight in gold. The highest-impact change you can make to Thanksgiving dinner may be mastering a new recipe for turkey. But because smoking, spatchcocking and deep-frying all require at least one test run, and many cooks are already busy from now until Thanksgiving, here are some alternatives: a more sophisticated vegetable side, a fancier pie crust or a snappy modern touch like an herb salad. It's fun to mess around with mashed potatoes, if your family will allow it. You can pipe them into puffs that can be baked at the last minute. Top them with whipped cream and broil to make pommes Chantilly, or make patties and pan-fry to make garlic-potato cakes, crisp rounds that taste like supersized Tater Tots. Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. It is possible for one cook to satisfy both Thanksgiving traditionalists and progressives, but it requires some ingenuity. Adding new ingredients to the old favorites is not the way; instead, add one or more new dishes to perennials on the table, and make sure they have modern, fresh flavors. Here's how to proceed. Some things should not be messed with. Glazing a turkey with pomegranate or rubbing it with chipotle won't change anyone's mind; people either like turkey or they don't. Adding celery root, Cheddar and the like to the classic mashed potatoes is risky. These days, plain, buttery, homemade mashed potatoes are a treat that everyone seems to look forward to at the holiday. Make sure there's a creamed vegetable on the table. It doesn't have to be onions. Also have a jellied cranberry sauce (canned is fine), so the reactionaries will be happy. For the neophiles, add a sprightly green vegetable, whether raw, roasted or blanched. A little salad of fresh herbs, pictured above, is very refreshing, but broccoli, string beans or spinach can also nestle in nicely on the table. Prowl for recipes that use ingredients from different culinary traditions: Asian condiments, Moroccan spices, Middle Eastern syrups. These can add a welcome note of surprise to an all-too-familiar menu. To jump-start your planning, make a good shopping list, the most critical tool for the forward-looking cook. Some items on the Thanksgiving shopping list are obvious: turkey, cranberries, sweet potatoes. (About that turkey: Buy one pound per person, or a pound and a half per person if you'd like to have leftovers.) But there are several other ingredients that will prove invaluable to have on hand. Buy them early if you can. Running out to the supermarket the night before Thanksgiving is the last thing any cook, novice or experienced, will want to do. Butter, lots of it. Choose European-style high-fat butter for pie crusts, and regular unsalted butter for everything else. Stock. If you haven't made your own, look for homemade stock at the same butcher shop where you buy your turkey, or in the freezer section of your supermarket. The canned and boxed stuff should be a last resort. Buy at least three or four quarts. You'll need it not only for gravy and deglazing your roasting pan; it's also good to have on hand for braising vegetables. Make sure to get some good vegetarian stock for anyone who isn't eating meat. Leftover stock freezes perfectly. Fresh herbs. Not only do they add freshness and flavor across your Thanksgiving table, but they're also pretty, lending a touch of green to a meal heavy on earth tones. Choose soft herbs (parsley, dill, basil, mint) for garnish, and sturdy, branchy herbs (thyme, rosemary, bay leaves) to throw into your roasting pans, stocks and gravies. Garlic, onions, leeks, fresh ginger, shallots. An assortment of aromatics keeps your cooking lively and interesting. You'll need them for the stuffing, for stock and gravy, and for many side dishes. Grated fresh ginger and sautéed shallots are a nice and unexpected addition to cranberry sauce; simply stir them in with the berries while simmering. And you can perk up plain mashed potatoes by folding in sautéed garlic and leeks with the butter. Fresh citrus. Lemon, lime and orange juice and zest contribute brightness to countless Thanksgiving dishes, from the turkey to the gravy to the cranberry sauce to the whipped cream for pie. Nuts. These go a long way to give crunch to otherwise texturally boring dishes. (Ahem, sweet potato casserole.) Keep a variety on hand to throw into salads and side dishes, or simply to offer before the meal begins. They can also help bulk out your meatless offerings. White wine/vermouth/beer. Even if you're not drinking any of these spirits before or during the meal, they can be splashed into gravy or vegetable dishes, or used to deglaze the turkey roasting pan. (Bourbon and brandy work well as deglazers, too.) Fresh spices. If you can't remember when you bought your spices, now is a good time to replace them. Light brown sugar, molasses, maple syrup. These sweeteners are more profoundly flavored than white sugar, and they have an autumnal richness. Try using them to sweeten whipped cream, your coffee-based beverages and pies. Heavy cream, sour cream, crème fraîche, ice cream. You'll need these for topping pies and cakes. A pint of good sorbet. Just in case you end up with a gluten-intolerant or vegan guest you didn't expect. Coconut sorbet is particularly creamy and lush, but any flavor works well. When you're cooking Thanksgiving dinner, it is wise to prepare as much in advance as you can. Many of the dishes on the menu lend themselves to advance work — casseroles, cranberry sauce, gravy — and desserts can be ideal candidates too. Christopher Simpson for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Granted, most cooks agree that for best results, the turkey, mashed potatoes and stuffing must be started from scratch on the day itself. Even for these outliers, though, some tasks can be done beforehand to ease the last-minute work. (And aside from stock, avoid freezing Thanksgiving side dishes; it damages their texture.) Your first cooking task is making stock. Turkey stock is great, but chicken will do. You're going to need a lot of it: for gravy, for warming the sliced turkey, for refreshing dressings, for deglazing pans. Stock freezes exceptionally well. Free the turkey from its packaging and plastic a day or two in advance, and use a simple dry brine so it can go straight into the roasting pan on Thanksgiving morning. Mashed potatoes, like any cooked potatoes, don't usually refrigerate well. But they will if you mix them with chives, butter, and sour cream and bake them like a casserole (as in the video above). You will hear no complaints, though the texture will be smooth and dense, not fluffy. Most stuffings and dressings can be assembled in advance. If your stuffing is moist enough, it can even be cooked in advance and reheated like any other casserole without compromising flavor. Cover tightly when reheating, and add tablespoons of stock as needed to keep the dish soft and fragrant. (Drier stuffings and dressings should not be cooked in advance; they will dry out even more during reheating.) You can make traditional cranberry sauce up to a week ahead. Cover it well and store it in the fridge. Don't be tempted to freeze cranberry sauce; the structure will break down, and you could lose the gelling. Raw cranberry sauce or relish can be made a day or two ahead. (Here's everything you need to know to make cranberry sauce.) Julia Moskin makes a rich gravy that can be prepared well before Thanksgiving Day. By Julia Moskin Make vinaigrette and wash salad greens, if you're serving salad, up to three days ahead. Wash the greens and dry them well, then wrap them loosely in paper towels, place in a plastic bag and put them in the crisper. If you're serving butternut squash, peel, seed and cube it. You can also peel and cut up carrots, rutabaga and beets, and separate cauliflower florets. Johnny Miller for The New York Times The key to making desserts in advance is to seek out recipes that benefit from being made ahead, dishes that taste as good or better a few days later as they do on the day they were made. Chocolate cakes and tortes hold up well. So do cheesecakes, flans, puddings, ice cream, parfaits, mousses and sticky gingerbread cakes. A general rule of thumb is that if your dessert needs thorough chilling before you serve it, it can probably sit for a day or two in the freezer or refrigerator. Generally speaking, denser, heavier cakes hold up better than lighter, fluffier ones. (The latter are prone to dry out.) Frosting, fondant or any kind of syrupy glaze acts as a preservative, keeping the cake fresher longer. The one traditional Thanksgiving dessert that will suffer if made more than 24 hours ahead is pie. But you can make the dough up to a month ahead and store it in the freezer, or store it in the refrigerator for up to three days. You can find more information on baking pies in advance in our Pie F.A.Q. section, or take a look at our guide to making pie crust. For a group with many dietary restrictions, don't assume that means having to cook separate meals. Nor must you match the usual feast, dish for dish, with special substitutions. What you want to do is bring unity to the table and offer as many dishes as possible that everyone can eat and — this is crucial — enjoy. Christopher Testani for The New York Times For vegetarians or vegans at the feast, optics can send a powerful message. If you're not going to have a turkey on the table, or if the turkey on the table is just for those guests who have not yet seen the light of a plant-based Thanksgiving feast, take care to serve a main dish that has some of the visual and sensory firepower of a giant roast. Something demonstrably large and in charge, like a mushroom Wellington, or a whole roasted cauliflower or two, or a platter of stuffed squash. Dressing is an easy way to provide visual appeal and flavor to the Thanksgiving menu. You can make a version with meat, and one with no meat. We also have an excellent gluten-free dressing made with wild rice, cranberries and sausage, and another that's entirely vegan. Melissa Clark's recipe for stuffing with mushrooms and bacon can be adapted to use gluten-free cornbread. (If you leave out the bacon and use vegetable stock, that stuffing recipe can also be vegetarian.) Whatever you do, try to avoid any truly arcane ingredients, or foods you're uncomfortable cooking with. Some cooks just don't want to use tempeh, textured vegetable protein or xanthan gum, and that's O.K. Pretty much everyone can eat roasted autumn vegetables with garlic and herbs, and will be pleased to do so. And chances are that that vegan gravy recipe with nutritional yeast, mushroom powder and Marmite added isn't half as good as a simple version you can easily make yourself. The turkey is the unquestioned star of the Thanksgiving meal, and it can be the most daunting part as well. Do not fear: we have all you need to know about cooking one here. (And for even more information, check out our turkey guide.) There are many ways to prepare a turkey, says Melissa Clark, but none of them will make a better bird than if you rub it down with salt and put it in the oven. By Jenny Woodward What's a simple method for roasting a turkey? You don't need to brine, stuff, truss or baste a turkey to get delicious results. Try this recipe for starters. How much turkey should I buy? Buy one pound per person, or a pound and a half per person if you'd like to make sure you have leftovers. If you're ordering your turkey from a butcher or farmer, you'll need to do so a few weeks in advance. How long does it take to thaw a frozen turkey? Allow one day for every four pounds of turkey (i.e. a 12-pound turkey will need three days to defrost). Thaw your turkey in the fridge and make sure to put it in a bowl or on a platter because it may drip. It will defrost faster if you remove the neck and giblets from the cavity as soon as possible. (You may need to defrost it for at least a day first before you can do so.) Can you safely defrost a turkey at room temperature? A large turkey should not be defrosted at room temperature. Thorough cooking would kill microbes, but not necessarily all the toxins they may have produced. And the skin may start to go rancid. How long does raw turkey keep? According to the Agriculture Department, fresh turkey can be kept in the refrigerator for up to two days. A frozen turkey will last for up to a year if kept frozen continuously. Should I brine my turkey? Whether you brine your turkey is a matter of personal preference. Brining advocates say that brining guards against dryness and overcooking. Detractors argue that it is a messy and inconvenient way to ensure moist and evenly seasoned meat (you need to store the turkey in the liquid overnight and keep it cool); a dry rub, sometimes called a dry brine, is less messy and also produces moist meat. (Here's a great recipe for dry-brined turkey.) Where can I safely store a turkey while it brines? Your best bet is to take everything out of the refrigerator and store the turkey in there. That way you can be sure the temperature will be low enough. You could also store the turkey in a cooler, but you have to worry about keeping the temperature below 40 degrees. If you do use a cooler, make sure it is well packed with ice or ice packs. Should I truss my turkey? If you do not stuff your turkey, you do not need to truss it. Allowing untrussed wings and legs to have hot air circulating around them helps them cook faster, so the white and dark meat will all be done at the same time. If you do stuff your bird, trussing helps keep the stuffing in its proper place and it makes for a neater presentation. Is it dangerous to cook the stuffing inside the turkey? The Agriculture Department and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend cooking stuffing separately from the turkey. The concern is that cold or frozen stuffing, sometimes sold already stuffed into packaged birds, won't reach a high enough temperature to be eaten safely. To be safe, take its temperature; like the turkey, it must reach 165 degrees. Do I need a roasting rack to roast a turkey? A rack allows the heat of the oven to circulate around the turkey; also, if the turkey is resting on the bottom of the roasting pan, the skin there will be flabby and moist. You don't need a specially designed rack for your roasting pan, but you need something to lift the bird above the bottom of the pan. Balls of aluminum foil work perfectly well; you can also use upside-down ramekins. Do I need to rinse off the turkey before I start cooking it? You don't need to rinse your turkey. Any bacteria that's on it will be cooked off in the oven. Should I baste the turkey? Not for the first hour. You want the heat of the oven to do its work tightening the skin of the turkey and helping to seal in the juices that will run at the breast. Afterward you can baste on the half hour, using the fat and liquid in the bottom of the roasting pan to burnish the skin and, some say, to help keep the entire bird juicy within. How will I know when the turkey is done? Take its temperature. A digital thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh should read 165 degrees. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. How do I cook a turkey in a convection oven? Convection ovens are equipped with a fan that circulates the heated air within the cooking chamber, and using one generally means roasting your turkey at a lower temperature, for less time, than in a conventional oven. It is not an exact science, but the general rule of thumb is to decrease the oven temperature called for by the recipe by 25 degrees, and to lower the cooking time by roughly 10 or 20 percent. Use a rack and a shallow roasting pan, so that the skin of the bird has maximum exposure to the heated air. And don't worry about turning and basting the bird. With a convection oven, the result is generally a moist bird with a crisp and crackling skin. The other Thanksgiving dish that seems to cause home cooks anxiety is pie, though there is no reason to fear it. Here are some frequently asked questions about the final flourish to the feast. (And don't fear the pie crust: Here's a guide to help you through.) Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Can I make pies in advance? You can make the dough up to three days ahead and refrigerate, or up to one month ahead and freeze. (If frozen, thaw it in the refrigerator overnight.) You can make pumpkin pie and pecan pie fillings up to five days ahead, but don't mix in the pecans until just before baking. Store in the fridge. You can roll out the crust and line your pie plate a day before baking it. Cover lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate. You can also blind bake your crust a day ahead. Just leave it on the counter and cover it with a clean dish towel once it has cooled. (One idea: Bake the crusts and make the fillings the day before, then assemble and bake the pies before the turkey goes into the oven on Thanksgiving morning.) You can freeze a whole, unbaked fruit or pumpkin pie for up to a month. Or you can fully bake pies the day before Thanksgiving, though they will be considerably less ethereal when you serve them. Store them at room temperature, not in the fridge. Do frozen pies need to defrost before they are baked? Bake them while they are still frozen, adding about 15 minutes onto the baking time. Do not thaw it first or you could lose flakiness in the crust. Why does my pie crust crumble when I roll it out? You're probably not adding enough water. The dough needs to be moist enough to roll out without cracking. Try adding a little more water the next time you make the dough. Start with a few drops at a time, and when the dough no longer feels crumbly, stop there. If I don't have pie weights, what else can I use to blind bake the crust? For those who haven't heard the term before, blind baking is when you pre-bake a pie crust before the filling is added; you simply line the raw crust with foil or parchment, then fill it with weights and bake. If you don't have pie weights, use dried beans. If you don't have those, the most effective weight to use is another pie dish. And if you don't have another pie dish, cover the crust and rim with aluminum foil and fill with popcorn kernels, or uncooked rice or tiny pasta (messier than dried beans, but equally effective). How can I keep my pie crust from shrinking when it's baked? Try freezing the crust for 20 minutes before baking. This helps a lot, and it also helps the crimped crust hold its shape. How do I use lard in my pie crust? Lard makes a slightly flakier pie crust that's a little easier to handle than an all-butter dough. You can substitute lard for other fats in your favorite pie crust recipe, or use our version, which combines butter for a rich flavor and lard for its incomparable texture. Lard varies in flavor depending upon how it's rendered. Sometimes it's completely flavorless, and sometimes it has a slight porky funk to it, which can be part of its appeal. Its mild savoriness goes well with pecan and pumpkin pies, and the gorgeous, airy texture makes apple pies seem lighter. Make sure to seek out rendered leaf lard from a good butcher or specialty market, or try your farmers' market. Avoid processed lard from the supermarket; it has been hydrogenated to increase shelf life and can have an off or mildly rancid flavor, not to mention the dangers of hydrogenated fat to your arterial health. Your meal is almost ready — all you have to do now is get everything to the table while it's still hot. Here's how to do it, and how to set that table too. The Times's Florence Fabricant gives etiquette advice for entertaining on Thanksgiving. By Taige Jensen Forks on the left, knives on the right, and everything else you need to set a beautiful table and make your Thanksgiving guests comfortable. The Times's Florence Fabricant talks you through it all in the video above. Thanksgiving requires you to serve many dishes at the same time, and a pressing concern is how to keep them all hot. Food need not be piping hot, particularly when the table is large, but it should never be cold. Here are some tricks for keeping everything warm. Heat plates and platters before putting food on them. Stack them in a low-temperature oven for a few minutes, or on a shelf above the stove if you have one. Some dishwashers have a plate-warming function. In a pinch, run hot water from the sink over them to heat, then towel them dry. Keep a quantity of hot turkey stock going on the stove. Use a ladleful of it to refresh and reheat sliced turkey on a warmed platter before sending it out to the table. You can do the same with dressing. Put that slow cooker to work. There is no better ersatz chafing dish for mashed vegetables or dressing. Set it on 'warm' and forget it. By The New York Times Cooking Eric Asimov, our wine critic, offers guidance on what to open for your feast. Tony Cenicola/The New York Times Thanksgiving hosts must obey two important rules in providing wine. First, do not run out! It's a feast of plenty, and the wine should reflect the same spirit of generosity and gratitude. A good rule of thumb is one bottle per drinking guest. It may sound like a lot, and you may well have leftovers. But too much wine is just fine. Not enough is not an option. The second rule is one of courtesy: Provide both reds and whites. Otherwise, wine is the easiest chore you will have. All will go well, because it almost always does. But certain characteristics in the wines you select can help to enhance the meal. Here are some tips for choosing wines and serving them. And you need not serve wine, of course — cider and beer are good alternatives. With a meal this large and varied, painstakingly matching specific wines to particular foods is virtually impossible. So don't sweat it. Instead, look for limber, versatile wines that will go with many different flavors. By that, I mean you want fresh and lively rather than heavy, tannic and oaky. Wines with generous acidity will be more refreshing than low-acid wines, which tend toward flat and enervating. Over the years The Times has recommended a wide variety of whites and reds: bottles from the Loire Valley, cru Beaujolais, California red field-blends, Oregon pinot noir and pinot gris, dry, earthy Lambruscos, Muscadet and Chablis, reds and whites from Mt. Etna in Sicily, Spanish reds from Ribeira Sacra, Finger Lakes rieslings and syrahs from the northern Rhône and California. But these aren't the only wines that will work. Don't hesitate to seek guidance at your local wine shop. That, by the way, is an excellent piece of general advice: cultivate the merchants at the best wine shop nearby. Avoid high-alcohol wines at a long and tiring feast. It's best not to serve wines that are above 14.5 percent for Thanksgiving. Such powerful wines are no problem if you are just having a glass or two, but I like to drink more than that, so I want wines that won't be fatiguing. For me, wines ranging from 12 to 13.5 percent are ideal. Moderately sweet wines like German kabinett and spätlese rieslings can be wonderful Thanksgiving accompaniments, and they may be as low as 8 percent alcohol. Add wine glasses to the list of things not to worry about. If you have enough stemware, go ahead and use it. But if you don't, juice glasses, tumblers or whatever will do just fine. Glass beats plastic every time. Better for the wine, better for the environment. But if you must use disposable vessels, do not use cheap plastic stems. They will fall apart, the wine will spill, things will be stained, and you will be unhappy. If compelled to go disposable, steer clear of the stems. Serving temperature is worth controlling if possible. Whites should be cold, but not icy. Reds should be cool rather than room temperature. If refrigerator space is precious, you can store the wines outdoors, assuming its cool enough. No outdoor space? Perhaps an ice chest? Are there good alternatives to wine? Of course. Cider, in both its hard and non-alcoholic guises, is a natural, seasonal and historic. The United States is making some great dry ciders these days. Beer, too, is fine, though, as with red and white wines I would provide some choices, say a crisp pilsner and a dark porter, or a pale ale and a stout. As with wine, so, too, with cider and beer. Don't run out.
New York Times
28-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
How to Roast Chicken: Our Ultimate Guide
Let Melissa Clark show how to make a stunning, burnished bird every single time. The brilliance of this recipe lies in the mingling of butter, caramelized chicken juices, licorice-y tarragon and a heady dash of Cognac. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Published March 28, 2025 Updated March 28, 2025 Few dishes are as beloved as a golden roast chicken. It's hard to go wrong with the basic method, but there are some recipes that rise above the rest, yielding a delicious bird that is crisp-skinned and tender-fleshed without any more work. Here's our guide to get you there. You'll need a pan in which to roast the chicken. A roasting pan with a rack is nice, particularly one with upright handles, which is easy to move around in the oven. But a rimmed sheet pan or ovenproof skillet (like cast-iron) works just as well. Kitchen shears are very useful for trimming excess fat from the chicken's cavity. They also come in handy if you want to spatchcock the chicken. If you can, leave at least one hour for the seasoned chicken to rest in the refrigerator, uncovered , before it's time to cook. Longer is even better, up to 24 hours. The result is noticeably crispier skin. An instant-read thermometer isn't the only way to determine whether your chicken is done, but it is the most accurate way. It's worth buying one. There is no consensus on the best way to prep a chicken for roasting; it's all a matter of personal preference and tried-and-true experience. But here are some suggestions for where to start. Try each, then pick your go-to method. And note that there's nothing wrong with leaving the bird as is, salting it and just putting it in the oven. Remove the backbone from a whole chicken for speedier cooking. By Susan Edgerley Spatchcocking, also known as butterflying, is an extremely simple move that delivers a gorgeously cooked chicken with crisp skin, and it does so quickly — usually in less than 45 minutes. To spatchcock a chicken, take a pair of kitchen shears or a very sharp knife and cut along one side of the chicken's backbone. Open up the bird so it lies flat. Cut along the other side of the backbone to remove it entirely. Then cook the chicken breast-side up. The only disadvantage to this method is that you'll lose the classic Norman Rockwell presentation of the whole bird. But the speediness and great flavor make up for it. Tip: Don't toss that backbone! A roasted backbone will add more flavor to stock than using a raw backbone. Roast it alongside the chicken, and either serve with the bird (delicious to gnaw on), or save for stock. (You could also just leave the backbone attached, rather than removing it from the bird altogether. Cut along the backbone on only one side of the bird, then open the chicken and roast as is. This doesn't affect cooking time and saves you some knife work.) Learn how to splay a chicken By SAMUEL SIFTON Splaying yields a chicken with succulent white meat and perfectly roasted dark meat. The thighs, usually the slowest part of the bird to cook through, get a head start by being positioned directly on the burning hot pan. And the technique is quicker and easier than spatchcocking. To splay the chicken, use a sharp knife to cut the skin along the thigh on each side, where the legs connect to the body. Then splay the thighs open until you feel the joint pop on each side. Spread out the thighs out so they can lie flat in a preheated skillet. Truss chicken and other poultry to help prevent the meat from drying out. By SAMUEL SIFTON Some people like the nice, compact shape of a trussed chicken and argue that it helps keep the white meat moist. If you want to try it, the classic method is demonstrated in the video above. For a shortcut trussing method, simply tie the chicken's legs together at the ankles with one piece of twine, and then use another piece of twine to tie the wings to the breast. If you're planning to stuff your chicken, you may want to truss it in the traditional style. Or you can get away with just tying the legs together to keep the stuffing mix from falling out. Seasoning the chicken ahead of time is a good idea, so the flavors penetrate the flesh all the way to the bone. This is true whether you're rubbing the bird with salt, spices and aromatics — a dry brine — or using a more traditional wet brine. Then add other flavors if you like, stuffing the cavity with aromatics (like lemon or herbs) or rubbing the skin with fat (like oil or butter), or both. Dry brine is a combination of salt and spices or aromatics (or both) that you use to season a chicken. It's easier than submerging a chicken in a traditional wet brine, and produces a more crisp-skinned bird. And like a wet brine, a dry brine will yield a tender, juicy result. For a dry brine, it's best to season your bird at least 1 hour ahead and let it rest, uncovered, in the fridge (keeping it uncovered dries out the skin, which encourages crispness). But if you have time, up to 24 hours in the fridge is even better. The general rule is 2 teaspoons kosher salt for a 3 ½ to 4 ½ pound bird. Add pepper, grated garlic, grated lemon or other citrus zest, herbs and spices to taste. And don't forget to rub the seasonings all over the cavity of the bird in addition to the exterior. That said, though we generally recommend a dry brine, there are some times when you will want to use a wet brine, which is a basic salt-and-aromatic solution in which you submerge the chicken. For example, you can use flavorful brine to add a specific character to its flesh, as in our feta-brined chicken or a buttermilk-brined bird. For the crispiest skin, pat the chicken dry with paper towels after brining. Then place it on a rack set over a plate or baking sheet, uncovered, and let it rest in the fridge for least 2 hours and up to 24 hours before roasting. This will allow the skin to dry out a bit. Another way to add flavor to chicken is via its cavity, stuffing it with whole sprigs of herbs, smashed and peeled garlic cloves, quartered onions, halved and squeezed-out lemon, and the like. Do so just before roasting. The aromatics will permeate the flesh of the whole chicken while it cooks. However, some cooks say it compromises the crispness of the skin, so bear that in mind. Although you don't need to add any fat to a roast chicken, a drizzle of oil or slick of butter before roasting can help brown the skin. Or, stuff the skin with compound butter, made with herbs or whatever else you'd like. Use your fingers to gently pull the skin from the breast, loosening it just enough to smear butter between the meat and the skin. Take care not to tear the skin. Another way to add both fat and flavor at the same time is to drizzle the bird with olive oil, or a combination of olive oil and lemon juice during the last 20 minutes of roasting. You can spike this with the likes of grated or mashed garlic, fresh ginger, red chile flakes or powder, dried oregano, thyme or mint. (Don't use fresh herbs here; they will burn.) Glazing a chicken adds flavor, a rich dark color, and shine to the skin. The key is to use a mixture that combines some kind of sugar with an intense condiment or seasoning. The sugar adds a caramelized brown color and shine, while the condiment adds flavor and mitigates the sweetness. Some possible combinations include honey, lemon and soy sauce; maple syrup, hot sauce, and black pepper; brown sugar, lime juice and mustard; hoisin and rice vinegar. Mix and match as you see fit. To glaze the bird, brush on the sweet mixture during the last 10 to 20 minutes of cooking, and watch it carefully so it doesn't burn. If the glaze starts to burn before the bird is done, simply cover it with foil to finish the cooking. A note for crisp-chicken-skin fanatics: glazing a bird moistens the skin, making it shiny and flavorful, but less crisp. It's time to put the bird in the oven. Here is what you need to know about the pan, temperature and timing. A roasting pan with a rack allows air to circulate under the bird and helps brown the skin all over. Plus, you can add potatoes and other vegetables to the pan under the bird, which will catch the flavorful drippings. If you have a roasting pan but no rack, use vegetables (carrots, celery, sliced onion) to prop the chicken off the pan. Or place the chicken directly in the pan, where it will roast up perfectly well, though parts of the skin may stick to the bottom of the pan. You can also use a rimmed sheet pan to roast a chicken, either with a rack or without one. A sheet pan has the advantage of lower sides, which lets more of the chicken skin crisp. Or try roasting in an ovenproof skillet, cast-iron or otherwise. If you preheat the skillet (either in the oven or on the stovetop) and lay the bird into the hot pan, the dark meat will get a head start while the white meat cooks more slowly. This gives you a very evenly cooked bird. But you can also roast in a skillet without any preheating, in which case it acts as a roasting pan, but smaller and more compact. (One great thing about roasting a chicken in a skillet is that it makes it super easy to make a quick pan sauce. Just deglaze with wine or water, and whisk in some butter or cream or crème fraîche and simmer until thickened.) You can successfully roast a chicken at pretty much any oven temperature, though timing and results will vary. Go low and slow for a very tender, falling-off-the-bone flesh and softer skin (say, 300 to 350 degrees for 1 ½ to 2 hours or so). Or roast it fast and furiously for less time for crisp, dark brown skin and firmer, chewier flesh (375 to 500 degrees for 45 minutes to 1 ½ hours). The safest and easiest way to check for doneness is to use an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh. (Take care not to touch the bone with the thermometer.) It should read 165 degrees. If you don't have a thermometer, use a paring knife to make a small cut into the thigh going all the way to the bone. If you see any red flesh, put the bird back into the oven. You can also pierce the thigh with a knife to see if the juices are running clear, which indicates that it's cooked through. But this tends to be less reliable than cutting to the bone. Here's a method for carving the chicken so that everyone gets a little skin along with their meat. If you have the wherewithal, heat up a platter for serving. The easiest way is take it hot out of the dishwasher, or run it under very hot tap water for a few minutes, then dry. Placing the just-carved meat on a heated serving platter is the most elegant way to go. Transfer the roasted chicken to a cutting board, tent it with foil, and let it rest for 5 to 15 minutes. Begin carving by removing the legs. Pull a thigh away from the chicken and then cut it off by slicing through the joint. If you want, you can pull down on the thigh until the joint pops before you cut; this makes it even easier to cut through (you'll be able to see exactly where to position the knife). Once the legs are off, cut through the joints that connect the drumsticks to the thighs. The joint will be soft and not offer much resistance to the knife. If you're having trouble locating it, move the knife around a bit, wiggling it slightly until you find it. Next, cut the wings off by pulling down the wings and cutting down through the joints. You can use the same popping maneuver as with the thigh if you like to make the cutting easier. Now remove the breasts. Slice along the breast bone on one side, going as deep as you can with the tip of the knife so that it hits the cartilage. Cut around the breast meat so that it comes off the bones of the rib cage, then cut through the skin attaching it at the back. Be careful not to rip the skin. Repeat on the other side. If you'd like, you can slice the breasts crosswise, across the grain, into pieces. Finally, turn the chicken over and find the 'oysters,' the small, succulent knobs of meat next to the back bone behind where the thighs used to be. Use the tip of your knife to pry them out. You can also slice off the tail if you like. Ryan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui. Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Christopher Testani for The New York Times Melissa Clark's salt-and-pepper roast chicken. Andrew Scrivani for The New York Times Alexa Weibel's hot sauce roast chicken. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Guide to Making Bagels
From proofing and shaping to boiling and baking, let Claire Saffitz show you the ins and outs of this breakfast favorite. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Published March 27, 2025 Updated March 27, 2025 [This article was originally published on Jan. 13, 2021.] It's immensely satisfying when you realize that a commonly bought item is easily prepared at home. Take bagels, for instance. This guide will explain how to make them, from mixing to forming, boiling to baking. The result is a traditionally chewy, crusty bagel that's far fresher and tastier than those puffy dough rings from your average store. This recipe yields a dozen, and you'll want to reserve an afternoon and the next morning to complete the process, making it an ideal weekend project. Just — please — don't add raisins. 2¼ cups/530 milliliters lukewarm water (105 to 110 degrees) 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup (available in health food stores and some well-stocked supermarkets; an equal volume of molasses is a passable substitute, but won't impart the traditional malty flavor) 1 (¼-ounce) packet active dry yeast (about 2¼ teaspoons) 6½ cups/885 grams bread flour (or use 6 cups bread flour and ½ cup whole-wheat flour), plus more for kneading Tip: For the crustiest, chewiest bagels, use bread flour. However, you can still achieve good results with all-purpose flour. Just try to use a brand with a relatively high protein content. Swapping in ½ cup of whole-wheat flour for ½ cup of the bread flour will make the bagels slightly less chewy but will also give them a boost of flavor. 2 tablespoons/17 grams Diamond Crystal kosher salt or 1 tablespoon/17 grams Morton kosher salt Tip: When measured by volume, Morton salt packs more densely than Diamond, making it about twice as salty. For consistent measurements across brands, either weigh it with a scale, or use half the volume of Morton. Neutral oil , for greasing the baking sheets 1 teaspoon baking soda ¼ cup/60 milliliters barley malt syrup , plus more as needed 2 ounces/30 grams each sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, dried minced garlic, dried minced onion and/or flaky salt (optional) Scale (optional but recommended), a small bowl, a large mixing bowl, flexible spatula or wooden spoon, bench scraper, two large rimmed baking sheets, parchment paper, plastic wrap, a spider or slotted spoon, tea towel, a large Dutch oven, several separate large plates (if topping bagels), wire rack and a serrated knife. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero 1. Pour ½ cup/120 milliliters lukewarm water into a small bowl. Whisk in 2 tablespoons barley malt syrup and the packet of yeast until both dissolve. Let sit until the mixture foams, about 5 minutes. 2. In a large bowl, combine bread flour and salt (and whole-wheat flour, if using), and make a well in the center. Pour in yeast mixture and the remaining 1¾ cups/420 milliliters lukewarm water, and mix, using the flexible spatula or wooden spoon, until the dough is shaggy. 3. Knead the mixture in the bowl several times, continuously folding it over and onto itself and pressing down firmly to bring it together in a solid mass, then turn it out onto a clean work surface. Continue kneading until there are no dry spots, then, adding more flour only if needed to prevent stubborn sticking, until you have a stiff but very smooth dough that is still slightly tacky, 15 to 20 minutes. Tip: This amount of kneading, necessary to develop the gluten for a chewy bagel, is best done by hand, since the motor of the average stand mixer would strain against the very stiff dough. 4. Gather the dough into a ball, dust it lightly with flour, and place it in a large, clean bowl, seam-side down. Cover with a damp towel and let the dough rise at room temperature until it has doubled in size, 1½ to 2 hours. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero 5. Using your fist, lightly punch down the dough to knock out some of the air, and turn it out onto a clean work surface. Using a bench scraper, cut the dough into 12 equal pieces, either eyeballing it or using a scale to weigh out 4⅓-ounce/125-gram pieces. If you prefer a slightly smaller bagel, which is more traditional, you could make a baker's dozen (13) and weigh out 4-ounce portions. Why? This will help all your bagels rise more evenly in the oven and look better overall. 6. Before you form the bagels, preshape the pieces into tight balls. Working one ball at a time, gather all the irregular edges and pinch them together firmly to make a teardrop shape (above). Place the dough seam-side down on the surface and cup your hand down and over top of the dough in a loose grip (like a claw, or like you're playing the piano). Move your hand in a rapid circular motion, dragging the dough across the surface until it has a high, tight dome. Repeat with all the pieces, then cover them with the damp towel and let rest for 5 minutes. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero 7. Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper, brush lightly with oil, and set aside. Working one piece at a time, roll out a ball on the surface beneath your palms into a 9-inch-long rope. Apply extra pressure at the ends of the rope to thin them slightly, then wrap the rope around one hand where your palm and fingers meet, overlapping the ends by an inch or two along the inside of your hand (above). Tip: Don't add flour to your work surface. The friction with the surface will help stretch the dough. 8. Roll the dough under your hand back and forth several times to seal together the ends, then slip the ring of dough off your hand and stretch it to even out the thickness all the way around until you have a ring that measures about 4 inches across (above). As you form each ring, place it on a parchment-lined sheet, arranging six to a sheet and spacing evenly. Tip: You can also poke a thumb through the ball of dough to make the hole and then widen and stretch with your hands into a ring, but the wrapping and rolling method tends to give more of a classic bagel look. 9. When you've formed all the bagels, cover each baking sheet with a piece of plastic, followed by a damp towel to create a sealed, moist environment for the bagels to proof slowly. Transfer the baking sheets to the refrigerator and chill at least 4 hours and up to 24. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero 10. About 2 hours before you'd like to serve the bagels, arrange an oven rack in the center position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Fill a large, wide Dutch oven halfway with water and place it on the stove. (Heat should be off at this point.) Set a wire rack next to the Dutch oven. If topping the bagels, spread several tablespoons each of sesame seeds, poppy seeds, caraway seeds, dried minced garlic, dried minced onion and flaky salt on separate large plates in generous, even layers. Set the plates of toppings next to the wire rack. Tip: Mix together all the toppings to make an 'everything' blend. 11. Remove one baking sheet from the refrigerator. Fill a small bowl with room temperature water, then carefully peel one ring of dough off the parchment paper and transfer it to the bowl. It should float, indicating that the bagels are ready to boil and bake. Remove the ring from the water, pat it dry on a towel and place back on the baking sheet. Remove the other baking sheet from the refrigerator. Tip: The dough sank? That's OK! Let both sheets sit at room temperature, covered, to finish rising, and test if the dough floats every 10 minutes after the first 30 minutes or so. 12. Set the Dutch oven over high heat and bring to a boil. Whisk in the baking soda and ¼ cup barley malt syrup. You want the water to look like strong black tea, so add more barley malt syrup by the tablespoon until it does. Bring everything back to a boil, reduce the heat if necessary to maintain a gentle boil, and skim any foam from the surface. Uncover one baking sheet and carefully transfer as many bagels as will comfortably fit in one layer to the Dutch oven, leaving some room for them to bob around. Boil for 1 minute, turning halfway through. Tip: If the ¼ cup barley malt syrup made the liquid very dark, more like black coffee, add a little water to dilute. 13. Use a spider or slotted spoon to transfer the bagels to the wire rack and repeat with the remaining bagels on the first sheet. The bagels will swell in the water, then deflate when removed, but they will puff up again in the oven. Discard the piece of parchment that was underneath the bagels but reserve the baking sheet. David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Maggie Ruggiero 14. Add the optional topping: Working with one at a time, place a boiled bagel on one of the plates with the toppings and turn to coat so the topping adheres to the wet surface of the dough on both sides. Place the coated bagels on the empty baking sheet, flat-side down, and repeat with the remaining boiled bagels, spacing evenly. 15. Transfer the baking sheet to the oven and bake until the bagels are deeply brown, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the baking sheet 180 degrees after 12 minutes. 16. While the first sheet of bagels is in the oven, repeat the boiling and coating process with the second sheet, adding more toppings to the plates as needed. Transfer the second sheet to the oven when the first is finished. Let the bagels cool completely on a wire rack before slicing with a serrated knife. Tip: Bagels are best eaten the day they're baked, but they also freeze well. Place the bagels in a resealable plastic freezer bag and freeze up to one month.
New York Times
27-03-2025
- General
- New York Times
Our Ultimate Guide to Cooking Gravy
From making a great stock to perfecting the roux, Melissa Clark will walk you through the basics. David Malosh for The New York Times Published March 27, 2025 Updated March 27, 2025 [This article was originally published in November 2015.] Good gravy is more than just a sauce for the turkey. It brings all the elements of the Thanksgiving plate together, elevating mashed potatoes, stuffing and turkey to their transcendent ideals. You can use the classic method for making gravy, whisking it together at the last minute using the turkey pan drippings, or you can make the gravy ahead, then spike it later with the flavorful drippings. And visit our Ultimate Guide to Thanksgiving for more ideas and advice. It helps to have a fat separator , which looks like a measuring cup with a spout. It lets you easily pour off the gravy and leave behind excess fat. You can use a wooden spoon to make gravy, but you risk lumps. A whisk makes things smoother. For the silkiest gravy, or for added insurance against lumps, strain your gravy before serving. Have a sieve on hand. Drippings from brined and kosher turkeys may be too salty to use in gravy, particularly classic pan gravy. (If you add them to make-ahead gravy, do so slowly, tasting as you go.) Drippings from dry-brined turkeys work in any gravy. Whether you're making classic last-minute gravy or our make-ahead recipe, remember that great gravy can come only from great stock. It's absolutely worth the time to make your own turkey or chicken stock from scratch, but there are tricks to fortifying store-bought stock, too. Evan Sung for The New York Times To make your own stock, you first need poultry bones, either cooked or raw or a combination. Some of the bones should have meat on them, but most can be picked clean. I save my roast chicken carcasses in the freezer until stock-making day, and augment them with fresh chicken or turkey wings picked up at the supermarket. Two or three pounds of bones is plenty, but even a pound will give you enough stock to make gravy. If you've got turkey giblets from your bird (heart, gizzard, neck, anything but the liver), throw them into the pot with the bones and a big pinch of salt. Add some vegetables and aromatics: a carrot, a leafy celery stalk, an onion and/or leek, a few cloves of peeled garlic, a bay leaf and/or some parsley stems, and a teaspoon of peppercorns. Pour in enough water to cover all the solids by at least 2 inches. Then bring it up to a very gentle simmer and let it bubble for a couple of hours. I don't bother skimming, but it won't hurt if you do. Strain everything, pressing down on the solids, and chill for up to three days, or freeze for up to six months. If you want to make a more intensely flavored stock, try this recipe by the chef Suzanne Goin, which calls for roasting the bones and the vegetables before they are combined with white wine and a red chile and simmered on the stove. If making your own is out of the question, you can come pretty close with a good-quality poultry stock bought either from a butcher shop or specialty shop (preferably one made in-house). You'll often find stocks in the freezer case. If the supermarket is your only option, the rule for canned stock, or stock sold in Tetra Paks, is to taste before using. If it's terrible, you're better off with a bouillon cube and water, which is a low bar but marginally better than water. As a last-minute fix for weak stock, simmer it with the turkey giblets for an hour or two. That will fortify it. How to Make a Gravy Roux By Emily Weinstein Roux, a cooked mixture of equal parts flour and fat, like butter, oil or pan drippings, is what thickens a gravy. Here's what you need to know. A roux is made with equal parts fat and flour. If you're making classic pan gravy, you'll use the fat in the roasting pan. If you're making gravy ahead of time, use butter, melting it in a medium pan over medium heat. Either way, sprinkle in an equal amount of flour. (If you're using butter, the ratio is ½ cup flour to one stick of butter.) Gently whisk the fat and flour together for at least 5 minutes, long enough for the raw taste of the flour to disappear. Keep cooking, whisking all the while, until the roux has reached your desired color. A white or light roux, in which the flour is cooked briefly, will give you a mild mixture that lets the flavor of the poultry dominate. It's also the most effective thickener. A dark, mahogany-colored roux adds an intense caramelized flavor to the gravy, but sometimes at the expense of turkey flavor. Or strike a balance and cook the roux until medium brown, which will give you a nuttiness that still allows the poultry character shine. Sam Sifton makes a classic Thanksgiving gravy with white wine and stock. By SAMUEL SIFTON Julia Moskin makes a rich gravy that can be prepared well before Thanksgiving Day. By Julia Moskin
