Latest news with #KayChun
New York Times
5 days ago
- Lifestyle
- New York Times
For a Better Stir-Fry, Velvet Your Chicken
I'll be honest — I am stubbornly Team Thighs 'n' Legs when it comes to chicken. But I do appreciate that there are applications where white meat is the better choice. I like to use chicken breasts (preferably with skin and breastbone) as the base for a chicken soup, or poached for cold salads. And while I'd normally reach for boneless, skinless thighs for stir-fries, the technique that Kevin Pang uses for his new butter-soy chicken and asparagus stir-fry has caught my eye. The technique, you might guess, is velveting. Velveting — a two-step process that involves marinating the meat in a cornstarch mixture and then blanching it in either oil or water — keeps the chicken breast slices from drying out and helps the soy-butter sauce cling better. I'll make this dish with asparagus while it's in season, and then switch to green beans or snap peas. Kevin doesn't add anything spicy to his stir-fry, but I wouldn't say no to some spoonfuls of — all together now — chile crisp. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Speaking of soy sauce and chile crisp: We recently published this very handy guide to which condiments belong in the fridge and which are plenty happy in your pantry. It's both informative and good for settling arguments. Here's the tl;dr version: Sesame salmon bowls: This Kay Chun one-pot recipe, inspired by chirashi, combines vinegared rice with just-cooked salmon, crunchy vegetables and a soy vinaigrette. If you have any furikake, I'd sprinkle some on the rice before assembling your bowl. Pasta with green bean ragù: From the wizard who brought us gochujang buttered noodles and a glorious pasta al pomodoro comes this rich, stick-to-your-bones pasta that still feels summery. Eric Kim, always. Easy chickpea salad: Any recipe that includes za'atar gets my attention (and yes, I am fully committed to this za'atar and labneh spaghetti). Kristina Felix's potluck-perfect dish includes cucumbers, red onion, tomato, lemon, fresh herbs and that lovely, sumac-y spice mix. Pistachio halvah Rice Krispies treats: I mean, the name kind of says it all, doesn't it? A delightful recipe adapted by Lisa Donovan from Shilpa and Miro Uskokovic, who opened Hani's Bakery and Café in Manhattan in 2024.
New York Times
28-05-2025
- Health
- New York Times
A Clever One-Pot Salmon Dinner to Make Again and Again
Recipe development may be an art, but it takes a whole lot of science to get there — especially if you're looking for convenience, too. One-pan recipes are engineering conundrums: How do you use a single vessel to get a mix of ingredients with unlike cooking times on the table simultaneously and delectably? The math, the chemistry and the thermodynamics all have to come together. For the cook, a one-pan recipe should be adaptable, instinctive and consistent. To create one takes brain work, creativity and a dollop of moxie. Making full use of her background in food science, Yasmin Fahr crunches the numbers and nails the taste, as you can see for yourself in her ingenious one-pot miso-turmeric salmon with coconut rice. She builds the dish from the bottom of the pot up, starting by cooking the coconut rice, and next layering on spinach leaves, which act as a steamer basket to gently cook the fish. Finally, just before serving, a squeeze of lime brightens the whole thing. Once you've mastered the recipe's structure you can retool it however you want, swapping in chard, kale or lettuce for the spinach and other fish or tofu for the salmon. It's a marvel of engineering, one you can enjoy for dinner this very night. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Vegetable yakisoba: More one-pot brilliance can be found in Kay Chun's vegetable-packed Japanese noodle stir-fry, which has a glossy Worcestershire-ketchup-oyster sauce that's tangy-sweet and deeply complex. Easy chicken tacos: Boldly seasoned with hot sauce, onion powder and lime, boneless, skinless chicken thighs cook quickly and succulently in this 30-minute recipe by Kristina Felix. Piled into warm tortillas along with minced onion, cilantro and guacamole, this chicken makes for a weeknight recipe with panache for miles. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
23-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
Tajín Grilled Chicken and Beer Brats; Pickle Lemonade and Ranch Water
Good morning. Welcome to Memorial Day weekend and, for those visiting coastal communities for it, the first really bad traffic of the year. Breathe deep! I'll be grilling. I love Rick Martínez's recipe for Tajín grilled chicken (above), glossy and red, with a chile kick that's complemented by a zip of lime. Serve with grilled scallions, loads of cilantro and warm tortillas, and welcome the holiday in style. (Those without grills can roast the chicken in a hot oven. If you're doing that on a sheet pan, do yourself the favor of lining it with foil.) Featured Recipe View Recipe → I also love Kay Chun's grilled tofu, which is best made early in the day so it has loads of time to marinate in the sauce. And Alison Roman's sweet and salty grilled pork with citrus and herbs. (Once again, those without grills can prepare either recipe in a hot oven or on the stovetop in a cast-iron skillet.) I know there'll be some hot dogs, too, to top and condiment to excess, and a nod to brat summer, and plenty of hot slaw. Have some pickle lemonade on hand to wash it all down, some ranch water, perhaps a Greenport Shuffle or two. You don't want anyone thirsty amid all this food. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
26-02-2025
- General
- New York Times
Eggless Versions of Eggful Recipes
It's a tough time for egg lovers. With avian flu limiting supplies in supermarkets all over the country, chicken egg prices are rising to luxury food levels — how soon till they show up on tasting menus as 'chicken caviar?' And that's if you can even find them. Some store shelves are bare, a sad situation for ovivores that could continue for a while. But we here at New York Times Cooking are all about solutions. Genevieve Ko has created a terrific guide to egg substitutes to get you through egg-based projects like baking. And in today's email I'm focusing on eggless versions of traditionally eggful recipes. Most meatball recipes call for eggs to bind the ground meat. Yet Kay Chun skips them entirely in her tender chicken miso meatballs. Her dish calls for a mash of crumbled Ritz crackers moistened with milk and spiked with garlic and miso, which helps the ground chicken keep its shape beautifully and bake up into golden, flavorful morsels. Kay suggests serving these with a quick dipping sauce of soy mixed with vinegar and some chopped scallions. I like to add a little grated ginger, too, for an added kick. Featured Recipe View Recipe → Sarah DiGregorio replaces runny eggs with seafood in her shrimp in purgatory. A clever take on an Italian classic, it's perfect for when you're craving a spicy, garlicky, tomato-filled dish that can be pulled together in under half an hour. Filled with roasted red peppers and capers, Sarah's version of the 'purgatory' sauce is an especially tangy contrast next to the sweetness of the shrimp. Serve it with toasted bread for a speedy dinner or a heavenly, egg-free breakfast. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
30-01-2025
- General
- New York Times
A Pasta Cheat Code for Speed-Run Dinners
As January ends and those 'cook more' resolutions start to waver, I've been thinking about my own roadblocks to cooking. Besides the obvious ones — I'm tired, I need to get groceries, I'm tired — one barrier is setting the bar too high. My dinner, I'll tell myself, must be resourceful and clever, perfectly cooked and photogenic, healthful, colorful, flavorful, wonderful. And it must tick all these boxes or it doesn't count; don't even try otherwise. This is an impossibly completionist tack for a single meal. So I'm thinking instead that just making yourself dinner is goal achieved, level cleared. Anything extra you've done is a cool bonus. Did you use up that last bit of yogurt? Here's a handful of gold coins. Did you work in some good-for-you something? That's a smiley flower! And if you made dinner and your loved ones loved it and want to eat it again, cue up this music. That being said — and keeping with this retro video game metaphor — it is useful to have some cheat codes. My current favorite is beans + greens + pasta, and I've been riffing on Lidey Heuck's five-star recipe for pasta with spicy sausage, broccoli rabe and chickpeas a lot lately. If I don't have sausage I'll just leave it out (maybe adding a bit more oil to account for the sausage's rendered fat), and I've been using kale instead of broccoli rabe because that's what my grocery store has. Sometimes I'll add a little harissa or the rest of that can of tomato paste in Step 3. That's a nice thing about Making Dinner: There's no one way to win the game. Featured Recipe View Recipe → As I'm sure you've noticed, it's Dumpling Week, and today's magnificent morsel is brought to you by Kay Chun. Her beef dumplings with zucchini, tofu and chives are tender, juicy and contain a little surprise: pine nuts, which add a hit of buttery flavor and a soft crunch. These dumplings are, as the voice-over in Street Fighter might declare, a total K.O. You can watch Kay make her dumplings here. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
