15 Recipes To Perfect While You're Hibernating At Home This January
January, being Peak Hibernation Season and all, is one of my favorite times to dust off the ol' stand-mixer and really get into some cooking and baking "projects." Especially after the wilderness that is the holiday season, I've found it's the best time to spend the better part of a day hands deep in flour, trying to tackle new-to-me recipes (or perfect old reliables). Chances are, you've also been meaning to brush up on your French omelet-making skills or want to actually make your own fresh pasta on the regular. Well, I'm here to tell you you don't even need to have a culinary degree (far from it) to master any of these recipes, all you need to do is clear your schedule (or bust these out on your next snow day)!
No risk, no reward is certainly the motto of many of these recipes, but for a good reason! The reward is delicious. A bubbling pot of oil might seem intimidating when making our crispy fried chicken or fried chicken wings, but you'll quickly find the whole process is so worth it. The same is true for taking your time to get things just right, as is the case for our French macarons, beef bourguignon, opera cake, and homemade butter. Looking to get the whole family involved? Try your hand(s) at making your own fresh pasta dough (especially gnocchi) or soup dumplings. And if you are trying to improve your kitchen chop to impress your sweetie, why not surprise them with your newfound picanha steak-making skills at dinner and your croissant-baking skills at breakfast. Whatever you do, don't be surprised when you're put on cooking duty well after January 31!
Crispy Fried Chicken
The quest for perfect fried chicken is not for the faint of heart. You need evenly golden brown skin, tender, juicy meat, and a combination of crisp and crunch that would make the Colonel quake in his cowboy boots. To complete the journey to fried chicken nirvana, we went through 5 whole chickens, 3 gallons of peanut oil, and over 20 iterations of the recipe so that you won't have to. The final result is a simple formula: a seasoned buttermilk brine + a dip in batter + a shake in flour + a dunk into a pot of hot oil = the only fried chicken recipe you'll ever need.
Get the Crispy Fried Chicken recipe.
Opera Cake
Opera cake is one of those baking projects that will make you feel like a pastry chef superstar. Coffee- soaked almond cake, coffee buttercream, and chocolate ganache are layered together to create a French masterpiece that’s equally stunning to look at and enjoy.
Get the Opera Cake recipe.
French Omelet
French omelets have a reputation for being ridiculously difficult to execute, even with the most experienced chefs. But with some practice, we know you can nail it. Once you do, it will be the most impressive breakfast and brunch to serve up to guests—you'll look like an absolute pro in the kitchen.
Get the French Omelet recipe.
Picanha Steak
If you’ve ever wondered how to re-create a Brazilian-style steakhouse dinner at home, this is the recipe for you. If you're unfamiliar, these steakhouses feature waiters roaming the room slicing meat off hot skewers tableside. It's a dream, with picanha steak being the classic skewered meat that's often at one of these establishments. Best of all, we found that all you need to recreate it is a hot grill, metal skewers, and kosher salt (or sea salt) to make this steakhouse-quality steak.
Get the Picanha Steak recipe.
Homemade Gnocchi
If making homemade pasta seems like too much of a process, then gnocchi is the easy pasta to try making yourself. This rustic, dumpling-like pasta is much easier to make and shape by hand than ravioli, and once made, you can use it with countless recipes and sauces.
Get the Homemade Gnocchi recipe.
Spicy Tuna Roll
In restaurants, spicy tuna sushi rolls usually involve raw, sushi-grade fish. But if raw fish is out of reach, this recipe uses humble canned tuna. That’s not to say you can’t use the basic skeleton of this recipe for raw tuna if you can find it—just substitute in sushi-grade fish, finely chopped, and proceed onward!
Get the Spicy Tuna Roll recipe.
Homemade Hummus
Hummus is one of our all-time favorite dips, but making it from dried chickpeas can be a tall order. Start with canned chickpeas, however, and homemade hummus suddenly becomes an easy last-minute appetizer or satisfying snack. After multiple rounds of testing, we found a couple of simple hacks that will allow you to turn canned chickpeas into superlative, silky-smooth hummus, with no sacrifice of flavor and zero chickpea soaking required!
Get the Homemade Hummus recipe.
Fresh Pasta Dough
Pasta night deserves a special pasta. Making your own dough takes a bit of time, but the process itself isn't complicated. The dough is made from 3 basic ingredients and comes together in minutes.
Get the Fresh Pasta Dough recipe.
French Macarons
These delicate French cookies are somehow simultaneously crispy, chewy, soft, and light as air. This makes them the perfect blank canvas for creative flavors and colors. Make sure all your ingredients are room temperature to achieve the greatest success.
Get the French Macarons recipe.
Fried Chicken Wings
If your ideal chicken wing is so crispy it “crunches” at first bite, then these fried chicken wings should be a must-have on your game day spread. While we love our baked buffalo wings, fried wings satisfy that craving for a salty, crunchy bite made for dipping (or tossing) in your favorite sauce. Serve these at your Super Bowl party with an array of your favorite wing sauces so everyone can customize these crispy-yet-moist wings.
Get the Fried Chicken Wings recipe.
Homemade Butter
Making your own butter isn’t a necessity, of course, but it is rewarding: It only requires one ingredient, is shockingly easy, and garners bragging rights. When you have a lot of leftover heavy cream, turning it into butter is one of the best ways to use it up. If you're looking to get creative with your flavors, we included three butter options for customizing. Add strawberry jam for a sweet strawberry version, honey and sea salt for a salted honey butter, and chopped fresh herbs, garlic, and salt for a garlic-herb butter.
Get the Homemade Butter recipe.
Beef Bourguignon
Homemade beef bourguignon is a labor of love, but it's nothing you can't handle. It's certainly not a quick weeknight dinner, but that doesn't mean it's too difficult to make at home. Here's the basic rundown: Sauté bacon, sear beef in bacon fat (yum!), add veggies and stir to coat with flour, add wine and broth, transfer to oven, bake until beef is super tender, make Julia Child proud.
Get the Beef Bourguignon recipe.
Soup Dumplings
We absolutely LOVE dumplings, and xiaolongbao, the Chinese version filled with ground pork and gelatinized pork broth, are some of the best. Though traditionally pork bones are used to make the broth semi-solid, they can be hard to find, so we've subbed in gelatin and whatever broth you like. Trust us, once heated up, these dumplings are still just as heavenly.
Get the Soup Dumplings recipe.
Homemade Granola
Why spend all that money on packaged granola when it's so easy to make at home with all of your favorite ingredients? Follow this super-easy step-by-step recipe and you'll never buy it from the store again. Need something grain free? Try our paleo granola next!
Get the Homemade Granola recipe.
Fast(er) Homemade Croissants
There's really no such thing as a quick croissant, but this recipe is about as fast as they come. The dough is basically a borrowed pie crust technique, cutting large chunks of cold butter into flour and skipping the intimidating traditional laminating process.
Get the Fast(er) Homemade Croissants recipe.
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