Creamy Cider Chicken and More Recipes We Made This Week

The Bon Appétit Staff
·9 min read

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Photo by Travis Rainey, Food Styling by Luciana Lamboy, Prop Styling by Gerri Williams

It’s no secret that Bon Appétit editors cook a lot for work. So it should come as no surprise that we cook a lot during our off hours too. Here are the recipes we’re whipping up this month to get dinner on the table, entertain our friends, satisfy a sweet tooth, use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.

December 20

Pick-me-up fried rice

I walked home on Tuesday night, inexplicably weepy, trying to think how the bunch of broccolini and three grapefruits in my fridge could become dinner. Ultimately, I settled on this undemanding Ginger Fried Rice from contributor Hetty Lui McKinnon, lured by the promise of the recipe “as a pick-me-up when feeling poorly.” At first glance, it appears to be bog standard fried rice—but the difference lies in the amount of ginger (copious) and the way it’s cooked (barely). My only deviation from the recipe was the addition of said broccolini—finely chopped, sautéed in oil, and added back in along with the scrambled eggs. A bowl of this, doused in hot sauce, sufficiently soothed my ragged emotions. The grapefruit? I brûléed those for breakfast the next morning. —Shilpa Uskokovic, senior test kitchen editor

Ginger Fried Rice

Hetty Lui McKinnon

Cookbook club ribs

It’s holiday party season, and my cookbook club chose Dac Biet by Nini Nguyen for our end of year shindig. Knowing I’d need to commute with my chosen dish, I paged through several enticing stir-fried veggies and brothy (read: spillable) soups and noodles until landing on her Pork Ribs Glazed With Roasted Nuoc Mam Sauce. They’re wildly simple to make and transport: Coat a rack of pork ribs with salt, brown sugar, and black pepper, wrap them tightly in foil, and bake low and slow at 300°F for three hours. It’s actually better if you do this step a day ahead, which Nguyen notes allows the collagen and juices to settle back into the meat before you tear into them. Right before serving, brush the ribs with Roasted Nuoc Mam Sauce, broil them for a few minutes, and dig in. Tender and shreddy, with just enough integrity to not entirely fall off the bone, these are truly excellent ribs. But the star of the show is that sauce. Loaded with red pepper flakes, rice vinegar, fish sauce and crucially, Louisiana cane syrup for its earthy sweetness, it’s complex, spicy, and sour. I want to pour it over everything. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

Dreamy pancakes

I dreamt of pancakes. And when I woke, by some miracle, there was buttermilk in the fridge. How often does something like this happen? I turned to The Essential New York Times Cookbook and pulled together Alison Roman’s Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes in minutes. They evoked a good diner without having to put on shoes and leave the house. And lucky for me, there were extras. The next morning I popped a couple in the toaster for an even quicker breakfast, ready before the coffee was finished brewing. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

Fork-tender chicken

After a family member dropped off a jug of local apple cider, and I found some tarragon for sale at the market, I decided to make senior test kitchen editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s Creamy Cider-Braised Chicken and Leeks—a recipe I’ve had my eye on since we shared it in our December issue. The chicken legs (such an affordable and hearty cut!) became fork-tender as they bubbled away in a sauce composed of apple cider, crème fraîche, mustard, and tarragon. We made this for dinner after the baby was asleep and served it alongside crusty bread and dry cider that made me feel like I was drinking champagne on a weeknight. —Hali Bey Ramdene, content director

Creamy Cider-Braised Chicken and Leeks

Shilpa Uskokovic

December 13

The best birthday pie

For me, the start to the holiday season is a trio of birthdays: first my sister’s, just before Thanksgiving, my mother’s right after, and then my partner’s three days later. It’s a week and a half rife with desserts, and this year’s culminated in what might be my best pie yet. I riffed on Epicurious’s Banana Cream Pie With Bourbon Whipped Cream (my man’s choice instead of birthday cake), swapping in Biscoff cookies for the crust, rum for bourbon, and whipping some malted milk powder into both the custard and the topping. We had dinner out that night, and when we got home late and overstuffed, he suggested we simply share a slice. He took a bite and stared at me across his plate. “Maybe you should get your own slice,” he said. —Joe Sevier, senior editor of SEO and cooking

Yuzu chicken piccata

When I learned that deputy food editor Hana Asbrink was developing a recipe for Yuzu Chicken Piccata, my first thought was: Why didn't I think of that? As a lover of both classic chicken piccata and yuzu (the floral, tart citrus), I was immediately sold. I had a bottle of yuzu juice I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with, so I decided to put it to use. The buttery, zingy sauce came out so lush and invigorating, I sopped it up with a hunk of crusty bread long after the chicken was eaten. —Jesse Szewczyk, senior test kitchen editor

Yuzu Chicken Piccata

Hana Asbrink

Supermarket-style corn muffins

The idea of a supermarket corn muffin kept following me around. You know those bright yellow ones with the crackly crust and fluffy, sweet crumb? Less cornbread, more cake. After flipping through countless cookbooks, I ended up where a lot of people end up: Sally’s Baking Recipes. The half-flour and half-cornmeal ratio, the mix of butter for flavor and oil for moisture, the plentiful brown sugar plus a drizzle of honey, all sounded promising. Because I can’t help myself, I made one tweak—adding a tablespoon of milk powder, a baking trick I learned from my colleague Shilpa Uskokovic. The result was just what I was after. My batter yielded 11 muffins instead of 12, and next time I’ll try for 10 for that supermarket-supersized effect. —Emma Laperruque, associate director of cooking

Saag feta, hold the feta

In the midst of a post-Thanksgiving traveling spree, I had one night at home to cook before heading back to the airport the next morning. I did what I always do in such a scenario: raid the freezer for a box of spinach or kale, salvage what I can from the onion and garlic basket I keep beside the fridge, and make a riff on Priya Krishna’s saag feta, hold the feta. I find that you don’t even need the cheese (a useful excuse for me, a person who didn’t have any) and can do without the green chile if you up the heat from the dried spice contingent. A base of rice, however, is non-negotiable. —Kendra Vaculin, test kitchen editor

Saag Paneer, But With Feta

Priya Krishna

December 6

Double-batch pancakes

This past weekend I tried these Sour-Cream Pancakes With Sour-Cream Maple Syrup. They were towering and fluffy and had the right amount of tang. Creamy syrup was the ideal accompaniment, and the leftovers are in my fridge now, waiting to be poured over an apple galette. As for the pancakes, I made a double batch so I could freeze some. I like to pop them in the toaster like store-bought frozen waffles for pancakes on busy mornings. —Carly Westerfield, associate manager of audience strategy

Very verdant cod

After my very Dollar General Thanksgiving (we ate bags of tater tots and soda), I needed some quick nourishment for the week. Enter commerce writer Alaina Chou’s Green Curry Coconut Cod. I started by frying off the aromatics with curry paste. In a rush to eat, I accidentally dumped in the whole can, so I spent the next few minutes scooping out what I could until there were two generous (emphasis on generous) tablespoons in the pan. From there it was smooth sailing, blending my mixture with a clamshell of spinach, coconut milk, and sugar until a luscious sauce formed. I returned the sauce to the stove, poached my fish until tender, and feasted. A bowl of green was just what the doctor ordered. —Nina Moskowitz, associate editor, cooking

Green Curry Coconut Cod

Alaina Chou

Cast-iron skillet chicken thighs

I made this Pumpkin Meringue Pie (which uses coconut milk instead of the usual evaporated milk) for Thanksgiving and had a deli container of coconut milk left in the fridge. A quick search yielded a recipe for Spicy Coconut Grilled Chicken Thighs, which I opted to make indoors in a cast-iron skillet instead of a grill. The chicken gets a marinade of coconut milk, spicy sambal, lime juice, and brown sugar, which is then cooked out over the stove and brushed onto the thighs. I served it with rice, baby bok choy, and scallions for greenery. I may have been missing the grill marks, but it was plenty flavorful. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager

Spicy Coconut Grilled Chicken Thighs

Molly Baz

Broccoli cheddar soup

Faced with a crisper drawer full of broccoli, I turned to Sarah Jampel’s recipe for Broccoli Cheddar Soup With Cheesy Croutons. It’s creamy without using cream, vegetal and bright, and filling without being heavy. I just love it. First, you’ll cook the aromatics, potatoes, and broccoli stalks together before adding florets in batches. Some get blended into a slurpable purée that adds body to the soup, and some stay intact and crisp-tender. While the whole thing simmers, you’ll top some thick slices of country bread with grated cheese and pop ’em under the broiler to quickly become a crispy-gooey topper for each bowl of soup. A final flourish of shredded cheddar and Greek yogurt (I actually used sour cream and it worked great) transforms the soup into a delight. —Kelsey Jane Youngman, senior service editor

Broccoli Cheddar Soup With Cheesy Croutons

Sarah Jampel

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