Cooking Methods

Your morning routine just got a little easier.

They make weeknights so much easier.

These smooth and creamy grits are ready in record time.

If you ask me about comfort food, I will answer promptly: slow-cooked beef brisket. This old-fashioned pot roast, cooked quietly in the slow cooker all day with just a handful of ingredients and a mess of caramelized onions, makes a rich broth and meat that melts in your mouth. Sunday dinner, weeknight supper — whenever you eat it, this is a classic dish both convenient and comforting.

Get ready to put that appliance to work!

It cooks in under 10 minutes.

Hot mulled cider is a must-have at all our fall and winter shindigs. It’s a great non-alcoholic drink option for holidays like Thanksgiving — guests of all ages never seem to turn down a mug, but grown-ups can also take the opportunity to do a little self-spiking and mix with their alcohol of choice. Slow-cooker mulled cider is the easiest way to serve a crowd.

It's capable of a lot more than you think.

Don’t ask me “what’s for dinner?” — ask them!

I dare you to eat just a couple of these sweet potato fries. It’s impossible. So I suggest you dive right in. Cooked in the air fryer, they’re irresistibly crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, and kissed all over with a simple seasoning mix. What are you waiting for? Let’s get cooking. They’re perfectly crispy. All you have to do is spread them in an even layer and toss them halfway through cooking. It’s quick and easy to make.

Don’t forget the garlic butter.

Grilling is far and away my favorite way to cook eggplant. The sturdy vegetable is naturally well-suited to the grill, as it doesn’t run the risk of falling through the grates and becomes even meatier in flavor after taking on grill marks. Plus, eggplant’s mild flavor means it takes well to just about any seasoning you throw at it.

It over delivers in flavor.

If you were to peek into my refrigerator any day of the week, any season of the year, you would surely find a jar of pickled red onions. This bright, jewel-toned condiment offers a zesty tang to countless dishes and adds a lovely splash of color as well. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble and lasts for weeks in the refrigerator. What more can you want from a pickle?Making pickled red onions at home is easy! Here’s our quick method. There are countless uses for pickled onions.

It puts the yee-haw in every dish.

Meet your new favorite party recipe: slow cooker baked beans. Long loved for their sweet, tangy flavor and tender, creamy texture, baked beans for backyard barbecues, summer cookouts, and game day parties used to mean heating up the whole house to slowly cook the dried beans for hours upon hours. Here, your Crock Pot (or your favorite brand of slow cooker) saves the day by doing all the work and keeping you cool at the same time. It’s so easy to make.

Everyone begs me to make it every summer.

A tasty alternative to beef.

For a dinner as fiery as the grill it’s cooked on, look no further than firecracker-style shrimp skewers. These shrimp are grilled and glazed with a spicy-sweet marinade that will have you licking your fingers and reaching for (at least) one more. Here’s how to make them. Only six ingredients. Make the glaze with pantry-friendly ingredients like brown sugar, hot sauce, and apple cider vinegar. Serve straight from the skewer, scatter over rice, or tuck in a taco.

There are grilled burgers and hot dogs, but no dish speaks to true grilling prowess quite like perfectly grilled chicken breast. Marked by the grill and turned a most gorgeous caramel-colored hue, the very best grilled chicken breast promises to be juicy and tender — and as versatile for quick summer meals as a good tomato. Grilled chicken has become so ubiquitous, though, that we often forget what a real stunner it can be among dry and less flavorful grilled fare.

Zucchini certainly isn’t shy about making an entrance. At the first signs of summer, the versatile veggie graces our vegetable gardens, our farmers markets, and our grocery stores with its abundance, begging us to load up and get cooking. And cook we will! We’ll toss it into pastas and salads and even cake all summer long, but the first thing we’re doing is throwing it on the grill. Here’s how to grill perfect zucchini every time. Two ways to cut them.

It's impossible to eat just one.

Everyone asks for seconds, and then thirds.

“Red beans and rice on Monday” is one of the dependable workday cornerstones of New Orleans cuisine, a hearty dish rooted in the city’s 300-year history. Originally an ingenious, low-maintenance way to feed a house on pre-machine laundry day, “red beans and rice” worked its way into classic status through the region’s home, restaurant, and lunchroom menus.

The marinade is so flavorful.

(And they barely require any oil.)

You don't need a grill to this beloved corn dish at home.

Fact: homemade salad dressings are better. They are fresh, lively, and easy to customize. This is especially true when it comes to the oft-maligned classic, Thousand Island dressing — yes, I mean that pink dressing on the salad bar in the giant squeeze bottle. Demoted by years of packaged preservatives and pommeled with artificial colors and flavors, Thousand Island dressing is a revelation when you make it yourself. Here’s how to make this classic dressing at home.

During the summer I always cook a few things in the smoker as a good reason to have an outdoor party or two. Nothing brings forth all the natural flavors of salmon like a good slow smoker — the taste is a gift for those who took the time to plan and prepare properly. I appreciate the process of it all, and always use homemade rubs and cures to make it more personal.

Wings are one of my favorite parts from the chicken — I could easily eat a pile as a meal. Deep-fried wings are wonderful, but they can be a pain to make sometimes. Grilling, on the other hand, is one of the easiest ways to cook off a lot of chicken wings. And I discovered one pantry ingredient that makes the skin even crispier. Here’s how to make the best Buffalo wings on the grill. The trick to perfect grilled wings is this one pantry ingredient.

It's shockingly hands-off.

Lately, I have been all about flank steak. This cut isn’t quite as fancy — or typically as expensive — as premium steaks, like ribeye and filet mignon, but it cooks just as quickly and delivers big on flavor. I love it for more casual weeknight meals, like easy steak fajitas or alongside some roasted veggies. Plus, the leftovers make tasty steak sandwiches for lunch the next day.

It’s almost grilling season! If you have a rotisserie attachment for your grill hanging around, it’s time to dust it off (and if you don’t have one, now might be the time to finally buy it). Because today, my friends, I’m going to show you how to cook the best darn rotisserie chicken you’ve ever had. Time to quit messing around.The best things in life often take extra time and extra work. The same is true for this rotisserie chicken.

One bad hard-boiled egg can ruin you for life. At least, that’s what I believed until I learned how to cook soft-boiled and hard-boiled eggs, and precisely how I wanted to eat them. The perfect hard-boiled egg has no green ring around the yolk and the innards are creamy and mellow (plus easy to peel!). And if you’re in the mood, you can stop short of the hard-boil and make a gooey soft-boiled egg instead.

Let’s just cut to the chase: I’m here to tell you that spaghetti with meat sauce in the Instant Pot is nothing short of life-changing — and the very best thing to come out of my kitchen this year. But I know what you’re thinking: Spaghetti … in the Instant Pot?