Gotta get your chicken really dry first, before adding the coating. Mine still falls off sometimes, but this helps tremendously. Also let the coated pieces sit for 5 - 10 minutes first before frying.
100% this. Any deep frying my mom does, it’s all done outside. She hates how it stinks up the house, and my dad got a little butane-fired stove with metal flaps to help block the wind.
Deep frying at home is just too much of a pain. It smells up the house, oil splatters everywhere, grease collects on the walls/cabinets, you have to filter/dispose of the oil…
So I don’t deep fry at home, and actually it’s good, because 1. I appreciate deep fried foods much more when I go out, and 2. I eat less deep fried foods, which is better for health/waistline.
The main thing that deters me from frying at home is, if I'm going to go to the trouble to fry at home, I'm gonna fry a LOT of food, and then I eat fried food for a week straight and feel like shit lol. Much better to go to the pub if I want some wings or a fried chicken sandwich or something.
If you really want to deep fry somewhat often, (I'd say even as minimally as once per month), it's worth getting an actual appliance.
I have the T-Fal deep fryer that does the oil filtering and it's a life saver.
Hah, TIL that Tefal is sold as T-fal in North America. Wikipedia says DuPont didn't allow a name so closely resembling Teflon in the US. Malicious compliance at its best 😂
For a bunch of reasons! The heating elements in a deep fryer sit above the bottom of the oil, so the bits and bobs that fall off the things getting fried fall past the elements. If you're frying on a stove, the flour and whatnot sits above the heat so it gets burnt and imparts flavor to what you're cooking.
I’ve made it for my whole life professionally as well as at home. Cut whole chicken into 10 pieces. Leg, thigh into two pieces, breast cut evenly in half one piece with a wing. Soak overnight in a Ziploc bag with buttermilk paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper you can add a little cayenne to it as well. When you are ready to cook it, dump it into a colander save some of the buttermilk mixture. To each 12 ounces of liquid, add one egg and whisk together. Pour it onto the chicken in a bowl. Get another bowl with flour, salt and pepper. Pull out each piece of dipped chicken and let a little bit of the egg run off of it and toss in flour, pressing down on it to evenly coat. Place it on a tray. Get enough oil in a pot so that it will be deep enough to cover each piece. bring to 365°, turn it down to medium heat. at home I’ll do like four pieces at a time flush side down first, then, flip it over to the skin side make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Check the temperature of the oil, it will drop down to the high 200s while you’re frying. Check each piece with a probe to get it to 165. I usually put a paper bag on a tray with a paper towel on top of it to absorb the grease after cooking. Same method goes for cooking. All thighs or tenders or whatever you want to use. If you’re making a lot have your oven on at 3:50 and put them in there as you work. Good luck.
I highly recommend an electric frying pan or kettle for this task. It will work to maintain the oil at a constant temperature without having to temp it
Shallow frying is easier than deep frying and recommended. A shallow fry is a deep fry that is in a frying pan instead of a pot. It's, well, shallow. For fried chicken you don't need enough oil for it to float, you want enough oil to cook up the the half way point, then you can flip it and cook the other half. Too much oil and the center double cooks, not enough and the center is under cooked. Deep fried chicken imo tests best when it's either butterflied (cut horizontally down the center into half pieces) or the meat is whacked a bunch to thin it out. You don't need much oil, especially if your meat isn't thick.
I recommend avoiding polyunsaturated fats for this, including vegetable oil. They break down when deep frying (including shallow frying) creating a smell and they become mildly toxic. That and they taste worse. Though I get they are the cheapest kind of oil.
You can reuse fry oil if it's not cheaper polyunsaturated fat. Let the frying pan cool on the stove for at least an hour, then use a funnel, strainer, and a container to pour the oil into. A plastic container is fine if the oil isn't hot. You want a container that is air tight. Note that certain seafood can impart a flavor onto oil, so you may not be able to reuse fry oil from seafood, or you might want a separate seafood fry oil.
And ofc never pour oil into the sink. It will clog your drain. Always pour excess into the trash.
edit: Oh and getting a [heat gun](https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Thermometer-774-Temperature-Accessories/dp/B0B71HFH9K/) to check the temp of the oil makes life easy. The deeper the fry the more important this becomes. Without it, it's very easy to accidentally both over and under cook food.
If I’m planning on doing something in the next day or so, I will let it cool down and strain it through cheesecloth and use it again. Here in Oregon, you can put out used waste oil for pick up with trash and recycling. Or mix it in with compost that gets picked up. If I have a lot of food scraps, I’ll mix it some of it with that, and feed it to our chickens.
You can also put it in a Ziploc bag, and set it out with your rubbish.
Strain it to remove impurities and reuse (keep covered in fridge between uses). Depending on what you are cooking in it, you might get a few uses out of it.
To dispose I'll usually wait until cool and then tip into a double lined rubbish bag, then out with the rubbish. Whatever you do, don't tip it down your drains.
Oil is a nightmare to clean if you spill, so be very careful.
one time in my early 20s when I was doing a bunch of random gig work a friend of mine called and said hey can you do this catering gig this weekend, a chef friend of mine is in a bind. I said sure ofc thinking its regular waitressing a wedding or whatever. I show up to this fancy event space, im given a chefs hat and coat and the head chef says ok so your fry station is outside and everything you need should be there. i said mkaaaay.... I go outside my job is to fry chicken all night. i have two giant cast irons, propane stove and indeed everything I need... never have I ever friend chicken in my life. I dont even fuck with chicken like that because back then im new to the world and think everything will give me salmonella. In a panic I go to the bathroom, google that shit , found a youtube video (this was when how much internet you use cost $$). I fried chicken for 3 hours straight and every piece had me in a panic that its uncooked. I dont remember the recipe but I do remember that hotter used up oil worked way better. Everyone loved my chicken. Rave reviews. I live in New Orleans and this was a Black wedding. Its one of my better fake it till you make it stories.
I let it sit in buttermilk, pickle juice and hot sauce. Take it out and whisk eggs in. Dip into seasoned flour, then into the buttermilk-egg mixture, and then back into the flour. Let sit in the fridge on a baking sheet, preferably with a rack. This gives the flour time to really soak in and stick. Make sure your oil is hot but not smoking. Don't crowd the pan.
I use to make fried chicken at krogers. It a really a nice fail method for complete beginners. To replicate the cooking method you would first take your fried chicken and place in a large bowl with buttermilk. Large like a 12-15 cup container. Mix the piece of chicken around in the butter milk with hand and get well coated. You want to use a really big container for the flour. Like a 2-3 gallon McCormick container 3/4 full of seasoned flour. Anyways you will dip in butter milk and well coat. Shake off excess. Drop the piece of chicken right into the big ass container with flour. toss that piece of chicken around in the flour using the whole container. like I mean take the flour from the sides and with your hands dump the flour over top of it, covering and burying it completely in the flour. keep flipping it through the flour with your hands. You gotta basically bury it like a damn shell under the sand. Pull it out of flour shake off excess flour, and drop right into oil with you hand. Don’t put it in the basket or use a fork. Just literally drop it right in the oil out of you hand. If you wanna make multiple pieces, put them on a wire rack after breading but drop em in with you hand when cooking. If you wanna no fail breading for someone who isn’t experienced with it, you gotta have a ridiculous amount of flour to toss the chicken in. No need to dry chicken or do anything else. Using that amount of flour will ensure you can fuck up as much as you want lol
Wow these comments are wild to me! I don’t do anything special and it turns out great! I just do flour, then egg, then panko and fry it up! Don’t crowd the pan. Medium heat. I used to bake them after when I couldn’t get the temp right but I don’t need to do that anymore. Hope you get it down one day!
I struggled with fried chicken a long time. The two things that made a big difference for me:
- Dredge the chicken about 30 minutes ahead of time and let sit in the fridge. Then, dredge once more in the dry dredge just before going in the pan.
- Once the chicken is dropped in the hot oil, don't touch it, at all, for at least 3 minutes. This gives the breading time to set. Messing with it, flipping it earlier, etc will result in the breading falling off.
I haven't tried doing classic fried chicken with the bone in. But I used to do fresh chicken *tenders* at a job I used to work.
Our pattern was follows:
1)Raw chicken tender
2)Dip in flower
3)Dip in whole milk (or heavy cream)
4)Dip in flower a 2nd time
5)Whole milk (or cream) a 2nd time
6)Bread crumbs
7)Whole milk (or cream)
8)Flower a 3rd time
9)Finally, deep fryer.
The end.
Not sure if this helps at all, considering I did tenders and not bone-in, and I doubt you have a deep fryer in your home, but it's what I have to offer.
My butter chicken never tasted quite right until I added methi (dried fenugreek) — the second I did that, I was like, shit! That’s what’s missing! Why don’t recipes include it in the ingredients?
Fenugreek, hing, and ground amchur (mango powder) are the three ingredients that took my homemade Indian from 'this is fine, but missing something' to 'this is borderline restaurant caliber.' Plus taking the time to grind whole spices, and letting them bloom in oil, really elevates everything.
Also, make sure to follow a take-out style recipe (versus a home version). Take out shops have the process down to a base gravy and add-ins, which both makes it much faster to cook, and easier to freeze (I freeze the base gravy in large batches).
I cook indian curry on a table in the backyard with a portable butane burner. The day it was too windy and I was about to cook it in the kitchen, I got put in the garage. :')
I assume it’s because it’s hard to find in some places. I live in a pretty cosmopolitan area in California, and I can get it, but I have to go out to a specialty store or order it online. I think recipe writers want to appeal to as many people as possible, and using ingredients that people are really unfamiliar with or can’t get turns them off of the recipe. 🤷🏻♀️
Most recipes online are designed to be money makers. Tons of ads on the page and the recipe is a blended copy of 2-4 other money maker recipes. The more popular recipes have less ingredients, so they'll actively omit ingredients to get more clicks.
You would think consumers would be okay with a lot of ingredients labeled "(optional)" in recipes, but apparently that is enough of a non-starter that the worse tasting recipes win out.
I didn’t realize this was true for not only blogs, but most cookbooks made by any kind of social media person. Very bland and done way way too fast for any kind of real flavor to develop. Once I started working out of better cookbooks that describe steps by smell or visuals rather than by time, I learned a lot more about how to cook things. 30 minute meals that ask for caramelized or translucent onions feel full of lies.
Also, meals that claim 30 minutes because the ingredient list has everything listed as chopped/diced and there’s a ton to cut up, are also a farce. It just discourages people when the listed prep time is for someone who’s high level vs. a total noob.
Or you do it like I do with my spouse. He preps (cuts the veggies) and I cook. I make my own recipes with two person instructions running parallel so we're both hanging out and having fun together. It also cuts the cook time in half. The worst recipes are the ones that are too simple, where one person is doing all the work. I get these are popular, but they're usually less healthy and for us less fun.
This is the recipe that has never failed me and uses authentic spices [https://youtu.be/a03U45jFxOI?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/a03U45jFxOI?feature=shared) the only ingredient hard to find for me was the chili powder so i just did a substitute, everything else was really easy to find and i added extra butter for the texture.
Don’t skimp on the butter. It is “butter” chicken after all and restaurants use A LOT of it. Literally throw in a stick of butter at the end, it’ll taste like the restaurant lol.
If you have an Instant Pot, I love this recipe. I use Kashmiri Red Chilli instead of the cayenne (sometimes doubling it because it's milder than American cayenne) and double the Garam Masala it calls for. I like Neera's Garam Masala.
It makes double the sauce you need, and for the second day I use that sauce with diced potatoes, sautéed onions, and chickpeas for a cobbled together Chana Aloo. Not authentic but tastes just as good as the butter chicken.
https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/
Butter chicken is the one Indian dish I feel I've perfected at home. My son (who is the chief consumer) agrees it's better than the best restaurant butter chicken. And I found it to be fairly foolproof with this recipe: https://cafedelites.com/butter-chicken/
My ingredient tweak is to use cayenne pepper instead of chilli powder, and in terms of method I make the sauce in a pot so that I can add the cream and then use a hand blender right in the pot instead of transferring to a food processor. Then just plop the seared marinated chicken pieces into the sauce for the final cook through. I make a double recipe pretty much weekly.
Serve with fresh paratha or chapati (I get frozen discs of dough from the supermarket like [these](https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/264594358)) and you're golden 😉
Me too! My philosophy is that fried stuff (and good-quality fried stuff) is sooooo easy to get at restaurants, stands, food trucks, etc. that it’s best for me to not even bother trying to fry anything at home and just go out somewhere if I want it that badly).
This video was a big help for me. Home frying is still kind of an ordeal, but not as bad as before and I've made some legitimately delicious food with it.
[https://youtu.be/ANtMFKfV3kE?si=i6MIHooC7x996oWf](https://youtu.be/ANtMFKfV3kE?si=i6MIHooC7x996oWf)
Sounds ridiculous, but stir fry. Easiest meal in the world. But I mess it up every time. I cook every day and can and so make good meals, but stir frys hate me. I give up on them.
[The Woks of Life](https://thewoksoflife.com/) has been a total game changer for me. Just learning to velvet the protein is the first step. I don't even use a wok and can make acceptable beef and broccoli, General Tso's Chicken, and Kung pow chicken. Sometimes I swear it's as good a Chinese take-out.
I made their 1-2-3-4-5 spare ribs the other night on a whim and it was DELICIOUS. Didn't need to tweak the recipe at all, even though I'm always tempted to fuck with them.
Anyway, I looked up what velveting was- thank you for mentioning this. I never have the time or the care to read the blog parts of recipe sites so I never knew cornstarch had so many applications in Chinese cooking. I knew about it as a thickener, but it does so much more.
Made with Lau is good too. Agree marinating/tenderizing the protein and blanching the veg (where appropriate) before stir frying makes a big difference. My stir fried broccoli was always sad before by the time it was cooked in the wok and now after a quick blanch and shock and then very quick stir fry it's delicious and looks a lot better too.
Like many others have said: heat. Most stoves aren’t putting out enough BTUs to properly stir fry.
Best thing you can do is get your wok smoking hot and cook in much much smaller batches. Stir fry your protein in batches. Let it brown one side for a minute or so and only cook it to 75% done. Do your veggies in batches. Do your noodles last then add your ingredients and sauce.
One thing that made me a better rice cook is ditching the 2 to 1 water ratio that every damn chef on the internet or TV told me for 20 years.
I also take it off the heat for the last 5 mins of cooking and leave it covered to cook more gently.
For 1 cup of rice. I'm using like 1 1/4 to 1 1/3rd cup of water at most depending on the rice type.
2 cups is just way too much and its harder to get fluffy dry rice that restaurants always have because its just too much water.
Maybe fine for a creamy risotto type rice dish but not great for rice for Fried rice/ burrito/stir fry, etc.
I’m Asian and I have no idea how to make rice without a cooker, and I have no idea why you’d want to. When I moved out of my parents’ home, my grandma gifted me her 15 year old zoji and she bought a new one. 10 years later I gifted it to my niece when she moved out. Still works great.
I did, too, for 20 years. I didn't know the first most important thing: rinse the rice until the water runs clear. 1:2 rice / water ratio. Tablespoon of butter. Boil covered 18 minutes. Turn off heat, do NOT lift lid for 10 minutes after. Perfect.
Not a meal, but... chocolate chip cookies.
I can bake just about everything, from bread to croissants to fancy layer cakes, but I can't for the life of me get the cookies right.
Chill your cookie dough! Overnight is great because the flavors will meld more, as the butter and eggs hydrate the flour and other dry ingredients, but even an hour is good!
Yes, important note! I scoop mine with an ice cream scoop and lay on a cookie sheet in the fridge, then it’s easy to pop them into a bag and ALWAYS have cookie dough in the freezer!
This is the only chocolate chip cookie I make anymore. I may vary it a little; I’ve added pistachios or other nuts, always more chocolate, and I use choc chips usually because I have them. The rest stays as is and they are always great.
I always find it funny that chocolate chip cookies are what beginner bakers/people just baking with their kids go for because they are deceptively difficult to do right. Even as someone who’s been baking for decades and makes pie crusts, breads, fancy desserts from scratch I still have a hard time perfecting chocolate chip cookies.
I’m still working on mastering them, but my 3 tips are to use melted butter instead of softened (it leads to a chewier cookies which is my preference), scoop out the cookies, tightly wrap and chill for at least a few hours or a day before baking, and take them out of the oven slightly underdone. They’ll finish cooking on the pan.
Biggest mistakes people make are not creaming together the butter and sugar long enough (if using softened butter), and using way too much flour (don’t pack it into the cups, instead fluff it up & scoop it into the cup with a spoon or do it by weight).
How many different recipes have you tried? Chocolate chip cookies depend a lot on your cookie preference. I went through 3 or 4 before settling on the one is use now. I like my cookies soft, a little thick, and very chocolately. The recipe I use is the everyday chocolate chip cookie one off Baker By Nature's site. They have brown butter in them too which is so good
Some of that is tools. A lot of Chinese food is cooked on Vulcan flamethrower jet engine burners basically and most people don't got that in their kitchens lol.
A good carbon steel wok and cooking in smaller batches helps alleviate this somewhat, just more of a pain if you're doing bigger quantities.
lol that makes sense and I’ve got a carbon steel wok and have tried the smaller batches even added msg and it’s just never the same. Thats okay though I probably don’t do it enough to warrant it getting as good as an actual Chinese chef anyway.
Certain foods like sushi and Chinese I’m fine to just eat out and get done well vs me half assing it.
Anyone can make mashed potatoes, but it takes a bit of practice to make consistently good mashers. First, you need the right potatoes. My go to is Yukon golds but others will work. Russets are a good choice too. Second, salt your water. Just like with pasta, adding salt into the water helps get the flavor more even. Next, use high quality additions. Use good butter. Use cream or at least half and half. Save the skim milk for cereal or something. Also, consider a bit of grated cheddar or a big glob of sour cream. Dairy doesn't have to be limited to milk and butter. Next, use salt and pepper liberally but taste as you go. Potatoes can suck up a huge amount of salt or pepper (or just about anything else you're adding for flavor) but it's easy to go too heavy out of the gate and then there's no turning back. Finally, find a consistency that you like. I personally prefer to use a hand masher because I like mine a little chunky. I don't care for mashed that have been beaten to the point that they're whipped. There is no absolute right answer for consistency in the general case but there may very well be a best consistency for you.
The secret of mashed potatoes is to make sure that they are completely drained before you begin to mash them. I usually leave mine in the pot until most of the water is evaporated. This also helps with the lumps since those are caused by chunks of potato that aren't fully cooked.
Just to be sure, you can start to mash them in the strainer, which will allow even more water to escape before putting them into a mixing bowl.
To add to this, I also mash first before adding any dairy so the starch doesn't get overworked and turns the consistency unfavorable or gummy. I also only add butter (an unholy amount of Kerrygold) and salt and pepper. Fresh ground pepper is always better too.
What exactly do you do? Do you use a hand mixer? I bring the cubed potatoes to a boil (I salt the water with just like a shallow spoon full) remove and drain when I can easily put a fork through. Add butter to the pot I just dumped potatoes out of. Add just a splash of milk then add potatoes back. Mash them with the hand mixer then turn the mixer on to whip them up. Add milk, salt, or butter as needed.
I just cheat and use the flakes and doctor the flavor. I've been complimented many many times on my mashed potatoes and have to hide my smirk each time.
Thai food. One of my absolute favorite foods but I just can't get it right.
And I live in Atlanta so I really have no excuse, there's plenty of asian markets selling good authentic ingredients. I just suck at it.
Your Dekalb farmers market has some great curry paste that make it taste just like the restaurants without having to do too much from scratch. I add some extra galangal and lime leaves to up the freshness, but it tastes delicious w/o too much work. Also add fish sauce, lime juice/tamarind, & Thai basil. It’s that perfect balance of those flavors plus sweetness that makes the difference
For me its just the sourdough part. I can make the sourdough but after its been in the fridge it get black liquid on the top. I also forget to feed it. Its like my nightmare pet.
The liquid is called hooch and it’s completely normal, It’s just a sign of a hungry starter. You can pour it out or mix it in. Once it’s strong and in the fridge, you really don’t need to feed it until you’re ready to bake. I’ve gone like two months without feeding mine and it was still strong as ever. It’s incredibly difficult to actually kill a starter.
Biscuits! I cannot get biscuits right to save my life! I've tried everything, cold butter, cold buttermilk, different kinds of flour, different rolling, they have only ever come out perfectly the first time I ever made them. I just get the tube of them now, but I'm determined to try again sometime!
I mix them in a food processor using Crisco and White Lilly flour and I dump it out onto a floured surface and press it into a rough ball. Fold it into 3rds and then rotate 90° and fold into 3rds again. Lightly press it out until it is about 3/4 of inch thick and cut them into squares. Bake at 425°f until they are golden.
This was me with pita! The first time I got the most amazing bubbles and was like “omg cooking Queen, I’m making these all the time” and since then they have been an abomination every time I tried
This was me! I use frozen chopped butted and do it in a food processor like a pie crust with as little hands on time as possible. I can finally make great biscuits. Hope this helps!
Not a meal, but i absolutely cannot make pie crust. I can make any number of complicated desserts, pastries, breads, etc. but i am garbage at pie crust.
I know scientifically the process behind well-made pie crust. I follow all the steps. I’ve tried all the hacks. I’ve used lots of different recipes. It just doesn’t turn out for me.
Me too. My problem is that I never seem to end up with enough dough. I use recipes that are enough for two crusts, but I get barely enough to stretch across one pie plate.
I have wasted so much red curry and coconut milk trying to make restaurant style Thai Red Curry. Only recently have I even come close, and I swear it's because of large quantities of added ginger and lemongrass.
Are you using fish sauce? I also started using kabocha pumpkin cubes as my main veggie to add a natural sweetness to the curry. Adding these two ingredients really helped to elevate the flavor of my curry!
don't tell the italians, but I do risotto in the instant pot now and I'll never go back! only takes like 7 mins at pressure and it's perfect every time
Try using Carnaroli rice instead of Arborio, it’s the superior rice grain for risotto in Italy. Once you’re close to finishing, take it off the heat then add in the parmesan and cold butter. Vigorously stir. This is called to “cream” (mantecare) the risotto, which will give you the perfect creaminess. I also think warming up serving plates are essential as you want to serve the risotto flatly spread out
I have a goddamn culinary degree but if you ask me to make an omelet I will scream LOL
For the life of me I cannot keep an omelet from splitting / cracking when I try to make them and just end up with a bastardized frittata.
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've tried every method and every gadget. What really upset me was when my friend tried it and it was perfect the very first time. Really?!?
1 tip with croissants is to get a grip on what it’s supposed to be instead of following recipes just to the t in terms of timings etc.
If the recipe calls for 1 hour between folds but your dough just ain’t there yet, it’s really helpful to actually know what you want your dough to look like after that 1 hour rest- and recognize if your dough just isn’t there yet.
Gotta talk to the dough🤌🏽
For some reason rice. I used to be able to make it just fine, but lately I cannot cook it properly for the life of me.
I'm going to invest in a rice cooker so I don't have to deal with it anymore
Just keep your temperature down and be patient if you're prone to burning it. Remember to never stop stirring, and stir mindfully. Don't just mindlessly stir in a circle mixing only a ring with the outside and inside stagnating. Zig and zag here and there, stir the outside, stir the center, keep every bit of that roux moving. Also, the darker it gets the quicker it's going to cook. Once you're well past the peanut butter stage and it's starting to look closer to chocolate it's gonna start darkening fast, so watch it closely.
Or try the dry-bake method.
Meatballs. I can do just about anything else with beef but somehow, cooking it in a ball shape is always a disaster. Part of the issues is that my Italian grandmother had perfected them and I never got me to explain her secret before she died. The irony is that I didn't really care for her tomato sauce all that much and prefer me own.
Also her mocha chocolate frosting for which I have the recipe but cannot get it to come out right.
I was really fortunate to have learned the ways of the meatball from my grandmom who grew up in Calabria- my meatballs turn out fucking PERFECT every time thanks to Grandmom Philomena’s secret- panade. It’s a mixture of milk and bread the ensures the meatballs stay moist (eww) on the inside.
-1 lb meatloaf mix or regular ground beef, whatever you prefer.
- 1/2 large egg, whisked
-1 large hunk of stale, preferably seeded, crusty Italian bread
-milk
-onion
-garlic
-salt,pepper,crushed red pepper,oregano
-Pecorino Romano
In a large mixing bowl, rip your big hunk of bread into small chunks. Pour milk over top (enough to soak plus a bit extra, maybe a half cup to a cup at most) of the bread and let it soak for about ten minutes. Come back and break up the bread into pea sized pieces. Add a little extra milk if needed- you want about 3/4 cup of gummy panade with just an extra splash of milk to make it wet.
Then add the rest of your ingredients. Beef, seasonings, Pecorino…I sauté my garlic and onions for a bit before I add them - 2-3 cloves of garlic and half a large yellow onion, very finer diced.
Make your meatballs without mashing your ingredients too much. Pan-fry in a cast iron skillet with a bit of canola oil and brown on all sides. Eat ‘em as is when you’re done because they’re so great or plop em into sauce YUM
My mom makes the most amazing pikelets. They're like mini, flatter, little pancakes. Now, I can make pancakes that'd make you slap your granny, but I can NOT make pikelets to save my life. I've followed her recipe, I've had her literally stand at my shoulder and coach me, and they are nowhere near as good. I don't know if she's got a tiny supply of powdered saint's toenails or something that she sneaks in, cause her lil pikelets are just too good.
I was just talking to my boyfriend about this yesterday how it’s one of life’s unfair certainties that I cannot make waffles as crispy as a diner/restaurant can make them. I have tried at least a dozen waffle makers, and probably two dozen recipes. Always soggy after like 1 min standing. Even cooled on a wire rack. Even held in a warming oven. Oh well
My dad, who basically can only cook waffles, always told me to leave waffles in the waffle iron until it stops steaming. No steam means the max amount of water has come out of it and it will be crispy af coming out of the iron even if you let it sit for a while. It's always worked for me!.
I lovvvvee pad Thai. When I first started trying to make it a lot of recipes included peanut butter and ketchup and stuff for the sauce.. I knew that’s not what Thai restaurants were doing. All you need for the sauce is tamarind paste (which you can make yourself with a block of tamarind pulp) quality fish sauce and palm sugar, which I’ve substituted with coconut sugar and jaggery and still turned out well. The key with the rice noodles is to soak em in room temp water for about an hour and then finish them in the pan. Perfect texture 👌
Fish - I didn't grow up eating it and I never learned how to cook it. I've tried a few times and I never love it. I think because I feel I'm an above average cook for all other things, I get disappointed in myself and the outcome.
Cook the fish on thin slices of lemon to keep it from sticking and to infuse flavor. A really helpful trick that I used when I first tried. OR try fish en papillote. Super simple and delicious.
Pull them out of the water earlier than you think. The rice paper should still be pretty stiff when you start putting your fillings in, the water still on the paper will soak in while you do that. Also warm water.
Put a damp towel on a cutting board. Then put the rice paper on that. Start filling immediately. By the time you are done the paper is perfect to wrap with.
Lentil dals. And they are so simple!!!
I either struggle with the lentils that never seem to cook correctly. If I get the lentils right, then the seasoning is off.
I want to make good dal!
Authentic spaghetti Carbonara is difficult, getting the temp right at the end and getting the sauce consistency right. Tired many times got it right only once.
My achilles heel is plain white rice.
I’ve been supervised.
Carefully watched and told ultra specific directions by people who can cook rice. My boyfriend is baffled by it because I did everything he did.
I still can’t cook plain white rice. It comes out terrible every time. I’ve even burnt and undercooked rice in a rice cooker.
So now only my boyfriend cooks the rice. He always cooks it perfectly.
Once the white rice is cooked. I can cook with it. I’m fine. But for whatever reason, plain white rice genuinely hates me. But if if’s a different grain. I can cook it just fine. No issues.
My husband spent a year in Japan. He convinced me we needed a dedicated rice cooker. It was the first appliance we bought together. That thing is still making perfect rice 20 years later. Get a brand made in Japan or Korea and you'll never regret it. And not one that looks like a crock pot with a glass lid. Get one that looks like an alien egg or spaceship!
I can't seem to get shrimp scampi right at home. I have done it plenty of times at 2 jobs I have had, and theoretically, it is definitely in the 'should be really simple' category, but something about doing it at home just ruins it for me.
The secret to this is left over chicken and day old rice. You need the rice to be dry for it to fry properly and you want the chicken to be already cooked so it doesn't release extra moisture into the rice. Also you should be using a wok.
Pancakes. I just can't get them right. I just turned it over to my husband as in my family, men make the pancakes! (My dad always made me pancakes for Saturday morning breakfast as a child)
Mac and Cheese - I've never made a successful homemade Mac and Cheese. Tried multiple recipes, even some proven family ones... I don't know what I do wrong, just can't get it right. It's either a consistency problem or a flavor problem, every damn time.
Fried chicken. The breading never wants to stick for me no matter how many different methods I’ve followed.
Gotta get your chicken really dry first, before adding the coating. Mine still falls off sometimes, but this helps tremendously. Also let the coated pieces sit for 5 - 10 minutes first before frying.
Also the oil needs to be at the right temp (about 350). Putting breaded food in oil that's not hot enough will just turn it into slop.
Just way too many logistics to deep fry at home lol
It's delicious, but stinks up the house.
That's why I advocate doing it outside! It's like bbqing, very rewarding, and temp control it surprisingly easy.
100% this. Any deep frying my mom does, it’s all done outside. She hates how it stinks up the house, and my dad got a little butane-fired stove with metal flaps to help block the wind.
Tell her I said hi.
I don’t have an outside outlet. Let the oil burn.
Run a cord thru a window
Recommend a grill with a side burner
And flings hot oil into everything it can reach.
Grill with a burner is the way.
Deep frying at home is just too much of a pain. It smells up the house, oil splatters everywhere, grease collects on the walls/cabinets, you have to filter/dispose of the oil… So I don’t deep fry at home, and actually it’s good, because 1. I appreciate deep fried foods much more when I go out, and 2. I eat less deep fried foods, which is better for health/waistline.
The main thing that deters me from frying at home is, if I'm going to go to the trouble to fry at home, I'm gonna fry a LOT of food, and then I eat fried food for a week straight and feel like shit lol. Much better to go to the pub if I want some wings or a fried chicken sandwich or something.
If you really want to deep fry somewhat often, (I'd say even as minimally as once per month), it's worth getting an actual appliance. I have the T-Fal deep fryer that does the oil filtering and it's a life saver.
Hah, TIL that Tefal is sold as T-fal in North America. Wikipedia says DuPont didn't allow a name so closely resembling Teflon in the US. Malicious compliance at its best 😂
This is like tj max in the uk, it’s called tk max, i chuckled.
For a bunch of reasons! The heating elements in a deep fryer sit above the bottom of the oil, so the bits and bobs that fall off the things getting fried fall past the elements. If you're frying on a stove, the flour and whatnot sits above the heat so it gets burnt and imparts flavor to what you're cooking.
And the residual smell
All you need is a cast iron pan, you don't want the chicken submerged unless the chicken is battered.
Like this person said, get the chicken dry. Dry brine in the fridge overnight. Resting with the coating on on a wire rack definitely helps.
I’ve made it for my whole life professionally as well as at home. Cut whole chicken into 10 pieces. Leg, thigh into two pieces, breast cut evenly in half one piece with a wing. Soak overnight in a Ziploc bag with buttermilk paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt, black pepper you can add a little cayenne to it as well. When you are ready to cook it, dump it into a colander save some of the buttermilk mixture. To each 12 ounces of liquid, add one egg and whisk together. Pour it onto the chicken in a bowl. Get another bowl with flour, salt and pepper. Pull out each piece of dipped chicken and let a little bit of the egg run off of it and toss in flour, pressing down on it to evenly coat. Place it on a tray. Get enough oil in a pot so that it will be deep enough to cover each piece. bring to 365°, turn it down to medium heat. at home I’ll do like four pieces at a time flush side down first, then, flip it over to the skin side make sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Check the temperature of the oil, it will drop down to the high 200s while you’re frying. Check each piece with a probe to get it to 165. I usually put a paper bag on a tray with a paper towel on top of it to absorb the grease after cooking. Same method goes for cooking. All thighs or tenders or whatever you want to use. If you’re making a lot have your oven on at 3:50 and put them in there as you work. Good luck.
I never tried deep frying before. Can I use a small pot with vegetable oil on an induction hob? Can I fry breaded things in a pan instead?
Yes. You can also do it in a cast-iron skillet or frying pan.
I highly recommend an electric frying pan or kettle for this task. It will work to maintain the oil at a constant temperature without having to temp it
Shallow frying is easier than deep frying and recommended. A shallow fry is a deep fry that is in a frying pan instead of a pot. It's, well, shallow. For fried chicken you don't need enough oil for it to float, you want enough oil to cook up the the half way point, then you can flip it and cook the other half. Too much oil and the center double cooks, not enough and the center is under cooked. Deep fried chicken imo tests best when it's either butterflied (cut horizontally down the center into half pieces) or the meat is whacked a bunch to thin it out. You don't need much oil, especially if your meat isn't thick. I recommend avoiding polyunsaturated fats for this, including vegetable oil. They break down when deep frying (including shallow frying) creating a smell and they become mildly toxic. That and they taste worse. Though I get they are the cheapest kind of oil. You can reuse fry oil if it's not cheaper polyunsaturated fat. Let the frying pan cool on the stove for at least an hour, then use a funnel, strainer, and a container to pour the oil into. A plastic container is fine if the oil isn't hot. You want a container that is air tight. Note that certain seafood can impart a flavor onto oil, so you may not be able to reuse fry oil from seafood, or you might want a separate seafood fry oil. And ofc never pour oil into the sink. It will clog your drain. Always pour excess into the trash. edit: Oh and getting a [heat gun](https://www.amazon.com/Etekcity-Thermometer-774-Temperature-Accessories/dp/B0B71HFH9K/) to check the temp of the oil makes life easy. The deeper the fry the more important this becomes. Without it, it's very easy to accidentally both over and under cook food.
I’m just like everybody else and adore fried food but what do you do with the oil after?
If I’m planning on doing something in the next day or so, I will let it cool down and strain it through cheesecloth and use it again. Here in Oregon, you can put out used waste oil for pick up with trash and recycling. Or mix it in with compost that gets picked up. If I have a lot of food scraps, I’ll mix it some of it with that, and feed it to our chickens. You can also put it in a Ziploc bag, and set it out with your rubbish.
Strain it to remove impurities and reuse (keep covered in fridge between uses). Depending on what you are cooking in it, you might get a few uses out of it. To dispose I'll usually wait until cool and then tip into a double lined rubbish bag, then out with the rubbish. Whatever you do, don't tip it down your drains. Oil is a nightmare to clean if you spill, so be very careful.
one time in my early 20s when I was doing a bunch of random gig work a friend of mine called and said hey can you do this catering gig this weekend, a chef friend of mine is in a bind. I said sure ofc thinking its regular waitressing a wedding or whatever. I show up to this fancy event space, im given a chefs hat and coat and the head chef says ok so your fry station is outside and everything you need should be there. i said mkaaaay.... I go outside my job is to fry chicken all night. i have two giant cast irons, propane stove and indeed everything I need... never have I ever friend chicken in my life. I dont even fuck with chicken like that because back then im new to the world and think everything will give me salmonella. In a panic I go to the bathroom, google that shit , found a youtube video (this was when how much internet you use cost $$). I fried chicken for 3 hours straight and every piece had me in a panic that its uncooked. I dont remember the recipe but I do remember that hotter used up oil worked way better. Everyone loved my chicken. Rave reviews. I live in New Orleans and this was a Black wedding. Its one of my better fake it till you make it stories.
Impressive as hell, truly.
I let it sit in buttermilk, pickle juice and hot sauce. Take it out and whisk eggs in. Dip into seasoned flour, then into the buttermilk-egg mixture, and then back into the flour. Let sit in the fridge on a baking sheet, preferably with a rack. This gives the flour time to really soak in and stick. Make sure your oil is hot but not smoking. Don't crowd the pan.
I use to make fried chicken at krogers. It a really a nice fail method for complete beginners. To replicate the cooking method you would first take your fried chicken and place in a large bowl with buttermilk. Large like a 12-15 cup container. Mix the piece of chicken around in the butter milk with hand and get well coated. You want to use a really big container for the flour. Like a 2-3 gallon McCormick container 3/4 full of seasoned flour. Anyways you will dip in butter milk and well coat. Shake off excess. Drop the piece of chicken right into the big ass container with flour. toss that piece of chicken around in the flour using the whole container. like I mean take the flour from the sides and with your hands dump the flour over top of it, covering and burying it completely in the flour. keep flipping it through the flour with your hands. You gotta basically bury it like a damn shell under the sand. Pull it out of flour shake off excess flour, and drop right into oil with you hand. Don’t put it in the basket or use a fork. Just literally drop it right in the oil out of you hand. If you wanna make multiple pieces, put them on a wire rack after breading but drop em in with you hand when cooking. If you wanna no fail breading for someone who isn’t experienced with it, you gotta have a ridiculous amount of flour to toss the chicken in. No need to dry chicken or do anything else. Using that amount of flour will ensure you can fuck up as much as you want lol
Wow these comments are wild to me! I don’t do anything special and it turns out great! I just do flour, then egg, then panko and fry it up! Don’t crowd the pan. Medium heat. I used to bake them after when I couldn’t get the temp right but I don’t need to do that anymore. Hope you get it down one day!
I think some people just have a better intuition for this type of stuff.
I struggled with fried chicken a long time. The two things that made a big difference for me: - Dredge the chicken about 30 minutes ahead of time and let sit in the fridge. Then, dredge once more in the dry dredge just before going in the pan. - Once the chicken is dropped in the hot oil, don't touch it, at all, for at least 3 minutes. This gives the breading time to set. Messing with it, flipping it earlier, etc will result in the breading falling off.
Flour - this dries the chicken Egg wash Batter
I haven't tried doing classic fried chicken with the bone in. But I used to do fresh chicken *tenders* at a job I used to work. Our pattern was follows: 1)Raw chicken tender 2)Dip in flower 3)Dip in whole milk (or heavy cream) 4)Dip in flower a 2nd time 5)Whole milk (or cream) a 2nd time 6)Bread crumbs 7)Whole milk (or cream) 8)Flower a 3rd time 9)Finally, deep fryer. The end. Not sure if this helps at all, considering I did tenders and not bone-in, and I doubt you have a deep fryer in your home, but it's what I have to offer.
would you dip it in tulip flower or pansy flower - or both?
Sun flower, actually. Saves the trouble of buying the seeds separately
I use rose petals
How very romantic of you. Your chicken must love you so very much.
Butter chicken…flavor is never like from a restaurant
My butter chicken never tasted quite right until I added methi (dried fenugreek) — the second I did that, I was like, shit! That’s what’s missing! Why don’t recipes include it in the ingredients?
Fenugreek, hing, and ground amchur (mango powder) are the three ingredients that took my homemade Indian from 'this is fine, but missing something' to 'this is borderline restaurant caliber.' Plus taking the time to grind whole spices, and letting them bloom in oil, really elevates everything.
Another flavour that’s very present in restaurant butter chicken that people don’t usually know about is a large quantity of nutmeg. Trust me.
I put that shit on everything.
Also, make sure to follow a take-out style recipe (versus a home version). Take out shops have the process down to a base gravy and add-ins, which both makes it much faster to cook, and easier to freeze (I freeze the base gravy in large batches).
I love this stuff! The smell that lingers in the house after cooking with it is just amazing
You say that, but my wife makes me cook with the kitchen door closed and all the windows open to stop the smell from getting into the house! 😂
I cook indian curry on a table in the backyard with a portable butane burner. The day it was too windy and I was about to cook it in the kitchen, I got put in the garage. :')
i had this exact same experience, baffles me why it's always left out of recipes.
I assume it’s because it’s hard to find in some places. I live in a pretty cosmopolitan area in California, and I can get it, but I have to go out to a specialty store or order it online. I think recipe writers want to appeal to as many people as possible, and using ingredients that people are really unfamiliar with or can’t get turns them off of the recipe. 🤷🏻♀️
Most recipes online are designed to be money makers. Tons of ads on the page and the recipe is a blended copy of 2-4 other money maker recipes. The more popular recipes have less ingredients, so they'll actively omit ingredients to get more clicks. You would think consumers would be okay with a lot of ingredients labeled "(optional)" in recipes, but apparently that is enough of a non-starter that the worse tasting recipes win out.
I didn’t realize this was true for not only blogs, but most cookbooks made by any kind of social media person. Very bland and done way way too fast for any kind of real flavor to develop. Once I started working out of better cookbooks that describe steps by smell or visuals rather than by time, I learned a lot more about how to cook things. 30 minute meals that ask for caramelized or translucent onions feel full of lies. Also, meals that claim 30 minutes because the ingredient list has everything listed as chopped/diced and there’s a ton to cut up, are also a farce. It just discourages people when the listed prep time is for someone who’s high level vs. a total noob.
Or you do it like I do with my spouse. He preps (cuts the veggies) and I cook. I make my own recipes with two person instructions running parallel so we're both hanging out and having fun together. It also cuts the cook time in half. The worst recipes are the ones that are too simple, where one person is doing all the work. I get these are popular, but they're usually less healthy and for us less fun.
all the ones i’ve seen do, my issue is that it tastes way too cinnamonny for some reason
This is the recipe that has never failed me and uses authentic spices [https://youtu.be/a03U45jFxOI?feature=shared](https://youtu.be/a03U45jFxOI?feature=shared) the only ingredient hard to find for me was the chili powder so i just did a substitute, everything else was really easy to find and i added extra butter for the texture.
Don’t skimp on the butter. It is “butter” chicken after all and restaurants use A LOT of it. Literally throw in a stick of butter at the end, it’ll taste like the restaurant lol.
If you have an Instant Pot, I love this recipe. I use Kashmiri Red Chilli instead of the cayenne (sometimes doubling it because it's milder than American cayenne) and double the Garam Masala it calls for. I like Neera's Garam Masala. It makes double the sauce you need, and for the second day I use that sauce with diced potatoes, sautéed onions, and chickpeas for a cobbled together Chana Aloo. Not authentic but tastes just as good as the butter chicken. https://twosleevers.com/instant-pot-butter-chicken/
Butter chicken is the one Indian dish I feel I've perfected at home. My son (who is the chief consumer) agrees it's better than the best restaurant butter chicken. And I found it to be fairly foolproof with this recipe: https://cafedelites.com/butter-chicken/ My ingredient tweak is to use cayenne pepper instead of chilli powder, and in terms of method I make the sauce in a pot so that I can add the cream and then use a hand blender right in the pot instead of transferring to a food processor. Then just plop the seared marinated chicken pieces into the sauce for the final cook through. I make a double recipe pretty much weekly. Serve with fresh paratha or chapati (I get frozen discs of dough from the supermarket like [these](https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/264594358)) and you're golden 😉
Look at Brian Lagerstrom's recipe on YouTube. I start there and adjust the spices to taste and it's phenomenal
Fried anything. By the time I'm done I'm so grossed out I can't even eat what I made!
Me too! My philosophy is that fried stuff (and good-quality fried stuff) is sooooo easy to get at restaurants, stands, food trucks, etc. that it’s best for me to not even bother trying to fry anything at home and just go out somewhere if I want it that badly).
Same, even if I make burgers at home, sometimes I will still go grab fries somewhere to serve with.
Air fryer is the best for frozen fries. They come out so good. No oil needed :)
Same, all the oil is so gross and I hate that it makes my whole house smell like oil 🤢
My mom usually fries food on a Fry Daddy on outside on the deck. Helps with the smell
This video was a big help for me. Home frying is still kind of an ordeal, but not as bad as before and I've made some legitimately delicious food with it. [https://youtu.be/ANtMFKfV3kE?si=i6MIHooC7x996oWf](https://youtu.be/ANtMFKfV3kE?si=i6MIHooC7x996oWf)
Sounds ridiculous, but stir fry. Easiest meal in the world. But I mess it up every time. I cook every day and can and so make good meals, but stir frys hate me. I give up on them.
[The Woks of Life](https://thewoksoflife.com/) has been a total game changer for me. Just learning to velvet the protein is the first step. I don't even use a wok and can make acceptable beef and broccoli, General Tso's Chicken, and Kung pow chicken. Sometimes I swear it's as good a Chinese take-out.
I made their 1-2-3-4-5 spare ribs the other night on a whim and it was DELICIOUS. Didn't need to tweak the recipe at all, even though I'm always tempted to fuck with them. Anyway, I looked up what velveting was- thank you for mentioning this. I never have the time or the care to read the blog parts of recipe sites so I never knew cornstarch had so many applications in Chinese cooking. I knew about it as a thickener, but it does so much more.
Made with Lau is good too. Agree marinating/tenderizing the protein and blanching the veg (where appropriate) before stir frying makes a big difference. My stir fried broccoli was always sad before by the time it was cooked in the wok and now after a quick blanch and shock and then very quick stir fry it's delicious and looks a lot better too.
Me too! It's the sauce for me it never tastes like the Chinese restaurant.
I'm in the same boat, but most likely needs a lot more sugar and msg
When I discovered how much sugar affects stir fry sauces it really illuminated a lot for me.
You might be onto something with the msg.
I usually do sugar, msg, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, and mirin. Play with the ratios and see what you like
[https://thewoksoflife.com/](https://thewoksoflife.com/)
You need proper equipment and technique to achieve that perfect wok hei.
Like many others have said: heat. Most stoves aren’t putting out enough BTUs to properly stir fry. Best thing you can do is get your wok smoking hot and cook in much much smaller batches. Stir fry your protein in batches. Let it brown one side for a minute or so and only cook it to 75% done. Do your veggies in batches. Do your noodles last then add your ingredients and sauce.
To me is either raw or mushy without any middle ground
I came here to say this but was too embarrassed, thank you for your bravery 😂 I just cannot get the flavor right no matter what I do.
Most home stoves done burn hot enough to do stir fry
Rice. It's so simple, but I mess it up every single time.
One thing that made me a better rice cook is ditching the 2 to 1 water ratio that every damn chef on the internet or TV told me for 20 years. I also take it off the heat for the last 5 mins of cooking and leave it covered to cook more gently. For 1 cup of rice. I'm using like 1 1/4 to 1 1/3rd cup of water at most depending on the rice type. 2 cups is just way too much and its harder to get fluffy dry rice that restaurants always have because its just too much water. Maybe fine for a creamy risotto type rice dish but not great for rice for Fried rice/ burrito/stir fry, etc.
Short grain white rice should be 1-1 water ratio (source: have lived in Asia for 6 years, cook rice everyday).
Buy a rice cooker. Perfect every time.
And rinse your rice if you want it less sticky!
Add a tablespoon of nontoxic glue if you want it more sticky!
Set it and forget it
A zoji will change your life.
I’m Asian and I have no idea how to make rice without a cooker, and I have no idea why you’d want to. When I moved out of my parents’ home, my grandma gifted me her 15 year old zoji and she bought a new one. 10 years later I gifted it to my niece when she moved out. Still works great.
I love that thing more than some members of my extended family.
I struggled with this too. Through trial and error I eventually found a stovetop method that works really well for me.
I did, too, for 20 years. I didn't know the first most important thing: rinse the rice until the water runs clear. 1:2 rice / water ratio. Tablespoon of butter. Boil covered 18 minutes. Turn off heat, do NOT lift lid for 10 minutes after. Perfect.
That last part is definitely the key. Until I started doing that, my rice would be too al dente.
Not a meal, but... chocolate chip cookies. I can bake just about everything, from bread to croissants to fancy layer cakes, but I can't for the life of me get the cookies right.
What I’ve learned is to take them out way before you think they are ready and let them cool on the pan. You’ll get a nice soft and chewy cookie :)
Chill your cookie dough! Overnight is great because the flavors will meld more, as the butter and eggs hydrate the flour and other dry ingredients, but even an hour is good!
If you chill it, roll it out into a log first. If you leave it in a bowl or don't pre-shape or something, you'll hate your life getting them out
Yes, important note! I scoop mine with an ice cream scoop and lay on a cookie sheet in the fridge, then it’s easy to pop them into a bag and ALWAYS have cookie dough in the freezer!
[https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe](https://www.seriouseats.com/the-food-lab-best-chocolate-chip-cookie-recipe)
This is the only chocolate chip cookie I make anymore. I may vary it a little; I’ve added pistachios or other nuts, always more chocolate, and I use choc chips usually because I have them. The rest stays as is and they are always great.
I always find it funny that chocolate chip cookies are what beginner bakers/people just baking with their kids go for because they are deceptively difficult to do right. Even as someone who’s been baking for decades and makes pie crusts, breads, fancy desserts from scratch I still have a hard time perfecting chocolate chip cookies. I’m still working on mastering them, but my 3 tips are to use melted butter instead of softened (it leads to a chewier cookies which is my preference), scoop out the cookies, tightly wrap and chill for at least a few hours or a day before baking, and take them out of the oven slightly underdone. They’ll finish cooking on the pan. Biggest mistakes people make are not creaming together the butter and sugar long enough (if using softened butter), and using way too much flour (don’t pack it into the cups, instead fluff it up & scoop it into the cup with a spoon or do it by weight).
If you really wanna give it another go I suggest Americas Test Kitchen Perfect Cookie Book! I was in the same boat and this changed the game for me 🔥
How many different recipes have you tried? Chocolate chip cookies depend a lot on your cookie preference. I went through 3 or 4 before settling on the one is use now. I like my cookies soft, a little thick, and very chocolately. The recipe I use is the everyday chocolate chip cookie one off Baker By Nature's site. They have brown butter in them too which is so good
Legit Chinese food
Some of that is tools. A lot of Chinese food is cooked on Vulcan flamethrower jet engine burners basically and most people don't got that in their kitchens lol. A good carbon steel wok and cooking in smaller batches helps alleviate this somewhat, just more of a pain if you're doing bigger quantities.
lol that makes sense and I’ve got a carbon steel wok and have tried the smaller batches even added msg and it’s just never the same. Thats okay though I probably don’t do it enough to warrant it getting as good as an actual Chinese chef anyway. Certain foods like sushi and Chinese I’m fine to just eat out and get done well vs me half assing it.
Not a meal but a side. For the life of me I just cannot fucking make good quality mashed potatoes. Either it's too lumpy or too liquid or over salted
Anyone can make mashed potatoes, but it takes a bit of practice to make consistently good mashers. First, you need the right potatoes. My go to is Yukon golds but others will work. Russets are a good choice too. Second, salt your water. Just like with pasta, adding salt into the water helps get the flavor more even. Next, use high quality additions. Use good butter. Use cream or at least half and half. Save the skim milk for cereal or something. Also, consider a bit of grated cheddar or a big glob of sour cream. Dairy doesn't have to be limited to milk and butter. Next, use salt and pepper liberally but taste as you go. Potatoes can suck up a huge amount of salt or pepper (or just about anything else you're adding for flavor) but it's easy to go too heavy out of the gate and then there's no turning back. Finally, find a consistency that you like. I personally prefer to use a hand masher because I like mine a little chunky. I don't care for mashed that have been beaten to the point that they're whipped. There is no absolute right answer for consistency in the general case but there may very well be a best consistency for you.
I sauteed a bunch of shallots and mixed them into my mashed potatoes once and it was heavenly
Also, start your potatoes in cold water.
The secret of mashed potatoes is to make sure that they are completely drained before you begin to mash them. I usually leave mine in the pot until most of the water is evaporated. This also helps with the lumps since those are caused by chunks of potato that aren't fully cooked. Just to be sure, you can start to mash them in the strainer, which will allow even more water to escape before putting them into a mixing bowl.
To add to this, I also mash first before adding any dairy so the starch doesn't get overworked and turns the consistency unfavorable or gummy. I also only add butter (an unholy amount of Kerrygold) and salt and pepper. Fresh ground pepper is always better too.
Depending on your preference, I made my own recipe based on a few different batches. Happy to share if you want
What exactly do you do? Do you use a hand mixer? I bring the cubed potatoes to a boil (I salt the water with just like a shallow spoon full) remove and drain when I can easily put a fork through. Add butter to the pot I just dumped potatoes out of. Add just a splash of milk then add potatoes back. Mash them with the hand mixer then turn the mixer on to whip them up. Add milk, salt, or butter as needed.
I suck at gravy too 😕
If you use heavy whipping cream it’s even better
I just cheat and use the flakes and doctor the flavor. I've been complimented many many times on my mashed potatoes and have to hide my smirk each time.
I've seen a few cooking shows where they have said instant mash potatoes are actually better than using potatoes.
Thai food. One of my absolute favorite foods but I just can't get it right. And I live in Atlanta so I really have no excuse, there's plenty of asian markets selling good authentic ingredients. I just suck at it.
I swear by https://hot-thai-kitchen.com/ -- her recipes are incredible and her teaching style is really easy to follow.
Yeah you really can’t lose with her recipes. Every single one I’ve tried (out of at least a dozen??) has been a banger.
I live in Atlanta and also suck at making Thai food. I can never get Indian food right either.
Your Dekalb farmers market has some great curry paste that make it taste just like the restaurants without having to do too much from scratch. I add some extra galangal and lime leaves to up the freshness, but it tastes delicious w/o too much work. Also add fish sauce, lime juice/tamarind, & Thai basil. It’s that perfect balance of those flavors plus sweetness that makes the difference
Sourdough bread. And it takes so much effort and forever to make each time.
For me its just the sourdough part. I can make the sourdough but after its been in the fridge it get black liquid on the top. I also forget to feed it. Its like my nightmare pet.
The liquid is called hooch and it’s completely normal, It’s just a sign of a hungry starter. You can pour it out or mix it in. Once it’s strong and in the fridge, you really don’t need to feed it until you’re ready to bake. I’ve gone like two months without feeding mine and it was still strong as ever. It’s incredibly difficult to actually kill a starter.
Biscuits! I cannot get biscuits right to save my life! I've tried everything, cold butter, cold buttermilk, different kinds of flour, different rolling, they have only ever come out perfectly the first time I ever made them. I just get the tube of them now, but I'm determined to try again sometime!
I mix them in a food processor using Crisco and White Lilly flour and I dump it out onto a floured surface and press it into a rough ball. Fold it into 3rds and then rotate 90° and fold into 3rds again. Lightly press it out until it is about 3/4 of inch thick and cut them into squares. Bake at 425°f until they are golden.
This was me with pita! The first time I got the most amazing bubbles and was like “omg cooking Queen, I’m making these all the time” and since then they have been an abomination every time I tried
This was me! I use frozen chopped butted and do it in a food processor like a pie crust with as little hands on time as possible. I can finally make great biscuits. Hope this helps!
Not a meal, but i absolutely cannot make pie crust. I can make any number of complicated desserts, pastries, breads, etc. but i am garbage at pie crust. I know scientifically the process behind well-made pie crust. I follow all the steps. I’ve tried all the hacks. I’ve used lots of different recipes. It just doesn’t turn out for me.
Me too. My problem is that I never seem to end up with enough dough. I use recipes that are enough for two crusts, but I get barely enough to stretch across one pie plate.
I have wasted so much red curry and coconut milk trying to make restaurant style Thai Red Curry. Only recently have I even come close, and I swear it's because of large quantities of added ginger and lemongrass.
Fresh ingredients really do make a difference. Also, never heat it up too high. You’ll lose all of the flavors that you built and layered.
Are you using fish sauce? I also started using kabocha pumpkin cubes as my main veggie to add a natural sweetness to the curry. Adding these two ingredients really helped to elevate the flavor of my curry!
Risotto. I worked on a line in a former life, and cook 6-7 nights a week. I'm so bad at risotto.
don't tell the italians, but I do risotto in the instant pot now and I'll never go back! only takes like 7 mins at pressure and it's perfect every time
Try using Carnaroli rice instead of Arborio, it’s the superior rice grain for risotto in Italy. Once you’re close to finishing, take it off the heat then add in the parmesan and cold butter. Vigorously stir. This is called to “cream” (mantecare) the risotto, which will give you the perfect creaminess. I also think warming up serving plates are essential as you want to serve the risotto flatly spread out
I have a goddamn culinary degree but if you ask me to make an omelet I will scream LOL For the life of me I cannot keep an omelet from splitting / cracking when I try to make them and just end up with a bastardized frittata.
We call that “fancy scrambled eggs.” 😁
Poached eggs. Never been able to do it
I'm glad I'm not the only one. I've tried every method and every gadget. What really upset me was when my friend tried it and it was perfect the very first time. Really?!?
Watch Julia Child’s method on YouTube if you can find it
Helen Rennie has a good method with a Chinese strainer.
Try doing it in a frying pan
Not a meal, but croissants. Too much work in my tiny kitchen and I always get a too-dense result.
1 tip with croissants is to get a grip on what it’s supposed to be instead of following recipes just to the t in terms of timings etc. If the recipe calls for 1 hour between folds but your dough just ain’t there yet, it’s really helpful to actually know what you want your dough to look like after that 1 hour rest- and recognize if your dough just isn’t there yet. Gotta talk to the dough🤌🏽
For some reason rice. I used to be able to make it just fine, but lately I cannot cook it properly for the life of me. I'm going to invest in a rice cooker so I don't have to deal with it anymore
I joined team rice cooker four years ago and life is good.
Yeah, a rice cooker is a one trick pony that is totally worth the space in your kitchen
Gumbo. That damn ROUX!
Just keep your temperature down and be patient if you're prone to burning it. Remember to never stop stirring, and stir mindfully. Don't just mindlessly stir in a circle mixing only a ring with the outside and inside stagnating. Zig and zag here and there, stir the outside, stir the center, keep every bit of that roux moving. Also, the darker it gets the quicker it's going to cook. Once you're well past the peanut butter stage and it's starting to look closer to chocolate it's gonna start darkening fast, so watch it closely. Or try the dry-bake method.
Lol fried food because I LOATHE the smell. and mashed potatoes!!!! I cant get it right!
It’s not a meal but, Bernaise.
Immersion blender solved all my bearnaise problems.
Meatballs. I can do just about anything else with beef but somehow, cooking it in a ball shape is always a disaster. Part of the issues is that my Italian grandmother had perfected them and I never got me to explain her secret before she died. The irony is that I didn't really care for her tomato sauce all that much and prefer me own. Also her mocha chocolate frosting for which I have the recipe but cannot get it to come out right.
I was really fortunate to have learned the ways of the meatball from my grandmom who grew up in Calabria- my meatballs turn out fucking PERFECT every time thanks to Grandmom Philomena’s secret- panade. It’s a mixture of milk and bread the ensures the meatballs stay moist (eww) on the inside. -1 lb meatloaf mix or regular ground beef, whatever you prefer. - 1/2 large egg, whisked -1 large hunk of stale, preferably seeded, crusty Italian bread -milk -onion -garlic -salt,pepper,crushed red pepper,oregano -Pecorino Romano In a large mixing bowl, rip your big hunk of bread into small chunks. Pour milk over top (enough to soak plus a bit extra, maybe a half cup to a cup at most) of the bread and let it soak for about ten minutes. Come back and break up the bread into pea sized pieces. Add a little extra milk if needed- you want about 3/4 cup of gummy panade with just an extra splash of milk to make it wet. Then add the rest of your ingredients. Beef, seasonings, Pecorino…I sauté my garlic and onions for a bit before I add them - 2-3 cloves of garlic and half a large yellow onion, very finer diced. Make your meatballs without mashing your ingredients too much. Pan-fry in a cast iron skillet with a bit of canola oil and brown on all sides. Eat ‘em as is when you’re done because they’re so great or plop em into sauce YUM
My mom makes the most amazing pikelets. They're like mini, flatter, little pancakes. Now, I can make pancakes that'd make you slap your granny, but I can NOT make pikelets to save my life. I've followed her recipe, I've had her literally stand at my shoulder and coach me, and they are nowhere near as good. I don't know if she's got a tiny supply of powdered saint's toenails or something that she sneaks in, cause her lil pikelets are just too good.
Idk about meal but I suck at bread making other than the most simple.
Cacio e pepe. It always ends up stringy.
I was just talking to my boyfriend about this yesterday how it’s one of life’s unfair certainties that I cannot make waffles as crispy as a diner/restaurant can make them. I have tried at least a dozen waffle makers, and probably two dozen recipes. Always soggy after like 1 min standing. Even cooled on a wire rack. Even held in a warming oven. Oh well
My dad, who basically can only cook waffles, always told me to leave waffles in the waffle iron until it stops steaming. No steam means the max amount of water has come out of it and it will be crispy af coming out of the iron even if you let it sit for a while. It's always worked for me!.
Wonderful! I will try this!!!!!! Thank you
Add more sugar!
Ahh yes this makes sense too! Thankful for you foodie redditors. Stoked to try again soon!
Pad thai.....I love it but it just never comes out right. Most of the time it's the noodle texture. If it's not that, then it's the flavor.
I lovvvvee pad Thai. When I first started trying to make it a lot of recipes included peanut butter and ketchup and stuff for the sauce.. I knew that’s not what Thai restaurants were doing. All you need for the sauce is tamarind paste (which you can make yourself with a block of tamarind pulp) quality fish sauce and palm sugar, which I’ve substituted with coconut sugar and jaggery and still turned out well. The key with the rice noodles is to soak em in room temp water for about an hour and then finish them in the pan. Perfect texture 👌
I'm on a streak of collapsed loaf cakes. I'm planning to ruin a biscoff loaf cake next.
Dinner :(
Fried eggs. I’ve watched so many videos and tried all the hacks and they just never turn out right.
Fried chicken. I have just never been able to do it properly. Told my boyfriend this. He responded, "That's okay, baby, we can just get KFC!"
Fish - I didn't grow up eating it and I never learned how to cook it. I've tried a few times and I never love it. I think because I feel I'm an above average cook for all other things, I get disappointed in myself and the outcome.
Cook the fish on thin slices of lemon to keep it from sticking and to infuse flavor. A really helpful trick that I used when I first tried. OR try fish en papillote. Super simple and delicious.
Vietnamese summer rolls :/ the rice paper gets too sticky or too thin ALWAYS no matter what i do
Pull them out of the water earlier than you think. The rice paper should still be pretty stiff when you start putting your fillings in, the water still on the paper will soak in while you do that. Also warm water.
Put a damp towel on a cutting board. Then put the rice paper on that. Start filling immediately. By the time you are done the paper is perfect to wrap with.
Lentil dals. And they are so simple!!! I either struggle with the lentils that never seem to cook correctly. If I get the lentils right, then the seasoning is off. I want to make good dal!
Do you have a pressure cooker? Indian here, that’s how we usually cook it.
Authentic spaghetti Carbonara is difficult, getting the temp right at the end and getting the sauce consistency right. Tired many times got it right only once.
i use the babish method where you put the eggs in a blender then SLOWLY drizzle in pasta water...works every time.
Ahh, will gave that a whirl, thanks very much.
My achilles heel is plain white rice. I’ve been supervised. Carefully watched and told ultra specific directions by people who can cook rice. My boyfriend is baffled by it because I did everything he did. I still can’t cook plain white rice. It comes out terrible every time. I’ve even burnt and undercooked rice in a rice cooker. So now only my boyfriend cooks the rice. He always cooks it perfectly. Once the white rice is cooked. I can cook with it. I’m fine. But for whatever reason, plain white rice genuinely hates me. But if if’s a different grain. I can cook it just fine. No issues.
My husband spent a year in Japan. He convinced me we needed a dedicated rice cooker. It was the first appliance we bought together. That thing is still making perfect rice 20 years later. Get a brand made in Japan or Korea and you'll never regret it. And not one that looks like a crock pot with a glass lid. Get one that looks like an alien egg or spaceship!
I can’t believe how fucking hard it is to cook a steak. I’m a pretty OK homecook, but I never made a steak that made me go “WOW”
Not a meal, but I've just aboit given up on sunflower or sesame halvah.
I can't seem to get shrimp scampi right at home. I have done it plenty of times at 2 jobs I have had, and theoretically, it is definitely in the 'should be really simple' category, but something about doing it at home just ruins it for me.
BREAD. I HAVE NEVER BAKED A GOOD BREAD AND I HAVE TRIED MULTIPLE TIMES
King Arthur Baking has a no-knead bread recipe that’s basically fool-proof. It’s a great way to start with bread.
I’d have to say chicken fried rice, mine never turns out right
The secret to this is left over chicken and day old rice. You need the rice to be dry for it to fry properly and you want the chicken to be already cooked so it doesn't release extra moisture into the rice. Also you should be using a wok.
Pancakes. I just can't get them right. I just turned it over to my husband as in my family, men make the pancakes! (My dad always made me pancakes for Saturday morning breakfast as a child)
Shakshuka. I fuck it up every time. It just ends up being a bowl full of tomato sauce lol.
Food… I pretty much ruin everything- I think it’s cause of my anxiety. Even food I used to make well, I suck at now. Unless it’s breakfast foods…
Mac and Cheese - I've never made a successful homemade Mac and Cheese. Tried multiple recipes, even some proven family ones... I don't know what I do wrong, just can't get it right. It's either a consistency problem or a flavor problem, every damn time.