Category Archives: Best Simple Recipes (The)

From America’s Test Kitchen

Chipotle-Grilled Pork Tacos

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See? I told you I’d be back.

If this book has taught me anything, it is that I kind of like coleslaw. Nominally, this post is about pork tenderloins, halved and slathered with a mayo-pineapple juice-chipotle chiles-garlic sauce and grilled. But I really want to talk about the coleslaw that is included in the recipe. It was good. No. It was fantastic.

You take a bag of coleslaw mix, add in pineapple chunks and mix it all together with some of the mayo mixture from above. The recipe tells you to top the now-sliced pork tenderloin with this slaw and use a warmed corn tortilla to deliver it to your mouth. Okay, if you really want to bother with corn tortillas. If you don’t, may I humbly suggest that you place a heaping scoop of slaw on your plate and top that with the pork? Either way (and I tried both, several times), you won’t be disappointed.

The mayo mixture is sweet and tangy from the pineapple juice and a little spicy from the chipotle chiles (it is easy to adjust the heat here-just add more or less of the chiles). The pork is tender and smoky from the grill, while the coleslaw adds a nice crunch with the unexpected, but very nice, sweetness of the pineapple. My only complaint, and it is a very minor one, was that my mayo mixture was very thin and didn’t really stay on the pork (it mostly ran off and caused flare-ups on the grill). I might add more mayo next time (or less pineapple juice) to keep it thicker.

Grilled Spicy Lime Chicken with Black Bean Salad

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Bored with chicken? Then you need to make this recipe. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs are marinated in a mixture of lime juice, oil, chipotle chiles, honey, garlic and cumin, then grilled. That same marinade is also used to dress a salad of black beans, bell peppers and avocado. The flavors are fresh and vibrant, perfect for a late summer dinner.

While this is the last recipe out of this book, I expect to come back to it often, especially during the summer when grilling is my preferred method of cooking. I really on scratched the surface of the grilling chapter, and there are at least four more recipes that I want to try out.

From the first recipe that I made out of this book, I knew it would become one of my favorite go-to books for quick dinners, and I’ve already made several of the recipes more than once, such as the quick beef and chili recipe.

Besides really great dishes, The Best Simple Recipes also includes little tips and tricks. In true Cooks Illustrated style, the authors talk about taste test results (the best Dijon mustard? The best ketchup?) as well as tips for keeping basil fresh longer. And most of the recipes have simple sides that can be prepared while the main dish cooks.

I love this book.

Parmesan Pork Cutlets

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Bryan’s been craving fried chicken for, oh, forever. This isn’t fried chicken, but it is crunchy. And moist. And simple, simple, simple.

(I fell a bit like a broken record when talking about the recipes from this book. Everything is good. And simple. And fast. I need some new adjectives.)

So, Parmesan Pork Cutlets. You take thin-cut boneless pork chops, dredge then in flour, beaten egg and panko breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan. Next, you saute the meat for a few minutes in olive oil, until both sides are crunchy brown. Then eating commences.

Do I need to say anything more?

Chicken Breasts Amandine

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I’m getting pretty spoiled with this cookbook; this was another quick and satisfying recipe.

You start out by cutting chicken breasts in half and then pounding them until they are quite thin. The chicken cutlets are dredged in flour, then egg and finally panko bread crumbs and sliced almonds. The cutlets are then briefly sauteed.

Unfortunately, I did have a major problem with the almonds burning. It was a bit of a juggling act to get the chicken cooked through before the nuts completely burned. We were able to pick off the most grievously blackened almonds, and the chicken was moist and flavorful, with a really crunchy crust from the panko.

I served this with bell pepper coleslaw (also from the book) made with bagged coleslaw mix and a simply dressing of mayonnaise, vinegar and honey. To jazz things up, you added a sliced bell pepper to the coleslaw and dress it at the last minute, so everything stays crunchy. I also added sesame seeds since I had some laying around. Neither Bryan nor I like coleslaw, but this was really good and went well with the chicken.

Quick Pork Cassoulet

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Porky goodness!

(Anybody else remember the Frugal Gourmet and how he used to proclaim his love for piggy?)

Anyway, here’s another really good recipe out of The Best Simple Recipe. This may not be traditional cassoulet, but it’s fast and easy, and makes a great dinner. You start out by browning chunks of pork tenderloin, sliced Kielbasa sausage and onions. Then you add diced tomatoes, cannellini beans, garlic and chicken broth to the pan and simmer for about 10 minutes. Then you enjoy porky goodness.

Like the quick bean chili recipe, this recipe has you puree half the beans. This gives the cassoulet a thick, silky texture that you’d normally get from hours of cooking. Like most of the other dishes we’ve cooked out of this book, leftovers were just as good as the first night’s meal. The only thing I would change would be to add another can of beans. After pureeing half of them, there weren’t that many whole beans in the finished dish.

Shrimp Romesco

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I think I’ve said it here before, but shrimp is not one of my favorite foods. But when I saw this recipe, I was intrigued enough to try it. Also, I had a big bag of almonds sitting in my cupboard.

Romesco sauce is a classic Spanish sauce of red peppers, thickened with almonds. In the Cooks Illustrated version, the sauce is made with jarred roasted red peppers and garlic, and the almonds are toasted with bread crumbs and sprinkled on the shrimp at the end.

This dish is fantastically simply. The sauce comes together quickly, in the food processor, and the shrimp take only a few minutes of cooking. The end result is a bright, tasty dish that even I liked. We had a lot of sauce left over, so the next night, I broiled some frozen mahi mahi and spooned the sauce over the fish.

Parmesan Chicken with Cherry Tomato Salad

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I could tell you how easy this was, but I’ve already done that with most of the other recipes out of this book. I could tell you how tasty it is, but I’ve done that with just about every other dish out of this book as well.

Instead, I’ll just say, “Go make this. You won’t be disappointed.”

Chicken cutlets are covered in flour, dipped in egg and coated in a mixture of panko bread crumbs and grated parmesan cheese. Then you saute the chicken in a bit of olive oil, a couple of minutes per side.

While the chicken is cooking, cut up some tomatoes (the recipe called for cherry tomatoes, but I used small regular tomatoes and quartered them) and chop some fresh basil. Toss the tomatoes with the basil, olive oil and salt and pepper.

When the chicken is done, serve it with a pile of the tomato salad. So good.

Chicken and Spinach Farfalle

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I was having a bad day when I made this dish. Everything seemed to go wrong. I used too small of a pot to cook the pasta and went through three more pots putting this dish together (which resulted in cool pasta, unwilted spinach and a pile of dishes). I kept dropping the knife as I was cutting up the chicken (fortunately not on any of my extremities). And I burned most of the pine nuts instead of toasting them. Even after that the dish still came out fine.

This is pretty much a simpified pasta alfredo with spinach and chicken. You start off by browning chicken, then making up a quick sauce of garlic, lemon zest and juice and a half of a cup of cream. Meanwhile, you cook a pot of pasta and drain it, reserving about a half of a cup of the pasta cooking water. The pasta, sauce, chicken, spinach, pine nuts, Parmesan cheese and the reserved water are put back into the pot and mixed together. The heat of the pasta wilts the spinach, and the reserved water thins the cream sauce.

My biggest complaint about this dish is that I wanted more sauce. In fact, when we ate the leftovers the next day, I made another batch of the sauce. So, if you like your pasta a little saucy, double the sauce.

Oh, and make sure you use a big pot to make the pasta.

Quick Beef and Bean Chili

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This is what happens when I take a break from cooking — Bryan steps in and knocks out a winner. Maybe I should take a break more often . . .

I warily approached the preparation of Sunday’s dinner. I had offered to cook in a rare show of generosity to my wife. Let’s face it: When one person kinda sorta enjoys something, and another person oh-my-goodness loves loves loves it, the person who loves it is going to do it more often. Plus, on weeknights I’m not home until 6 p.m., and neither of us wants to eat at 7:30 or 8, so dinner duties have fallen heavily on my wife. That doesn’t mean I feel no guilt about it.

The beef chili dinner from The Best Simple Recipes was a great choice. It truly is a simple recipe, not just in preparation, but in the ingredient list. It’s got meat! Each of the other ingredients (an onion, beans, cumin, chili powder, garlic and just a touch of sugar) serves a specific flavor purpose. Nothing is added unnecessarily.

It’s a “mix together and stir” recipe, with two exceptions. The first exception is to cook the meat (hamburger in this case) and onion for a few minutes before mixing everything else in. That’s a no-brainer, unless you like mad cow disease.

The second exception is Cooks Illustrated’s trick to pulling this recipe off in 30 minutes instead of two hours. Puree half of the beans and tomatoes before adding them to the meat and onions. The puree allows the chili to be thick without adding hours of cooking time.

Top it with cheese and sour cream, and you’re done in a half hour to 45 minutes. Trista made cornbread to go with it, and I will let her add her own thoughts on that. (Hint: It was delicious.)

The chili itself is quite good. We enjoyed two dinners each from it, so it’s certainly fit to be eaten as is. But I see this recipe as merely the starting point. The paucity and sheer efficiency of ingredients provide lots of room to customize this to your tastes. Make it hotter, make it thicker, add black beans, use steak or chicken instead of hamburger – the list goes on. Will we cook this again? Yes, but it probably won’t be the same way twice.

My wife, bless her heart, mostly stayed away from the kitchen. I did detect once that a burner had been adjusted slightly, but she insists that she didn’t touch it, blaming it instead upon a “wascawy wabbit.” I’m not sure if I should believe her, but since she is the Best! Wife! Ever!, I choose to take her at her word.

Grilled Steaks with Homemade Steak Sauce

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My days of buying steak sauce are over, unless I get lazy, but even that isn’t an excuse. This sauce is quick and easy, and you probably have all the ingredients in your pantry right now.

There’s a secret ingredient in this sauce. If you didn’t know what it was, you probably wouldn’t be able to guess it. The secret is raisins, plumped with hot water and then pureed. They disappear into the sauce, and give it a spicy sweetness.

The other main ingredients in the sauce are ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and vinegar. Whirl everything together in the food processor until smooth and spoon it over grilled steaks, grilled hamburgers, roasted potatoes, etc.