Notes about Recipes in this book

• The Lee Bros. country captain

  • SilverSage on August 16, 2015

    Loved this recipe! I topped it with cilantro instead of parsley at the end, because that's what I had, but other than that, I followed it precisely. The recipe claims to make 4 servings, but in our house 12 chicken thighs is 12 servings. Because of that, I'd increase the veggies next time or cut the chicken in half to make a more rounded meal for us. Definitely staying in the rotation.

  • averythingcooks on March 27, 2017

    I agree with Silversage - this is REALLY good. I used boneless, skinless thighs, dried cranberries and sorta changed the dried chili instructions ( toasted then tore up/seeded a dried ancho - soaked in broth as instructed then decanted the broth into the pot - rather trying to remove the dried chili from the pot ). For sure not an improvement / game changer compared to original instructions but the most important thing is that I'm eating a big bowl of this while writing this note .......it is simply delicious !

• Mike and Jack Serio's muffuletta

  • britt on March 26, 2011

    This was pretty close to how I, admittedly hazily, remember muffulettas. I used dried basil and oregano, 1/3 the quantity called for fresh. I pulsed the olive salad in a food processor to cut it into smaller pieces. Quantities given for the olive salad yield two cups, but one sandwich uses only one cup.

• Melba Wilson's Southern fried chicken and eggnog waffles

  • Rinshin on July 07, 2018

    For National Fried Chicken day (7/6/18), I made the fried chicken without the waffles. I had no sazonador seasoning so made a scratch sazon seasoning. The chicken was very tender and moist from buttermilk mixture but did not notice any mustard taste and not sure what that does to the chicken. Added more seasoning than specified in the recipe including Lawry seasoning and garlic powder with the buttermilk mixture. However, I did notice that flour coating was missing some salty component after frying and I will add more salt next time. Overall, very satisfying fried chicken.

• Maribel Araujo and Aristides Barrios's pabellon arepa

  • MmeFleiss on April 10, 2016

    Recipe here, although the book uses half as much sugar (for both beans and beef) and tomato paste for 1.5 lbs of beef. http://nbclatino.com/2012/06/19/making-the-perfect-venezuelan-arepas/

• Mike Maroni's Grandma Maroni's meatballs (100-year-old recipe)

  • Frogcake on May 14, 2016

    Gramma Maroni is our adopted Italian grandmother since I started making these several years ago. Theses are the best Italian meatballs I've ever tasted!

  • averythingcooks on April 03, 2017

    The sauce was very good but not sure how much different from other versions I've made (but I'll never be shy again about adding garlic....this one called for 12 cloves and it was not too much ) BUT the meatballs were DELICIOUS ....... I was questioning 1 1/2 cups of the grated cheese but really - these were fabulous !

• Bobby Flay's macaroni and cheese carbonara

  • Frogcake on May 14, 2016

    This is a five star Mac and cheese recipe. You cannot be on a diet when you eat this one. Definitely a keeper!

• Joanne Chang's sticky sticky buns

  • Frogcake on May 14, 2016

    I've tried this recipe as well as Bobby's and prefer this one. I've been making this for Christmas Day breakfast for a few years now such that they are our family tradition. Extremely yummy!

• Bobby Flay's Yucatán chicken puffy tacos with peanut-red chile barbecue sauce and red cabbage slaw

  • averythingcooks on October 20, 2023

    I came here for the chicken & sauce but skipped the puffy taco part. I marinated the chicken as instructed, made 1/4 of the very flavourful sauce (which was still lots - enough for this dinner for 2 & some to freeze for another BF recipe from a different book) and then pan roasted the thighs with the sauce spooned over. I served this over a bed of cheese grits with a side of coleslaw (from a different book) and it was a delicious, repeat worthy dinner.

• Bobby Flay's twelve-chile chili

  • averythingcooks on August 30, 2021

    I did my best here to match BF's chile count but ultimately I ended up with a really delicious pot of "10-chile" chili as I can't get (& didn't grow) serranos and my habaneros aren't quite ripe enough. A final taste after the long simmer was great but I then I added some black beans & corn as I usually do with any chili. This spent the night in the fridge to be eaten on the 2nd day and I think that delay really did improve the already good flavours. Assuming a well stocked pantry, I would make this again for sure.

• Cindy Reed Wilkins's Cin chili

  • averythingcooks on March 25, 2017

    I made this as a try at an authentic Texas chili (instead of my usual somewhat freestyle beef, chipotle, black bean and corn version). It certainly smelled great simmering away but when my husband was asked to to taste late in the process, his response was "good but when are the big chunks of colorful peppers, black beans and corn going in?" Our verdict was to stick with my usual BUT I did like her technique of adding fractions of the seasonings at various stages of the simmer - not all at once. This I will try with my version.

• Bobby Flay's Philly cheesesteak

  • averythingcooks on October 07, 2023

    I scaled this down to 2 sandwiches using an 8 oz piece of sirloin steak. We skipped the mushrooms this time, adding sweet peppers to the poblanos & cubanelles. The cheese sauce, made with aged provolone, came together quickly and added lots of creamy flavour but when we assembled the sandwiches, it was clear that this was going to be a knife & fork affair. No matter...because we loved these.

• Bobby Flay's country captain chicken

  • averythingcooks on September 14, 2020

    This is my 3rd country captain (of the 4 from my books) and it - like the others - is really good! I cut it in 1/2 and used 6 boneless skinless thighs. I then pretty much followed it exactly (including the homemade “curry mix” which I think has 8 ingredients itself) but I did add a small can of coconut milk during the final simmer rather than cooking the rice in it as BF suggests AND I added added some mango chutney at the end (in place of additional honey). We are eating it over rice with a sprinkling of slivered almonds & sliced green onions and T just pronounced it “awesome”.

• Bobby Flay's green chile cheeseburgers

  • averythingcooks on January 16, 2023

    A version of this burger appears in 3 of his books but with subtle changes (different pickled onions, queso vs sliced cheese, the green chile relish recipe). I chose this one & we both liked them. The relish (with 3 different chiles) is a great condiment & I like my pickled onions this way (red wine vinegar). I cut the queso (tasty & easy to spice up) back to 1/3 for 2 burgers - 1/4 cup / burger would be too much for us. T took some convincing re: the crumbled tortilla chips, but he agreed that the crunch was a good addition. Make them every time we want burgers? No... but they will be a good way change up routine.

• Bobby Flay's red curry-marinated skirt steak fajitas

  • averythingcooks on November 21, 2020

    We tried this fajita recipe to compare to BF's throwdown competitor (Funky Fusion Fajitas) and hands down Father Leo wins in this house.. Not only did we not think that this red curry marinated meat was the right flavour for fajitas, we didn't really like the meat on its own that much either :( The pickled peppers were okay but we much prefer his version from Grill It (with red wine vinegar/served on sausage sandwiches). Also, using BBQ sauce on the onions with the red curry flavour on the meat also seemed odd. This was pretty much a miss for us.

• Father Leo Patalinghug's funky fusion fajitas

  • averythingcooks on October 18, 2020

    I used a 15 oz flank steak and made a 1/2 recipe of the marinade. The recipe says to BBQ for 6 minutes per side but we stuck to our usual 4 minute timing and the beef was perfect. These were delicious fajitas which included red & yellow peppers, red onions, a good drizzle of reserved marinade, grated cheese and the really good “screamin’ sour cream”. I served these with a corn salad on the side and we both agreed - awesome!

• Bobby Flay's bourbon barbecue chicken with sixteen-spice rub

  • averythingcooks on November 25, 2022

    I just made the sixteen spice rub (quite happy that I had all 16 ingredients on hand!) to use on boneless, skinless chicken thighs that we grilled and then served over a tomato, spinach & white bean bake. The rub gave great flavour to the chicken and I am happy to have this little jar on my shelf for more uses.

• Roasted red potato salad

  • averythingcooks on October 15, 2023

    This is a really good potato salad. Seasoning the potatoes with cayenne & garlic powder and then roasting them (as opposed to boiling/steaming) gave lots of flavour and the dressing (as written) was very tasty...but I also chose to thin it a bit with pickled onion brine. Celery, green onions etc would all be good add-ins for next time but even this pretty straightforward version (just potatoes, hard boiled eggs & dressing) was great.

• Provolone sauce

  • averythingcooks on October 07, 2023

    I made this aged provolone & Parmesan sauce for his version of Philly cheesesteaks and we both really liked it. I now have it in mind for other uses like nachos.

• Marinara sauce

  • averythingcooks on January 28, 2021

    With chopped onions & garlic and lots of fresh herbs, this was a great marinara sauce. As it used a mix of both whole & diced canned tomatoes, I ran the immersion blender through it at the end. I’ve made lots of different simple marinaras and T just requested that we make this one again.

• Bobby Flay's grilled Brie and goat cheese with bacon and green tomato

  • Kduncan on October 12, 2020

    Nice quick recipe to go through some of our CSA green tomatoes. Will definitely be doing again.