Recipes & Food

I used to feel guilty asking chefs for recipes. In a roundabout, nonsensical way, by making that dish at home it felt like I was taking business away from the creator. However, I made one exception in my seven years as a restaurant critic at the Chicago Tribune. It was for a marinated Chinese eggplant side dish I had at Urban Belly, a restaurant I consider the Momofuku Noodle Bar of the Midwest. That restaurant, from chef Bill Kim, helped usher in the mainstreaming of ramen culture in Chicago.

The smoked rib tips and hot links of Chicago's South Side represent an indispensable regional barbeque style, but half the city doesn't know it exists.

Welcome to American Sandwiches Week, a celebration of the mighty sandwich through the lens of Americana.

Umami Issues is The Takeout’s exploration of cooking food with the rich, savory, mysterious taste sensation known as umami.

Let’s not mince words: This here is one of the most delicious dishes I’ve had the pleasure of eating all year. It’s a mushroom bolognese tagliatelle from the Chicago restaurant Somerset, helmed by Michelin-starred chef Lee Wolen. As a lifelong carnivore, this vegetarian pasta feels like the last thing in the world that could be labeled vegetarian—it’s a level 10 in richness and a level 14 in indulgence (my scale goes from 1 to 5). Even though the dish feels meaty and substantial, you’re only two ingredients away in the final step—butter and Parmesan—from making the dish wholly vegan. But th...

As a lifelong Chicagoan, sure I’ve heard the many cracks about how dumb we all are to eat deep-dish when other pizza exists. They culminate in this particular legendary rant by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, who calls deep-dish “a fucking casserole.”

With good-quality Dutch cocoa powder and plenty of butter, homemade Oreos are easier than you'd think to make. Plus, they're just as sturdy and dunkable as the original—no squishy filling here! BraveTart shows you how.

It's not as well known in the States as tonkotsu, but rich and creamy tori paitan ramen, made with a base of chicken broth, can be every bit as tasty. Here's how to make a relatively quick version, either from scratch or using leftovers from our chintan shoyu ramen recipe, with the help of your pressure cooker.

Scented with almond and anise, these crunchy homemade biscotti (twice-baked Italian cookies) are as classic as they are simple to make.

Storing your food right is essential. Doing it wrong means wasted food and money. Here's how to do it right.

You’re on the go but breakfast is essential. Before you leave the house you take a last glance at your kitchen worktop and you see cupcakes and a fruit and nut mixture – what do you choose? How about a combination of the two? Enter these breakfast muffins.

This Ottolenghi chocolate fridge cake should be seen as a bit of a pantry cake as well, using what you have in the cupboard. All sorts of different-flavoured chocolate (ginger chocolate, chilli chocolate and so forth), biscuits, nuts, dried fruit or alcohol can be used, instead of what’s listed here.

A relatively simple and straightforward method for producing all the components of a classic clear shoyu ramen.

Big cities don't hog all the good restaurants. These are the small-town restaurants worth road-tripping for.

The taco is deceptively simple by reputation, but there are dozens of fillings that require painstaking preparation. Here are the best on...

You can't have a bowl of ramen without wheat-based alkaline noodles.

Butternut squash is thinly sliced crosswise a la Swedish-style Hasselback potatoes, then roasted with a sweet and garlicky glaze and crunchy breadcrumb topping. It's a perfect fall and winter side dish.

Using the reverse-sear method, you can turn the underappreciated tri-tip into a special-occasion beef roast, without breaking the bank.

This quick and easy frosting comes together in less than ten minutes, with just five ingredients—including salt and vanilla! With a recipe that simple, details matter, so use the best ingredients and be patient when whipping the frosting to ensure that it's as light and fluffy as can be.

It's hard to find a bad plate of nachos, but the 21 creations here represent the best of the best. These are the best nachos in America.

All the sides you need to round out your Thanksgiving spread, from casseroles to dinner rolls.

Using a pressure cooker like the Instant Pot, we're able to make deeply rich and flavorful beef stock in a fraction of the traditional cooking time. The best sauces, soups, stews, and braises are now within reach.

Over a dozen Thanksgiving stuffing recipes to take the iconic side dish to new places.

Classic vanilla shortbread get an upgrade with brown butter, toasted sugar, and malted milk powder, ingredients that layer in all kinds of warm and nutty flavors. The result is a deceptively simple cookie that's rich and buttery, with hints of caramel and butterscotch. Thanks to their low moisture content, these sandy shortbread cookies will keep for weeks in an airtight container, so load up the cookie jar now!

This is my nam prik noom recipe. Nam prik noom is an amazing northern Thai green chili dip that goes well with sticky rice, fried meat, and boiled vegetables.

Get beyond pad Thai and get these amazing, lesser-known Thai dishes on your plate.

A chimera of meat that can only be consumed when correctly cooked. Learn the thermal secrets to making this meat-monster right!

Our writers pick the most important, game-changing food innovations made by every state in America. Even North Dakota.

With just chicken liver, hard-boiled eggs, onion, and fat, a world-class spread can be yours. This chopped liver recipe helps you get the result you want, whether it's more savory or more sweet.

The key to truly great unsweetened cornbread is to use the best stone-ground cornmeal you can find, ideally freshly ground from a small mill. If you can't get that, a tiny bit of sugar is just enough to make lesser stone-ground cornmeals work.