14 best new cookbooks

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CHUTNEY-GLAZED SPATCHCOCKED CHICKEN

It turns out that chutney (mango or tamarind) makes a terrific glaze when mixed with melted butter, lemon juice and turmeric. Brush half the mixture on before roasting and the balance after 40 minutes. Use the reserved sauce for serving. Simple and delicious.

CHARRED BROCCOLI WITH MISO VINAIGRETTE

Dress broccoli with miso and oil and then broil or grill until charred and crisp-tender. Toss with a dressing of miso, oil, vinegar, mirin and ginger. Serve with optional scallions.

SPAGHETTI WITH LEMON, PARMESAN AND HERBS

Olive oil, lemon zest and juice, grated parmesan and black pepper are whisked and added to cooked pasta with reserved cooking water. To finish, toss with fresh herbs plus additional cheese and EVOO. Marvelous!

ROASTED CARROTS WITH TURMERIC-HONEY

Nothing could be simpler. High-roast carrots for 20 minutes and finish with a drizzle of turmeric/honey/cumin. Finish with lime juice and zest. Wow—nothing like what I grew up with!

SKIRT STEAK AND GREEN CHILI TACOS

Skirt steak is seared in a skillet followed by onions and poblanos. Slice the steak, toss with its juice and lime juice, and serve with the onions and chilies in warm tortillas.

BLUEBERRY CRUMBLE WITH OATS AND TAHINI

Blueberries are tossed with oats and sugar and then topped with a crumble of oats, tahini, cinnamon, sugar and butter, Baked in a pie plate for half an hour—big flavor with little work.

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Beautiful Boards: 50 Amazing Snack Boards for Any Occasion

The goal is to be able to prep the board in advance so that you can also enjoy the experience with your loved ones and have little maintenance to do throughout and minimal dishes to clean up afterward. Making a successful board does require some thought, but once you understand the concept, it will come to you as a meal and entertaining option over and over again.

ANYTIME BOARDS

You can make any occasion go from good to great with a beautiful and delicious food board. All of these anytime boards have a wonderful variety of goodies to make everyone happy. They are easy and quick to build, making them perfect for any gathering, big or small. My family knows that if I don’t have the time or the ingredients to cook a meal, there’s going to be a great board built with what we have on hand. So, go ahead and invite the neighbors over for a dinner of snacks on Sunday night, or put the kids to bed early so you can enjoy some peace and quiet with your partner—a beautiful board can be built at a moment’s notice.

ENTERTAINING AND SPECIAL OCCASION BOARDS

I strongly believe that any gathering of friends and family is a special occasion, a reason to celebrate. And special occasions call for special spreads. These are the boards that are sure to wow your crowd with their beauty and deliciousness. They’re inviting and celebratory. Whether it’s a birthday, the big game, an engagement, or just a special Saturday night dinner with great friends, these stunning boards will keep everyone happily grazing for hours.

SEASONAL AND HOLIDAY BOARDS

No decorations are needed with these creatively designed holiday boards, as they are masterpieces in themselves. Everyone will rave over how festive and delicious they are. They are almost too beautiful or too cute to eat . . . ALMOST! With coordinating colors and seasonal snacks coming together in very thoughtful arrangements, these boards are a great way to get into the spirit of any holiday season.

BREAKFAST AND BRUNCH BOARDS

From bagels to booze, I’m here to help you make the most important meal of the day the best meal of the day. These epic breakfast and brunch boards will get everyone up and at ’em, whether they’re a morning person or not. These boards are built to bring everyone together and let them get creative with their meal or cocktail. Seeing the eagerness in everyone’s eyes as they dig into these boards is what it’s all about. This is a great way to start or end the day, especially if you’re big on “brinner” (breakfast for dinner) like we are.

MEAL BOARDS

These are our meals—our go-to dinners and weekend lunches. When I prepare a meal, more times than not, I will serve it on a board. We’ve had great success eating as a family this way. Our kids are engaged in the meal and actually eat the food. Everyone gets so excited about what’s on the board, and we all take such pride in preparing our own plates. It’s astonishing how much better the kids eat when the meal is presented on a board compared to when I pre-plate the same exact same food for them. These boards are also great for entertaining because they initiate conversation and inspire creativity, making mealtime memorable.

DESSERT BOARDS

Dessert boards are the way to go when treating a crowd to something sweet. These spectacularly sweet boards can be mostly prepped in advance, making it easy to quickly serve dessert when you’re ready. They are the perfect ending to any dinner party or the main event at a special celebration. Most of these boards are build-your-own—an experience to remember. We can all agree that building our own s’mores or ice cream sundaes is pretty special!

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Herbed' Butter with Warm Bread

Tomato, Melon, and Hot Chile Salad with Burrata

Smashed Fava Beans, Pecorino, and Mint on Toast

Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins

Turnip Salad with Yogurt, Herbs, and Poppy Seeds

Carrot Pie in a Pecan Crust

Raw Winter Squash with Brown Butter, Pecans, and Currants

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My first cookbook, Deep Run Roots, is a love letter to Eastern North Carolina, the place I’ve lived my whole life.

But it really doesn’t represent the way I cook at home most days. At home and at my home-away-from-home office (a place we affectionately call VHQ), I’m a modern day domestic engineer who calls on a roster of flavor heroes to make simple food fantastic food. These things, my kitchen MVPs, are what this book is about.

If you come on this journey with me, if you go to the mat and make a hero or two, and then make a recipe or three that builds on that hero, I promise with every ounce of my highly accomplished self that you will be inspired.

This book will change the way you cook, the way you think about what’s in your fridge, the way you see yourself in an apron. I swear on my dog Gracie’s grave that you will be empowered, confident, dare I say even nimble, in your kitchen. Your journey to make your cooking taste good will shatter the chains of recipes you’ve struggled to follow. It will reshape, even streamline, the time you spend feeding yourself and the ones you love.

Roast Chicken Toast

To all the toast I’ve cooked before—I’m sorry you don’t hold a candle to this guy. Basically a piece of bread transformed into a crouton under roasting chicken legs, the bread itself is squishy and rich with chicken schmaltz in some spots and astonishingly crisp for the same reason in others. It’s stupid easy to do, makes use of not-fresh bread, and is a revelation to eat. I seriously can’t understand why we haven’t been doing it for centuries. So while I’m probably not the first person to roast chicken over bread, I want to be the one who takes the technique mainstream.

Cherry Tomato Baked Feta…Surprise!

I’ve taken to the habit of calling something a “Surprise” when I don’t know how to classify it. But if you think about the Mediterranean tradition of dipping bread into seasoned olive oil, then you add cherry tomatoes and feta and then you bake it, you have the gist of what’s happening here. Not technically a dip, but perhaps more of a broken spoon-able sauce or spread, LGD stands in for the “seasoned” part of the olive oil and brings more pizzazz with it than dried oregano ever did. Surprise! While the gateway vehicle for this dip is toast, I love it over grits, pureed cauliflower, couscous, fish, or chicken. I’ve paired it with swordfish here because swordfish is meaty enough to balance the action—but let’s be clear, this recipe is about the Surprise, not its companion.

Collards Break Character

I stumble around the question of how I find inspiration for new dishes because generally the process is more research than revelation. But when my friend Von Diaz made her collards braised in coconut milk on an episode of my show Somewhere South, I was blown away by the idea of collards braised in anything other than porky pot liquor. Von’s collards landed in my bowl dark green, earthy, and a little bit bitter against a white backdrop of mellow, comforting coconut milk. They were familiar but different and I was totally inspired.

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Every Recipe from the Hit TV Show with Product Ratings and a Look Behind the Scenes

The Complete America's Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook is back after a year-long 20th anniversary party. Find every recipe prepared on 21 seasons of public television's top-rated cooking show all in a single compendium, including the new season that debuts in January 2021. You'll also get the latest equipment and ingredient ratings drawn from the show's equipment testing and taste testing segments.

Back By Popular Demand

Every recipe from every episode is included with recipes from the 2019, 2020, and 2021 seasons integrated into this new edition. There are also bonus recipe variations included in the book that did not appear on TV.

Up-to-Date Shopping Guide

The 60-page shopping guide at the back of the book contains all of the buying recommendations from ATK’s tasting and testing experts so that readers will have our winning ingredients and kitchen equipment at their fingertips.

Chopped Carrot Salad with Fennel, Orange, and Hazelnuts

This salad is inspired by a recipe by Joan Nathan and delivers the vegetable's juicy, earthy sweetness while offering a texture that's more like grains, with a pleasant crunch.

Cast Iron Baked Ziti

Baked ziti, a hearty combination of pasta, tomato sauce, and gooey cheese, can be time-consuming and fussy between making the sauce, boiling the pasta, and then assembling. This recipe streamlines the dish, achieving the same delicious results in less time and without watching over, and dirtying, a multitude of pots.

Chicken Schnitzel

Chicken schnitzel is defined by thin, tender, juicy cutlets coated in a fine, wrinkly crust that puffs away from the meat during frying. We like to serve the schnitzel with a bright creamy salad such as Cucumber-Dill Salad.

Buttermilk Panna Cotta

This silky-smooth, delicately textured buttermilk panna cotta is an elegant dessert that requires some waiting but hardly any work.

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Lucien’s Shrimp Spaghetti

Louisiana Lump Crab Cakes

Oyster Bisque

Ponchatoula Strawberry Pie

Skillet-Roasted Okra

Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Place two large cast-iron skillets in the oven to heat for 30 minutes. Line a baking sheet or platter with paper towels.

Carefully remove the hot pans from the oven and set them on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Keep the skillet handles covered to avoid burning your hands.

Add 1 tablespoon of the oil to each pan. Carefully place the okra in the pans in a single layer. Don’t crowd them. Sear in the skillets until golden brown, about 3 minutes, then flip the okra and cook for an additional 2 minutes.

Transfer the okra to the paper towels to soak up any excess oil and use a paper towel or rag to carefully wipe out the excess oil from the skillets.

Toss the okra back into the skillets and season with the salt, some black pepper, a touch of cayenne, and a squeeze of lemon juice. Serve immediately.