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Who better to get some new recipes from than real-live chefs who are in the trenches cooking for us everyday?
In this AskReddit article, culinary professionals share the greatest recipes they’ve ever encountered.
Now I’m starving. And drooling.
1. Beer bread
“Beer bread. It is one of the easiest things to make and who doesn’t like fresh bread. Take a can of beer, 3 cups of flour, 3 teaspoons of baking powder, 1 teaspoon of salt and mix it together. Put it in a bread pan and throw it in the oven at 375 for an hour. That’s it.”
2. Ooooohhhh this sounds good
“PEI POTATO CHOCOLATE CAKE
1 cup hot mashed potatoes, not seasoned
1 cup lukewarm water
2/3 cup soft margarine
2 cups white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 eggs
2 cups flour
3/4 cup cocoa
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350°F . Prepare cake pan (tube pan) by lightly greasing & then dusting with flour. Whisk water into well mashed potatoes until a smooth mixture is formed. Cool to lukewarm.Beat margarine & sugar with electric mixer until combined. Add vanilla & beat 2 minutes at medium speed. Add 2 eggs and beat until blended. Add remaining 2 eggs. Beat at medium speed until blended. Sift together dry ingredients & stir to combine. At low speed, add 1/3 of the sifted dry ingredients, alternately with half the potato mixture, until all is blended.
Fold in chocolate chips. Turn batter into prepared pan. Bake in over for about 55 minutes. Cool on rack. Top with confectioners’ sugar.
Enjoy!”
3. Carnitas!
“There was a carnitas recipe on Reddit not long ago… tried it, even went to a special grocery store for Mexican coke since the recipe is different than typical American Coke… it was heavenly. And so inexpensive. And freezes so well. Three criteria for a great bulk recipe that makes your life easier, your wallet richer, and your soul happier.
Edit to add recipe from original post. If you want to find it, its on r/slowcooker
Inspired by /u/Lalalaraee !
4 pounds (or 2 kg) pork butt (or shoulder)
3-4 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano (or Mexican oregano)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 large brown or white onion, cut into wedges
8 cloves garlic, smashed
2 limes, juiced
2 large oranges, juiced (or 3/4 cup natural orange juice)
3/4 cup Original coke (Mexican coke is ideal)
2 bay leaves
Combine everything and cook on low for 8-10 hours. Don’t discard liquid!
Place on baking sheet, cover with 1 cup of liquid and broil. Watch closely!
The recipe recommended broiling for 15 minutes but I only broiled for 5, any longer and ours would have burned. Enjoy guys!”
4. Cookies
“Chicago Crunch Chocolate Chip Cookies. My mom originally saw the recipe in Woman’s Day or Family Circle years ago but this is the same one from Recipeland. She’d make these every holiday gathering and when my younger brother and I had curriculum day early release. Some people think it’s weird to put corn flakes inside of your cookies, but it’s actually pretty common in some places. I’ve just never seen it done quite like this before.”
5. Peposo
“Peposo (a black pepper based stew) is pretty great for home cooks. It looks classy as sh!t, it’s easy, doesn’t take much work, and absolutely “holy hell how can something be this good” delicious if you don’t cook often.
The only downside is that they don’t get to see you make it since the “impressive” part of the cooking happens about 3.5 hours before the finishing.
All you need is short rib (bone in you savages), a bottle of Chianti, and a ludicrous quantity of pepper. Of course, salt, tomato paste, a couple herbs, and some rice is definitely a plus.
Smash/crush some garlic, mix with tomato paste and liberally smear onto the short rib.
Buy whole black pepper corns. Crush some using a cutting board and skillet, maybe 2 tablespoons for 3 pounds? I’ve never measured, and usually add ground pepper too.
Put the beef in a pot/saute pan, add pepper on top. Poke in some herbs/ bag leaves/whatever if you have it. Pour in most of a bottle of Chianti. The cheap but not completely shit kind with work. Set it on high heat, turn down as low as you can right before boil. Add lid. Leave for 2 hours. Optionally flip beef prices and if possible, slide the bone out. If you take the bones out, leave them in the pot. Cook for another hour-hour and a half. It’s basically impossible to overdo this stuff, so just don’t stop until it’s basically falling apart when you touch it. Remove the herbs, beef, and bones. Give the bones to the dog. Enjoy his eternal love. Uncover and turn the heat back as high as it will go. Reduce until it’s nice and thick or it’s half the volume it was. Salt to taste (taste your food numbnuts). Put rice/polenta on a plate in a pretty shape. Stack some meat chunks on top. Pour over your sauce (you might need to whisk it to combat separation).
Make sure to make sexy eyes when they take a bite, they will have a spontaneous orgasm.
Honorable mention for learning to make your own marinade so that all your meat tastes better.”
6. Yummy!
“I make a grilled guacamole. Pretty standard guacamole recipe but everything gets charred on the grill and then cut and mashed. Creates the most delicious smoky flavor and takes guac to the next level! Something I thought couldn’t be done.”
7. Blew away the competition
“Mashed potato recipe I found online that blew away the competition this thanksgiving.
Boil 5 lbs of quartered, unpeeled Yukon gold or Idaho gold taters in 4 cups of whole milk, 4 cups of heavy cream, 9 sprigs of thyme, 8 cloves of garlic, 3 bay leaves. Once they are mashable, strain potatoes, remove herbs, mash, then fold the strained milk concoction back in slowly. Fold in 2-4 tablespoons of butter, roughly 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, pepper, and 3 tablespoons of grainy mustard.
I made turkey too so I took the bacon I used to keep the turkey moist and minced it and threw that in the mashed taters as well. Finally, to make it healthy, I threw in a handful of chopped parsley. Gold it up nicely. Watch as your taters are annihilated at thanksgiving and the sad, russet potato, dry as f*ck mash remains untouched!”
8. A good bargain
“I did the chef thing for a while but didn’t like the end-game. Switched focus to bodybuilding but still have some ezmode recipes that even redditors can’t screw up.
Fish. Tilapia / Salmon / Whatev
Let sit till room temp. Put it on a sheet of foil.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Add lemon pepper and creole or season-all.
Pinch of parsely. Can be fresh, doesn’t matter.
Fold it up in foil, like a pouch, so no fluid will escape. Bake it at 425F (Make sure oven is preheated.) for 10-12 minutes depending on how big it is. 10 will be safe to eat for any size and 12 won’t overcook the smallest pieces so set your timer for 10 minutes and if it sits in the oven an extra 2 don’t stress.Unwrap it and you’re good to go. Restaurants will charge a good $15-30 for this and you can make this for under $5.”
9. Wings
“Righto, you want some hot wings? Heres my EC Wings recipe, not for the faint of heart y’all. The EC – Existential Crisis – wing recipe is all about level of burn and interaction of different SHU levels in chilli tastes. Let’s get her rollin ey, cos this one will take at least a day to throw together.
Wings, part 1
Get yerself 4 wings – This recipe is for 4 of em so multiply ingredients if needs be – and chuck em in a sealable freezer bag SKIN ON. This ain’t about dietary concerns. Add about
80mls of Soy Sauce (Sweet Soy if you’re skipping the sauce step further down)
30mls of Red Wine Vinegar
60mls Lime Juice, fresh squeezed. None of that bottled shit.
2 cloves of Garlic (finely diced, or a heaped tablespoon of Garlic Paste)
a heaped Teaspoon of Carolina Reaper Paste. For the Reaper paste I recommend Chilli Factory’s one, although this can be substituted for whatever you want heat wise – Sometimes I’ll use a smokey Chipotle instead if I’m cooking for others who ain’t on my chilli level. Regardless: for this recipe, the hottest chilli yer using is for the Marinade.
Mix all that up in a Blender or in a bowl with a fork if you’re old fashioned like that, pour it into the bag with the chook and seal it. Give her a good shake for coverage and chuck it in the fridge overnight – absolute minimum of 12 hours to marinate.The sauce:
Another overnighter, borrowed this recipe from online and tweaked it a bit. Not a necessary addition, but you’ll be robbing yourself if you don’t do it as well.
12 finely diced Birds Eye Chillies (Peri Peri)
One clove of Garlic
40ml White Vinegar
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Combine and let her sit in room temperature for 12 hours or overnight, longer the better IMO. Now, before cooking the chicken – as the sauce has gotta cool – drop the sauce mix into a small saucepan on medium heat. Add a teaspoon of Caster Sugar and stir through, bringing it to the boil. Then crank yer heat down and let it simmer till the chillies are soft. Pour out and let that cool, I usually chuck mine in e freezer for 30 mins then fridge it. Once cooled, blender time til nice and smooth.Guess what you just made? SRIRACHA. Noice. Well, Sriracha is with Jalapeños but whatevs, I’m manly and jalapeños are nothing to me. Plus, Jalapeños are in the Part 2 of the chicken.
Anywho, whilst the sauce is chilling in the fridge, pour 100ml of Orange (or Mango, mango works great too) Juice and a shot of Grand Marnier into a small saucepan. Reduce at high heat, whilst sprinkling more caster sugar in slowly, continuously stirring when it comes back to the boil. Once the consistency is thick like cream, take it off the heat, combine it with the homemade Sriracha, and chuck it back in the fridge. You’re left with a fruity dipping sauce that will punch you in the face if you look at it wrong.
Chicken, part 2
Almost there. This step is entirely optional as well, but in for a penny eh?
Finely dice about 6 decent sized Habaneros and [follow this guide here] (https://np.reddit.com/r/spicy/comments/3j5lqs/my_homemade_habanero_powder_xpost_from_rfood/). PROTIP: open all your windows and maybe even chuck on a face mask as the fumes get stuck in the back of your throat pretty damn well.
Chicken part 3, the final chapter
Get yerself a bowl with a few whipped up eggs in it, and two shallow bowls. To one of em, add…
Half a cup of Breadcrumbs
Tablespoon of Salt (I use Himalayan Pink Salt because I’m classy as fuck like that)
Tablespoon of Cracked Black Pepper (Sichuan Peppercorns if you got em, distinct flavour base change for the better)Sprinkle of Cayenne pepper
Dried Chillies from earlier. If you didn’t do that shrug your loss IMO, cos it makes the recipe.
To the other bowl, chuck a cup of flour in it. Grab your wings one at a time but keep the rest of the Marinade. Give the wings a shake to get rid of excess Marinade, even pat em down with a paper towel. Why, you ask? All that acid from the vinegar and juice earlier has already penetrated the meat like a Seviche and brought the Reaper paste and garlic flavour with it so it’s only needed just prior to cooking now. Give it a dredging in the flour, and carefully dip through the egg wash. Next, hold over the bowl with the chilli breading bits, grab a handful of the mixture and sprinkle it on til you can’t see the meat anymore. DO NOT dredge it in the Breading Mix, trust me. Place the wing on a lightly oiled pan, and when fully loaded back in the fridge uncovered for an hour. This should set the breaded bits.
Finally, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and slide those bad boys in there for 15 minutes give or take. Baste over the top with the extra Marinade every 5 minutes, and turn over.
After that long and complicated process, you’ll have the Best Goddamn Hot-Wings you’ll ever eat, or my name ain’t Fatbeard. Which it obviously ain’t, but y’know what I mean.
Who’s hungry?”
10. Tips from dad
“My Dad is a chef and he always makes unusual and delicious stuff. Homemade spicy cocktail sauce with grated jicama in it. Marinade jalapeno slices in soy sauce, it’s great.
The best is something that only other chefs are ever excited to try, but it’s so amazing. Stick with me on this. . . Blue cheese cinnamon rolls.
Start with a good yeast dough, fill with a cinnamon mix that is heavy on the cinnamon and a bit a nutmeg and all spice, and light on the brown sugar. No white sugar at all.
One risen and baked sprinkle with blue cheese crumbles while still warm. Once slightly melty drizzle with a white glaze.
Do not use cream cheese frosting. Do not frost. Light on the sugar glaze, do not treat it like you think you’re Johnson’s corner.
I promise it’s amazing.”
11. Moroccan food
“Shakshouka. Moroccan dish. It’s basically eggs poached in tomato sauce with veggies. Easy to make, delicious and flexible.
Add a generous amount of olive oil in a pan. Add thinly sliced onions. Saute. When they’re half-done, add thinly sliced red, yellow and green peppers (bell or horn, either works). Saute a bit more. Add diced garlic and pepper. This is the point where I add a splash of cold water to prevent burning and lower the heat to minimum.
Take a can of tomatoes and pour them in a bowl. Crush them with your hand and remove the harder parts (where the stem was attached). Add a pinch of salt and sugar (you need sugar to balance out the acidity of tomatoes).
When the water evaporates, pour in the tomatoes. Simmer for a minute or two, then mix in any herbs and spices you want – oregano, thyme and basil all work. Simmer for 10-20 minutes and enjoy the aromas. At this point, you can stop cooking and have an AMAZING pasta sauce. However, that is not shakshouka. You can also take a break at this point – say, if you’re prepping it for tomorrow, you can put it in the fridge until then.
In any case, when you want to eat, bring it to what’s effectively a boil, then reduce the heat. Use a tablespoon to make small holes in the sauce, then break in eggs. Salt to taste and a twist of black pepper. Garnish with chives, parsley and/or chili flakes. Serve with bread on the side.
If you want it hot, you can infuse the oil or just add chili peppers with regular peppers. You can also use whatever other veggies you have – for example, zucchini add thickness and volume, so you’ll want to use more water. :)”
12. Biscuits and Gravy
“Ok, I have worked as a professional chef, and here’s something wonderful for you out of my recipe file:
Special Biscuits and Gravy for a crowd
Gravy:
1 stick unsalted butter
1 medium sweet or yellow onion, very finely chopped or processed
2-3# fresh, good quality pork sausage
~1/4 c AP flour for thickening
2 c half and half + ~ 2 cups whole milk, preheated to below boiling in microwave
1/2 t fresh nutmeg
pinch cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste
In a medium dutch oven, over med heat, melt butter and then sauté onions until they are deeply caramelized, stirring often. Set onions aside, spray dutch oven with nonstick spray, add pork sausage, cook until heavily browned. Reintroduce onions, add flour, tossing mixture to combine – no flour specks should be visible.
Add hot milk mixture to pork and onions, using whisk or wooden spoon to scrape up fond and combine. Increase heat to med-high, stirring constantly, then drop to low when it starts simmering. Add nutmeg, cayenne, salt & pepper to taste.
Biscuits:
3 c cake flour
3 c AP flour
2 sticks butter, chilled, cut into slices
2 c shredded sharp cheddar cheese, frozen
1 T kosher salt
2 T baking powder
1/2 c finely chopped green onions (optional)
~2 c chilled cream
Preheat oven to 350F convection, 375F standard oven.
Process the cake flour with 1 stick butter until only small specks of butter remain, dump into stand mixer work bowl. Repeat with AP flour. Add cheese, salt, baking powder, green onions. Mix on low in stand mixer to thoroughly combine. Put flour mixture in freezer for 20 minutes. Add cream until a wet, sticky dough is formed, don’t overmix, make sure nothing dry remains on the bottom of the work bowl.
Using a greased spatula, turn dough out onto a heavily greased half sheet, pressing it into the corners. Bake, turning pan once, until golden, about 25 minutes.
Split hot biscuits, top with gravy.”
13. Simple and awesome
“I make a great coconut curry. It is so simple and tastes awesome.
To make the spice mix combine:
1/2 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp coriander 1/2 tsp cardamom 1/2 tsp ground cloves 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 1/4 tsp chili powder 1/4 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp turmeric salt and pepper to taste red pepper flakes to taste
In a medium sized sauce pan with enough olive oil to cover the bottom, brown some meat of choice (preferably, cubed beef, chicken or ground lamb in little meat balls).Add a diced medium sized onion once the meat is 3/4 cooked through. Once the onion goes translucent, add 2 cloves minced garlic. Add a sliced hot pepper (or peppers of your choice) and the spice mix. Stir through for 20-30 seconds and then add a can of coconut milk. Stir that and bring to a simmer. Take off the stove and serve over rice.”
14. CHILI
“My mom’s super easy white chicken chili recipe, and my all time favorite. This recipe has won 3 different chili cookoffs and nobody knows just how easy and effortless it is.
1 cup sour cream
15 ounces chicken broth, maybe a little more depending on preference.
2 cups freshly shredded Monterrey jack cheese
1 small can green chilis
3 cans Great Northern beans (those white beans, whatever they’re called)
Chicken breast. I usually do 2 or 3 depending on the size.
How to make:
Cook chicken however you want, shred it or chop it, your choice. I usually just bake the chicken for 25 minutes at 350 degrees. My wife prefers shredded, I prefer chopped cuz ain’t nobody got time for that.
Drain the beans, rinse em if you want. I mash half of them, my mom doesn’t, do what you want here.
Once chicken and beans are done, throw them in a pan and add everything else on the list and mix it up, bring it up to a medium heat and just mix it around until it’s all hot, usually 20 minutes or so. The longer the better. Just cook it until your hunger decides enough is enough. When we do this chili we usually go the Crockpot route – add everything to the Crockpot and cook on low for anywhere between 3-9 hours.
Chili best enjoyed poured over fritos, with lime sprinkled over the top.”
15. Making it for decades
“Beef Wellington with mushroom pate. Never fails…been making it for decades!
2 filet mignons, about 1 inch thick
salt and pepper, to taste
1 recipe mushroom pate (see below)
1 pkg frozen puff pastry shells or dough
1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon milk or cream
Thaw puff pastry. Season filets with salt and pepper. On a board, roll out 2 puff pastry shells (or if using sheets, roll out the sheet) cutting a round big enough to encase the filets. Spread the pate on top of each filet. Wrap the filets in puff pastry, pate side down so the seams are on the bottom of each wrapped filet. Seal the edges with the egg mixture. Brush egg mixture all over pastry to give a glossy sheen. Roll out another sheet of pastry. Cut out shapes you desire and and decorate each wrapped filet. Brush again with egg mixture. Bake the wrapped filets on cookie sheet in a preheated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes. The pastry will be golden brown. The filets will come out medium rare. If you are a well done lover, this will not work. Tenderloin is best under-cooked. It might get tough if you cook them till they are well done.Mushroom Pate:
Ingredients10 Tbsp butter, cut in pieces.2 1/2 c flour1/2 tsp salt1/3 c sour cream1 egg, slightly beaten4 Tbsp butter3 Tbsp finely chopped shallots1/2 lb finely chopped mushrooms2 Tbsp flour1 c heavy cream (whipping cream)1 Tbsp finely chopped chives1/2 tsp salt1/2 tsp lemon juice parsley sprigs, optional for garnish.
In heavy skillet melt butter. Add shallots cook for 4 minutes, stirring constantly. Shallots should not brown. Blend in mushrooms. Cook until all moisture evaporates, about 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle flour over mixture. Mix well. Stirring constantly, add cream and bring to a boil. When mixture thickens, reduce heat and simmer for a minute or 2. Remove from heat. Stir in remaining ingredients; cool.”
