Blog Posts by America s Test Kitchen

A romantic Valentine's Day meal doesn't require a whole day's work. Show your love with this elegant menu, designed to impress with minimal fuss. Less time in the kitchen means more time spent with your loved one. Cheers to that!

On the Menu
Amuse Bouche: Easy Melted Brie with Honey and Herbs
Starter: Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus
Entree: Coffee-Rubbed Rib-Eye Steak
Side: Cauliflower Gratin
Dessert: Pistachio Cannoli

Find these 5 quick recipes, and 745 more, in the America's Test Kitchen Quick Family Cookbook.

Easy Melted Brie with Honey and Herbs
Our microwaved version of baked Brie, drizzled with honey and chopped fresh thyme, is ready in minutes.
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS: This great last-minute appetizer has all the warm, gooey appeal of classic baked Brie but takes just a few minutes to get on the table -- no puff pastry required. To balance the rich flavor of Brie, we drizzled honey over the top and sprinkled it with a bit of fresh thyme. A very quick spin in the microwave warms the honey and softens the Brie for a no-fuss yet elegant appetizer.

Serves

No matter who wins the Super Bowl, we all know the real touchdowns will be on the snacking menu. But who has time or energy to fuss around in the kitchen when real attention should be paid to the game? Our easy recipe for Slow-Cooker Sticky Wings saves the day. These sweet, tangy, perfectly sticky chicken wings are a cinch to prepare for a crowd -- and are decidedly hands-off.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Perfect sticky wings are moist and lacquered with a slightly thick, sweet yet tangy sauce -- the stickier and messier, the better. First, we coated the chicken with a pungent mix of dark brown sugar, soy sauce, and aromatics and let it cook for about 4 hours until tender. Meanwhile, we made an easy sauce with tomato paste, soy sauce, and more sugar and cayenne. We knew these wings would need some time under the broiler to become charred and crisp, and this sauce provided just the right finishing touch. This recipe can easily be doubled for a crowd, but you will need to broil the

Salad on a menu sounds pretty healthy, but the numbers can be shocking. For example, a Chicken Cobb Salad from Fresh City delivers more than 700 calories and a staggeringly high 51 grams of fat. (Nice "light" lunch, right?) To lighten up our version of cobb salad, we kept the main players -- tender chicken, hard‐cooked eggs, avocado, tomatoes, bacon, and blue cheese -- but made a few small changes.

RECIPE MAKEOVER by AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN
BEFORE: 738 calories, 51g fat, 17g sat fat
AFTER: 320 calories, 19g fat, 4.5g sat fat

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Swapping turkey bacon for regular bacon delivered the same salty, smoky flavors and crunch, and the salad included so many other elements that tasters didn't even notice. Relying on potent Roquefort or Stilton allowed us to cut back on the amount of cheese, while poaching proved a low‐fat way to prepare the chicken. Tossing the chicken, tomatoes, and greens with a bit of our boldly flavored vinaigrette ensured that each

Deep-frying and a thick, velvety, spicy-sweet sauce make this Chinese dish incredibly popular, but they also make it incredibly unhealthy. With a single serving clocking in at over 900 calories, we thought it was time to put General Tso on a diet.

RECIPE MAKEOVER by AMERICA'S TEST KITCHEN
BEFORE: 910 calories, 45g fat, 5g sat fat
AFTER: 490 calories, 8g fat, 1.5g sat fat

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS
Swapping the traditional dark meat for white meat was a good start. Moving on to the breading, we started with cornflakes, which gave our chicken an ultra-crisp exterior. After dredging our chicken pieces in flour and dipping them in egg whites, we coated them with our cornflake crumbs and baked them elevated on a wire rack to allow for even crisping all over.

For the sauce, we combined soy sauce, hoisin sauce, vinegar, ginger, and garlic; a bit of cornstarch helped to thicken it. Sugar made the sauce taste overly sweet, so we tried swapping in a number of alternatives.

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough holiday-cooking topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

Roasting potatoes is a great way to understand the immediate advantages of oven-roasting. It is a mostly hands-off cooking method (allowing you to prepare the other components of dinner) that turns potatoes

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough holiday-cooking topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

A roast chicken recipe can have as few as three ingredients -- chicken, salt, and pepper -- but that doesn't mean it's easy to prepare a good roast chicken. The biggest challenge is getting the white and dark meat to finish

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THE HOLIDAYS? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough holiday-cooking topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

From omelets to scrambled to frittatas, we love eggs in the Test Kitchen. However, it pays to be a savvy shopper when purchasing ingredients from the supermarket. Here are the 5 things you should look out for when

Welcome to Cooking 101, a fun, weekly series of cooking lessons and hands-on learning from America's Test Kitchen Cooking School. Who are we? Our knowledge and techniques are based on 20 years of test kitchen work creating foolproof recipes for Cook's Illustrated magazine and for our television shows. We believe that everybody, whether novice or advanced, can gain the skills and confidence to become a better cook.

ARE YOU READY FOR THANKSGIVING? In our FREE "Successful Holiday Cooking" course, we lead you through all the tough Thanksgiving topics, like building a cooking timeline, an equipment checklist to prepare one's kitchen, and what essential ingredients to stock up in your pantry.

Although it may not look like it, pumpkin pie is actually a custard pie. A prebaked pie shell is filled and then baked just long enough for the sweet, egg-enriched filling to set. We wanted to create a pumpkin pie