White Chicken Chili and More Recipes BA Staff Made This Week (2024)

It’s no secret that BA editors cook a lot for work. So it should come as no surprise that we cook a lot during our off hours too. Here are the recipes we’re whipping up this month to get dinner on the table, entertain our friends, satisfy a sweet tooth, use up leftovers, and everything in between. For even more staff favorites, click here.

September 29

Toasty, nutty banana muffins

I ended up in the same pickle I ended up in many months ago: I bought a bunch of bananas with a plan (last time it was smoothies; this time it was freeze on a stick and dip in Magic Shell) and the plan didn’t work. I looked the other way and, instead of firm yellow, the bananas had turned mushy brown. So once again I made Zaynab Issa’s banana muffins with toasted nuts and brown butter. And once again, I was glad that things didn’t work out as I’d originally hoped. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor

Chocolate chip cookie bars

These cookie bars are one of those treats that I tasted in development, then refreshed our editorial calendar every week to make sure I didn’t miss the recipe when it went live. (And I know I’m not alone on the team in begging food editor Jesse Szewczyk for an early peek at the recipe.) There’s really not much else to say besides: These are so good. They’re the epitome of that sweet, nostalgic chocolate chip cookie bar, and when I brought them to a party recently, they were gone before I had a chance to take a picture. Make them, then watch this space for when I make Jesse’s pumpkin chocolate chip cookie bars soon. —Sonia Chopra, executive editor

Cozy chicken chili

While I’ve dipped my toes into some fall cooking in the past couple weeks, this side of the autumnal equinox feels like permission from the universe to go full steam ahead. This White Chicken Chili by associate food editor Kendra Vaculin was such an audience favorite when it was published, I put it first on my list. The chili was everything the recipe promised: cozy, comforting, and ready in a flash. I showered it with crushed tortilla chips, sliced scallions, and hunks of avocado before tucking in. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor

Chana masala cheese fries

I am extremely committed to football snacks (less so to any specific football team). If this sounds like you, may I humbly submit Asha Loupy’s chana masala cheese fries for your #sportsfood spread? The stewed chickpeas come together quickly and have a great punch, even without the serrano chiles. With frozen crinkle-cut sweet potato fries, pre-grated cheese, and Brooklyn Delhi chutneys, and this was an extremely fun dish to anchor our spread. I know I’ll be making it again and again this fall. Oh, and the recipe made about double the chana masala that I needed for a 20-ounce bag of fries, which means I had lunch plans sorted for the next couple days. —S.C.

Crispy cottage cheese fritters

Newly a Cottage Cheese Person, I now keep our staff’s favorite brand in my fridge at all times. Usually it is for a late-afternoon snack, scooped into a bowl and topped with giardiniera (or whatever vegetable is about to go bad), plus a pour of olive oil and sprinkle of salt. This week I branched out with food editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s delightful cottage cheese fritters. They are crisp at the edges, tender in the center, and polka-dotted with green peas. It’s a dish my pantry is always ready for. —E.L.

September 22

Spicy tempeh bowls

I’m a broken record when it comes to tempeh. I crumble the block into craggy nuggets, pan-fry them until crisp, then toss them in a mix of honey, soy sauce, and something spicy (like gochujang or sriracha). Associate food editor Kendra Vaculin inspired me to switch it up with her recipe for Hummus Bowls With Merguez-Spiced Tempeh. From afar, making homemade hummus on a weeknight sounded like Too Much, but the whole thing came together in 30-ish minutes. With some pita from the freezer, it was spectacular—a new-to-me tempeh technique I know I’ll go back to again and again. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor

Peanutty long beans

I had long beans as an impulse buy from my Asian grocer, and I was looking on the Epicurious app for inspiration. I came across this Gourmet recipe that looked simple enough for a weeknight. It has less than 10 ingredients, and beyond blanching your beans, it’s low lift and high reward. Instead of pulsing the peanuts in a food processor (because some days you’re too lazy to pull the thing out of the cupboard), I used a mortar and pestle to crush the peanuts. The dish makes a great side or a vegetarian main—I ate them along with these Bang Bang Oyster Mushrooms from Maggie Zhu. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Last-minute pickled onions

I’m preparing for a move out of my apartment, so my partner and I are trying to eat all of the odds and ends in our kitchen. Most recently we found a jar of mole verde in the freezer that was delicious slathered over roasted cauliflower tacos. To add a bite of acid, I consulted this handy recipe for quickly pickled onions. They came together in the time it took the cauliflower to roast, and I remembered why I’ve been using this recipe for years. Plus now I have a container of bright pink onions to put on the rest of our hodgepodge of meals. —Carly Westerfield, recipe production assistant

Easy vegan chocolate cake

I’m visiting my in-laws this week to celebrate my father-in-law’s 86th birthday. They have very limited baking supplies, but I was able to cobble together this easy chocolate cake with just a ¼ cup measure, a questionably marked 3-cup pitcher, and a pill cup with teaspoon hatches. Despite the limitations, and having to cook it in a 13x9" pan, the cake was incredibly easy and remarkably delicious (whether or not you care that it’s vegan). For the icing, I used an even easier ganache-style frosting, which I poured warm over the sheet cake and left to firm up overnight. And yes, of course there were sprinkles. —Joe Sevier, senior editor of SEO and cooking

Cheesy skillet dip

I know absolutely zero things about football, and yet for the second year in a row, I was roped into participating in my friends’ NFL bracket. (My strategy this year: I picked all the teams with birds as mascots. So far, doing great.) What I’m unabashedly more interested in is the food—sheet-pan nachos, wings, and of course, dips of every kind. I’ve had my eye on food editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s seven-layer dip for months, and this felt like the weekend to act on it. Shilpa is adamant that you don’t swap out American cheese, and she has never led me astray. It’s key to keeping this dip perfectly gooey and emulsified. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor

Noodle kugel

For my family’s Rosh Hashanah celebration last week, I made a noodle kugel. The sweet, custardy noodle casserole is a staple of Jewish holiday celebrations, and though each family has its own “secret recipe,” none of them are all that different. Some have raisins; others are topped with cornflakes. Mostly following this recipe from Epicurious (which comes from the mother of a former Gourmet editor), I skipped the raisins and doubled down on the buttery, cinnamon-sugar cornflakes. Unbeknownst to me, my cousin was also making a noodle kugel; hers had neither raisins nor cornflakes. My grandpa started calling it “battle of the kugels,” but nobody had the heart to actually declare a winner. If there had been a winner, though, it definitely would’ve been mine. —Zoe Denenberg, associate cooking and SEO editor

September 15

Syrupy, custardy tofu

After trying out Michelle Tchea’s douhua in the test kitchen, I went home with a bounty of silken tofu and a pint container of ginger syrup tucked away in my backpack. More than enough to feed a large family—or so I thought. Through the next few days, through an exceptionally hot week, I worked my way through not one, not two, but four blocks of tofu on my own. Cold, sweet, refreshing, and with basically no prep required, it was my go-to late-night snack, midday pick-me-up, and a work-from-home lunch that I slurped up between Zoom meetings. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor

Comforting khichdi

Khichdi is major comfort food for me. In the early days of the pandemic my mom shipped me a batched mix of dal and rice to make it when we couldn’t find lentils in the grocery stores near us. But I never thought about it as a good option to add to my lunch rotation until I saw food editor Shilpa Uskokovic’s recipe. Shilpa takes the flexible format (equal parts dal and rice, brightened up with some veg and spices, and cooked together until uniformly soft) and ladens it with spinach, casting a beautiful dark green health halo over the dish. The recipe makes a lot of khichdi, maybe enough for 6–8 depending on how you’re serving it. And it’s filling. I froze half and still had enough for three days of lunch. —Sonia Chopra, executive editor

Spiced chickpea stew

The notion for some that cooking is meditative or therapeutic is pretty much lost on me. Often I’m too busy reading and rereading instructions, making sure I added the right thing at the right time, or pulling apart my spice drawer looking for that jar of mustard powder that I could have sworn was back there somewhere. That is with the exception of this Spiced Chickpea Stew With Coconut and Turmeric. I’ve made this recipe so many times, I have it completely memorized. So I’m free to let my mind wander about the laundry that needs washing or the rent that needs paying. When I have less on my to-do list, I’m able to luxuriate in the actual process of cooking. —Carly Westerfield, recipe production assistant

Gochujang salmon poke bowl

It might be September, but we are definitely still in that terribly hot phase of the year when you want to get dinner on the table without turning on your oven or stove. This recipe from Lara Lee’s new cookbook A Splash of Soy: Everyday Food from Asia accomplishes that goal and still feels high-effort enough for a Friday night. The salmon gets cubed up and tossed in Tabasco, sesame oil, gochujang, and sesame seeds to cure for five minutes while you assemble the other components. I let my inner food stylist come alive to match the recipe photo, sprinkling the top with togarashi and crumbled seaweed. I managed to save some salmon, avocado, and rice for lunch the next day which I ate with nori sheets. My takeaway: Tabasco and gochujang are good on their own, but even better together. —Kate Kassin, editorial operations manager

Almost-instant tuna spaghetti

As soon as I tried Megan Litt’s boyfriend’s family’s tuna spaghetti in the test kitchen, I knew it would become a regular at home. All you need are those two ingredients, plus a lot of butter and some salt and pepper. It takes literal minutes to pull off, just right mid-work week when even grabbing takeout sounds tiring. That pasta, a big bowl of vinegary arugula, and I have the perfect TV dinner to accompany my latest Alone episode. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor

Movie-night pumpkin cake

My friends and I take turns hosting unhinged double-feature movie nights. (A particularly memorable pairing: the 1922 silent German Expressionist horror film Nosferatu, and tween comedy New York Minute starring Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen.) To usher in fall this month, we all agreed on the relatively tame movie combo of Twilight and When Harry Met Sally. This Pumpkin Spice Crumb Cake is the snack for the occasion. Easy to make, fun to assemble, and with the ideal crumb-to-cake ratio—which we can all agree is one-to-one—it’s what to bake when you’re ready for your whole apartment to smell like autumn. —A.S.

September 8

Zesty upside-down cake

Plums are my favorite stone fruit—sweet-tart with just enough of that firm bite you don’t get from a nectarine or peach. I have never been good at caramel, but the lime caramel in this recipe is foolproof and gives the cake a zesty, gooey tang. It’s a great cake to bring to a gathering: relatively easy to make but still looks impressive because it’s, well, upside-down. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Whipped feta dip

I didn’t feel like committing to a block of feta at the supermarket, and made the cursed decision to buy crumbles instead. Instant regret. They’re dry, tough, and have none of the briny, squeaky qualities that make feta so great. Senior cooking editor Kelsey Youngman gave me the bright idea to blitz it into a dip, like this charred scallion whipped feta dip by contributor and cookbook author Alexis deBoschnek, and it salvaged the whole container. For my version of girl dinner, I topped the bowl with some sautéed veggies, and enjoyed it scooped onto crusty baguette slices. —Antara Sinha, associate cooking editor

Never-dry pork chops

I have made these pork chops at least three times in the last month. The marinade really seeps into the meat when you let it sit in the fridge for the recommended 12 hours. I’ve also tried marinating them for 2 hours, finishing them in a carbon steal pan, and using the marinade as a basting sauce. Both ways give you that savory, sweet flavor with juicy, never-dry pork chops. As for the pickled radishes, I used the same pickling vinegar on shallots and thinly sliced cucumbers, and the results were just as stellar. —U.R.

Birthday bash

My husband and I haven’t given each other birthday gifts in years—highly recommend—but I always look forward to making a whatever-he-wants meal. This weekend, it was grilled ribeyes with BA-reader-favorite chimichurri, plus garlic-buttered corn and vinegary tomatoes, with editorial assistant Nina Moskowitz’s staff-adored ice cream cake for dessert. I swapped in coffee ice cream (Trader Joe’s can’t be beat, IMHO) and accordingly lowered the instant espresso quantity. It was such a hit, I have a hunch it’ll be on the menu next year too. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor

Crowd-favorite ice cream cake

I also made Nina’s cocoa-crunchy-adorned ice cream cake this weekend—two of them actually, as we had about 50 guests over for a barbecue—and I too swapped in coffee ice cream. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dessert fly off the table and into people’s mouths so fast. I polished off my own slice and was back for seconds within minutes, only to find that both cakes were long gone. All the more reason to make another one (or two or three) ASAP. —Alaina Chou, commerce producer

Halloumi and watermelon salad

My mom turned me onto this watermelon salad recipe from the Wall Street Journal: The dressing is built on coriander bloomed in oil, then mixed with dried mint and honey. Pour it over watermelon and halloumi dotted with pistachios and lime zest and you have a side salad that will—if your family is anything like mine—be gone in seconds. I’ve used feta and fresh herbs (mint and basil) and it’s still turned out great. —Sonia Chopra, executive editor

September 1

Saucy cumin noodles

This recipe by Bon Appétit contributor Zaynab Issa has been on my list for a long time. It’s a dinner recipe that feels complete, homey, and the perfect homage to Xi’an’s Famous Foods’ popular menu item. I was lucky enough to be spared a trip to the grocery store thanks to some ground lamb and mint I had on hand, and I swapped in pappardelle for udon. The result was so bouncy-chewy and flavorful. And the leftovers were a fantastic lunch situation the next day. —Urmila Ramakrishnan, associate director of social media

Oven-only eggplant parm

I love eggplant parm, but I do not love frying things, so I bookmarked this all-oven recipe from Eric Kim at the New York Times as soon as I saw it. You bread the eggplant and bake it, then layer it with heated-through (jarred!) marinara sauce and cheese. It takes about 90 minutes start to finish, but the majority of that time is extremely hands off, and the recipe is forgiving: It’s not even close to the end of the world if you only have parm or use thick slices of mozz from the ball in your fridge or mix and match marinara sauces based on whatever’s in your pantry. Next time I’ll add some more veggies. Maybe. —Sonia Chopra, executive editor

Better-with-time olive oil cake

I’ve had my eye on this recipe for olive oil cake from Bon Appétit contributor Claire Saffitz basically all summer, and I used a dinner party over the weekend as the perfect occasion to try it out. The cake itself has the most incredible texture that only improves with time—Saffitz recommends making it a day in advance to allow the cake to cure. If, like me, you can’t wait that long, it’s still excellent to dig into right away. —Carly Westerfield, recipe production assistant

Grilled chanterelles

It’s the last few weeks of the summer hurrah at New Jersey farmers markets. I'm not sure if it’s a just-me problem. But knowing that I have limited time to enjoy the overwhelming produce options puts me into a panic state of buying. It often results with amazing produce that I never had a plan for before I walked into the parking lot of vendors. One stall, in particular, is the mushroom guy. This week he had lobster mushrooms and chanterelles. I did what I did best and anxiety-bought them both. Thankfully, this simple recipe from Rick Martinez was a great way to both grill on a Sunday and eat fungi in a fun way. —U.R.

Sheet-pan chickpeas

Like so many of our readers, I simply had to make Kendra Vaculin’s Tomatoes and Feta With Chickpeas. (It was our most popular recipe of last month—no small feat.) After roasting in the oven, even not-sandwich-worthy tomatoes taste spectacular. Then you add cumin-and-paprika-spiced chickpeas, slabs of salty feta, and broil the whole thing until it’s bubbly and blistered. A handful of vinegary arugula at the end makes it a one-dish dinner. And while you could spoon the mixture onto a bowl of grains, I found it Monday-thrilling to grab a warm flatbread and eat straight from the sheet pan. —Emma Laperruque, senior cooking editor

Tomato-watermelon salad

I have this fun habit of buying a full watermelon, eating a few slices, then staring with dread at the remaining half-melon in my fridge, clueless on what to do with it. Enter: This savory watermelon salad, which also happens to be a great use for some surplus of heirlooms. A savory, warmly spiced oil melds into bites of refreshing melon and juicy tomatoes. It truly is a match made in heaven. —Zoe Denenberg, associate cooking & SEO editor

Silky, fluffy migas

Yes, cherry tomatoes are reliable year-round, but they’re never sweeter, plumper, or cuter than they are right now. Shilpa Uskokovic’s migas recipe is my new favorite way to put them to great use. The tomatoes’ tangy juiciness is the ideal foil to eggy tortillas, refried beans, and buttery avocado. Hot sauce not optional. —E.L.