Brine your chicken in sweet tea

Millie Peartree's new recipe yields a gorgeously burnished roast bird.

View in browser|nytimes.com May 5, 2024 David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Sweet tea roast chicken for Sunday supper By Sam Sifton Good morning. It was peak cherry blossoms last week where I stay, the flowers almost ready to spring off their branches to blanket the curbs like drifts of snow. There was a deep humidity in the air and it made me think of summer down south, the way the atmosphere can seem almost liquid under the sun, everything ripe, everything slow. I made sweet tea and drank it over an enormous amount of ice, on the stoop, marveling at how sometimes sweet tea is the best tea, even if you usually drink tea straight, no sugar, with not even a lemon to counter the tannins. Sweet tea is reckless tea, unhealthy tea, a liquid candy bar, not something to drink every day. But it has its place, and I made enough of it so I could use the leftovers as a brine for Millie Peartree's luscious roast chicken (above). It's a dead simple recipe, perfect for a Sunday dinner. Combine the tea with a big handful of Cajun seasoning and marinate chicken legs in it all day. Then roast them on an oiled sheet pan in a hot oven for a little over 30 minutes, until they're crusty dark brown and cooked through to the bone. Baste with the juices and serve with baked sweet potatoes, oh my. Featured Recipe Sweet Tea-Brined Roast Chicken View Recipe → That's Sunday sorted, then. As for the rest of the week. … Monday I scored some thick fillets of tautog the other day and used Julia Moskin's recipe for pan-roasted fish fillets with herb butter to coax them into a state of perfection: crisp on one side and softly just-done within. Use whatever fish you can find that is local and fresh and you'll experience similar joy. ADVERTISEMENT Melina Hammer for The New York Times Pan-Roasted Fish Fillets With Herb Butter Recipe from Mark Usewicz Adapted by Julia Moskin 20 minutes Makes 2 servings Tuesday Here's a recipe for chicken galbi noodle salad from Kay Chun, a weeknight special inspired by Korean beef galbi. Kay's recipe simmers ground chicken in a simple sauce with garlic, ginger, scallions and sesame oil, then tosses that mix with bell peppers and basil before swirling it all into glass noodles. Eat warm or at room temperature. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Roscoe Betsill. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. Chicken Galbi Noodle Salad By Kay Chun 40 minutes Makes 4 servings Wednesday Ali Slagle developed this midweek banger, a horseradish and Cheddar tuna melt that comes together quickly and seems expressly designed for the broil setting on a toaster oven. I like them on Bays English muffins, but there are no rules here, only guidance: any bread you find delicious will work. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Horseradish-Cheddar Tuna Melts By Ali Slagle 20 minutes Makes 4 servings Thursday Tantanmen is a Japanese take on dan dan noodles, from the Sichuan province of China. Hetty Lui McKinnon's vegan tantanmen with pan-fried tofu is maybe better than either one, substantial in its salt-fiery sesame broth. "My gawd this slaps," one reader wrote on the recipe. Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Monica Pierini. Vegan Tantanmen With Pan-Fried Tofu By Hetty Lui McKinnon 45 minutes Makes 4 servings Friday And then you can head into the weekend with Alexa Weibel's recipe for arrabbiata sauce, the classic Italian tomato sauce, fired up with crushed red pepper and run through with olive oil and garlic. It's great served over penne with a shower of Pecorino, but lately I've found it a terrific sauce for pizza, a three-alarm margherita. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Arrabbiata Sauce By Alexa Weibel 30 minutes Makes 2 1/2 cups (enough for about 1 pound of pasta) There are thousands and thousands more recipes waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Yes, you need a subscription to read them. Subscriptions support our work and allow it to continue. Please, if you haven't taken one out yet, would you consider doing so today? Thank you. If you find yourself way up Tech Creek without a paddle, please reach out for help. We're at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you, I promise. Or, if you'd like to register a complaint or deliver a compliment, you can write to me. I'm at foodeditor@nytimes.com. I cannot respond to every letter. But I read every one I receive. Now, it's nothing to do with tempering chocolate or deveining shrimp, but you should absolutely read Sally Jenkins in The Washington Post, on the rodeo star J.B. Mauney, "the first man to get legit rich at bull riding." Here's Danny Lyon in The New York Review of Books, on his decades-long quest to take photographs of every building in his neighborhood in lower Manhattan, before the city knocked them down. An oldie, but worth it for the headline alone, in Smithsonian Magazine: "A Brief History of Children Sent Through the Mail." Finally, some dad rock to play us off: The Black Crowes live in Brooklyn back in March, "Wanting and Waiting." Crank that and I'll be back next week. Sign up for the Five Weeknight Dishes newsletter Fresh dinner ideas for busy people who want something great to eat, with NYT Cooking recipes sent to you weekly. Get it in your inbox Sign up for The Veggie newsletter Tanya Sichynsky shares the most delicious vegetarian recipes for weeknight cooking, packed lunches and dinner parties. Get it in your inbox ADVERTISEMENT Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for Cooking from The New York Times. 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