A simple 1983 chicken recipe for your 2024 Sunday dinner

Craig Claiborne's smothered chicken is a New York Times Cooking classic, easy and versatile.

View in browser|nytimes.com October 27, 2024 Craig Claiborne and Pierre Franey's smothered chicken, adapted by Sam Sifton. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. This 41-year-old chicken dish is still going strong By Sam Sifton Good morning. I went over to Rockefeller Center in Manhattan the other morning to smother a chicken on the "Today" show. It was Craig Claiborne's recipe (above), a taste of his Mississippi childhood that he brought to The Times in 1983, and one that I think sits near the heart of what we're doing here: bringing the delicious to bear seven days a week. Make that recipe as written once or twice and you may want to introduce change-ups, adding mushrooms and pearl onions to push the dish in a European direction, say, or tomatoes, chopped celery, onions and green peppers to take it into Creole territory. I once tried it with fish sauce and ginger, an experiment in Viet-Cajun cooking. If that recipe isn't yet ready for prime time (it will be!), it's still a reminder that the original dish is fantastic and forgiving, just the sort of meal to bring a long week to its end. Featured Recipe Craig Claiborne's Smothered Chicken View Recipe → I serve my smothered chicken with rice and steamed green beans. But I bet it'd be awesome with grits or mashed potatoes, with roasted beets. Or biscuits! Make smothered chicken regardless and report back. With Sunday taken care of, we can turn to the rest of the week. … Monday You can kung pao shrimp. You can kung pao chicken. Lately, though, I've been making Ham El-Waylly's recipe for kung pao tofu, mostly because I love how the crisp-soft tofu soaks up the numbing, tingly sauce. It's a simple weeknight preparation, and ridiculously good. Kelly Marshall for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Kung Pao Tofu  By Ham El-Waylly 1 hour Makes 3 to 4 servings  Tuesday Dan Pelosi has an easy new recipe for creamy tortellini soup. He makes it with Italian sausage and lacinato kale, but you could omit the sausage, use Swiss chard in place of the kale, substitute milk for the cream or use ravioli instead of tortellini. The only constant, I think, is the lemon juice you add at the end for a welcome pop of brightness. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Creamy Tortellini Soup  By Dan Pelosi 40 minutes  Makes 6 to 8 servings  Wednesday I used to abhor how long it takes to caramelize onions. Now I see it as a meditative act, a way to unwind after a long and difficult day. Pile the result into Ali Slagle's French onion grilled cheese sandwiches and experience bliss. Romulo Yanes for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Vivian Lui French Onion Grilled Cheese By Ali Slagle 45 minutes Makes 2 servings Thursday Ssamjang is a thick Korean sauce, almost a condiment, made from slow-fermented soybean paste. It's salty, slightly spicy, slightly sweet. Samantha Seneviratne's recipe for ssamjang meatballs uses it to amp up the flavor of ground pork. She serves the meatballs with lettuce cups, rice and kimchi. On a sandwich kick, I might fill hero rolls with them, then top with kimchi and toast the things in the oven, under a blanket of mozzarella. Armando Rafael for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Samantha Seneviratne. Ssamjang Pork Meatballs By Samantha Seneviratne 30 minutes Makes 4 servings Friday You should waltz into the weekend with Naz Deravian's recipe for chicken fried steak, comfort food of the first order. Naz provides terrific instruction for a white gravy to daub on the steak, but I follow the instruction of the great Texan cook Lisa Fain and serve queso gravy instead. It's a lot. Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews. Chicken Fried Steak By Naz Deravian 50 minutes Makes 6 servings  There are thousands and thousands more recipes to cook this week waiting for you on New York Times Cooking. Go see what you find, and save the recipes you want to cook. If you have questions about your account, write to us at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you. Or if you'd like to bark about something, or pay my colleagues a compliment, you can write to me at foodeditor@nytimes.com. I can't respond to every letter. (I'm sorry!) But I read every one I receive. Now, it's nothing to do with table grapes or the deliciousness of fresh-caught tautog, but I liked Jewly Hight's profile of the indie rocker MJ Lenderman in The Bitter Southerner. Meet the amateur art detective Clifford Schorer III, profiled by Adam Leith Gollner for Vanity Fair. "I'm known in the art world for rediscovering lost things," he told Gollner. That's maybe an understatement. For The Washington Post, Sebastian Smee reviewed the Frida Kahlo show at the Dallas Museum of Art. And now I want to go to Texas. Finally, to end where we started, here's Craig Claiborne's "New York Times Video Cookbook" from 1984, released on Betamax and posted to YouTube by This Old Tape. Nice kitchen! Watch that for a while 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 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. To stop receiving Cooking, unsubscribe. 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