I keep a wildly detailed tracker of every new recipe I cook in a calendar year. Of the more than 100 new recipes I tried last year, these were the ones I turned to repeatedly — and you should try them all in 2024.
Hello, food-loving friends! Ross here. If we haven't crossed paths before, I write about and edit lots of food-related stuff here at BuzzFeed, and as a result, I constantly find myself cooking. Somehow, we're already several weeks into 2024 — and with the dawn of each new year, I'm always excited to take a nostalgic, virtual stroll through every recipe I've cooked over the past 365 days.
Ross Yoder
Some people set reading goals every year. I, however, set a recipe goal. I'm so passionate about this feat that I record each recipe I cook in a spreadsheet and rate each of them. No recipes slip through the cracks in my household.
Google / Ross Yoder
In 2021, I cooked around 70 new recipes. In 2022, I hit 122. For 2023, my goal was 150 — and I maxed out at 103 (😭). I am only human! More specifically, I am a human who had an obscenely busy second half of the year; up until July, I was on track to cook nearly 175 new recipes, but my cooking took a nosedive shortly afterward as my now-husband and I planned our October wedding. Believe me when I say that wedding planning crunch time isn't conducive to elaborate home cooking. Instead, it's a very effective pipeline to takeout and bizarre odds-and-ends meals.
Ross Yoder
It's especially easy to do everything but cook when your tiny kitchen becomes wedding beverage storage in the weeks leading up to the big day.
Still, of the 103 new recipes I tried this year, a handful rocked my world. Like, they're last meal–worthy. These are the 19 recipes I loved the most in 2023 that I'm on my hands and knees begging you to try in 2024.
1. Crispy Black Bean Tacos: I made these unbelievably cost-effective tacos at least eight times last year. In a year of serious money saving ahead of my wedding, they were a lifesaver (and a very delicious one at that).
Ross Yoder
There are only pros when you cook this recipe. Like, truly not a con in sight. Thanks to smoky chipotles in adobo, they're incredibly flavorful, they come together exceptionally fast, and they're a game-changing lunch to make ahead and crisp up in the air fryer or toaster oven. They're also totally vegan (and gluten-free!), which means you can serve them to just about anyone. And finally, did I mention that they're less than $2 per serving? Major props to Plant Based RD for the cheap and simple recipe I'll default to for many rent weeks to come.
Recipe: Crispy Black Bean Tacos
Perfect for:Weeknight vegan dinner, make-ahead lunch, budget meal
2. "Braised" Rotisserie Chicken Skillet With Garlicky Kale: "Braised" is in quotes because it's not really braised (sorry!), but this five-ingredient, one-skillet chicken dinner offers all the tender, flavorful goodness of a long braise in under 30 minutes.
Ross Yoder
Grab your favorite rotisserie chicken, cut it into quarters, and you've practically expended all the energy you'll need to make this meal. The garlicky, tomatoey kale comes together in a skillet before it's topped with the chicken pieces and broiled until the skin becomes deliciously crisp once again.
Ross Yoder
Honestly, I'm gonna go ahead and argue that broiling the chicken skin can restore even the saddest, days-old rotisserie chicken to something utterly glorious. This meal is delicious on its own, but IMO, it's even better with your carb of choice, from rice to creamy polenta to crispy roast potatoes.
Recipe:"Braised" Rotisserie Chicken Skillet With Garlicky Kale
Perfect for: Weeknight dinner, make-ahead lunch
3. Halal Cart Chicken Salad: If, in addition to the recipe above, you need another reason for keeping a rotisserie chicken on hand at all times, here's this beauty of a recipe.
Ross Yoder
As someone who lives two blocks away from a ridiculously tasty New York City halal cart (and eats there...more often than I care to disclose!), let me assure you that this salad from Bon Appétit tastes like the real deal. The "Wow, that's genius" element of this recipe happens at the very beginning: You'll quickly cook ground spices and grated garlic in a generous amount of olive oil, then use the warm oil (and some fresh lemon juice) to liven up shredded rotisserie chicken meat. Add in some crisp lettuce, veggies, crushed pita chips, and a tangy yogurt dressing, and you'll understand exactly why I salivate at even the mention of this recipe.
To make this recipe vegetarian, you could also employ the olive oil and spice technique with plant-based proteins. FWIW, this salad would be excellent with crispy chickpeas or tofu.
Recipe: Halal Cart Chicken Salad
Perfect for: Make-ahead lunch, weeknight dinner
4. Stir-Fried Rice Cake Bolognese: Start with a classic Italian Bolognese, incorporate some genius Taiwanese-inspired ingredients, and you're left with a mouthwatering dinner that's one of the best iterations of "saucy carb" out there.
Ross Yoder
I've yet to taste a dish with nian gao— the oval-shaped, chewy rice cakes found in many Chinese or Taiwanese stir-fries — that wasn't spectacular. Because of that, when I received Frankie Gaw's cookbook First Generationas a Christmas gift last year, I saw the abundance of rice cakes and immediately bookmarked this recipe as the first one to try.
While the recipe takes time, it's surprisingly straightforward. After about an hour of active cooking, you'll let the richly seasoned sauce simmer for many hours until everything tastes right, and the Taiwanese-inspired additions (like scallions, ginger, and a few glugs of soy sauce) really make this dish what it is.
Note: If you can't find the nian gaoat your local Asian grocery store, I highly recommend ordering them online. You can even substitute Koren tteokif the oval-shaped variety proves too tricky to source.
Recipe:Stir-Fried Rice Cake Bolognese
Perfect for: Weekend project, dinner party, better-as-leftovers meal
5. Potato Chip Omelet from The Bear: Want to know the key to making a classic French omelet even better? Turns out it's...potato chips.
Ross Yoder
With every season ofThe Bear, there's always a standout recipe or two. If Season 1's fan-favorite recipe was thefamily meal spaghetti, Season 2's was the potato chip omelet. Iwroteabout the simple recipe — which features silky eggs, Boursin cheese, and crushed sour cream and onion potato chips for a surprising (and exceptionally tasty) crunch —when the season premiered.
One trick from this recipe that I now employ whenever I make eggs: scrambling them through a fine-mesh sieve. It gives you the creamiest results ever, and it has become a morning go-to in my household.
Ross Yoder
If the finicky nature of French omelets is enough to make you want to pass on this recipe, just remember that your execution doesn't have to be anywhere near perfect. *Anything* will be delicious with Boursin cheese and potato chips. I don't make the rules.
Recipe:Potato Chip Omelet fromThe Bear
Perfect for: Impressive (but economical) entertaining
6. Caesar Slaw With Crispy Chicken: This impressive, packed-with-greens dish easily wins a gold medal in the "salads that aren't boring" competition.
Ross Yoder
A truly delectable salad packs in a variety of crunchiness, and this one from How Sweet Eats delivers on three separate crunch sources: thinly sliced cabbage (green andpurple), crispy chicken, and homemade croutons.
Delicious, yes, but a weeknight meal it is not. It is, however, the perfect dish to serve for a dinner party or Sunday night family meal. You can make the prep process easier for yourself by preslicing your greens and making the tangy, yogurt-based Caesar dressing in advance too.
Not for nothing, but this recipe also employs my favorite hack for A+ chicken cutlets: skipping the flour. I actually think that beyond simplifying the process of coating each piece of chicken, it also gives you better bread crumb stickage. Don't knock it until you've tried it.
Recipe:Caesar Slaw With Crispy Chicken
Perfect for:Dinner party, weekend project
7. Kale Salad With Pecorino and Walnuts: Extreme statement incoming — this is the perfect salad. No notes!
Ross Yoder
When my editor Melissa tipped me off to this salad as one of her favorite leftover-friendly meals earlier this year, she probably didn't realize that she'd just introduced me to one of my favorite salads ever. Every element of this Smitten Kitchen recipe is utter perfection: the thin ribbons of shredded kale, plump golden raisins for pops of sweetness, a showering of crunchy panko bread crumbs, and the massive handful of grated pecorino that adds a sharp, salty bite to every forkful.
Unlike most salads, it gets even better in the fridge as it sits in the light dressing; the acid continues to tenderize the hearty kale to a just-right amount — no sogginess whatsoever.
Ross Yoder
This quality makes the dish an excellent candidate for dinner one night (add your favorite protein) and a zero-effort lunch the next, which I've done many, many times.
Recipe:Kale Salad With Pecorino and Walnuts
Perfect for:Make-ahead lunch,effortless entertaining,weeknight dinner
8. My (Best-Ever) Grilled Buffalo Wings: I've been tweaking this recipe in my Notes app for at least three years and can confirm that 2023 was the year I finally got it 100% perfect.
Ross Yoder
Here in New York, it doesn't feel like grilling season. It is, after all, January. But just looking at photos of my many grilled Buffalo wing endeavors from last summer rockets me back to warmer, happier, and spicier times. I implore anyone who even remotely likes Buffalo wings to try my version when summer 2024 rolls around — and if you want to stand outside grilling wings for Super Bowl Sunday in a few weeks, you absolutely should. More power to ya!
The tweaks over the years have been numerous. First, I tried slow-baking them in an oven and finishing them on a roaring hot grill. I tried making them only in the oven. I made many different spice rubs (featuring many other ingredients). But the version I settled on last year is undeniably unique, if I do say so myself.
Ross Yoder
In this version, there's no prebaking process to render out the fat (which I see all the time in most recipes); your grill does an excellent job of crisping up the skin anyway, and the wings come out more tender and juicy with a hotter, faster cooking process. Mixing baking powder and cornstarch gives each wing a super-crunchy crust that tastes like a lighter version of a deep-fried wing. And the sauce is, dare I say, perfectly balanced between sweet, spicy, and savory thanks to some wild-card ingredients. My in-laws only refer to this Buffalo sauce as "Rossy sauce" now, and if this is my legacy, I love that for me.
Recipe: Grilled Buffalo Wings
Perfect for: Effortless entertaining, game day appetizers
9. Lazy One-Pan Vodka Chicken Parm: This TikTok-beloved recipe perfectly executes one of my longest-held, extremely controversial opinions when it comes to chicken Parm: Why go through the entire breading and frying chicken process if it gets soggy in your sauce anyway?
Ross Yoder
Like Alison Roman's eggplant Parm from my 2022 favorite recipes list, I appreciate that this 30-minute meal from TikToker Shay Spencedoesn'trequire you to bread anything before it bathes in the sauce. In this recipe, you'll sear the chicken, make a quick vodka sauce, and thentop the saucy chicken with crunchy panko bread crumbs and cheese.
Another time-saving trick: Since you're not shallow-frying legit chicken cutlets, you don't have to pound them thin. I love a proper chicken cutlet (who doesn't?), but I also love a valuable shortcut that allows me to get one of my favorite dishes on the table on any ol' weeknight.
Ross Yoder
Unsolicited fun fact: I first stumbled upon this recipe in March 2023 while my now-husband and I were fostering an extremely teeny 5-week-old kitten that we'd found in our backyard. For weeks, I had to plan all our meals around his short-lived naps, or else he'd inevitably destroy something or find himself in a very precarious situation. Needless to say, this simple and satisfying meal was a godsend during my kitten-dad era.
Recipe:Lazy One-Pan Vodka Chicken Parm
Perfect for: Weeknight dinner, effortless entertaining
(Here's said kitten, along with a BuzzFeed cameo that just makes sense.)
Ross Yoder
10. Coconut Cabbage and Tofu With Lemongrass and Ginger: For those nights when "throw stuff in pan and bake" is all you're feeling up for, even though you want something beautiful and flavorful, turn to this one-pan meal.
Ross Yoder
I made this weeknight dish from Epicurious so many times in 2023 that it has to be interlaced with my DNA by now. Since I almost always have tofu and a bag of carrots in the fridge (and these days, I more often than not have a head of cabbage, too), it's become one of my favorite go-tos.
A 45-minute roast in the oven turns this smattering of ingredients into a dish that's pure magic: The coconut and lemongrass sauce becomes luxuriously rich, chunks of carrot and cabbage turn velvety with bits of char here and there, and even the tofu becomes substantially hearty with a pleasant chew.
Ross Yoder
Though this recipe is extremely delicious when you use fresh lemongrass, I'll admit that it's stillreallydelicious when you swap in a heaping tablespoon of store-bought Thai green curry paste instead, which is easily found at most grocery stores. Since lemongrass is one of the main components of green curry paste anyway, I've found this substitution to be slightly more practical.
Recipe:Coconut Cabbage and Tofu With Lemongrass and Ginger
Perfect for: Weeknight vegan dinner, better-as-leftovers, effortless entertaining, budget meal
11. Roasted Cabbage Salad: If the cabbage recipe that precedes this one somehow isn't enough reason to keep a head of cabbage in your fridge at all times, maybe this one will convince you.
Ross Yoder
TBH, I don't know what the definition of "salad" is anymore, but I'm here for the creativity. If eating more veggies is one of your New Year's resolutions, keep this "salad" recipe from EatingWell in your back pocket for the days when you need a meal that's veggie-focused and super flavorful. It's a great side dish to just about anything you could think of, but frankly, all you need is any protein that sounds good to you to turn it into a hearty, nutritious meal.
Recipe: Roasted Cabbage Salad
Perfect for:Budget meal, weeknight dinner
12. Chicken-Dill Patties With Zucchini: Bright and summery, this easy yet impressive meal is perfect for entertaining when warmer evenings eventually roll around again.
Ross Yoder
As a self-proclaimed Internet Recipe Person, I tried to become more of a Cookbook Recipe Person last year. Because of my tendency to source nearly all of my recipe inspiration from social media, I low-key failed! But when I flipped through Ali Slagle's genius cookbook I Dream of Dinnerfor the first time, I immediately bookmarked this recipe andeven snapped a photo of it on my phone so I couldn't use, "Oh darn, I don't have the book with me!" as an excuse when grocery shopping.
To me, this dish is many things: gorgeous, flavorful, and perfect for impressing guests (or your family!) without requiring a lot of effort. The addition of grated zucchini also keeps these "patties" (easier meatballs, really) ridiculously juicy, so they're a lot harder to overcook by accident. Basically, this dish is entertaining goals. Just smear some herbed yogurt on a large platter, top with your cooked patties, and garnish with gusto.
Note: This recipe is only available in Ali Slagle's cookbook, I Dream of Dinner (So You Don't Have To), which I highly recommend to anyone who enjoys dinner. However, you can find a similar-ish version of the patties themselves here.
Perfect for:Effortless entertaining, make-ahead lunch
13. Thai Chicken Chop Salad: The salad is top-notch, but the dressing? This dressing is...god tier. Make a double or triple batch, y'all. You'll need it.
Ross Yoder
In early 2023, I was the last food-loving person to learn about Caroline Chambers's always iconic What to Cook When You Don't Feel Like Cooking newsletter, which a very enthusiastic friend told me about. According to Substack, the newsletter currently has over 128,000 subscribers...so yes, I really was the last food lover to subscribe. Of the many recipes from Caro that I cooked this year, this Thai Chicken Chop was the most delicious one (followed by her outrageous Salmon Tempura Crunch Bowls, which you'll need a very worthwhile paid subscription to access).
For a make-ahead lunch, this non-boring salad balances all the taste-good elements (crunchy toppings, ridiculously tasty dressing) with plenty of feel-good ingredients (multiple protein sources, tons of veg). I'm not kidding about the dressing, either. Make an extra-large batch. It's that good.
Ross Yoder
Another unsolicited fun fact: I have the "soapy cilantro" gene. So I've used this recipe to overcome my dislike of the herb by adding more every time I cook it. Ordering food without cilantro always makes me feel the deepest, darkest sense of shame, so slowly increasing the amount of cilantro I add to both the ground chicken and cashew dressing has proved pretty darn successful!
Recipe:Thai Chicken Chop Salad
Perfect for:Make-ahead lunch, weeknight dinner, meal prepping
14. Whipped Ricotta Toast: I implore you to bookmark this stunning appetizer for a future dinner party, even if you're not the kind of person who normally throws dinner parties. It may look fancy, but it only takes a matter of minutes to put together.
Ross Yoder
Since this only requires minimal ingredients, it's one of those recipes where I'd recommend splurging on the highest-quality ingredients if you can, specifically the tastiest bread and whole milk ricotta you can find. And while toasting the bread in the oven will produce delicious results, a good pan-frying of each slice of bread in a generous amount of olive oil will up the ante in a major way.
Recipe:Whipped Ricotta Toast
Perfect for: Effortless entertaining, minimal-ingredient recipe
15. Crispy Chicken With Lemon Orzo: This minimal-ingredient dinner deserves a spot in your regular recipe rotation, and the lemony orzo also makes an excellent side dish for just about any other main you'd want to cook instead.
Ross Yoder
This photo is from my bachelor party last August, when all my favorite people planned an Ina Garten–inspired dinner party menu for our second night of festivities. If that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about me...I do not know what will.
Bachelor party aside, this specific dinner reminded me just how much I've loved this recipe over the years. The fact that I haven't written about it yet is simply criminal — so look the other way for a moment at its inclusion in my roundup of "new" recipes. The seared chicken packs all the savory goodness you could ever ask for, and the lemony orzo is a bright, herb-forward accompaniment. For maximum ease, you could even make the orzo ahead and sear off the chicken when it's time for dinner.
Recipe:Crispy Chicken With Lemon Orzo
Perfect for: Weeknight dinner, effortless entertaining
16. Overnight Mac 'n' Cheese: Sorry, it simply wouldn't be *me* without at least two Ina Garten recipes in one roundup, but I'm thrilled to report that this viral recipe from her latest cookbook is the easiest, most crowd-pleasing hit ever.
Ross Yoder
When my husband and I got married last fall, my lofty dream was to host a massive welcome dinner for our wedding parties and close family the night everyone arrived — around 30 guests, more or less. In hindsight, major props to my mother-in-law for assuring me that I should not tackle such a feat two days before the biggest party I'll ever throw. That plan devolved into mostly pickup barbecue and a handful of side dishes that I cooked myself, and even that nearly knocked me out.
One of those side dishes was Ina's overnight mac 'n' cheese, which made quite the splash when released with her recent cookbook Go-To Dinners. Cooking it for 30 adults the first time I ever made it was a risk that I frankly wouldn't otherwise recommend, but lucky for me, it ended up being everyone's favorite dish. (Ina's regular mac is a longtime family favorite, so I knew in my bones that it had to be good.)
Ross Yoder
Here's the magic of this recipe: You parboil the pasta for four minutes only, then refrigerate it overnight with a mixture of heavy cream and shredded cheese — no roux required. I was 10% skeptical, but it came out beautifully, even though it objectively looked like WAY TOO MUCH CREAM the night before.
All in all, just trust Ina.
Recipe: Overnight Mac 'N' Cheese
Perfect for: Effortless entertaining, make-ahead dinners
(And if you naturally find yourself asking, "Ross, did the wedding party house of 20-plus people drunkenly eat the leftovers cold immediately after the wedding ended?" the answer would be...yes. Yes, we did, and it was actually very good.)
Ross Yoder
(Not as good as the pizza rolls, though.)
17. 5-Ingredient Spinach and Halloumi Salad: Whether you think of it as a starter or a light main, this salad's few ingredients come together to produce a salad that's bright, zingy, and surprising in the best way possible.
Ross Yoder
Last winter, I found myself on a serious citrus kick. After some googling, I stumbled upon this recipe from BBC's Good Food that only called for five (!!!) ingredients, and I was immediately hooked. Fresh oranges are used in two genius ways: Slices are segmented for a pop of juiciness in each bite, and orange juiceis reserved to serve as the acid component in a quick dressing.
It's the perfect recipe to utilize citrus when it's in season (i.e., now!), but it's also a delightful light main course to serve when the weather gets warmer. What I'm saying is, there's no bad time or season or circ*mstance to make this recipe.
Recipe:5-Ingredient Spinach and Halloumi Salad
Perfect for:Budget meal, vegetarian weeknight dinner, minimal-ingredient recipe
18. Caramelized Onion Dip: If you invite me to a get-together, there's a 99% chance I'm bringing this dip. I mean...if you, like me, thought store-bought French onion dip was good enough, prepare to have your taste buds explode.
Ross Yoder
This homemade onion dip from Food & Wine has no business being this good, but it is. It really, really is. After three onions arecaramelized for around 45 minutes (no half-assed "caramelized" onions in this recipe, y'all), the incredible sweetness and depth of flavor they add to this dip are difficult to describe. In my experience, people dip their chips into this stuff expecting your run-of-the-mill onion dip but end up being blown away. As a bonus, this dip is make-ahead friendly, so you can prep it a day before your party (or potluck) and know that it'll taste even better the day of.
As yet another bonus, the leftovers are low-key life-changing when slathered over seared chicken breasts for a full meal.
Recipe:Caramelized Onion Dip
Perfect for: Potluck, effortless entertaining
19. Strawberry Spoon Cake: I leave you with the only dessert this baking-averse cook enjoys making. It's incredibly simple and impressive, which are the only two criteria I care about on the rare occasions when I attempt homemade dessert.
Ross Yoder
I will spend half a day cooking the world's most labor-intensive recipe before I bake something, so this no-mixer-required "cake" is the dessert recipe I always keep in my back pocket when I need to put a dessert together as painlessly as possible. It's lightly sweet and almost pound cake–y in its texture and feels satisfyingly substantial without tasting heavy. It also includes the perfect amount of fresh (or frozen!) fruit to make it feel festive, and I have never served this to guests or family and had any leftovers. Spoon it into bowls while warm, top with your favorite vanilla ice cream, and watch it disappear in a matter of seconds. It's that good.
Recipe: Strawberry Spoon Cake
Perfect for:Anytime dessert, effortless entertaining
Note: This recipe comes from NYT Cooking, which requires a subscription to access. If you don't have one, you can find a similar recipe here.
That's all from me this time, folks! If you try any of these recipes for yourself, drop your thoughts in the comments or reach out to me via DM. What recipes have you been loving lately? Drop 'em in the comments, and I might even give them a try myself. (Who knows, maybe they'll end up in this year's roundup!)
And in case you were curious, my new recipe goal for 2024 is 100, which is even fewer than 2023. Quality over quantity in this cooking-burnout-free zone.😘
