James Kenji Lopez-Alt

Really Good French Bread Pizza with (with Sausage, Pepperoni, and Giardiniera)

French Bread Pizza is arguably not really pizza. It’s definitely not really made with any kind of bread found in France. That said, it’s unarguably delicious—at least when made well. I explored the ins and outs of French bread pizza in detail a few years ago over on 2025-03-03 18:49:01 +0000 UTC View Post

Knife Skills: How to Cut Bell Peppers

Splitting fruits and vegetables is always divisive (see what I did there?), but splitting peppers can be especially so.

The goal when prepping a bell pepper is to remove the seeds and internal ribs and pith, which have a papery texture and not a lot of flavor.

Some folks like to use a method my friend Daniel Gritz...

How to Make Denver Omelettes

Every Way to Cut a Tomato

If you are to believe those old Ginsu knife commercials, cutting a tomato is the ultimate test of the sharpness of a knife. This is not completely inaccurate. A really ripe beefsteak tomato is like a water balloon. More accurately, it’s like millions of tiny water balloons that are all taped together. (And even more accurat...

The Science of Re-Crisping Bagels

This isn't the first time I've talked about this bagel reheating method, and it probably won't be the last. I share it now because it's a perennial tip that works just as well for refreshing any bread that features a crisp crust and chewy center (baguettes benefit especially well).

If we were to make a chart of foods ac...

The Food Lab: Nearly Two Decades Later, The Reverse Sear is Still the Best Way to Cook a Steak

The very first article I was ever paid to write for a print publication was called “The Problem with Thick Cut Steaks.” It appeared in the June/July 2007 issue of Cook’s Illustrated and it included a...

Fudgy Crackle-Top Brownies Recipe

This recipe is a hybrid between my friend Stella Parks’ Glossy Fudge Brownies recipe from Serious Eats (you can get her incredible book, Bravetart...

Late Night Chilaquiles

There are very few times in which I'd use the word "soggy" as a positive descriptor. In fact, it's hard for me to think of a single occasion outside of chilaquiles, the classic Mexican dish of fried corn tortillas soaked in salsa and served with eggs and an array of garnishes. Oh, how I love those soggy nachos.

Perfect ...

The Food Lab Recipe Update: Extra-Crispy Baked Buffalo Wings

An updated version of my 20010 recipe, now even crispier and juicier.

The original recipe for oven-fried buffalo wings is fifteen years old. Fifteen!

A lot has changed in the last fifteen years. I’m writing this article on an iPad, the first generation of which came out that year! There’s been a 2025-02-07 09:57:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Recipe Update: Pull-Apart Pepperoni Garlic Knots

This is an updated version of the Pull-Apart Pepperoni Garlic Knots recipe I wrote for Serious Eats in 2014. The main changes are details in the cooking and process and using an oiled board to stretch and fold the knots in place of a floured one (a small detail but one that makes the whole thing easier and the knots ev...

The Food Lab: Texas-Style Nachos (are not better than piled nachos, but they're not worse either)

If you're new around these parts, The Food Lab is a column on Serious Eats in which I wrote about the science of home cooking for many years. It's also the name of 2025-02-05 01:09:00 +0000 UTC View Post

For the Best Salsa Verde, Char, Char, and Char Some More

There's a wide range of salsas which I could comfortably see myself settling down and going steady with, but this charred salsa verde is my first and longest-lasting love when it comes to things I can dip my chips in, if you know what I mean. Smoky, spicy, sweet, and bright, its complexity is belied by its short ingredients l...

Want Perfect French Omelettes? Start With Water

I've been writing about French omelettes for many years now. In fact, the last time I wrote about French omelettes, I wrote about how much I've written about French omelettes. But the last time I covered the subject, it was with a 2025-01-30 14:00:18 +0000 UTC View Post

How to Make Buttery Fried Eggs

You can find this technique and a few others in my Youtube video Four Ways to Fry Eggs.

These are eggs the way my grandmother used to make them. Tender, bareley-set whites, yolks that are thoroughly liquid, and a buttery emulsified sauce...

I couldn't try every variety of Reese's if I wanted to (and I want to).

WTF, Reese's. You're getting out of hand.

A couple days ago I was recording the upcoming Super Bowl snacks episode of my friend Ed Levine's podcast Sp...

Matcha Toast with Soft Boiled Eggs is a Singapore-Inspired Sweet and Savory Breakfast 

This recipe is a riff on Singaporean kaya toast with soft eggs using store-bought matcha jam in place of the traditional coconut jam (along with a dab of chili crisp).

The other day, while in the bread and toppings section of Uwajimaya picking up a ...

The Mathematically Best Way to Cut an Onion

Dicing an onion is perhaps the culinary task performed more than any other. It's the first step to countless recipes and something that every cook in every restaurant in the world has done hundreds or thousands of times.

But have you ever wondered if there's a truly best way to dice an onion? I did! So I w...

Why You Should "Fry" Your Eggs in Cream

You can find this technique and a few others in my Youtube video Four Ways to Fry Eggs.

We all love the smell of browned butter, right? That nutty, sa...

Knife Skills: How to Shop for, Store, and Chop Shallots

Before I'd actually tasted shallots, I was always told that they are sweeter and more mild than a regular onion. I don't actually find this to be the case. To my palate they have amore pungent, garlicky aroma than a typical onion. However, we typically use them in small quantities. Think: an accent to a vinaigrette, tossed wi...

What's the Best Bread for French Toast?

What's the best bread for French toast? To be honest, this is not the most relevant question. At least in my home, French toast is made with whatever kind of bread we have on hand, whether it's sliced bread from the suparmarket, some leftover baguette from last night's cheeseboard, the stale pannettone someone is bound to gif...

Dear Alcohol, we need to talk.

I have not been quiet about my sobriety journey, but I have also never explicitly talked about it.

Today, I’m going to.

I’d like to share with you a letter I wrote as the final assignment for the first phase of an outpatient recovery program I’m completing with 2024-12-17 23:04:13 +0000 UTC View Post

Origami Egg Sandwiches

This is a fun way to make egg sandwiches for one. It's a technique that's inspired by Anda Toast, the Indian egg toast you find in the streets of Calcutta.

I've never been to Calcutta, but if you are to believe everything you see on the internet (and why wouldn't you), anda toast made by cooking a thin omelet of eggs s...

How to Cut Cucumbers like a Badass

As a kid, one of my favorite snacks was cucumber sticks with a bit of salt for dipping. Now, with two kids who love cucumbers in nearly all their forms, they are the vegetables I buy, cut, and eat most often. Whether raw or marinated in salads, stuck into snack boxes, served alongside fried rice or Peking duck, ...

Better-Than-McDonald's Breakfast Sandwiches (And More Work, Too!) | Kenji's Cooking Show

Quick! Place the following four things in chronological order

• The founding of Nintendo

• The invention of the modern breakfast sandwich

• The discovery of Pluto

• The Michael Jackson album Thriller

Would it surprise you to find out that the breakfast sandwic...

Eggs Benedict for a Crowd

One of my earliest cooking jobs was at a fine dining restaurant in Boston near the State House. Once a week or so, the restaurant would open early to serve breakfast to politicians and bigwigs who'd rent it out for their fundraisers or meetings. As the new guy, it was my job to get there early to make breakfast.

This m...

All my Favorite Thanksgiving Recipes

I realize it’s the day before Thanksgiving, but if you, like me, are a last-minute planner and still have not decided on which recipes you’re going to be following this year, here’s a guide for you.

I’ve been testing and writing recipes for nearly two decades now, and as any recipe writer will tell you, that mea...

The Food Lab's Foolproof Poached Eggs, Revisited

This is an updated version of the recipe I published in my first book, The Food Lab. I’ve updated the technique to ensure that the eggs don’t stick to the strainer, as well as th...