Quick 6-Hour Recipes

How my granny made it, a long time ago. I remember going to my granny’s house when I was a young boy, and she would make the best chicken and rice. As a teenager I assumed this dish was simple – chicken, rice, and water – but as I made this cheap dish more often throughout my twenties, I began to see its simplicity more as a refined comfort that warms your belly and soul for a maximum of 1 day; it doesn’t keep well for long because the rice is in so much liquid, so don’t make [...]

So good because they take forever. I have no idea what these are—it’s just fried chicken basically. But my kids absolutely love them. It must be the amount of love I put into these that make them so good. This recipe has not been a staple for long and only existed after I had kids. But it gives you the best of both worlds: fried chicken and a clean kitchen. Ingredients onion chicken breasts; boneless, skinless breadcrumbs flour olive oil ranch Worcestershire sauce salt, black pepper, cumin, curry powder, garlic powder (not garlic salt, you beast), onion powder, [...]

This will take way longer than the box kind. I grew up having this dinner probably twice a month. It was straight from the box; just brown the hamburger meat, add the milk and the seasoning packet. This meal is a representation of everything that’s wrong with the world because it’s simultaneously so bad and so good; it’s just macaroni and cheese with red meat. You should only make this dish when you have several other people to share it with because you one hundred percent of the time will overeat if you leave yourself alone in a [...]

The only correct way to make and eat chili. This is the story of my chili. There are many stories of people’s chili, and everyone claims that their chili is the best—or the most traditional. Nonsense; hogwash. The best chili is simply whichever chili has the most perfect mixture of ingredients and follows the most superior method. THE MOST PERFECT MIXTURE OF INGREDIENTS onion garlic green bell pepper salt black pepper chili powder cumin powder cayenne pepper paprika ground beef dark kidney beans tomatoes saltines shredded cheddar THE MOST SUPERIOR METHOD This is the method of my chili. [...]

Takes way longer to make than to eat. Pronounced, “bahk’n spaw notch baw,” bacon spinach balls are a delightful treat that will have you regretting you started making it in the first place no more than an hour after you begin. Derived from pure southern curiosity, they’ve probably got a more refined culinary cousin out there somewhere that shudders around the holidays when these babies make their way around the party circuit. Part boudin ball, part hammie, this culinary flop would put a restaurant out of business on labor costs alone. But I like the way they taste. [...]

So good that you’ll eat them with a spoon. The potato is the reigning champ of all the tubers for the unmatched pleasure and versatility it brings to the table. The potato’s experience is superior in any form, but candy bowl potatoes have traditionally been traded for gold and were the reason for dozens of peace treaties probably. Every person for whom I make my world-famous candy bowl potatoes swoons at the kitchen door asking for more but it’s never enough—the potatoes I mean; I never make enough. They take so long. Ingredients onion red potatoes olive oil [...]

Better than the French stuff. I once had a girlfriend who strung me along while she was still in love with a Frenchman, leaving me with a healthy displeasure of France and all things French. I happily adopted the etymological advancement of the Freedom Fry, despite the political stigma associated with the phrase, and I swore a vow determined to implement a soup that could stand against a classic. Ingredients onion olive oil beef stock salt and pepper thyme cheeses, Gruyère, mozzarella, parmesan croutons Method First you must possess the ingredients that comprise this dish, and it gives [...]

Usually with spinach, and meat if you have it. Living a sheltered life means I was twenty-nine years old before I ever had quiche. Whatever absurdity in the universe permitted this oversight has since been reconciled because something about the way the way egg morphs into a different texture as it cooks fascinates me. While the act of baking a quiche is the hallmark of the egg’s transformation, that process unfortunately almost aways goes unobserved due to the limited design of the modern residential baking oven. If I had grown up as a child with the pleasure of [...]

Now made with real fruit! This recipe would not belong in a book of quick six-hour recipes if not for the fresh mangos, because cutting mangos is a disproportional work-to-reward task; you can’t make me believe their flavor is worth all the trouble. I’d rather cut up a pineapple than a mango, so, really, you make mango cucumber salad out of love, or when you want to impress someone else. Ingredients onion cucumber mango Everglades seasoning vinegar olive oil Method Gather all the ingredients before you begin or you’ll have to leave the kitchen in the middle of [...]

Ripped from the pages of time. There are stories of a tomato sauce recipe that has been passed down for eight generations. Kings would have this at their weddings, with the tomatoes carted in by horse all the way from Reggio Calabria where men would go on long treks through the wilderness to gather wild Roma tomatoes by moonlight. Ingredients onion tomatoes garlic parsley beef ribs pork ribs Method Have all the ingredients carted to your kitchen, preferably by horse or Volkswagen, and when the package arrives, seek first the onion and chop it into tiny bits. Go [...]