Reading

We Cooked (And Ate) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner like Chrissy Teigen And…

We Cooked (And Ate) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner like Chrissy Teigen And…

Easy but elevated everyday meals *do* exist

 

 

A model, co-host on “Lip Sync Battle” and mom to picky eater Luna (a tot so incredibly fortunate to have a foodie mom who willingly makes restaurant-style menus just for her). This résumé aside, the best parts about following Chrissy Teigen remain to be the in-betweens of her main job titles and her off-the-job stints. Apart from providing comic relief on Twitter or posting entertaining Instagram story tidbits of what’s cookin’ at casa Teigen/Legend, the 34-year-old lady boss of the household is a legitimate authority when it comes to running a kitchen. The kind who leads by example––so when she grants you access to some of her inventive menus, you definitely want to jot down notes.

 

The proof is Teigen’s bestseller Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat and its follow-up, Cravings: Hungry For More, which appeared on virtually every noteworthy food magazine’s roundup of best cookbooks in Fall of 2018. The incredible reception of the latter was actually what got us interested in springing for Teigen’s debut cookbook from 2016 (because of course, the hype surrounding the sophomore edition rides on the smash-hit success of the first). We figured if there’s any place to start arming ourselves, mere foodies and occasional cooks, it’s in the pages of Miss Teigen’s cookbook.

 

With three main meals to start (and we honestly can’t wait now to work through the entire Cravings #1 before going in for #2), here’s the verdict: Right when you think it’s easy to write Chrissy Teigen off as yet another ambitious celebrity for straying from a predictable path, she puts you in your place, shutting you up with some delicious food, to boot. We consider this a sinfully delicious lesson, too, that the kitchen has always been Teigen territory. We’re just grateful we get to indulge in a little taste of it.

 

Ahead, breakfast, lunch, dinner and one bonus party treat that got us hooked on the Cravings cookbook and left us craving (no surprise there) for more.

 

 

Breakfast: Cheesy Cheeseless Scrambled Eggs with Burst Cherry Tomatoes and Garlic-Roasted Bacon

Serves: 4 to 6 persons / Prep Time: 5 minutes / Total Cooking Time: 20 minutes

 

We Cooked (And Ate) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner like Chrissy Teigen And…

Our first try versus Chrissy Teigen’s mastered concoction

Real Talk

Ease of finding ingredients: 5/5 / Ease of preparation: 4/5

 

The mere title was enough to spark curiosity for cheese-loving humans like ourselves, so we just had to give it a go. (Cheesy but cheese-less? How?!)

 

A lesson learned having tried this recipe: delicious scrambled eggs are something you have to work for. Chrissy was right when she said getting creamy, fluffy, almosts-melts-in-your-mouth scrambled eggs will test your patience. And in our case, the urge to fast-track the egg-cooking was real. While nothing about this is designed for the morning rush, we can imagine enjoying these cheesy cheeseless scrambled eggs on a leisurely weekend and consider them a great lesson in delayed gratification. The finished dish is absolutely worth taking sweet, sweet time stirring and waiting. Also: the bacon-cooking technique here? Genius. Just keep in mind that the cooking time used in this recipe is meant precisely for thick-cut bacon. For thinner variants, eight to 10 minutes should be good enough.

 

What You’ll Need

For the eggs:

12 really good-quality eggs (the ones with the really yellow yolks)

½ cup heavy cream

1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons butter

 

For the burst cherry tomatoes:

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups cherry tomatoes (about one pound)

½ teaspoon kosher salt

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup thinly sliced chives (optional)

 

For the garlic-roasted bacon:

12 slices thick-cut bacon

3 cloves of garlic, chopped

 

Make the eggs: In a bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, salt, and pepper until they look like melted ice cream. In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil and butter over low heat until the butter is melted but not super-hot. You will get the urge to bump up the heat––do not do it!!! Add the eggs and cook, stirring. This will test your patience and any tendencies towards ADHD. Cook––stirring incessantly––until the eggs are custardy and form small curds, 12 to 14 minutes. Remove from the heat.

 

Make the tomatoes: During the last 10 minutes of egg-cookin’ time, heat a large cast-iron or any other heavy skillet over medium-high heat until really hot (it should be hard to get your hand close to the skillet). Add the oil and swirl it around, then add the tomatoes and sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Let the tomatoes cook, tossing every couple of minutes, until they’re blistered and kind of shriveled, 5 to 6 minutes.

 

For the garlic-roasted bacon: Preheat the oven to 375oF. Lay the bacon out on a rimmed baking sheet so the slices don’t overlap. Sprinkle the garlic all over the bacon. Roast until crisp, 12 to 15 minutes. (Even if you don’t use garlic, this is still the best way to cook bacon.)

 

Serve the eggs hot with the chives on top, as well as the tomatoes and the bacon, if desired. Season with more salt and pepper.

 

Lunch: John’s Fried Chicken Wings with Spicy Honey Butter

Serves: 8 to 10 persons / Prep Time: 15 minutes / Total Cooking Time: 4 hours and 45 minutes

 

We Cooked (And Ate) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner like Chrissy Teigen And…

Expectations versus reality

 

Real Talk

Ease of finding ingredients: 3/5 / Ease of preparation: 3/5

We’re suckers for anything spicy, doused in honey and comes with a generous serving of butter. We now don’t wonder at all about why this is John Legend’s favorite. This isn’t something that can be prepared on a whim, but the three-part process is a familiar one and builds on the basics of a good ol’ fried chicken recipe. The only downside to this is that two of the ingredients are not common. For one, the only place we could find Cholula hot sauce was at one branch of Rustan’s and the only place that carried Lawry’s Seasoning Salt was Unimart (it was also Chili & Garlic or bust in our case so this is what we used in lieu of the original blend). Overall, a great meal for the family. This goes well with white rice, of course, veggie sticks or mac and cheese.

 

What You’ll Need

For the chicken and brine:

6 tablespoons Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

2 ½ tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons garlic powder

2 tablespoons cayenne pepper

5 pounds chicken wings and drumettes

 

For the breading and frying:

Canola oil for deep-frying

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons Lawry’s Seasoning Salt

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper

 

For the spicy honey butter:

1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cooled

4 tablespoons Cholula hot sauce (sorry, it has to be Cholula)

2 tablespoons honey

¾ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more to taste

 

Special equipment:

Deep-fry or candy thermometer

 

 

Brine the chicken: In a really big pot or a 2-gallon zip-top plastic bag, combine 10 cups cold water, the seasoning salt, garlic powder, and cayenne. Add the chicken, cover, and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 24.

 

Bread and fry the chicken: Fill a soup pot with 6 inches of oil, making sure there are at least 4 inches of clearance between the oil and the lip of the pot. Heat the oil over medium heat until it reaches 365oF on a deep-fry thermometer, or prepare a deep fryer according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

 

In a big bowl, combine the flour, seasoning salt, and cayenne. A few at a time, remove the wings from the brine and toss them in the flour mixture until coated really well, then place on a baking sheet while you coat the rest.

 

When the oil is ready, turn the heat up to medium-high and carefully slip in the wings, adding just enough so that there’s still plenty of space around each wing. (If it feels safer, use tongs to add the wings; whatever you do, don’t just drop them in! Splashing hot oil is bad.) Fry the wings until golden and crispy, about 13 minutes per batch. Drain the wings on plenty of paper towels. Fry the remaining chicken, letting the oil come back to temperature between batches.

 

Make the spicy honey butter: While the chicken is frying, in a bowl, whisk together the melted butter, Cholula, honey, and salt until incorporated. Taste and add more salt if necessary.

 

Slather the wings with the spicy honey butter and eat that chaacken!

 

Dinner: Pepper’s Spicy Clams and Pasta

Serves: 4 persons / Prep Time: 10 minutes /Total Cooking Time: 20 minutes

 

We Cooked (And Ate) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner like Chrissy Teigen And…

In the cookbook versus in real life

 

Real Talk

Ease of finding ingredients: 4/5 / Ease of preparation: 5/5

One of the more daunting recipes, but a surprisingly easy one to follow! This dish is a light but flavorful seafood pasta that even non-shellfish lovers can appreciate. For starters, you can never go wrong with a butter and white wine base. In our experience though (and not to get poetic), perfection is subjective: the amount of salt we put in was just right for one person’s taste, but the rest thought it was lacking. The to-each-his-own rule applies when it comes to seasoning here.

 

What You’ll Need

Kosher salt

12 ounces dried linguine

1 stick unsalted butter

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

½ cup dry white wine

¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

2 pounds Manila clams, scrubbed

½ cup chopped fresh parsley, plus more for garnish

 

In a large pot of heavily salted boiling water, cook the linguine until al dente according to the package directions. Reserve ¼ cup of the pasta water, then drain the pasta and return it to the cooking pot.

 

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. When the butter foams, add the garlic and red pepper flakes and cook until the garlic is fragrant and very lightly golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the wine and pepper, increase the heat slightly, and cook until bubbling, about 2 minutes. Add the clams, increase the heat, cover, and cook just until the clams open, about 3 minutes. Transfer the opened clams to the pasta pot. (If some clams are stubborn, recover the pan for another minute or two; if the clams still don’t open, ditch them.) Taste the sauce and add salt to taste.

 

Add any remaining cooked clams and all the clam liquid to the drained pasta. Warm through over medium heat, adding the reserved pasta water as needed to help bind the sauce.

 

Party Bonus: Steak Bites with Melty Blue Cheese Butter
Serves: 4 to 6 persons / Prep Time: 10 minutes / Total Cooking Time: 15 minutes

 

We Cooked (And Ate) Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner like Chrissy Teigen And…

Our bites versus Chrissy’s bites

 

Real Talk

Ease of finding ingredients: 4/5 / Ease of preparation: 5/5

Purists when it comes to steak might take issue with the amount of black pepper in this recipe, so if you consider yourself one, go ahead and be a little more conservative with the amount of spices you use. You can always sprinkle these on later to taste anyway. One lesson we learned from this experience is that the operative words in this recipe are: roughly cracked black pepper; anything too finely ground overpowers the steak. Also, the exhaust is your best friend. Smoke not only instantly fills the room but the scent of pepper does, too. A bunch of us were sneezing as we cooked (not good). But the steak bites themselves? So good.

 

What You’ll Need

2 ounces soft, creamy-style blue cheese, at room temperature

1 tablespoon butter, slightly softened

½ pound New York strip steak, trimmed of excess fat

½ teaspoon kosher salt

3 tablespoons roughly cracked black pepper

2 tablespoons canola oil

½ cup crushed potato sticks (the kind you get at 7-Eleven or the corner store, nothing fancy!)

 

In a small bowl, mash the blue cheese and butter with a fork until smooth.

 

Pat the meat dry with paper towels and cut into 12 one-inch cubes. Season it all over with the salt. Place the cracked pepper in a shallow dish and press the steak cubes into the pepper on all sides to form a pepper crust.

 

In a medium cast-iron or heavy skillet, heat the oil over medium-high heat. When shimmering-hot, add the steak cubes and cook on all sides until medium-rare, about 30 seconds per side. Remove the steak from the skillet by standing each cube with a wooden, metal, or bamboo skewer. Squash about 1 teaspoon of the blue cheese butter on top of the meat (it will begin to melt down the sides if you play your cards right), then press a few potato sticks into the cheese.

 

 

RELATED: Drinks to Make at Home (That Aren’t Dalgona Coffee)

 

A peek into the Teigen-Legend kitchen sitch got us thinking: A little flair in the kitchen, it turns out, doesn’t take a whole lot of effort. It doesn’t require extensive know-how to begin with either.

 

If you want to see and taste the “recipes for all the food you want to eat” for yourself, we implore you to go grab a copy of Cravings by Chrissy Teigen available online on Amazon or in Fully Booked branches nationwide. Happy munching!

 

 

Art Alexandra Lara

Share to

Advertisement

You may also like

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Get weekly updates on trending topics

Ⓒ 2018 – 2023 Wonder ™ | All Rights Reserved

Advertisement

Discover More

Search

Don't miss a thing

Stay up to date to the latest news and articles.