Our 5 Favorite Ina Garten Recipes | Barefoot Contessa | Food Network

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these are the easiest potatoes in the

world

i think i've made more garlic roasted

potatoes than every other vegetable

combined

i start with red potatoes but you can

really use any kind of thin skin potato

maybe about two pounds if they're big

potatoes i'll cut them in quarters

if they're small potatoes i'll cut them

in half

okay a little olive oil just drizzle it

on

of course salt i use kosher salt but you

can use sea salt or any kind of salt you

have around lots of fresh pepper give it

a little spice

now the secret to my potatoes

really good garlic

i was trying to find garlic that's very

firm like this

it doesn't have a big sprout on it you

don't want to plant in your

potatoes you want a really good garlic

peel six cloves of garlic

there's a lot of garlic in this meal but

when you cook garlic for a long time it

becomes really sweet so it's not going

to be too garlicky meal

now the easiest way i find a chopped

garlic is just to leave the tip of the

blade on the board and run the knife

back and forth and really let the blade

do the work

okay

lots of garlic

smells so good

i'm going to use my hands

to mix up the olive oil salt i've

already put on it the pepper

okay into the oven

400 degrees

for about 30 minutes

oh

these are the garlic roasted potatoes

and they are seriously garlic they're

all crisp on the outside and delicious

inside

it's like a

retired kitchen hi sweetie

oh that looks great

that looks great

what you've been dreaming of all the way

home

and i'd love some wine that'd be

fabulous

and a sprinkling of parsley on the top

years and years and years every time

jeffrey came home on friday night i

would make roast chicken and then one

day i thought i've got to be a little

more creative than this i want the house

to smell great and of course i want to

make chicken so each time i challenge

myself to make something new i'm making

chicken piccata which is wonderful i'm

going to start with two chicken breasts

i'm going to do a coating for them so

they're sauteed and a lemon and butter

sauce which is so good so the first

thing i need is half a cup of flour just

all-purpose flour

half a teaspoon of salt

a quarter of a teaspoon of pepper

just going to mix that all together

so that's the first part of the coating

this can be dipped into one egg

just mix with a little touch of water

just beat it all together

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the next part of the coating

is bread crumbs i use seasoned bread

crumbs about three quarters of a

okay cup

just gonna heat a little oil in the pan

just a few tablespoons

and while that gets hot i'm gonna take

the chicken breasts

and pound them out until they get really

thin

sort of even chicken breasts they're

sort of thicker parts and the thinner

and other parts and this way they cook

more evenly and they cook really quickly

rolling pin is a good basher some people

have knee pounding things but

everybody has a rolling pin i like them

between a quarter and a half inch thick

and just in two directions so it ends up

smooth doesn't end up

in ridges

okay

so the first one goes into the flower

and just make sure it's coated all over

and shake off the excess

into the eggs

the flour dries it out and then the eggs

make it so that the bread crumbs will

adhere

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and then the bread crumbs

season dried bread crumbs

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right into the pan

perfect

just two minutes on each side until it's

golden brown

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okay that guy's done

perfect another next one a little oil

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right into the pan

two minutes on each side

i wonder if it's going to replace

jeffrey's favorite roast chicken for

friday night chicken dinner

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oh perfectly done

okay i'm gonna put this on a sheet pan

keep it warm in the oven 400 degrees for

about 10 minutes right alongside the red

onions

and then i'm going to make a nice lemon

butter sauce to go with it

oh perfect timing i think i just heard

jeffrey

the weekend starts now

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jeffy's upstairs changing

the red onions are roasting in the oven

the buttermilk mashed potatoes are done

and now i just have to make the sauce

for the chicken piccata so the first

thing i'm going to do is just wipe out

the pan

that i cook the chicken in

and i'm just going to heat up a

tablespoon of butter

so the chicken is warm in the oven just

keeping it warm in the oven while i just

make a nice sauce for it okay now i need

a third of a cup of freshly squeezed

lemon juice

it's probably two lemons

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just gonna pour it right into the butter

okay now half a cup of white wine really

nice dry white wine

something i drink for dinner

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okay

half a teaspoon of salt

a quarter of a teaspoon of pepper

and this is what i'm going to do with

the lemon shells i'm going to put them

right in the sauce so you get the flavor

of the zest

it just cooks together

so i'm just going to reduce this by half

it'll take about two minutes while i

chop up some parsley and some sliced

lemons to put on the chicken

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so the onions i have a little bit of

vinaigrette left over

from the marinating which i always love

to put on at the end

just toss them all together

these look so good

that's gonna be wonderful okay and then

the chicken

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some of the piccata sauce

that looks pretty good

some slices of lemon so jeffrey knows

it's lemon pecan a little bit of parsley

these roasted onions smell so good i

love the way they look

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who doesn't love mashed potatoes and

buttermilk mashed potatoes

oh your timing is perfect as always

guess what's for dinner

well let's see it's friday

chicken but what kind of chicken it's

chicken piccata

and it's ready great

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let me tell you how good this chicken is

is it up there with the roast chicken

you know i used to think that roast

chicken

was the only thing i could have on

friday night but this

chicken piccata

this is just as good

i thought i'd surprise michael and jim

with a cake for their anniversary party

so it's one and three quarters cup of

flour i'm gonna sift all the dry

ingredients together

two cups of sugar i'm gonna sip them

right into the bowl

mixing

bowl

and since the chocolate cake

with chocolate buttercream

it's got three quarters of a cup of

cocoa powder dark chocolate cocoa powder

smells so good

so chocolatey

okay one teaspoon of baking powder

two teaspoons of baking soda helps it

rise

one teaspoon of salt

i'm just going to sift all these

together

so the method of this cake is to

sift all the dry ingredients together

in a cloud of chocolate

and then i'm going to slowly mix the wet

ingredients into it

okay that's the dry ingredients i'm just

going to mix them on the

mixer until they're combined

okay now for the wet ingredients the

first thing is a cup of buttermilk i

always shake it because it does settle

make sure it's well mixed so i'm going

to do it in a measuring cup that'll be

easier to pour into the cake batter so i

need one cup of buttermilk

half a cup of vegetable oil

two eggs

just beat the eggs a little bit

brownies are the wet ingredients

i use extra large eggs

one teaspoon of good vanilla really

important when you're doing

chocolate

okay i'm just going to combine these

and then with the mixer on low i'm just

going to put it into the dry mixture

and then i have secret ingredient or i

should say michael's grandmother had a

secret ingredient

this recipe calls for a cup of hot

brewed coffee

and i always think coffee is really

important for chocolate it makes it

taste really chocolatey and that's

exactly what this does

right into the mixture

i've got two eight-inch cake pans

i lined them with parchment paper

butter and flour

the pressure's on it has to be good

because michael knows exactly what it is

he actually served this cake to me once

at dinner and i just begged him for the

recipe

i didn't have to bake very hard i'll

make sure they're pretty equal size

okay into the oven 350 degrees for 35 to

40 minutes and then we're gonna cover it

with the easiest most delicious

buttercream you've ever seen

so chop up

six ounces of really good semi-sweet

chocolate

i'm just gonna melt the chocolate in a

bowl that i've set over simmering water

in the meantime i'm going to start the

rest of the buttercream so i need two

sticks of butter half a pound at room

temperature

i'm just going to beat that on medium

speed

okay the next thing i need is one extra

large egg yolk and a teaspoon of good

vanilla extract

okay i think the chocolate's gonna be

ready by now let's see

take this off the heat

and just let the chocolate cool while i

turn the cakes out

just add it to the butter and vanilla

so i've got two teaspoons of hot water

i'm just gonna put in a tablespoon of

instant coffee powder which is a very

intense

coffee

just melt this together

and pour it into the buttercream

and i'm just going to whip it

for a minute make sure it's really well

blended

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i'm going to turn it on low and then all

this gorgeous chocolate the chocolate's

actually cooled now a little bit

you don't want to pour hot chocolate

into butter otherwise the whole thing

will melt

really smell the chocolate and the

coffee together a little hint of vanilla

and that's michael's grandmother's

chocolate buttercream

icing a cake just go over it very gently

start from the top and work your way

down the sides

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okay so now i've got buttercream on all

sides of the cake i'm just going to go

up and down the sides

and good news about an old-fashioned

cake is it's supposed to be a little

messy and then i'm just going to smooth

the top

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i'm making linguine with shrimp scampi

it's a great summer dish

i add oil the pasta pot so that the

pasta doesn't stick together

and salt for flavor

okay that's going to cook for

seven to ten minutes according to the

directions on the package

okay that's three tablespoons of olive

oil

and about three tablespoons of butter

i do the olive oil because it has a high

burning temperature and the butter

because it has lots of flavor i know

this looks like a lot but it's the sauce

for the entire dish

and about one and a half tablespoons of

garlic

with garlic you really don't want to

cook it too long so just about a minute

nothing worse than the flavor of burnt

garlic

so one minute while i get everything

else ready

so the first thing is shrimp and what i

buy is a peeled and deveined shrimp from

the fish store if you can't buy it you

can always peel and devein it yourself

i'm going to add a pound of shrimp and

just cook it for a very short time like

three to five minutes

and all that flavor of the garlic is

going to get into the shrimp

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so first thing i'm going to do is salt

and pepper the shrimp i wanted to have

lots of flavor because when you add the

pasta the sauce has to flavor the pasta

also seems to be really strongly

flavored just turn the shrimp

so they cook evenly on both sides smells

so good all that garlic and butter and

oil how bad can that be

so just drain from the drain the water

from it and then it's going to go right

into that pan with the shrimp and the

garlic and butter and oil it's going to

absorb all that great flavor

okay just like that

two spoons

just toss it all together

this is actually a great way to make any

pasta italians do it even when you're

making pasta with tomato sauce as you

cook the pasta and the sauce together

for the last few minutes and it really

absorbs the flavor

okay and then the last ingredients are

lemon zest

lemon juice

i like a little bit of heat so just a

sprinkling of red pepper flakes

okay just toss that together

and i have two more things to put in

parsley

okay right on top and then because i

want you to you can't really see the

lemon but i want you to know it's lemon

what i do is a few thin slices of lemon

people aren't going to eat them but

they'll they'll see that it's lemon so

i'm going to add a few slices of lemon

to the whole thing before i finish

tossing this is really great summer

lunch no ordinary fried chicken sandwich

the chicken has a double crust so it's

really crispy

and that sauce is made with buttermilk

and mayonnaise so it's kind of tangy

and fresh herbs so it's really fresh

it's so good

and then there are pickles involved so

i'm gonna make the sauce first so i've

got a cup of mayonnaise

two tablespoons of buttermilk i'm gonna

be sure to shake it first which i did

just whisk it in

a teaspoon of white wine vinegar just

give it a little tang

i'm gonna whisk that together

and then put in lots of fresh herbs

okay first the scallions i need two

tablespoons of sliced or chopped

scallions the white and the green parts

i think a lot of people use a knife by

just doing it up and down but it's

really good to use the blade and have it

sort of rock back and forth and then you

get the best use of it

and the scallions cut really cleanly

okay so two tablespoons that's about two

tablespoons

one tablespoon of minced chives

got lots of onion flavor

i love chives

okay it's about one tablespoon

one tablespoon minced parsley

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this recipe actually originally came

from shake shack which is danny meyer's

fast casual hamburger restaurant and

what's interesting is i was thinking

about making fried chicken with a double

coating but i'd never actually gotten

around to doing it and that's exactly

what they do with the shake shack

chicken

so i thought i think i'll try that and

it was amazing so one tablespoon of

parsley just stir it in

okay a little bit of thyme all kinds of

herbs in this i'm just going to strip it

right in just a little bit give it

another layer of flavor

half a teaspoon of salt

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1 teaspoon of pepper

and that's

it so that's the herb mayonnaise now i'm

going to show you the chicken which i'm

keeping warm in the oven

wait do you see

this now how good does that look wow

chicken inside is really tender crispy

outside i'm going to tell you how i made

it this is the best

there are four tricks to the fried

chicken

first a great marinade with two cups of

buttermilk

the acidity tenderized the chicken

one sliced shallot

two smashed garlic cloves

one half jalapeno pepper

two teaspoons of salt

and one teaspoon of pepper

all stirred together

i put the chicken in the marinade and

coated it it's six half chicken breasts

flattened to half an inch which

tenderizes them and ensures that they

cook evenly then i put them in the

fridge for eight hours for the marinade

to get into the meat and to flavor it

next i made a flavorful coating mix i

added four teaspoons of baking powder to

three and a half cups of all-purpose

flour along with two and a half

teaspoons of smoked paprika a teaspoon

each of cayenne pepper and celery salt

tablespoon of kosher salt one and a half

teaspoons of black pepper and whisk them

all together

then the third trick is that i double

dip the chicken i removed each piece of

chicken from the marinade dipped it in

the flour

back into the marinade and then back

into the flour and i promise this makes

all the difference in the world

then the fourth and final trick is how i

cook it i fry the chicken three pieces

at a time you don't want to overcrowd

them in two inches of oil heated to 350

degrees i cooked them for five minutes

flipping them halfway through

then when they were deliciously crispy i

put them on a rack over a sheet pan

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and kept them warm in a 250 degree oven

while i fried the second batch

i did exactly the same with the last

three pieces

i took the fried chicken out of the oil

put it on the rack

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sprinkled on some salt and kept all the

chicken warm in the oven

those tricks really make a difference

okay now i'm going to put the sandwich

together which in the business is known

as flavor build as in where you put

everything in the sandwich makes a

difference in how it tastes bet you

didn't know that

so first i'm going to take the hamburger

bun i'm using potato buns which i think

have great flavor i toasted them a

little 300 degrees for about 10 minutes

put sauce on the bottom

next i'm going to put a piece of lettuce

i'm using boston lettuce because it's

really tender and delicious

piece of lettuce

and then pickles

these are really good pickles like four

pieces of pickle

so it turns out where you put the pickle

in the sandwich makes a difference now

it tastes i don't know why the order

makes a difference in how it tastes but

it just does

okay next is the chicken

look how good this is

right on top

just barely fits

and then more sauce on the

bun

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and put that on top

and that's a shake shack chicken

sandwich and that one's got my name on

it

okay that's one i'm gonna make five more

well you can see why these are jeffrey's

favorite chicken sandwich

mine too

and if you make them they're going to be

your favorite chicken sandwich

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you