50 All-Time Best Sunset Test Kitchen Recipes

Maybe it's the pop-in-the-mouth size, maybe it's the combination of sharp cheese and briny artichokes—whatever the reason, these party bites are truly irresistible and happen to be one of our favorite artichoke recipes.

Recipe: Artichoke Nibbles

When we want to treat our dinner guests with a beautiful spring dish, this is the recipe we turn to. It’s fancy but not difficult, and the flavors sing.

Recipe: Grilled King Salmon with Asparagus, Morels, and Leeks

Like all good New Mexico food, these enchiladas are simple, earthy, and delicious—as an online reader commented, “FUH-lawless.”

Recipe: Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas

Like impatient kids on a long road trip, we wait and wait all year until crab is in season so we can cook up this recipe. It’s a worthy treatment for one of the West’s best foods.

Recipe: Cracked Crab with Lemongrass, Black Pepper, and Basil

Here's our favorite excuse to buy Oregon-grown hazelnuts, which taste so much sweeter and fresher than imports. Toast them deeply in a pan with butter that sizzles and browns to create a version of mashed potatoes that's heads and shoulders above others.

Recipe: Browned Butter and Hazelnut Mashed Potatoes

The world is full of great rib recipes, but we’ve never found one that was this easy. With its bold, rustic, Italian flavors, it’s wonderful with all the classic summer sides, too.

Recipe: Grilled Spareribs with Fennel Seeds and Herbs

A fresh, herb-laced, Western version of the famous French dish that involves red wine and long braising, this coq au vin is also very pretty. It’s relatively quick and easy to make, too.

Recipe: White Wine Coq au Vin

At the end of an epic chili taste-off at Sunset, this spicy, comforting one was the last bowl standing, so to speak. Smoked paprika gives it a deep, complex flavor.

Recipe: Smoky Beef-and-Bacon Chili

"Best. Slaw. Ever," proclaimed one staff member. This is a different take on the usual coleslaw, and everyone who eats it tends to request the recipe. Consider it your path to potluck stardom.

Recipe: Crunchy Napa Cabbage Slaw

“Great crunch!” said one Sunset staff member of this crab cake. “Yummy and clean-tasting,” said another. The aioli and the fine tousle of Champagne slaw give it an elegant touch.

Recipe: Mendo Crabcakes

The combination of fat, juicy stalks of barely cooked asparagus with generous fresh herbs and salty feta cheese makes this one of our favorite ways to use a peak-season ingredient.

Recipe: Asparagus Summer Salad

When winter squash are in season, this is our favorite way to cook them, in a rich, aromatic sauce with plenty of spices and deeply browned onions. And it just happens to be vegan.

Recipe: Cashew, Coconut, and Pumpkin Curry

Over the years, we’ve discovered how versatile guacamole can be. It works with sake and soy, and with Indian spices, too. Still, when the margarita is beading up the glass and the chips are fresh and warm, a classic Mexican guacamole beats them all—and this one is the best we’ve had.

Recipe: Gabriel’s Guacamole

We turn to this extraordinary dish whenever we want to disprove the theory that chicken breasts are boring. It’s simply inspired. Serve it with plenty of rice to soak up the salsa.

Recipe: Grilled Cilantro Chicken with Pickled Tomato and Avocado Salsa

This recipe is pure genius—a mere three ingredients, transformed by heat into a sublime dinner-on-a-stick. Plus, it takes just half an hour to make, from start to finish. All you need is a green salad on the side.

Recipe: Halibut Kebabs with Grilled Bread and Pancetta

While it was born in Europe, the West adopted this baby almost a century ago. In the early 1900s, Victor Manca, owner of the restaurant Manca's, put a dainty version of big German pancakes on his menu—hence Dutch (as in Deutsch) Babies. After the restaurant closed in the 1950s, the Baby lived on in various versions in Sunset's pages, but the most popular is the one that took the pancake back to its German roots as a buttery breakfast zeppelin.

Recipe: Big Dutch Baby

This exciting, super-flavorful drink has us coming back for seconds and thirds each time we make it.

Recipe: Ginger Pineapple Punch (Lebouroudjee)

In the over-the-top category, our tie for best cookie went to these sandwich ones. Everything about them is decadent, from the chocolaty cookies and ganache filling to the "oh-I-couldn't-possibly-eat-a-whole-one" size. (Go ahead. We certainly did.)

Recipe: Triple-Threat Chocolate Cookies

In the purist's pick category, our tie for best cookie went to these chewy, ultra-gingery wonders.

Recipe: Mega-Ginger Cookies

Like a good black dress, this seemingly simple cake is elegant and delicious served with no other decoration than the thin coating of almonds that clings to the top.

Recipe: Powdered Sugar Pound Cake

Here's our genius dinner party shortcut, a rich and stunning dessert you can make a week ahead and freeze.

Recipe: Molten Chocolate Mousse Cups

Staffers still smile when they talk about sampling what may be the most luscious fruit pie ever to come through our Test Kitchen.

Recipe: Anjou Bakery’s Marionberry Pie

A crazy-good combination, and it takes just a few minutes to put together.

Recipe: Coffee Sundaes with Salted Peanut Butter Caramel

Complex and fragrant, this classic Malaysian-style noodle soup has fans around the world—us included. Our version is surprisingly simple to make, and basically cooks in just one pot. At the last minute, it’s topped with fresh mint and cilantro, a squeeze of lime, and a spoonful of spicy sambal chili paste.

Recipe: Chicken Laksa

When we food editors first began compiling a list of all-time favorite Sunset dishes, this lamb recipe immediately leapt to mind. The meat is braised long and slow in a heady mixture of coffee, red wine, and caramelized vegetables until it falls apart into succulent hunks.

Recipe: Coffee-Braised Spoon Lamb

We’re always looking for new ways to make quinoa, the tiny, fluffy, nutritious, and ever more popular grain-like seed, and this Spanish-flavored stew remains a favorite. Readers like it too: One online fan remarked, “This recipe caught my eye because I happened to have all the ingredients in the house. It was quick and easy to make after work, and it tasted divine! All those quirky ingredients in one pot...cumin, coriander, quinoa, chickpeas, and orange zest?? But everything came together like a symphony.”

Recipe: Chicken, Quinoa, and Green-Olive Stew

A big roasting pan of vegetables seasoned with dukkah, a toasted spice and nut topping, this simple concept has inspired loyal reader comments. "A keeper! The flavor of the veggies with the dukkah is amazing and tastes even better the next day," says one reader. "I was not expecting this to be as delicious as it was. This could be eaten as a meal on its own. Everyone loved it," says another.

Recipe: Roasted Cauliflower and Shallots with Chard and Dukkah

These delicious little ribs are dangerously snackable. They require a bit of effort to make, but the marinating can be done a day ahead, and the final cooking just before serving.

Recipe: Chinese Glazed Riblets with Garlic and Thai Basil

Choosing between favorite chocolate desserts is almost like choosing among children. This one has a big fan base among our staff for its dark chocolate cookie crust and layer of homemade Nutella-type spread that's beneath the creamy mousse filling.

Recipe: Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Tart

Recipe: Classic Tiki Mai Tai

Invented in the ’40s by Oakland’s Vic Bergeron for his Trader Vic’s restaurants, the original mai tai featured only aged rum, lime juice, and orange liqueur, with a guest appearance by orgeat syrup. This version is true to its roots, with a blend of three kinds of rum for interest.

Every cook needs a good fruit salad recipe that's easy to make but a big step above ordinary. Here's ours. It's light, refreshing, and has happy colors.

Recipe: Francie's Fruit Salad

Posole, the festive Mexican stew, is typically a long-simmered affair involving pork shoulder. This lively version delivers the deep flavor without requiring the time. “We have made it 4 times in 4 months,” one appreciative reader told us. “This one is in the permanent rotation.”

Recipe: Spicy Chicken Posole with Avocado and Lime

This elegant, holiday-worthy roast not only tastes incredible, but costs much less than pricier cuts like crown roast or prime rib. The secret to cooking pork shoulder? Tie up the meat to hold it together, brown it, and then braise it slowly until very tender. We agree with one fan online, who commented, “It looks like you have slaved for hours, but is so easy and inexpensive!”

Recipe: Pork Shoulder Roast with Figs, Garlic, and Pinot Noir

When we're looking for an impressive, special-occasion vegetarian dish, this is the one we turn to.

Recipe: Sweet-Potato Gnocchi with Mushrooms and Spinach

You know those recipes that claim to convert Brussels sprouts phobes into fans? This one really will. We've given the vegetable an Italian treatment with plenty of bright capers and good olive oil.

Recipe: Spicy Brussels Sprouts with Fried Capers

Reader Kathy Kane, of Menlo Park, California, gave us this recipe in 2009, and we have made umpteen bowls of it since. It brings together everything that’s best about summer: Sweet corn, ripe tomatoes, rich avocados, and spicy basil, with a bit of crisp red onion to give it punch.

Recipe: Fresh Corn and Avocado Salad

The standout from a grilled-cheese recipe contest we ran several years ago, this sandwich takes a little effort, but is so worth it. Every element—the beefy, tangy pastrami, the rich cheese, the caraway in the bread, and the tart-sweet marmalade—come together to make a taste sensation.

Recipe: Grilled Pastrami, Swiss, and Sweet Onion Marmalade on Rye

"I'm a novice in the kitchen and made this recipe with no trouble. It's easy enough for a beginner but beautiful enough for a special occasion. And it's delicious—a light and relatively healthy dessert," reported one reader. We couldn't have said it better.

Recipe: Raspberry Lemon Pudding Cakes

Grown in rich volcanic soil, juicy, golden yellow Maui onion is sweeter than a regular onion and melt-in-the-mouth tender when it's caramelized and mixed into a sour cream and buttermilk dip.

Recipe: Caramelized Maui Onion Dip

Longtime former food editor Jerry Di Vecchio created these sumptuous nachos, transforming a snack into dinner.

Recipe: Chorizo-Beef Nachos

Blue cheese with beef stew? Yes and yes! It’s an unusual combination that makes this recipe memorable—the cheese melts into and enhances the rich beefiness of the stew. We especially love it with mild, buttery gorgonzola.

Recipe: Smoky Beef Stew with Blue Cheese and Chives

"This has become comfort food in our house," says Sunset production manager Margaret Sloan. "I love it because it's easy to make and has protein without having to have meat. But but mostly I love it because it's warm and spicy without being hot."

Recipe: Curried Red Kidney Beans and Cauliflower (Rajma Masala)

Each June, 20,000 to 25,000 people come to our Menlo Park, California campus for Celebration Weekend, a festival of food, wine, and all things related to the good life in the West. In 2007 we developed this blushed version of a classic margarita to serve at the event and it's been a favorite ever since.

Recipe: Sunset Margarita

For a fancy holiday roast, Western-style, we can think of no better recipe than this one. It’s very easy and yields knockout results—tender beef with a crunchy crust and a garlicky, herbaceous interior. (If you are sensitive to garlic, sauté it before spreading inside the beef—or omit altogether.)

Recipe: Grilled Beef Tenderloin with Fresh Herbs

A humble-seeming dish with only seven ingredients, this recipe nonetheless inspires rave reviews—and it's easy enough that you could have multiple pans going to feed a crowd. "I essentially catered a backyard dinner party for my mother, starring this chicken dish," reports our managing editor Alan Phinney; "she declared it the best meal she had ever had."

Recipe: Sticky Chile Chicken

These large, perfect cakes are packed with sweet morsels of crab, and contain no bread whatsoever—just pure seafood. We also love them because they’re easy to shape and make ahead, so that you can brown them at the last minute.

Recipe: Ultlimate Crab Cakes

If you're more of a soup person than a curry person when it comes to squash, this recipe has a lot of fans. "It is hearty and warm but not unhealthy, it's exotic but not overwhelming, spicy and sweet and absolutely perfect," says one reader.

Recipe: Split Pea-Squash Stew with Basil and Serrano

With more online raves than any other recipe on Sunset.com, this homey, comforting casserole summons up the past in the best possible way. Everything about it is familiar and easy: tortillas layered with ground turkey, enchilada sauce, and seasonings, plus lots of cheese. We love it with ground beef, too.

Recipe: Turkey Enchilada Casserole