These Are the Recipes Sunset Readers Loved in 2023

“Beef satay is the flavor of 19th Street (in Yangon) for me. I remember eating it when I was young in Burma,” says Saw Naing, chef at Ojai’s Dutchess restaurant. At the Dutchess, they grind their own garam masala, but store-bought will work just fine.

Saucing an Italian dish with the flavors of Mexican street corn is exactly the sort of madcap riff chef Donald Hawk, of Phoenix’s Valentine, specializes in. They make their pasta in-house with ‘00’ white Sonoran wheat and local egg yolk, but you can make this dish with store-bought spaghetti. And while they source their goat cotíja from Crow’s Dairy, normal cotíja works too.

This party-worthy main course is one of the best uses of peak-season tomato and corn we’ve ever tried. It’s a bit cheffy to make corn broth with leftover corn cobs, but it adds a layer of flavor you can’t get otherwise. If that’s one step too many, feel free to skip! You can make the curry the morning of your party or a day ahead.

Think of mild-flavored, juicy bok choy as an invitation to experiment in the kitchen. It’s especially good with earthy mushrooms. Thoroughly drying the bok choy before cooking ensures that you don’t end up with a watery sauce.

No need to smuggle ingredients from Europe—you can make a classic thin, blistered-crust pizza from scratch with grocery-store items. This recipe comes from pizzaiolo Daniele Uditi, chef at Pizzana.

Bacon, fire-roasted tomatoes, and spicy smoked paprika give this easy-to-make chili recipe a deep, complex flavor. While it’s great right after you make it, it’s even better the next day. Serve with warm cornbread for a complete meal.

Seattle chef Kristi Brown’s pho-inspired soup is a lovely launching point for wintery improvisation. Feel free to swap in various meats, condiments, and other vegetables according to what looks good at the market and reflects the season and the community you’re in. The broth takes at least 8 hours to develop fully, so you might want to shop one day, make the broth the next day, then serve the soup on the third day.

This grilled chicken breast recipe gets its crunchy skin yet moist, tender meat from a final toasting over direct heat. Plus, presalting the chicken breasts and grilling over indirect heat keeps them juicy.

This dish is a great alternative to super-sweet desserts. If you can’t find Turkish Urfa biber chiles, which have a lovely sweet and smoky flavor, substitute red chili flakes. Bonus: The leftover syrup makes the base for a peach cooler!

Los Angeles actor Naz Deravian, creator of the food blog Bottom of the Pot, serves this rice at her annual Yalda celebration, which celebrates the winter solstice. Barberries, the tiny, tart, Vitamin-C-rich fruit of a thorny shrub, are dried for use in any number of Persian dishes besides rice, including stews and jam. When warmed, the berries turn a jewel-like red. Don’t let the many steps here dissuade you; they fit together for maximum efficiency.

Using two kinds of chiles creates the depth in this salsa. The dried arbol chiles add a vivid pop of heat, and the jalapeños contribute a freshness that’s perfect with tomatoes. The salsa comes from Barbara Mozqueda, a San Francisco cook who with her husband, Vidal, hosts big backyard parties. The salsa is excellent with Vidal’s Carne Asada with Nopales and Spring Onions.

Serve these crab tacos family-style. Place fillings in bowls and let everyone make their own taco. This recipe uses ready-made taco shells, but soft tortillas are good too.

Contributed in 1971 by a Sunset reader, these squares of artichoke-flecked cheese custard are the perfect party appetizer.

Sweet summer squash needs little more than butter and basil. It’s the perfect versatile side.

When sourcing your pork belly, look for whole boneless slabs with the skin on,” says Nico de Leon of Lasita in Los Angeles. “Most Asian groceries will sell this, but you need to let them know you want the WHOLE SLAB with the SKIN ON. Some other markets and specialty butcher shops can help source it as well. And recently many wholesale meat purveyors have been offering their services to the public. Look for a good meat-to-fat ratio and an even width throughout for the best results.”

Serve this crunchy and refreshing cabbage slaw as a side item or on a sandwich.

Our classic roast turkey recipe is always a reader-favorite during the holidays. It’s perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any large family dinner.

Mark Klever, the general manager at Belcampo Farms near Mt. Shasta, California, learned to make these biscuits from his grandmother. He renders his own lard from Belcampo’s free-range pigs, and he bakes up a batch for his family nearly every week, just like his family used to do. You’ll need to pack a 2 1/2-in. biscuit cutter; or use a small glass and cut around it with a knife.

A cream torte is like a cross between a cake, a custard, and a dutch baby. The tender-sweet varieties of apples used here soften more readily than some when baked, making them a better match for the delicate cake. Look for Northern California and Northwest varieties at your local grocery store or farmers’ market from August through November. Five great Western apple varieties in the Cameo, Gravenstein, Ida Red, Pink Pearl, and Sierra Beauty.

Potatoes, baked alongside the beef roast, make a perfectly easy accompaniment. The meat, hot or cold, tastes the most tender when sliced very thin; an electric knife does a good job.

To trim edible-pod peas, such as sugar snap and snow, cut or snap off ends and pull up sharply to remove any string on the pea. Discard ends and strings. To blanch fresh peas (either shelled or whole edible-pod types), bring water to a boil in a large pan, then add peas. Cook just until they start to turn a brighter green, 15 to 30 seconds, then drain immediately. Rinse well under cold running water until cool, then drain again.

This dish is Sunset readers’ favorite stuffing recipe, hands down. Leslie Jo Parsons of Sutter Creek, California, who created the recipe, recommends adding extra parmesan.

This nubbly hummus has a citrusy tang from reddish ground sumac berries, which grow wild on bushes throughout the Mediterranean. It’s very good made with our made-from-scratch Herbed Chickpeas, but canned rinsed chickpeas will work just fine. Serve it with delicata squash and kale.

Inspired by the Philippine national dish, this Easy Chicken Adobo uses a simple blend of garlic, vinegar, and soy sauce to give chicken a zingy boost. Traditional adobo sauces are commonly enriched with coconut milk, and the dish is frequently made with pork. But for everyday cooking, we like this lighter, simpler chicken recipe. Serve with rice. This is the perfect dinner for spicing up your usual routine.

“This is a classic dish that has been served in Spain and the rest of the world for years,” says chef Brad Mathews of Bar Le Côte. “The combination is not new to anyone, but when it is prepared with great attention to detail and perfectly cooked octopus, the result is extraordinary.”