Quick and Cozy Fragrant Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potato

Any dish containing coconut milk coos “cozy” to me. It provides physique and creaminess, after all, but in addition just a little sweetness, so refined that it performs nicely with every other flavors within the combine. (Coconut milk can also be shelf-stable, so I top off on cans and cartons every time they’re on sale — understanding they’re ready for me within the pantry is a really cozy feeling certainly.)

Kay Chun’s new recipe for aromatic coconut hen and candy potato is a wonderful instance of how coconut milk brings the consolation. Kay provides it on the finish of her fast, one-pan dinner in order that it coats the sautéed floor hen, candy potato and spinach with its trademark creaminess and rounds out the sharp edges of the garlic, ginger and scallions. A final, assured squeeze of lime brings every little thing collectively properly.

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Fragrant Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potato

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But Mia, you say — whereas Kay’s recipe does certainly sound fairly cozy, I would like full-on, slipper-socks, Sleepytime-Tea-bear cozy. Understood! Let’s poke by means of this assortment of our greatest soups and stews, lets?

This ham and bean soup from Naz Deravian is simple and economical, turning dried white beans and a ham hock right into a hearty dinner. And I’m intrigued by this chermoula potato and fish stew, a five-star recipe from Nargisse Benkabbou that, with solely about 150 opinions, seems to be flying beneath the radar. “Phenomenal recipe,” writes Ella, a reader. “The effort to reward ratio is off the charts. The flavors are so recent but comforting on the similar time. This one goes into the rotation.”

A one-pan skillet dinner can also be very cozy, each within the effectivity (every little thing cooks in a single pan) and the satisfying completed product (all the weather are snuggled subsequent to 1 one other). Melissa Clark’s skillet hen with farro and leeks makes use of all of these leeks — the inexperienced tops are sliced, sautéed and simmered together with the whites to show meltingly tender. A number of of the thinly sliced whites are additionally reserved for a cherry tomato topping that offers this deeply savory dish a shiny chunk on the finish. Cozy with a kick.

Let’s do cozy vegetarian: Kay’s salsa di noci (walnut sauce pasta) turns the walnuts and a slice of the bread I’ve stashed within the freezer into a ravishing, luxurious dinner. And I didn’t eat black-eyed peas for the brand new yr, so I’ll eat them now in Zainab Shah’s warming recipe for masala black-eyed peas. (The yr nonetheless feels fairly new to me, so I feel it counts.)

And for dessert, how a couple of heat bowl of vanilla-scented rice pudding? Here’s a traditional recipe from Naz, although I’ve been making mine in my stress cooker with this recipe from Melissa. To loop again to the place we began, I’ve used coconut milk rather than the entire milk and swapped out the non-compulsory citrus zest and spices for a few pandan leaves tied in a free knot. The ensuing pandan rice pudding was — you guessed it — very cozy.