America's Test Kitchen
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America's Test Kitchen
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America's Test Kitchen is a half-hour cooking show distributed to public television stations in the United States, also airing in Canada. The show's host is Cook's Illustrated editor-in-chief Christopher Kimball; the show and the magazine are affiliated, and the magazine's test kitchen facility in Brookline, Massachusetts, is used as a set for the show. Cook's Illustrated's parent company, Boston Common Press, renamed itself America's Test Kitchen in 2004.

Sunday Roast Chicken and Stuffing

We wanted a streamlined version of roast chicken with plenty of stuffing to go around—and to solve the problem of cooking the stuffing to a safe temperature without drying out the delicate breast meat of the chicken. The idea of roast chicken and stuffing is very appealing—moist, well-seasoned meat and plenty of flavorful stuffing to satisfy everyone at the table. But in reality, a chicken, even one upwards of 5 pounds (serving 4 to 6 people), doesn’t contain a cavity large enough to accommodate the amount of stuffing you’d need to serve everyone at the table. Sure, you can bake the stuffing separately in a baking dish, but you miss out on all the flavorful juices imparted from the chicken. Our aim, therefore, would be to develop a recipe for roast chicken and stuffing where we could somehow still mimic the flavorful benefits of cooking the stuffing inside the bird. A quick sauté of spinach, especially one with garlic and lemon, goes well alongside roast chicken (in addition to many other dishes). But this simple approach can often go wrong—overcooked spinach, burnt garlic, too much oil—the list goes on. We would focus on avoiding these pitfalls to turn out a tasty side dish you can rely on again and again. Recipes: Stuffed Roast Butterflied Chicken Mushroom-Leek Bread Stuffing with Herbs Currant-Pecan Bread Stuffing with Shallots and Herbs Couscous Stuffing with Fennel, Dried Apricots, and Cashews Sauteed Garlic-Lemon Spinach Equipment Center: Kitchen Shears—Update
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Chicken Kiev

The hallmark of great chicken Kiev is the rich butter filling that melts into a sauce inside the chicken bundles and contrasts perfectly with the crisp bread crumb crust. Popularized during the heyday of Manhattan’s now-shuttered Russian Tea Room, chicken Kiev became one of the restaurant’s premier offerings in the 1960s. The well-heeled were quite familiar with this elegant dish of pounded, breaded, and fried chicken breast stuffed with an herb butter that melted into a sauce. Although chicken Kiev’s Ukrainian roots remain unclear, its current fate is hardly in dispute: It has become a greasy bundle of poultry with a sandy, disconcertingly peelable exterior and a greasy, leaky center. Commonly found in banquet halls and at catered events, this once highbrow dish has become a self-parody. But after preparing several cookbook versions, we realized that pairing a crisp-fried coating with a delicately flavored butter sauce was a great idea that deserved a revival. A dish as special as chicken Kiev deserves a side dish with equal dazzle. We settled on broccoli and turned to pan-roasting, because it works well with many vegetables, imparting a toasty, caramelized flavor. Broccoli, however, can be fussy because the hardy stalks and delicate florets require different handling. We’d need to find a way to get around those issues. Recipes: Chicken Kiev Pan-Roasted Broccoli Pan-Roasted Broccoli with Lemon Browned Butter Pan-Roasted Broccoli with Spicy Southeast Asian Flavors Pan-Roasted Broccoli with Creamy Gruyêre Sauce Tasting Lab: Sandwich Bread Equipment Center: Cookbook Holders
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Staying in For Chinese Take-Out

Try serving a saucy stir-fry over an Asian-style noodle cake instead of the usual rice. We love a good stir-fry served with rice, but sometimes a change of pace is welcome. A noodle cake, a savory round of tender noodles sautéed in a skillet until the exterior is crisp, is the perfect base for a saucy stir-fry. We’ve enjoyed noodle cakes in restaurants, but never at home. We set out to find the best way to make one. While we were at it, we also aimed to develop a chicken stir-fry with really juicy chicken in a fresh-flavored sauce. Too often, chicken can turn dry and stringy in a stir-fry and no amount of sauce can rescue dry meat. Another Asian classic, also more familiar at the restaurant table than in the average American home kitchen, is hot and sour soup—a spicy, bracing broth filled with pork, tofu, and wisps of egg. But is visiting your local Chinese restaurant the only way to enjoy this soup? We wanted to enjoy this complex-flavored soup at home. But with a host of hard-to-find ingredients and a long simmering time, we had our work cut out for us. We’d need to strategically choose our ingredients and find reasonable substitutions for those that are just too difficult to find at the supermarket. At the same time, we’d need to take a hard look at streamlining the soup’s lengthy preparation. And, we wouldn’t settle for a pale imitation of this heady soup—it would need to stand up to the authentic versions we often crave. Recipes: Stir-Fried Chicken with Bok Choy and Crispy Noodle Cake Hot and Sour Soup Equipment Center: The Little Nonstick Saucepan That Could Science Desk: Mysterious Powers of Cornstarch
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Not Your Average Stir-Fry

We wanted a complex dish with carefully balanced flavors—without an extensive list of hard-to-find ingredients and hours in the kitchen. Thai-style stir-fries are a refreshing alternative to Chinese stir-fries. Spicy, sweet, sour, and salty, the flavors are well-balanced and complex. But who has the ingredients often required, such as shrimp paste, tamarind pulp, galangal, and palm sugar? And while the more familiar Chinese stir-fry is fairly quick to prepare, a Thai stir-fry can take hours. For our starting point, we looked to a restaurant favorite—Thai chile beef—and set out to streamline this dish without compromising its interesting combination of flavors. Potstickers are another Asian favorite we wanted to enjoy at home. At their best, potstickers are light dumplings filled with a well-seasoned mix of pork and cabbage. Dunked into a soy dipping sauce, they make a terrific start to a meal. Unfortunately, we’ve eaten more than our share of truly awful potstickers—leaden balls of pasty meat in a doughy wrapper. All it took was one bite for us to put our chopsticks down. We wanted to find out the secret to making great potstickers—the right filling, the right wrapper, and a method of assembly that wasn’t overly complicated and didn’t take all day. Most of all we wanted these potstickers to be so good, we’d rather make them ourselves than call for our favorite takeout. Recipes: Stir-Fried Thai-Style Beef with Chiles and Shallots Potstickers Scallion Dipping Sauce Equipment Center: Nonstick Skillets, Update
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More Tex-Mex Favorites

We love good Tex-Mex, but depending on which part of the country you live in, chances are you’d be better off preparing it yourself at home. We wanted to take a look at two Tex-Mex favorites, chicken fajitas and huevos rancheros, and create authentic, tasty versions we could stand behind. Chicken fajitas aren’t as easy a proposition as beef fajitas. Beef, by nature, packs a lot more flavor, while chicken fajitas seem to rely on a host of condiments to mask its lack of flavor, or worse, its dry texture. We wanted tender, juicy chicken, and we wanted it well seasoned. We wanted the same for our vegetables—too many vegetables in fajitas are treated as a bland afterthought. As for the tortillas, we wanted warm, soft tortillas, not the brittle tortillas we’ve often encountered in restaurants due to poor heating methods. Huevos rancheros are the answer to a hungry man’s (or woman’s) breakfast. But too often we’ve stared at what looks like a dish of fried eggs crossed with nachos. First, we wanted to get rid of all the unnecessary entrapments, paring back this breakfast classic to its tasty essentials. We’d need to focus on the fiery roasted salsa that typically is part of this dish, but making salsa with out-of-season tomatoes is a gamble. And without access to fresh corn tortillas, we needed to find a way to turn rubbery supermarket corn tortillas into a crisp, not greasy, base for our eggs. Last, we needed to figure out how to coordinate cooking the eggs with the other elements, so that everything comes together simultaneously—hot and fresh. Recipes: Chicken Fajitas for Charcoal Grill Chicken Fajitas for Gas Grill Chicken Fajitas Indoors Chunky Guacamole Huevos Rancheros Refried Beans Tasting Lab: Supermarket Refried Beans Equipment Center: Do Grill Pans Really Grill?
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Even More Italian Classics

Just when we think we’ve become familiar with every Italian dish under the sun, we’re pleasantly surprised to come across a dish we’d somehow overlooked. Join us as we resurrect one Italian classic and streamline another. Take chicken francese. It’s true that this Italian-style chicken cutlet dish isn’t as well known as chicken parmigiana or chicken Marsala, but it’s no less delicious. Coated with a thin eggy crust, the cutlets are served in a light, lemony white wine sauce. With just a few simple elements, it’s hard to believe that such dish can go wrong, but versions we tried proved otherwise. In some recipes, the egg crust was unappetizingly thick and tough, or turned soggy once coated with the sauce. The sauces we tried weren’t much better. While we couldn’t detect lemon in some, others made us pucker, or the wine was too overpowering, giving the sauce an unpleasant boozy flavor. We aimed to conquer these issues and turn out a lemony cutlet dish that we’d want to incorporate into our Italian classics repertoire to make again and again. Another Italian classic, the rich tomato sauce marinara, is not a new discovery, but it’s one worth a second look in terms of simplifying. The hallmark of this sauce is a depth of flavor achieved by hours of cooking, but what if we didn’t have all day? After all, for the modern cook, an all-day marinara, just isn’t a reasonable option. We set out to create an authentic marinara with complex flavors without the hours of work involved. Recipes: Chicken Francese Chicken Francese with Tomato and Tarragon Marinara Sauce Tasting Lab: Sleuthing Canned Whole Tomatoes Equipment Center: Hand (Immersion) Blenders—Updated
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Hearty Eggs for Breakfast

With these foolproof recipes, you just might find yourself making time to enjoy eggs a bit more often. Most of us might not have time to prepare (and enjoy) egg dishes during the week, but come the weekend, eggs are a terrific way to begin a leisurely day. In this chapter, we wanted to take a look at a couple of our favorite egg dishes—scrambled eggs and omelets—and see how we could make the most of them. Sometimes you want something heartier than simple scrambled eggs. But adding meats, cheeses, and vegetables weighs down the eggs’ fluffy texture and, worse, turns the eggs watery. We wanted to solve these problems and turn out scrambled eggs that could stand up to the addition of hearty ingredients. And we also wanted an interesting mix of additions, so maybe we’d be inclined to make these eggs for dinner too. Omelets made for one or two aren’t difficult to prepare. But what if you’re making omelets for the whole family? You don’t want to be standing at the stove playing the part of short-order cook, right? We wanted to create one big omelet, big enough to serve 4. Working with such a large omelet wouldn’t be easy—we’d need to figure out how to cook through such a large omelet without it drying out, how to add the fillings (and heat them through), and how to turn the omelet out of the pan without it breaking apart. Recipes: Scrambled Eggs with Bacon, Onion, and Pepper Jack Cheese Scrambled Eggs with Sausage, Sweet Peppers, and Cheddar Scrambled Eggs with Asparagus, Prosciutto, and Parmesan Eggs in a Hole Family-Sized Cheese Omelet Family-Sized Tomato, Bacon, and Garlic Omelet Tasting Lab: Is Fresh Breakfast Sausage Best? Equipment Center: Plastic Nonstick Spatulas Science Desk: How Scrambled Eggs Work
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Summer Cooking

We tackle the best way to grill delicate shrimp as well as chicken destined to be served cold for a picnic. Grilling imparts a smoky dimension to foods that is just about impossible to replicate indoors. So it’s no wonder that once the weather turns warm, we’re eager to get our favorites foods like steaks and burgers onto the grill. But delicate foods, such as shrimp, are trickier to cook over the grill’s intense, dry heat. We wanted to find the best way to grill shrimp so that it’s tender, moist, and flavorful, not dry and rubbery. And we wanted to do so without grilling shrimp in their shells. It’s true that the shells act as a protective barrier, but peeling shells at the table is cumbersome and messy, not to mention that with the discarded shells, the flavorful spice rub is also lost. Warm weather isn’t always about cooking outdoors—it’s about eating outdoors too. Cold barbecued chicken is a classic whether you’re planning a picnic or packing for a road trip. But once chilled, the meat can become very dry and the skin, once thin and crisp, can turn tough and flabby. We wanted to solve these problems and turn out moist chicken with spicy flavor and to boot, we wanted to make it easier to eat, so we didn’t have to use a knife and fork or rely on a wad of napkins to wipe our hands of sticky barbecue sauce. Recipes: Charcoal-Grilled Shrimp Skewers Gas-Grilled Shrimp Skewers Spicy Lemon-Garlic Sauce for Shrimp Skewers Fresh Tomato Sauce with Feta and Olives for Grilled Shrimp Skewers Charmoula Sauce for Shrimp Skewers Spice-Rubbed Picnic Chicken Broiled Shrimp Skewers Tasting Lab: Supermarket Veggie Burgers Lemonade—Updated Equipment Center: Skewers Science Desk: Salting: Better Than Brining?
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Barbecued Brisket and Corn Fritters

When you’re looking for a main course to serve a summertime crowd, or want to give a new twist to a summertime vegetable, we hope you’ll turn to these recipes. Summertime entertaining can often mean preparing food for groups larger than 6 to 8—school graduations, Fourth of July, the neighborhood block party—the list goes on. For those times, hamburgers just aren’t practical—unless the cook plans on standing at the grill until everyone is fed. Instead, think brisket. This hefty piece of meat (a full cut can weigh 13 pounds) turns smoky and tender on the grill and leftovers, if there are any, are terrific. Best of all, brisket doesn’t require constant attention, so the cook can enjoy the party too. Brisket isn’t without its challenges, however. On the grill, the meat can take about 12 hours to become fully tender. We wanted to find not only the best way to barbecue brisket, but a way do so more quickly. Summertime also calls for corn. And while we love corn on the cob, we also enjoy other preparations. Take corn fritters. These savory cakes are pan-fried and served hot. They make a terrific side dish or hors d’oeuvres, served as is, or sprinkled with hot sauce. Some recipes are short on corn flavor, but we wanted a recipe that brings the corn front and center. Recipes: Barbecued Beef Brisket For a Charcoal Grill Barbecued Beef Brisket for a Gas Grill Spicy Chili Rub Farmstand Corn Fritters Corn Fritters with Cheddar and Chives Out-Of-Season Corn Fritters Tasting Lab: Hot Sauces Equipment Center: Charcoal Grills—Update
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Dark Chocolate Desserts

When you're looking to satisfy a serious chocolate craving, these recipes deliver. No matter the dessert—cookie, pudding, cake, or pie—there’s nothing like the flavor of chocolate to make it truly irresistible. In this chapter, we set out to develop ultimate versions of two favorite chocolate desserts: chocolate mousse and chocolate cupcakes. Rich, frosting-like mousse is utterly delicious—for about two spoonfuls. Yet light and silky versions often lack decent chocolate flavor. Once you start adding more chocolate, texture suffers and becomes heavy. We wanted the best of both worlds—a light and silky texture with big chocolate flavor. Chocolate cupcakes are another treat that suffer from faint chocolate flavor. Ever try a mix? Sure they’re easy, but the flavor often falls short. And most homemade chocolate cupcakes aren’t much better. Some may have good chocolate flavor, but the crumb turns dense and confection-like. We aimed to develop a moist, feathery cupcake infused with chocolate flavor. And for such a homey treat, we didn’t want to spend all day, so these cupcakes would need to be almost as easy as using a boxed mix. Recipes: Dark Chocolate Mousse Chocolate-Orange Mousse Chocolate-Raspberry Mousse Premium Dark Chocolate Mousse Dark Chocolate Cupcakes Easy Vanilla Bean Buttercream Easy Chocolate Buttercream Easy Coffee Buttercream Easy Peppermint Buttercream Tasting Lab: Just What Is Dark Chocolate, Anyway? Equipment Center: Muffin Tins, Updated
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Easy Apple Desserts

For a not-too-sweet apple dessert, pair a tart apple such as Granny Smith with a sweet apple like Golden Delicious or McIntosh, as we did in Skillet Apple Brown Betty and Easy Apple Strudel. When it comes to apple desserts, apple pie may be the most popular, but it’s also the most involved. When you don’t want to fuss with pie, but you still want that warm and comforting combination of apple and pastry, there are other options. Take apple brown betty—apples, sugar, and buttered bread crumbs. This baked fruit dish is decidedly humble, but delicious nonetheless—especially when served warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. But this often-overlooked dessert needs a serious makeover—too many versions are a soggy mess with muddied flavors. Classic apple strudel, a European specialty, consists of lightly sweetened apples, raisins, and nuts wrapped in paper-thin pastry. Traditional recipes involve hours of preparation, rolling and pulling the pastry dough until it is so thin you can read a newspaper through it. We reasoned that there must be an easier (and quicker) way. Determined to find out, we set about streamlining this sophisticated dessert, without compromising its flaky texture and sophisticated flavors. Join us as we resurrect one humble apple dessert and streamline another. Recipes: Skillet Apple Brown Betty Skillet Apple Brown Betty with Golden Raisins and Calvados Skillet Apple Brown Betty with Pecans and Dried Cranberries Easy Apple Strudel Tasting Lab: The Scoop on Vanilla Ice Cream—Updated Equipment Center: Pastry Brushes—Updated Science Desk: Overrun and Ice Cream
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Lighter Cheesecake

Join us as we uncover the secrets to low-fat desserts that you'll really want to eat. While a crisp apple or bowl of juicy berries makes an admirable end to a meal, there’s an allure to baked desserts that is hard to resist. But many desserts carry a lot of fat and calories; for most of us, they should be more the occasional indulgence than regular weeknight fare. We wanted to come up with recipes for two classic desserts, carrot cake and cheesecake, that would make them both light enough and good enough to enjoy most any day of the week. Many light carrot cakes look like the real thing, but one bite quickly dispels the notion. Not only dry but also heavy and dense, these cakes may be "light" when it comes to fat and calories but not when it come to texture. We wanted tender cake, sweet and lightly spiced. And we wanted our cake to be slathered in a thick, creamy frosting. The recipes we tested for light cheesecake were no better than the carrot cakes — in fact, they were worse. Most were plagued by a rubbery texture and pasty, Spackle-like consistency. And in place of the lightly sweetened, tangy flavor of a full-fat cheesecake, these lightened cakes were tinged with off, artificial flavors. We would have to do some serious testing to come up with a lightened cheesecake that would pass muster among tasters. Recipes: Light Carrot Cake Light Cream Cheese Frosting Light New York Cheesecake Light Fresh Strawberry Topping Tasting Lab: Coffee--Tasting Supermarket Whole Bean Coffee
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