Comfort Food Recipes – NYT Cooking

Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Published Nov. 2, 2020Updated Nov. 5, 2024

As the days grow shorter and holiday season approaches, it may be time to replenish your Rolodex of crowd-pleasing recipes that warm hearts and fill bellies. Consider these the edible equivalent of a weighted blanket or a warm hug.

See more cozy recipes on NYT Cooking, as well as cozy vegetarian recipes and easy baking recipes.

Stuffed pasta shells in red sauce baked into a large casserole dish.

Ali Slagle’s stuffed shells can be assembled ahead of time, then baked from the refrigerator an hour before it’s time to eat.

Recipe: Stuffed Shells

An overhead image of a big white pan partially filled with tortilla chips topped with melted cheese, chunks of beef, avocados, scallions and roasted tomato sauce.

Puntas al albañil, or bricklayer-style beef, is a taco filling popular in Mexico made with beef, bacon and sometimes chorizo in a roasted tomato salsa. In this recipe from Pati Jinich, it tops a tray of tortilla chips for a phenomenal and filling pile of nachos.

Recipe: Bricklayer-Style Nachos

An overhead image of an orange cast-iron enamel two-handled pot filled with a thick and saucy mixture of beef chunks, potatoes cubes and carrot circles.

With over 23,000(!) ratings, Molly O’Neill’s beef stew is one of our most popular recipes year after year. Rain or shine, summer or winter, readers love the simplicity, adaptability and comfort that it brings to every table.

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

A shallow white bowl holds panang curry, topped with basil leaves and slivered red pepper, as well as steamed white rice.

With rave reviews in the comment section, this 35-minute dinner is comfort in a bowl. “I thought it was just right and added a few drops of Sriracha sauce on the plate,” one commenter said. “Yum!”

Recipe: Panang Curry

A silver dish is full of yellow curly pasta topped with slices of baguette covered in browned, melted cheese. A spoonful is being removed. Everything is sprinkled with thyme leaves.

This recipe fuses French onion soup with macaroni and cheese — two comfort foods in one. Added bonus: Caramelizing two pounds of onions can be therapeutic.

Recipe: French Onion Macaroni and Cheese

An overhead shot of a chimichanga cut open on a white plate topped with sour cream, guacamole, salsa and shredded lettuce.

“All six of our household, ages 14 to 93, liked them,” one reader wrote, and we like those numbers. Tex-Mex chimichangas are typically deep-fried, but in this weeknight recipe, they are pan-fried or baked in the oven, which means much less mess with equally crisp and tasty results.

Recipe: Easy Chimichangas

A cast-iron skillet is full of tomato rice with crispy Cheddar, a portion of which has been scooped out onto a dark plate.

Priya Krishna calls this easy dish, a mash-up of South Indian tomato rice and Spanish rice, “pizza in rice form.” We’ll take it.

Recipe: Tomato Rice With Crispy Cheddar

An overhead image of a gray pottery plate topped with dumplings, seared golden brown on some sides. A bowl of dark red sauce specked with seeds in a small white bowl peeks into the frame.

Genevieve Ko, a deputy editor for NYT Cooking, calls dishes that require a lot of finger-pinching work like dumplings and empanadas “a fidget spinner for anxiety with dough.” These gyoza, which Kiera Wright-Ruiz adapted from the chef Ivan Orkin, are a perfect project.

Recipe: Pan-Seared Gyoza

An overhead image of a cast-iron skillet filled with corn kernels topped with melted and browned white cheese and sliced scallion greens.

This Korean American dish from Darun Kwak is made with canned corn, mayonnaise and mild shredded cheese, and can be a very easy side dish or appetizer.

Recipe: Korean Corn Cheese

A stainless steel skillet on a gray background is full of thin noodles tossed with burst cherry tomatoes and basil leaves.

When the craving for carbs strikes, whip up this superfast and simple pasta from Dan Pelosi. Angel hair pasta, the quickest cooking pasta, is tossed with olive oil, butter, garlic, herbs and burst cherry tomatoes for a bright and light dinner.

Recipe: Angel Hair Pasta

A white ceramic bowl holds potato soup topped with shredded cheese, crumbled bacon and snipped chives.

Rough day? Bury your troubles in a big bowl of this soup from Lidey Heuck. Yukon Golds give it a natural creaminess and a happy yellow color, bacon and smoked paprika lend flavor and a touch of heat, while heavy cream smooths it all out. Top it as you would a baked potato — that is, with gleeful abandon.

Recipe: Potato Soup

A Dutch oven holds sticky coconut chicken and rice with a serving scooped out. A small bowl of hot sauce is nearby.

Everything cooks together in one blessed vessel in this recipe from Kay Chun. Boneless chicken thighs are browned in the empty pot, then finished off in a heady mix of rice, scallions, garlic, coconut milk, bell pepper, cashews and scallions. It all comes together so effortlessly and easily that you’ll feel very smart indeed.

Recipe: Sticky Coconut Chicken and Rice

An overhead image of a pizza topped with cheese and herbs.

With five stars and more than 3,000 ratings, Sam Sifton’s classic pizza recipe can’t be beat. This is “a home-cooked pizza to beat the band,” he writes, “exactly the sort of recipe to start a career in home pizza-making, and to return to again and again.”

Recipe: Pizza Margherita

A cast-iron skillet is full of cheesy green chile bean bake with a scattering of cilantro and a spoon stuck in.

This easy skillet dinner from Ali Slagle comes together in 25 minutes with charred green chiles, pinto beans and store-bought or homemade salsa verde. Serve with tortillas, tortilla chips, rice, a baked sweet potato or fried eggs.

Recipe: Cheesy Green Chile Bean Bake

An overhead image of a white bowl filled with light brown meatballs, orzo pasta, carrot cubes, wilted spinach in a yellow broth. Everything is dusted with a melty layer of grated Parmesan.

Mindfully shaping the meatballs for this classic Southern Italian soup from Lidey Heuck is especially relaxing. If it’s been that kind of day, substitute frozen meatballs for homemade. No one will know.

Recipe: Italian Wedding Soup

A Dutch oven holds gochujang potato stew with two servings in bowls; the servings also have white rice and sour cream.

Plush — what a great word — baby potatoes, kale and white beans mingle in a spicy gochujang broth for an excellent vegetarian stew from Eric Kim that’ll make your lips tingle and your belly warm.

Recipe: Gochujang Potato Stew

An overhead image of a black baking dish filled with tater tots atop a brown ground meat mixture with a spoonful removed. The entire casserole is sprinkled with melted shredded cheese. A single plate is off to the side with a serving on top.

Sam Sifton scored this recipe for tater tot casserole, known as “hot dish” in some parts, from Molly Yeh. She makes her own creamed soup, but you can use canned cream of mushroom or cream of chicken soup in its place if you’d like.

Recipe: Tater Tot Casserole

An overhead image of a bowl of tantanmen topped with tofu, mushrooms, corn and scallions.

A steaming bowl of noodle soup is a no-brainer when it comes to comfort. In this recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon, dried kombu, shiitake mushrooms and vegetable stock combine with sesame paste to create a deeply flavorful vegan broth.

Recipe: Vegan Tantanmen With Pan-Fried Tofu

A bowl of noodle soup with a bright red broth is topped with cream, avocados and herbs. Lime wedges sit off to the side, as does another serving.

This Mexican home-cooking staple is best enjoyed loaded with toppings like avocado, lime, queso fresco or whatever you happen to have on hand. The possibilities are endless — so use whatever evokes the feeling of having a loved one serve you a meal at the end of a long day.

Recipe: Sopa de Fideo

A tan bowl is filled with rice porridge studded with bits of butternut squash and topped with chile oil and scallions.

This particular version of congee from Hetty Lui McKinnon is not traditional to any region or cuisine, but is a seasonal interpretation, incorporating butternut squash for a warming, naturally sweet, earthy glow. To make it extra easy, you can use precut cubes of butternut squash from the grocery store.

Recipe: Butternut Squash Congee With Chile Oil

An overhead shot of a white plate with a large boneless chicken breast doused in tomato sauce, melted mozzarella and grated Parmesan.

When you need a hearty meal, a slab of Melissa Clark’s chicken Parmesan is the answer. This recipe calls for boneless chicken breasts, but boneless chicken thighs, pork or turkey cutlets would work beautifully, too.

Recipe: Chicken Parmesan

Two bowls of bright yellow khichdi are topped with yogurt and cilantro leaves.

“There is something deeply comforting about this khichdi,” one commenter said. “It’s easy and comes out perfectly every time I’ve made it.” The recipe’s author, Samantha Seneviratne, says to bulk it up, you could add some grated carrot or zucchini with the onion, or wilt baby spinach in at the end. But topped with a drizzle of ghee, some plain yogurt and fresh cilantro, it’s a warming, homey meal just as it is.

Recipe: Instant Pot Khichdi

Korean fried chicken is sprinkled with sesame seeds and shown in close-up.

With a pleasingly crisp exterior and a sticky-sweet glaze, yangnyeom dak, or Korean fried chicken, is the ideal comfort food. This version, which was adapted from “Quick & Easy Korean Cooking” by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, can be made with boneless chicken thighs or bone-in wings. “Absolutely delicious!” one reader said. “Six stars would not be enough.”

Recipe: Korean Fried Chicken

See more cozy recipes on NYT Cooking, as well as cozy vegetarian recipes and easy baking recipes.

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