My Top 5 Favorite Cookbooks – the ones I go to for my favorite, foolproof, family favorite recipes! From chicken to pasta to appetizers and so much more, any (or all) of these cookbooks should be in your collection.
I have a problem. I have a lot of cookbooks. I mean A. LOT. It’s a bit of an obsession. Nothing is more relaxing to me than sitting down with a brand new cookbook, reading the recipes, and picking out some new favorite recipes to try. Call me nerdy, weird, or just food obsessed but I just love it! One of my favorite Christmas presents from my husband was an entire shelf full of new cookbooks! He knows me so well!! With all of these cookbooks, you can imagine its hard to keep track of where my favorite recipes are when I want to find them. So I made a list of where to find which recipes in what cookbooks and I found out something pretty interesting…..all of my favorite recipes come from about the same 5-6 cookbooks!
Here are my top 5 Favorite Cookbooks (in no particular order):
Cravings by Chrissy Teigen – When I got this cookbook, I sat outside and spent over an hour reading all of the stories, comments, and recipes and laughed so much! Chrissy Teigen combines her humor with stories of where her recipes originated and why. My favorites from this book are her Chicken Lettuce Wraps (I make them about once a week), the Cobb Salad with Honey Mustard Ranch Dressing, the Tuna Melt (to die for!!), the Sesame Chicken Noodles, and so many more. This cookbook is packed FULL of delicious recipes – all with a unique touch. And added bonus is you get to look at adorable John Legend throughout the book!
The Pioneer Woman Food From My Frontier – I love Ree Drummond! I love her sarcastic, down to earth humor and I’ve yet to make a recipe of hers that wasn’t great. I have all of her cookbooks (shocker, I know) but my favorite one is Food From My Frontier. I love her Sloppy Joe recipe, her White Chicken Enchiladas (one of my go-to recipes when I want homemade Mexican), the Crash Hot Potatoes, and the Fried Chicken Tacos. These recipes are always easy, made with ingredients you can find anywhere, and are always a hit with my family.
The Complete America’s Test Kitchen TV Show Cookbook 2001-2010 – This is THE cookbook I refer to more than any other in my very large collection. If you’ve never watched America’s Test Kitchen, its a fantastic show where a few chefs test every aspect of a recipe. For example, if they were making meatloaf, they would test it using ketchup, without ketchup, with different brands of ketchup, which cut of meat to use, and so on until they get the best combo for certain recipes. And ALL of their recipes are just the best! The research they have done shows in all of their recipes and their simple instructions. In this cookbook, you’ll find my all time favorite Chicken Enchilada recipe plus everything from how to make the best homemade pizza to the best Pork Lo Mein to the best way to make ciabatta. This is not just a cookbook but a manual on making delicious food!
Barefoot Contessa At Home – If you aren’t a fan (ok mildly obsessed) with Ina Garten like I am, I’m not sure we can really be friends. I mean, think about it for a minute….she’s a phenomenal chef, worked at the White House, lives in the Hamptons, adores her husband, Jeffrey, and makes THE best cocktails. My goal in life is to meet her (seriously). If I had to pick anyone to have dinner with, it might be her….ok dinner with her AND Barrack & Michelle Obama. I have all of her cookbooks and make dishes from every single one so it was hard to pick just one cookbook as my “favorite” but a few of the recipes in her At Home cookbook really are ones I go back to again and again. In this cookbook, you’ll find a couple of my favorite desserts – Ina’s Peanut Butter & Jelly Bars and her Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Icing. A few of my other favs in this book are the Mustard Roasted Potatoes, Chicken with Goat Cheese & Basil, Chicken Piccata, Tomato, Mozzarella, & Pesto Panini, and the delicious Caesar Club Sandwich. Again, don’t just stop with this cookbook – I also love her Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms, Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic, her Lobster Roll, and so, so many more!
Skinnytaste One & Done – I have 2 Skinnytaste cookbooks and really love both of them and find myself referring to them almost weekly when I need something new & healthy to make. My favorite of the 2 cookbooks is the Skinnytaste One & Done. It is full of healthier options for so many family favorites. The Spicy Stir-Fried Chicken and Shredded Brussels Bowl and the Beef Bibimbap Bowl are two of my go-to lunches. My girls love the recipe for the healthier chicken nuggets (with a Buffalo and cauliflower option as well) and we love the Cheesy Jalapeño Popper Stuffed Chicken all of the soup for dinner. If you’re looking for some lightened up recipes with a range of options, this cookbook is definitely for you!
- Bonus*
You won’t find these cookbooks on Amazon or the Internet but if you can get your hands on any old school, church, Jr. League cookbooks, do yourself a favor and GRAB THEM!! These kinds of home-cook recipes are always the best! Coming from a small, Southern town, I have a big collection of these kinds of cookbooks. This is where you find your old friend’s grandma’s recipe for spaghetti sauce, casseroles galore, and all the desserts you can imagine. And because they are all tested by some of the greatest Southern cooks out there, they are alway damn good!! Grab them when you see them and try everything in these wonderful cookbooks!
