6 Pro Chefs Make Their Favorite 15-Minute Meal

Today we're in the test kitchen making 15-minute meals.

[Male Speaker] I think 15 minutes is plenty of time.

[Female Speaker] Efficient cooking is all about

a well-stocked pantry.

Pulling out little secret weapons

that can kind of just elevate day-to-day normal ingredients.

[Female Speaker 2] It's methods and techniques

that you have at the ready.

Damn, actually this is really good.

Being able to whip something up quick,

yeah, it's a good tool-set to have.

[upbeat music]

Today I'm making scallion fried rice

with a fried egg on top.

This is, like, everything went wrong

on my commute home kind of dish.

And I got home at 8:30 and I need to eat now.

It really speaks to things that I already have on hand.

The rice is key here, because obviously,

a lot of the work is already done for me

and I'm just amping it up.

So the fried egg is gonna add a lot of bulk.

These sauces are gonna add a lot of flavor,

and the alliums are gonna help anchor it and give it depth.

So I'm just gonna start by slicing the whites

from the scallions.

If you wanted to use an onion you could,

but it's definitely gonna make the prep a little bit longer,

and I like to keep things fast.

A few cloves of garlic, I measure with my heart.

And then I'm just gonna grab, like,

two tablespoons of the butter,

and I'm gonna put it on, like, medium, medium-high heat.

Drop the butter in, add the garlic and the scallions.

And I want the butter to brown a little bit,

that's gonna give us, like, a nutty, toasty flavor,

that's just gonna amp up the sesame oil a bit.

It's all about just getting as much flavor

from the ingredients that you're using as you can.

You can see there's some color on the garlic.

Now is a really great time to add the rice,

the soy sauce, whatever feels right.

I'm gonna do a few dashes of the sriracha,

and, like, a dash of the sesame oil.

Once the rice looks nice and coated,

I like to just tap it down,

and this is gonna allow it to crisp up a little bit

and give it a little bit of extra texture.

You'll hear like a dry pop coming from the skillet,

and that's how I know that, like, the rice has crisped up.

I'm gonna add, like, a tablespoon or two of oil.

I'm gonna show you my little trick

for getting a white that's completely cooked

without, like, sacrificing the yolk.

So if you tear little air pockets into that, like,

thicker white part,

you'll get, like, a very evenly cooked white.

So just tip and pour the oil on top.

Also to cook that thicker white part, the white is cooked,

I know the yolk is gonna stay runny,

and now it's just about color.

I'm done.

Add some of those scallions on top.

A few dashes of soy sauce to season the egg

and some sesame seeds.

It's all about the runny yolk for me.

It's so good, you got the, like, little crispy bits

from, like, searing off the rice.

A little bit of richness from the yolk,

and lots of depth from the scallions and garlic.

So this is the kind of dish that I, like,

would look forward to at the end of a long day

that comes together super fast.

It all happens in one pan, like,

the rice and the egg,

and you don't really have to measure anything.

Just keep tasting as you go and you'll be fine.

[upbeat music]

This is a style of curry that plays mostly

into the sort of Japanese tradition of curry.

Specifically using these, like, S&B roux blocks.

I found that these do an amazing job

of creating this rich curry base with almost no effort.

I can put the rice cakes right in there,

they can just cook through to bouncy, chewy tenderness.

This is, like, the true genius and the true solve,

in terms of how you turn a bunch

of disparate elements into a dish.

All right, I'm just soaking my rice cakes.

I never actually know if this does anything,

but I'm using rice cakes that I've been keeping

in the freezer, and they just need to be defrosted.

Things like ginger and garlic add so much flavor

to whatever dish they hit.

So I'm taking sausage out of the casing,

I could use ground meat,

but using sausage speeds things up.

Fast trimming the green beans,

you don't need to take the tail off, just just the top.

When they're in bigger pieces like this,

I'll just do, like, a real fast half-chop there.

I just wanna cut up my curry blocks.

This is sweet Italian sausage,

I like to use sausage because it's seasoned and ready to go.

Just breaking it up.

Now for our aromatics, that's our ginger and our garlic.

Green beans can go in.

All right.

That's the roux going in.

I wanna let these dissolve, I wanna make sure, like,

I've got plenty of thickening power and tightness here.

Rice cakes can go in, throw a lid on it.

They're already starting to soften now,

but I want them to be kind of submerged

and coated, 'cause that's what's gonna soften them fully.

All right, I think we're just about there.

Mm, mm!

Little extra pop of salt.

I'm gonna put in a piece of butter,

little bit of toasted sesame oil to finish,

is gonna bring this thing home.

Good to go.

Usually, I mean, I would frankly

just eat this right out of the skillet and call it a day.

A little cilantro going on.

Korean rice cakes, green beans, little sausage.

It's so much flavor to have created

in such a little amount of time.

I think, like, the real solve is, like,

just being able to make that fast curry base.

You can apply it to so many different things.

It's those tools that allow you to get

lunch on the table in, you know, 15 minutes or even less.

[upbeat music]

So I'm gonna be making a seared flank steak

with salvitxada, which is a really delicious sauce

from Catalon, which is based with almonds and tomato.

Which you can actually make it dual purpose

by dividing it in half.

So you get a condiment that adds texture,

but you also get sauce to dip your steak in.

Flank steak is a really great cut because it's thin.

You don't have to worry about rendering out a ton of fat.

It's gonna cook really quickly on both sides.

The first thing I'm gonna do is season my meat

and let it do its thing, while I also then

work on my condiment at the same time.

But what I'm doing is I'm building the base

for my salvitxada, which is tomato, garlic,

you have parsley, and you can use a Fresno chili,

you can use a scotch bonnet, which I typically would use.

I'm moving on to this beautiful long red chili,

kind of like I'm gonna leave it kind of chunky.

Garlic also kinda has its own element of heat,

but it also adds this sort of, I guess you can say,

umami flavor to dish as well.

The garlic hair is super thin

so that you're not getting a huge bite of it.

I'm also going to salt it,

and that's gonna help to break that garlic down.

It's gonna also pull the flavor and the liquid

out of the tomato and the chilies as well.

And then the rest of my garlic

I'm gonna actually add to my mortar and pestle,

we'll save that for later.

Parsley is nice because you can use the leaf

and you can use the stem.

So you want to use the sort of, like,

the younger, tender stem part of it.

In Jamaica they use a lot of thyme,

fresh is nice because when we're making a paste,

it'll release those oils.

We're gonna just chop up a little bit of almond

and add it to our salvitxada condiment.

I'm gonna add sherry vinegar.

The acidity is going to also pick up

the acidity of the tomato.

I'm gonna dress this with a little oil,

and let's start this sear on our steak.

So we're gonna go for very, very high heat.

I'm gonna put it to the center of my pan.

I want the skin to sear really, really hard.

And what I wanna do is I'm gonna flip it probably,

like, every, like, 30 to 45 seconds.

We have our thyme and our garlic

in our mortar and pestle.

I'm gonna add a little bit of salt

to the mortar and pestle, olive oil.

We're gonna take a little pastry brush

and brush this onto the other side of our steak.

Give this a flip.

We're gonna brush one side, so we're gonna coat it,

we're gonna build up, like, a little lacquer layered effect.

Let that go for another 30 to 45 seconds.

We're gonna add half of our condiment to our blender.

I'm actually take grab two anchovies,

shut that off, and then we'll check on our steak.

This is the color profile we're looking for for the steak.

So this is looking good, I'm gonna pull this.

I like medium-rareness going on in my steak.

You wanna make sure that it rests,

so that when you slice into it,

you don't get this big pool of bloody steak.

It's full of moisture and also flavor,

and you don't want that to release.

And so I'm gonna start with my salvitxada sauce.

Make sure that, like, you put steak onto, like, a dip,

then you don't have to dip it again,

but you can dip it if you want to.

The little swipe of the plate,

you know what I'm talking about.

This is leeching all that liquid out still,

make sure that it drains so it's not too wet.

And then that's just going to go like so.

Hit it with a little bit of olive oil,

and then finish it with a tiny bit of salt.

And there we have our flank steak with salvitxada.

This is a really good go-to meal

because you're maximizing ingredients, flavor,

you're getting the best of both worlds.

From the turning the condiment into a sauce,

and just really leaning on seasoning,

seasoning is always your friend.

If you do it right it really goes a long way.

[upbeat music]

So I picked the fish for a quick meal,

'cause it cooks rather quick.

So we have two swordfish steaks.

It's just so fatty, it's so marbleized, it's delicious.

Man, it really is kind of, like, the wagyu of the sea.

We'll get that seared off, we'll cook our fish,

and then we'll make a little salad, quick little meal,

something that I might have laying around for the most part.

And a couple solid pantry items, couple secret weapons.

We're gonna let that preheat,

we wanna let that get nice and hot.

Let that get going, and we'll go back,

we're gonna put a little salt on the fish.

You know, it's something I even like to do

a little bit ahead of time.

With fish, especially a thick piece of a fish like this,

you can kind of cook it like red meat a little.

If we got a little Persian cucumber, I like to have it.

And then just do little slanting cuts like that,

little, like, on, little off.

Radishes or one of, in my opinion, a perfect vegetable.

They're crispy, they're crunchy, they're versatile.

Some little sun gold tomatoes as well.

We'll do it on the old quart-container lid trick.

Add that right to the party.

We'll add some olives, we'll do a little avocado too.

Let's hit it with a little salt, season everything.

We're also gonna add a little bit of shoyu,

we'll hit it with a little bit of rice vinegar,

just a scosh.

Oh, a little togarashi, and that's just, like,

a little spicy Japanese seasoning, right?

I'm just gonna add a little bit of grain as well.

Not a ton, just to give it a little texture,

little carbohydrate, I don't want it to be,

that's all you're tasting.

Just a little bit of olive oil,

a small drizzle of sesame oil.

Simple, surrounded by a lot of really interesting

staple ingredients that I keep in my pantry,

to pull off delicious, quick, fast, fresh, easy meals.

So now we got our fish,

I'll put a little bit of oil on it, and here we go.

This thick fish takes a little bit longer time to cook.

It is more forgiving, you know,

you're talking a few minutes on each side.

Cook times of fish are always gonna vary

on the species and the size of the piece.

It has this, like, inter-connective fat tissue,

almost like a what you would want to see in beef.

And just like in the world of cooking steak,

I put a little bit of garlic

and a little bit of rosemary on there.

I do a little bit of butter right at the end.

You know, why not?

And we're kind of good to go.

You know, when you start to see, like,

it would wanna fall apart,

and if your gut reaction is it needs another minute,

give it another minute.

So we got our salad, it's been sitting,

the grains have been absorbing some of those liquids

that we put in, like the vinegar, and the shoyu.

It can start to make its own little coating

in its own little sauce.

It seems like a good meal to me.

Yeah, let's give the fish the old spoon test.

It's fatty, it's moist, salty, very satisfying.

Eats more like a pork chop.

What I love about using and cooking with old grains,

and incorporating it into something like a salad,

everything's kind of jammy, and delicious,

and just kind of a perfect meal in my opinion.

Just a quick kind of cooking protein,

and you could pull it off with any kind of pantry salad.

[upbeat music]

Today my 15-minute meal is yakisoba,

but in general, it is kind of a stir-fry noodle situation.

You can make it your own with whatever vegetable/protein

you have rolling around in your fridge.

What I like about these noodles,

they're kind of ramen-like, they're fresh,

and these are, I believe, par-cooked in a way.

So really you just have to stir fry them

and then they're done.

I'm not above getting a prepackaged bottle

that I know will serve its duty.

One pan, 15-ish minutes, will get you to yakisoba land.

Bean sprouts, I'm not measuring, but like, a cup-ish.

Pick up a coleslaw mix, using half a bag,

or even a full bag, will help eliminate the prep.

Separate the greens from the whites.

Success hinges on everything kind of being ready,

because it doesn't spend much time cooking.

A fresh pork belly is so lovely.

Cut it small-ish so that it kind of resembles

everything else, 'cause it's gonna cook fast.

What I like about fresh pork belly

is you're getting the oil, the fat,

which is contributing to the foundation flavor

of anything that you're cooking.

This brand of soba noodles,

they come in a larger pack of three,

but I think for this portion two is fine.

So let's get cooking, medium-high heat.

While I'm waiting for it to come to heat

is just season my pork a bit.

Putting our pork in.

Try to get it into, like, a thin layer,

and then don't touch it.

And then add the white of your scallion.

Drain off as much water as possible.

Season every layer of the way.

The coleslaw mix is so great,

because everything is, like, chopped and ready to go.

Yaki does mean fried, so just give it a minute

to get a nice little crust.

Just a few drops of water on the noodles,

it will help them steam in kind of the way

maybe when you make pan-fried dumpling.

And then it'll help kind of remove them

from their caked-up state.

We can definitely use tongs,

but I don't know why I like to do it this way.

Lower the heat a little bit

before we add the sauce so it doesn't burn on impact.

You can add your fresh green scallions now as well.

For this amount of noodles

I would start with maybe, like, two or three tablespoons.

Does it smell like yakisoba yet?

Look at this colorful noodle dish with lots of veg.

You know, anytime I can try to get more vegetables

into my family, I do.

Traditionally you'll see yakisoba served

with Beni Shoga, which is just pickled ginger.

This goes a long way in breaking up some of the richness.

And this is aonori, which you can just sprinkle on,

it's just dried seaweed in a very fine form.

It really came together no time at all, like,

half the time was spent prepping the ingredients,

which feels very much true to the stir-fried school.

Think of this as a nice fried rice counterpoint

in your weeknight dinner arsenal.

The heat, the smokiness, you can taste it here.

Just keep a bottle of the prepared sauce in your pantry.

Always keep some fresh noodles on standby as well.

If you have any other vegetables rolling around,

now is a good time to use them.

[upbeat music]

This dish is creamy spinach and chickpeas.

There are a few things I always have in my pantry

and freezer for, like, quick meals.

I love having frozen greens,

frozen spinach and kale are my go-tos.

I always have canned beans and a few, like, sauces.

This one comes together fast

because you're relying on big flavors.

Like I'm using harissa, I'm using pickled peppers.

So those are all big, bold flavors,

so you don't have to do much

to get the dish to the finish line.

It's creamy, it's crunchy, it's spicy, it's punchy,

it's vibrant, everything that I want to eat,

but 15 minutes.

So I'll start by cutting my shallot.

Shallots are good, because they're everything

an onion promises to be, but a little bit milder.

Lemon, we're going to use this to finish our dish.

Drain your chickpeas.

If you are the thrifty, smart cook,

you could save that chickpea water for something.

I am not that person today.

I love Cascadian Farm,

for some reason it's just more vibrant.

I am going to dump my spinach in

so that it can start draining.

So that means going in there

and squeezing every last bit of water out.

So we're going to go in and add our harissa

to our chickpeas.

This is Tunisian or Moroccan spice paste.

It's really well balanced, and very flavorful,

and it's not just spicy.

So this heavy cream is going to go in

the chickpeas and the spinach.

So we can head on over to the stove.

We're gonna start by heating up a little bit of olive oil.

Add the shallots, give them a stir.

You need a little bit of salt.

The chickpeas and the harissa,

we're gonna get that started as well

and that can start simmering.

The shallots are going to take about four to five minutes,

and we are looking for them to get a little bit of color.

While the chickpeas that are going on over there,

they're going to take 10 to 12 minutes.

You're looking for it to thicken up and become saucy.

Next thing we're going to do is add our spinach

and we need about a tablespoon of flour.

The flour is there just to thicken

everything up a little bit.

It is just like creating a roux,

that's what you're effectively doing.

But once you see it starting to stick

a little bit like that, that's kind of when

you go in and add your heavy cream.

And then we're also going to add a bit of water.

Just to make sure everything is the texture we want.

You want to let it simmer a little bit,

because you want the raw taste of the flour to cook out.

Time is a good guide, but go by visual cues.

While that's coming together in the last minute,

I'm just going to warm up the flatbread.

Let's see if we can get a few charred spots on there.

Meanwhile, I'm gonna turn these guys off.

You can see the oil kind of beading up on the surface,

that's a good indication

that you're cooking the spices out well.

Okay, so the chickpeas, we're just going to stir in

some of our giardiniera, which is like Italian-style

pickled vegetables, kind of brightens everything.

Stir that in, and we are good there,

and we're ready to plate.

And then we're going to spoon our chickpeas on top.

And then we're gonna finish it off with pickled peppers.

Again, nothing fancy with the cuts,

you're just cutting really rough.

And then just pile on top.

The last thing we need to do is garnish it

with fried shallots.

And that's it, that was my 15-minute

creamy spinach and chickpeas with flatbread.

Okay, a little squeeze of lemon.

It really does hit every flavor now.

The first thing you taste is pickled peppers

and the giardiniera.

It's really vibrant, it's fun and fresh and very unexpected.

Always keep frozen greens in your freezer

and you have a 15-minute meal.

Sorry, but this is really good.