20+ Life-Changing Recipes to Make Next Year (2024)

Updated on 12/12/2016 at 7:00 PM

The Best Effing Chicken

This is called the best effing chicken recipe for a reason — promise. With just two ingredients (a whole chicken and a teaspoon of salt), this recipe demonstrates back-to-basics cooking at its finest. The perfection is all in the cooking method, which involves letting the salted chicken sit in the refrigerator for hours before crisping it up in the broiler.

4-Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

You don't need flour to make the easiest peanut butter cookies ever. All you need is peanut butter, egg, sugar, and vanilla extract.

1-Pot Fettuccine Alfredo

You'll understand what the hype of one-pot recipes is all about one you try this one-pot fettuccine alfredo. The whole dish truly is made in the same pot, which results in even more flavorful noodles and way faster cleanup.

Spaghetti Aglio, Olio, e Peperoncino

Marcella Hazan's Iconic Tomato Sauce

If there's one homemade tomato sauce recipe you make for the rest of your life, it should be Marcella Hazan's three-ingredient tomato sauce. It sounds too good to be true, but the sauce of canned tomatoes, butter, and a (whole) onion is simplistic perfection. It's a classic that many cooks swear by.

Acai Bowl

An acai bowl — basically a smoothie you eat with a spoon — is a breakfast trend that's not going anywhere, so it's worth learning to make at home. They tend to be overpriced at cafes, and making your own ensures you can customize it however you like.

Gordon Ramsay's Scrambled Eggs

Egg Clouds

They don't look like much, but we've dubbed these easy egg clouds the perfect egg recipe. By beating the egg whites until they're stiff enough to create a nest for the yolks, you create perfect individual egg dishes that taste like a cheesy cloud.

Seared Scallops

It's important to get out of your comfort zone and cook something that scares you a little. These simple seared scallops for beginners will convince you that you don't need a reservation to have a restaurant-worthy dinner.

Tyler Florence's Mashed Potatoes

You might never make mashed potatoes a different way after you try Tyler Florence's mashed potatoes. The genius hack? You cook the potatoes in cream, garlic, and herbs instead of water, and then you fold the cream back into the potatoes once they're boiled and ready for mashing. They're the most flavorful mashed potatoes you'll ever taste.

Chrissy Teigen's Chicken Pot Pie Soup

Chicken pot pie is good, but chicken pot pie soup is even better. This is a must-make recipe from Chrissy Teigen's debut cookbook, Cravings. The golden brown pie crust crackers that you use to scoop up the soup are the true star of this comfort food.

Butterbeer

A trip to Harry Potter World should be on every Potterhead's bucket list, but before you do that, you can totally make hot and cold butterbeer at home while you watch a marathon.

Mark Bittman's No-Knead Bread

Homemade bread tends to require quite a bit of patience, but Mark Bittman's no-knead bread recipe is another story. This seemingly magical recipe results in perfect homemade bread without any of the fuss.

Homemade Cookie Cake

If you get nostalgic thinking about your birthday parties as a kid where cookie cake was one of the best parts, you'll be so glad you tried this chocolate chip cookie cake recipe. Perfect for any special occasion, this recipe will remind you that cookie cake is even better than regular cake.

Mustard Roasted Potatoes

This mustard roasted potatoes recipe will teach you the best way to roast potatoes, no questions asked. The potatoes are partially boiled before they're placed in the oven coated in olive oil and whole-grain mustard, and the two-step process ensures they're soft on the inside and satisfyingly crunchy on the outside.

Wendy's Frosty

A homemade Wendy's Frosty is dangerously easy to make. With just three ingredients, you can make this classic frozen treat at home and save yourself a trip to the drive-through.

Spaghetti in a Garlic White Wine Sauce

The beauty of this spaghetti with garlic, white wine, lemon, and thyme is it teaches you the basics of a garlic white wine sauce, and you can customize the pasta to your liking. You could add shrimp, chicken, clams, or the vegetables of your choice — the sauce is what ties it all together.

Slow-Cooker Chocolate Nut Clusters

You'd never guess these slow-cooker chocolate nut clusters were actually made in a slow cooker, and they'll become your favorite easy dessert for entertaining.

America's Test Kitchen's Burger

America's Test Kitchen's burger recipe proves you don't need a meat grinder to grind your own meat for a burger. The recipe calls for pulverizing sirloin steak tips and butter in a food processor and forming your own patties, which are the juiciest, tenderest you'll ever have.

Peanut Butter "Cookie" Oatmeal

Cake Mix Cookies

The secret to soft and doughy cookies? Cake mix. These five-ingredient cake mix cookies couldn't be easier to make, and they're total game changers.

Slow-Cooker Taco Soup

This slow-cooker beef taco soup means you get all of the flavors of a taco with minimal prep. Your place will be filled with the aroma of cumin, chili powder, and green chiles before you ladle the comforting soup into bowls to share.

Kraft-Style Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese