What’s Your Signature Dish, and How Did You Perfect It?
Every chef has that one dish that stands out, the one they’ve perfected over countless trials and errors. In this article, learn how a founder mastered the perfect stir-fry and conclude with an Executive Director’s heartfelt chicken stew. Discover these and more from our experts, with a total of three insightful answers.
- Perfecting My Go-To Stir-Fry
- Signature Sweet Treat for My Toddler
- Homemade Chicken Stew Filled with Love
Perfecting My Go-To Stir-Fry
One of my go-to dishes is a simple chicken and vegetable stir-fry. Over time, I’ve made small tweaks to elevate it. I started with a basic soy sauce base, but by adding honey and fresh ginger, I created a richer, more balanced flavor. The key, I’ve found, is cooking everything quickly on high heat-this keeps the vegetables crisp while ensuring the chicken stays tender. It’s a dish I can whip up in no time, and after a long day of my hectic schedule, it’s the perfect quick, satisfying meal that requires minimal effort but still delivers on taste.
Aseem Jha
Founder, Legal Consulting Pro
Signature Sweet Treat for My Toddler
As our son moved from infant to toddler to “three-nager,” we’ve evolved a signature sweet treat that both delivers the nutrition he needs and, well, has a lot of chocolate in it. Initially, that started off as “pudding” made of blended avocado, sweet potato, and chocolate powder; now, it is a full-on brownie consisting of black beans, sweet potato, and chocolate ganache.
Smashing together some soft and smooth ingredients with chocolate and a bit of flour will invariably lead you to something edible pretty much every time; getting it to be indistinguishable from, though, a boxed brownie mix is a science that requires careful attention to the proportion of flour to potato and chocolate.
Our eventual solution: a teeny bit more flour and a bit of cream cheese produced a sturdier AND fudgier end product. That’s the good news. The bad news: my wife and I tend to finish the tray before our kiddo does.
Brad Cawn
Founder, New Dad’s Kitchen
Homemade Chicken Stew Filled with Love
My signature dish has to be my homemade chicken soup. I love soup; it’s my favorite food, by far, and I love trying new recipes for different soups. However, my signature dish, the one that I’m known for when it comes to soup, is my chicken stew. I never follow a recipe, I just follow my heart and fill the stew (it’s less of a soup and more of a stew, really, as it’s very hearty) with my favorite vegetables like carrots, broccoli, celery, red potatoes, fresh green beans and whatever else strikes my veggie fancy at the time.
The chicken is cooked separately in a nice blend of olive oil, red pepper flakes and garlic. I only use no-yolks noodles because they are thin and not overwhelming when mixed with all of the other goodness. Then, I put in a few shakes of some of my favorite spices like rosemary, oregano, basil and bay leaves. And, the final ingredient, well, that’s love. Because if you love what you’re cooking, you’ll love the feeling it gives you and others as you all enjoy it!
Amy Bickleman
Executive Director, Global Resource for Advancing Cancer Education
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