Chicken + Peaches = Perfection

I have to confess: I have not cooked a single dinner this week. We are visiting my parents, and my mother has heroically made dinner every night. And, not only that, she has cooked two dinners, one round of hot dogs or scrambled eggs or mac and cheese at 5:30 p.m. for the kids’ table — seated with demanding and often rude diners — and one for the adults once those kids are in bed. This woman should get a trophy.

My mother loves a simple roast chicken dish, and so do I. She also had some fresh peaches on the counter today, which made me think of the chicken recipe below, and the interplay of meat and stone fruit — a celestial match.

Tell me what you’re eating these days: [email protected]. I have gotten so many emails lately (especially from Spaniards, in response to last week’s gazpacho newsletter), and it’s great. Also, I should note that a superb (and more traditional) way to enjoy the Best Gazpacho is to drink it from a glass, keeping a pitcher in your fridge at the peak of summer heat.

1. Roasted Chicken Thighs With Peaches, Basil and Ginger

This is a deep-cut Melissa Clark recipe from the Cooking archives, in which sliced boneless thighs quickly roast in the oven with peaches, ginger and garlic. (Another option: A commenter said she tried it in a Dutch oven on the stove on a 100-degree day in New York, and it worked well.) Melissa serves this with a baguette, but rice would be nice, and a big salad.

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2. Hot-Sauce Shrimp

Another excellent recipe from the brilliant mind of Ali Slagle, and it takes only 10 minutes. You cook the shrimp in a skillet, then toss them with hot sauce and butter. Even the phrase “hot-sauce shrimp” is delicious. I mean, really.

3. Sheet-Pan Bibimbap

OK, speaking of brilliant: Eric Kim came up with this streamlined vegetarian bibimbap recipe, and it’s superb weeknight cooking. Vegetables roast on one pan, while eggs oven-fry and cooked rice crisps on another. Upon tasting it, his mother said she would never do it the other way again. (I also highly recommend this video of Eric making the recipe on our YouTube channel.)

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4. Sesame Salmon Bowls

This one-pot meal from Kay Chun was inspired by chirashi. But instead of serving sushi with vinegared rice, Kay steams salmon over rice, serving it with packaged coleslaw mix — an excellent shortcut, by the way — and a ginger-scallion dressing. This sounds so good to me, and the comments on the recipe are raves.

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