Celebrity inspired recipes are usually one of two things, a dish somebody famous genuinely cooks at home or a copycat of something their restaurant sells, and the good news is that most of them are far less complicated than the name suggests. I have a brother who is a foodie, and if he likes something it is probably good, which is more or less how I treat a recipe with a famous name attached: the name gets my attention and then the ingredient list has to earn it. These did. Dolly Parton’s Dollywood cinnamon bread starts from a loaf of frozen dough. Oprah’s deviled eggs hide horseradish and sweet pickle in the filling. Elvis’s pound cake goes into a cold oven on purpose, and Nigella’s salmon marinates for five minutes total. There are celebrity chef recipes in here, a few proper copycat recipes, and several famous dishes that turn out to be weeknight food wearing a good suit!
1. Dolly Parton's Dollywood Cinnamon Bread
Dollywood sells around 350 loaves an hour at the Grist Mill and mills the flour right there, which tells you everything about the line. Our copycat starts with a loaf of frozen bread dough, so the hard part is already done. You cut deep slits across the top without going all the way through, brush melted butter into every slit, then press cinnamon sugar over the whole loaf. That is the entire method, and it is the closest thing to Pigeon Forge you can get without the drive.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
2. Elvis Presley's Favorite Whipping Cream Pound Cake
Here is the trick that makes this cake: the pan goes into a cold oven, and only then do you turn it to 350. That slow climb is what gives a whipping cream pound cake its dense, tight crumb and its pale golden crust. Seven eggs, three cups of sifted cake flour, two sticks of butter and a full cup of heavy cream go in, and the flour gets sifted three times before it ever meets the sugar. It takes about three and a half hours start to finish, most of that cooling.
Get the full tutorial at Epicurious.
3. Tom Cruise's Spaghetti Carbonara
Carbonara is the dish that separates people who follow a recipe from people who panic, because the sauce is nothing but eggs, cheese and the heat left in the pasta. Take the pan off the burner before the eggs go anywhere near it, or you will be eating spaghetti with scrambled eggs on top. Toss hard, add a splash of the starchy cooking water, and it turns glossy in about fifteen seconds. Worth knowing before you promise anyone dinner.
Get the full tutorial at Oprah.com.
4. Ben Stiller's Chicken Shawarma
Two and a half pounds of chicken thighs sit in a spice marinade of cumin, cardamom, paprika, cinnamon, turmeric, garlic powder, sumac and a little cayenne for anywhere from one hour to twelve. Then it goes under the broiler, about six inches from the element, smooth side down, for sixteen to twenty minutes until it hits 165. Thighs, not breasts, because they survive that heat without drying out. A quick yogurt sauce with sumac and lemon goes over the top.
Get the full tutorial at Tasty.
5. Oprah Winfrey's Deviled Eggs
Twelve eggs turn into twenty four deviled eggs here, and the filling is doing far more than mayonnaise and mustard. There is minced sweet pickle in it, a dash of Worcestershire, lemon juice, horseradish and a little Tabasco, which is what keeps them from tasting flat the way plain deviled eggs do. They need at least an hour in the refrigerator before serving, so this is a make-ahead job. Parsley and paprika go on at the very end.
Get the full tutorial at Food.com.
6. Julia Roberts' Summer Salad Recipe
Chickpeas, baby spinach, julienned carrots, walnuts and crumbled feta, with a sherry vinegar and Dijon dressing poured over. The one instruction worth following exactly is to rinse the canned chickpeas under cold water until the foam stops appearing, because that foam is what makes a bean salad taste tinny. Fifteen minutes, no cooking, and it holds up well enough to take somewhere. This is the salad to make when the oven has been off for three days and you want it to stay that way.
Get the full tutorial at Eat This, Not That.
7. Paul Newman's Spicy Chicken Over Angel Hair
Twenty five minutes, start to plate. Cherry peppers go in the pan first with onion and bell pepper, then bite-sized pieces of chicken breast and crushed garlic, then a jar of tomato and roasted garlic sauce over the top. The heat comes from four cherry peppers, so that number is your dial: use two if you are feeding anyone cautious. Angel hair cooks in the time the sauce needs, which is the entire reason this recipe works on a weeknight.
Get the full tutorial at Food.com.
8. John Wayne's Chili Cheese Casserole
There are two completely different casseroles wearing this name and it is worth knowing which one you are making. The original is the one John Wayne himself contributed to a 1979 charity cookbook, and it is crustless, vegetarian, and mostly cheese and eggs. The version most people cook now came out of a hospital cafeteria in Jackson, Mississippi, where staff nicknamed it The Duke. That one adds a crust and meat, drops the eggs and cuts the cheese right down. Same three flavors, entirely different dish.
Get the full tutorial at CooksInfo.
9. Gwyneth Paltrow's Healthy Turkey Meatballs with Spaghetti Squash
These come out of her It’s All Good cookbook, and the meatball mix is where the interest is: onion, arugula, Italian parsley, garlic, sage, basil and thyme all chopped into the ground turkey, so the herbs are the seasoning rather than breadcrumbs and cheese. It makes twenty four meatballs and serves four. Spaghetti squash stands in for pasta, which works far better here than it usually does, because a light herb-forward meatball does not need a plate of noodles underneath it.
Get the full tutorial at Styling My Everyday.
10. Elvis-Style Peanut Butter Banana Cupcakes
Peanut butter, banana and a little more sugar than anyone needs, which is the whole Elvis premise scaled down to something you can hand around. Banana cupcakes are forgiving because the fruit keeps the crumb moist for days, so these are better the morning after you bake them. The frosting is where to be generous, and a dried banana chip on top is the detail that makes people ask. Good for a birthday, a bake sale or a Tuesday.
Get the full tutorial at Crazy for Crust.
11. Guy Fieri's Epic BBQ Brisket Sandwich
Fall-apart brisket without babysitting a smoker all day? That is the whole trick here. The rub is paprika, granulated garlic, onion and chili powder on four pounds of second-cut brisket, and the meat sits in the refrigerator at least two hours or overnight, which is the only part you plan around. After that it browns right in the pressure cooker, cooks forty five minutes under pressure and comes out shreddable. Simmer the braising liquid down into sauce, slice against the grain and pile it onto garlic-buttered buns toasted in cast iron, with broccoli slaw on top for the sharp crunch it needs.
Get the full tutorial at VICE.
12. Kerry Washington's Diet Smoothie
Green smoothies live or die on the blend order, and this is the part nobody tells you. Liquid goes in first, then the soft fruit, then the greens on top, because that order lets the blades catch and pull instead of spinning in a pocket of air. Blend it longer than feels necessary, a full sixty seconds, so the spinach actually breaks down instead of floating in flecks. Cold fruit straight from the freezer means you never need ice.
Get the full tutorial at People.
13. Joanna Gaines Family Chili Recipe
Every ingredient in this chili comes out of a can except the onions and the beef, which is exactly why it is worth having in your back pocket. Two pounds of ground beef, two cans of Ranch Style beans, two cans of mild diced tomatoes and green chilies, garlic powder, onions. Brown the onions first, then the beef, then everything goes in together and simmers for a couple of hours. Serve it over corn chips with shredded cheddar and cornbread alongside, which is the part I had never tried before.
Get the full tutorial at DIY Joy.
14. Patrick Leigh Fermor's Moussaka
Moussaka is a three-part build and the part people rush is the bechamel, which is a mistake you taste. Cook the flour and butter together for a full two minutes before any milk goes in, or the top layer carries a raw floury taste no amount of nutmeg will hide. Salt and drain the eggplant first so it does not flood the dish. Then leave it thirty minutes out of the oven before cutting, because a hot moussaka slides apart on the plate.
Get the full tutorial at Wales Online.
15. Blake Lively's Chicken and Leek Pie
Leeks are the reason to make this rather than a plain chicken pie, and they need more washing than you think, because grit hides in the layers and nothing ruins a creamy filling faster. Slice them, then rinse in a bowl of water so the sand sinks. Cook them slowly in butter until they collapse and sweeten. Chill the filling completely before the pastry goes on, or steam lifts the lid and you get a soggy underside instead of a crisp one.
Get the full tutorial at People.
16. Nigella Lawson's Mirin Glazed Salmon
Four ingredients and about nine minutes of actual work. Mirin, soft light brown sugar and soy sauce get mixed in a shallow dish, and the salmon sits in it for exactly three minutes on the first side and two on the second, no longer. Then it cooks in a hot dry non-stick pan, two minutes, flip, add the marinade, two minutes more. Her own note is the useful one: leftovers make a genuinely good salad the next day, so cook all four fillets.
Get the full tutorial at Nigella Lawson.
17. Kylie Kwong's Stir-Fried Beef
Use good beef fillet, and her reasoning is worth repeating: the cooking time is short and the heat is high, which intensifies the flavour of whatever you started with, so poor beef stays poor. Six hundred grams gets cut into one centimetre strips and marinates thirty minutes in shao hsing wine and salt. Then it stir fries in two batches, thirty seconds each, because crowding the wok steams it. Oyster sauce, sugar, soy and malt vinegar balance salty, sweet and sharp.
Get the full tutorial at The Sydney Morning Herald.
18. Tyler Florence's Ultimate Fish and Chips
The chips get fried twice and that is not optional. First for two or three minutes, where they should come out pale and floppy, then again for four or five until crisp and brown. Skipping the first fry is why home chips go greasy. The batter is flour, baking powder, egg and a can of soda water, and the fish gets dredged in rice flour before it goes in so the batter has something to grip. Cod or haddock, four to five minutes.
Get the full tutorial at Food.com.
