Reddit reviews The Best 30-Minute Recipe

"But it was Chris Kimball, editor of Cook's Illustrated, who cut to the heart of it. "Utter bullshit," he said when I asked what he thought of cooking times. Kimball is no slacker; CI, as its devoted readers know, has a well-earned reputation for accuracy. They'll bake a chocolate torte 500 times before publishing the results. Yet Kimball doesn't include start-to-finish times in his recipes; he rejects outright the notion that they can be measured with precision. "Thirty-minute recipes are never 30 minutes," he says. "It's marketing."

WTF!?!?! http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981

And to think I trusted you, Chris Kimball... Hmph!!!!

https://www.amazon.com/Best-30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184981

I make a chicken and polenta bowl that takes 45 minutes from start to finish.

I use this recipe for the polenta (except I stir in an ounce of crumbled bleu cheese at the very end).

Ingredients for the sauce

• 1 lb. boneless skinless chicken breasts
  
• 1 whole onion
  
• 2 14.5-oz cans diced tomatoes (because I cheat)
  
• 4 Tbsp. capers
  
• generous handful of fresh basil
  
• Salt & pepper to taste
  
  Step 1: Put water for your polenta into a pot and set it over high heat. While you wait for it to boil, cut up boneless skinless chicken breasts into bite-sized pieces. Set a large frying pan over medium heat. You'll want to be sure it's deep enough to accommodate the sauce, so nothing too small.
  
  Step 2: Whisk the polenta & salt into the boiling water, cover with a splatter guard, and reduce heat to med-low. Set a timer for 30 minutes. Pour a tablespoon or so of olive oil into your frying pan and add the chicken, salt, & pepper. Slice your onion into long strips like this. Stir your chicken thoroughly and add the onion. Remember to whisk your polenta fairly often.
  
  Step 3: Once your chicken looks like it's not pink any more, add the canned tomatoes and stir thoroughly. If you happen to have some wine open, you might toss in a cup or so, but it's not strictly necessary. Keep stirring your polenta. Roll up your basil leaves and cut them into thin strips as shown in this super-easy tutorial.
  
  Step 4: Just before the timer goes off, stir your basil and capers into the chicken and tomato sauce, then turn off the heat. When the timer goes off, remove your polenta from heat and stir in the butter (and cheese) as shown in the recipe. Dish the polenta into bowls and ladle the chicken sauce over the top. That's it.
  
  You might be interested in The Best 30-Minute Recipe cookbook.

The Best Recipe books are great. The 30 minute recipe one would be a good starting point. The meals are easy and quick to make, and really, really good.

http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1409228625&sr=8-3&keywords=test+kitchen+30

There are several cookbooks/websites that break recipes down into what to do, how to do it, and why it works. 'Cooks Illustrated - The Best 30-minute recipe' covers a lot of ground and is a simple place to start: You can't get too fussy if you're only cooking for a half hour. They've got piles of other specific books too - best international, slow cooker, light, vegetarian, etc.

'The Food Lab - Better Home Cooking through Science' and the 'Serious Eats' website by Kenji Alt-Lopez are a lot of fun. He'll take a dish and make it the way you've always heard it should be made, then break down what works, what doesn't, why it doesn't, and what's the best way to make whatever it is. The bottom line recipe is there if you want to skip the process.

The Food Wishes series on YouTube, by Chef John, is really excellent at walking you through a recipe in a light, relaxed way. He captures his mistakes and leaves them in the videos too, to remind you that some mistakes don't matter, and some can be worked around.

Anyways, it's a process. Find a few recipes, make them, expand your repertoire at your own pace. You're going to be eating for a long time, and you don't need to know how to do everything at once. Experiment with what intrigues you, and if it doesn't work out, there's always pizza!

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_i_1_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=the+food+lab&sprefix=The+foo%2Cstripbooks%2C148&crid=6UCYFX6JO2PX


https://www.amazon.com/Best-30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated/dp/0936184981

https://www.youtube.com/user/foodwishes

Big fan of this book from America's Test Kitchen: http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981. As you prepare more and more of these meals, you'll also be developing techniques that will allow you to cook far more meals, efficiently.

The Best 30 Minute Recipe by America's Test Kitchen has great easy, fast weeknight meals that are also consistently delicious. Check it out!:
http://www.amazon.com/30-Minute-Recipe-Cooks-Illustrated-Magazine/dp/0936184981/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1322981024&sr=8-2