Weekend Cooking: Best of 2025

A couple of years ago,  I decided it was a good idea to start doing an annual post at the end of the year where I would announce what my cookbook of the year was as well as the recipe of the year. 

The first year that was easy for both categories. There was one clear winner when it came to the book that we had cooked the most out of. Last year it was a little trickier, and this year might well be the hardest yet. There are a couple of reasons for that. We still continue.to mainly cook out of Nagi Maehashi's cookbooks Dinner and Tonight most weeks. There however was no new Nagi cookbook this year so I can't pick her again.

The other factor is that after going a bit crazy for the last couple of years buying many new cookbooks, this year I just stopped! In fact, as far as I can remember I have only bought one new cookbook ths year! It is no coincidence that this corresponds with the fact that the Jamie Oliver Cookbook Club died a death this year.

Update - I got given a cookbook for Christmas so now I have acquired two cookbooks this year. I do have another one on order but that probably won't come until the end of January.

Cookbook of the Year

Now you might think I am cheating a bit by naming the only cookbook I bought as my book of the year. However, even if I had of bought more cookbooks this book would have been right up there as we have really enjoyed cooking out out of this book. It is probably the book we have cooked out of the most this year, aside from Nagi's cookbooks.

I originally posted about this book back in June and since then we have tried another couple of recipes. 

So far the things we have made include

    Curry Roast chicken with marsala roast potato and raita

    Prawn Curry

    Curried Sausage rolls

    Egg Curry

and I have all the ingredients here to make Caramel Slice. I am not sure if we will start with the traditional version or if I might make the spiced version. Or maybe both!

I have made the roast potatoes several times and the curried sausage rolls are a big hit whenever I make them.

When it comes to choosing the recipe of the year do you go with recipes that had the biggest impact when you made them, or do you choose a recipe that you made over and over again. Last year it was the former, and this year it is the latter. In fact, we had it for dinner tonight!

I originally shared this recipe back in February and we have made it countless times since then! The recipe comes from Australian Masterchef winner Adam Liaw. I did have a couple of photos of it but lost them all when my phone had to be revived from the dead!

Recipe of the Year

Baked Tuscan Chicken

6 chicken thigh cutlets
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

200 g sundried tomato strips

300 ml thickened cream

2 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme)

60 g baby spinach leaves

½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan-forced). Season the chicken cutlets generously on both sides with salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, then add the chicken, skin-side down in the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned. Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and cream, then return the chicken to the pan, skin-side up. Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, then bake for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.

Divide chicken cutlets between serving plates, then add the baby spinach and parmesan to the pan sauce, stirring to wilt the spinach. Spoon the spinach, sundried tomatoes and creamy sauce over the Tuscan chicken and serve.

So there we have my cookbook and recipe of the year for 2025. Do you have a favourite?

Weekly meals

Saturday - Chicken schnitzel, mash and mushroom sauce
Sunday - Butter chicken pizza
Monday -
Tuesday - Pork Chop, baked potatoes, broccoli, mushroom saue
Wednesday - Prawns
Thursday - Nothing
Friday - Coconut Curry Prawns

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page

Weekend Cooking: Baked Tuscan Chicken (Adam Liaw)

Adam Liaw is an Australian TV cook, food writer, author, presenter, lifestyle TV show producer and so much more! He's done well since he won the second series of Masterchef Australia back in 2010.

Late last year I saw an article by him where he was talking about which recipe was the most liked recipe on the SBS food website, and it was this one for Baked Tuscan Chicken. This recipe comes from Adam's show The Cook Up, which is on every weekday. Each episode he invites two guests on. They could be chefs, or comedians, actors or anyone really. Some times they can cook, and other times they cannot. Each episode is themed and he will cook something and then the two guests will cook up a dish to meet the theme. This recipe came from an episode called Made to Share.

We already knew that we liked the flavour combination of cream, sundried tomato, chicken and spinach as we have a baked pasta version that we make quite regularly using a recipe from Recipetin Eats. I was still keen to try this as a much quicker version which you can then serve with pasta, rice or I guess even mash! And it's a winner that we have now added into our regular recipe rotation.

We tend to just use thigh fillets instead of cutlets which are bone-in, as my husband doesn't really love eating chicken on the bone.

I did think I had taken a photo of this recipe, but it seems I have not. I will take one next time I make it and update the post.

Baked Tuscan Chicken (Adam Liaw)

6 chicken thigh cutlets
Salt and black pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
2 brown onions, thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

200 g sundried tomato strips

300 ml thickened cream

2 tsp Italian seasoning (or 1 tsp each dried oregano and thyme)

60 g baby spinach leaves

½ cup finely grated parmesan cheese

Preheat the oven to 200˚C (180˚C fan-forced). Season the chicken cutlets generously on both sides with salt and black pepper. Heat the oil in an oven-proof heavy-based frying pan over medium heat, then add the chicken, skin-side down in the pan. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the chicken is browned. Remove the chicken to a plate.

Add the onion and garlic to the pan and fry for 5 minutes, until lightly browned. Stir through the sundried tomatoes and cream, then return the chicken to the pan, skin-side up. Sprinkle with the Italian seasoning, then bake for 25 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce is thickened.

Divide chicken cutlets between serving plates, then add the baby spinach and parmesan to the pan sauce, stirring to wilt the spinach. Spoon the spinach, sundried tomatoes and creamy sauce over the Tuscan chicken and serve.

Weekly meals

Saturday - Chicken kebabs, baked potato, coleslaw
Sunday - Airfried fried chicken, chips, coleslaw
Monday - Ham and Mushroom Pizza
Tuesday - One Pot Cajun Chicken and rice (new)
Wednesday - Spaghetti Bolognaise
Thursday - Chicken Shwarma
Friday - Out for dinner

Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book reviews (novel, nonfiction), cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, quotations, photographs, restaurant reviews, travel information, or fun food facts. If your post is even vaguely foodie, feel free to grab the button and link up anytime over the weekend. You do not have to post on the weekend. Please link to your specific post, not your blog's home page