This Is Why Preppy Kitchen's John Kanell Thinks Cooking Should Feel Simple - Exclusive Interview

John Kanell is the man behind Preppy Kitchen, an online source of tasty recipes for sweet and savory dining since 2015. While Kanell has put a lot of energy into creating an endless database of recipes and videos for all skill levels, his latest endeavor is in print. "Preppy Kitchen Super Easy: 100 Simple and Versatile Recipes" is Kanell's second cookbook, featuring a reliable lineup of recipes that guarantee culinary success. 

Kanell attributes being prepared to stress-free confident cooking, and Preppy Kitchen highlights this philosophy. With simple tricks and plenty of alternatives to try, his new cookbook is a fountain of resources. Available as of August 20, 2024, it's sure to become your trustworthy partner in the kitchen. In an exclusive interview with Tasting Table, Kanell spoke about the inspiration behind the book and shared countless tips and delicious recipes. Read on to learn what to expect from "Preppy Kitchen Super Easy."

What was the inspiration behind "Preppy Kitchen Super Easy"?

I have twin 7-year old boys ... it's a wonderful magical age but that doesn't stop life from getting busier ... And I'm hearing this from a lot of people ... there's a certain level of frustration and anxiety almost around making food because you want to make something delicious. You want to have that moment of everyone coming to the table, but it's almost impossible to do at the end of the day. Sometimes you're just hanging by your fingernails trying to make something happen, and that's really what inspired "Preppy Kitchen Super Easy." I wanted to have a collection of recipes from breakfast all the way through lunch, dinner, and dessert that were just simple, streamlined, and foolproof.

Where possible, I give hints and tips on how to use an air fryer, a slow cooker, an instant pot, all the time-saving gadgets. There's a lot of time-saving hacks in the book, and so many of the recipes are one pot, one bowl, stir together, and just really taking a lot of the difficulty out of the kitchen so that you can have more time for the moments that matter. For me, that's spending time with my kids in a relaxed environment where we can talk and I'm not stressed out about getting food on the table.

That's great, I think a lot of people can relate to wanting to get a good meal on the table without spending multiple hours in the afternoon preparing it.

I mean, a project bake is great. I love the luxury of having time to make something from scratch and just take it all the way through — it's marinating, it's slow cooking, whatever else. That's not every day though, and we have to eat every single day.

Do you have any advice for reluctant home cooks when following your recipes?

The book starts off with the pantry of convenience. For those people who are a little bit flummoxed on where to start, start by organizing what you have on hand. Preppy Kitchen is all about being prepared. That first step is having just the right ingredients and kind of knowing what they do and how you can use them. I talk a little bit about the right tools to have in the kitchen and with those two things, you're basically halfway there.

A lot of the frustration in the kitchen comes because you started a recipe and a third or two thirds of the way through, you're frantically searching for the spatula you need or this one ingredient you forgot about ... Let's take that all out and have just a few ingredients that are really staples in the pantry.

There's a whole section on meal starters or meal makers. Having just a foundation of sauces that you can use interchangeably on different proteins and veggies and salad dressings on hand. Because a lot of times at the end of the day, I am going to be blanching some veggies for 90 seconds in well salted water. I have a protein, and there's a starch, and that's the dinner that I'm going to serve. But it could be elevated so much more with just a simple sauce or dressing and you can get a lot of reluctant or picky eaters to try something with a sauce.

Yeah, that's a very good point — having a foundational playbook of ingredients and items to elevate basic proteins and starches.

If someone is really reluctant to try things out, but there's a spark of curiosity, I would always suggest to find one dish and make it your own. So, find something that you like flavor profile wise, learn to make it, and you make it again and again. You can tinker around so it's just perfect for you and eventually you know how to make it really well ... From that point, you can expand. As opposed to trying a thousand different recipes once, just get that one down and then move from there.

Many of your baked good recipes offer twists and variations. What advice do you have for playing around with those recipes?

People are really intimidated by baking because, "Baking is a science." And this is true, but there's two foundational things that you can do, and if you do these correctly, you can freestyle from there. Aside from following a recipe to start off with, measure your flour with a scale. This will give you accurate results. A lot of times people follow recipes perfectly except they scoop the flour into a measuring cup, and you're adding 60% more flour than you need because the flour gets packed down, which gives you a dry, bready good ... Number two, just don't over-mix your batter. Always finish it off by hand with a spatula, scrape the bowl down, fold it together until the flour disappears.

Now we can play around with the flavor. Try the spices that you like. Try different frostings, make different iterations of the same recipe. In the book I'll tell you how to make it as a quick bread loaf, or as muffins, or as a sheet cake, or a layer cake, or cupcakes and just different baking times. But you can use the same recipe if the recipe was designed for that ...

A lot of your recipes are designed to be adapted, which really expands the cookbook.

That's what I wanted. I wanted people to revisit the cookbook again and not just do one recipe once, but try it in different iterations until they found what they really loved. Because when you make a recipe your own, it's much closer to your heart. I also wanted people to kind of have the freedom to experiment. Recipes are great and they give us delicious food, but there's a balance between following a recipe exactly and having some joy in the kitchen and trying things out. Maybe you'll like the original recipe more, maybe you're going to like your variation more, but have the freedom to try.

Your overnight oat recipes are a playful twist on popular desserts. Do you have any favorite variations?

My favorite that I make for my boys is the vanilla ice cream kind. Just by adding a dash of vanilla and having that right combination of yogurt and milk and letting those oats soak with the chia seeds — simple. A little dash of maple syrup too ... If I was having one just for me, I would add some shredded toasted coconut in there and maybe some sliced almonds for texture.

That sounds great. You mention the reverse creaming method for making cupcakes in your cookbook. Can you elaborate on why that's successful?

A lot of times, you're going to worry about over-mixing the batter because you don't want to activate the gluten and create a gummy, dense baked good as opposed to a fluffy melt in your mouth, buttery, delicious one. The reverse creaming method is where you take your butter and you cream it up, but then you add the dry ingredients in. All the flour gets coated in fat from the butter, and by doing that, you're protecting the flour from having the proteins activate. Very simply stated, the reverse creaming method lets you not worry about over-mixing the batter because the flour's all been wrapped in butter. It makes it a really foolproof recipe and it also gives you a very tender crumb.

Aside from cupcakes, what baked goods can use that method?

You want a recipe that's designed for that as opposed to just trying it. Some are relying on you aerating the butter and sugar together to create a fluffy texture and then that expands in the oven. But you can use the reverse creaming method for any kind of baked good. It could be cupcakes, cakes, quick loaves, or whatever else. It just has to be a recipe that was written for that.

Your cookbook includes a delicious banana bread recipe with a subtle twist. What are some key factors for successful banana bread?

I think it's important to have really ripe bananas. You have two options. You can wait for the perfect moment where your bananas are rotting ... Basically it's right on the cusp of being unacceptable ... Most of us don't have that sense of timing; it's very difficult to time that. I recommend getting the bananas as ripe as you can and then just pop them onto a baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 10 minutes. When they come out of the oven, they'll be black and you let them cool down a bit, and they'll have this very pudding-like consistency and that makes them very nice for banana bread.

The other hint I have is just to measure out the volume of bananas because some bananas are massive, some are tiny ... Mine gives you a volume measurement for that just because yes, there is play, but if you add way too much banana, then it's going to be kind of soggy and it won't be able to have that lighter texture. If it's too little, it'll be a little bit dry, so get it right.

Yeah, I agree. I'm always wondering, "These look kind of small, is it going to work? Should I add a fourth or a half?"

All of a sudden I have anxiety in the kitchen, and this is supposed to be my meditative lovely time where I make something delicious to serve.

Aside from the texture, does ripening bananas in the oven affect the taste?

It'll break the sugars down a little bit. As bananas ripen they get sweeter and those complex carbohydrates are separating into more simple carbohydrates or sugars, and baking helps to do that.

Okay, nice. Do you like to use bananas in other baked goods?

I love a banana cake as well. Bananas foster, bananas — this is not in the cookbook, but my morning treat as a child was sliced bananas and milk, almost like cereal.

I love that. I used to put sliced bananas in my cereal with milk ...

You're halfway there.

You have a smoked Gouda and thyme drop biscuit recipe in the cookbook. Making biscuits can be intimidating, do you have any tips?

I would try to keep the butter in slightly larger pieces. You don't want to over-mix this and have the butter completely disappear. You want those little pebbles of butter throughout that give you a lovely steamy rise in the oven and create layers and flakiness and deliciousness.

Oh yeah, definitely. What do you like about using smoked Gouda versus something traditional like cheddar?

You can use your favorite cheese, so if you wanted to use an extra sharp cheddar cheese, have at it. But I feel that the smokiness of a Gouda just gives you a little bit of balance to the biscuit and a nice play of flavors.

There are plenty of nice meat dishes in the cookbook, such as a simple skillet steak you elevate with garlic herb compound butter and a black pepper crust. Can you elaborate on the method for creating that crustiness?

It's a play on a steak au poivre. The peppers will form a crust; they kind of fry in the butter and there's a little crunchy, caramelized spicy layer on the outside of the steak that's also kind of protecting the inside. It's very tender, so it's such an easy way to make an impressive meal. Compound butter just makes — butter makes everything better, compounded butter makes butter better.

If you have a few free moments and you love garlic or you love tarragon or whatever else, just grab a stick of butter that's left on the counter and mush it all in together and then roll it back up and pop it into the fridge. You can add that onto so many savory dishes and it gives you a lovely depth of flavor so easily.

You mention you like to use New York strip steak. Aside from the taste, what appeals to you about that cut?

It is pretty readily available and it's not overly dear. A lot of times when you go to the market ... you'd be a little bit taken aback by some of the prices ... if you wanted to use a different cut, if you wanted to have a beautiful filet, go for it. But the strip steak, it'd be just fine.

Yeah, it also lowers the intimidation factor if you're less worried about ruining it.

Oh my gosh. If I bought a giant Dover sole for example and I overcooked it, I would be beside myself.

You use brown butter in several recipes to enhance simple dishes too.

I made sure to give instructions on browning butter because it is the easiest way to make anything that had butter in it originally taste elevated and delicious. It can go into baked goods, it could go into savory things. You could just add it to some spaghetti with Parmesan and be like, "Oh my gosh, what is this delicious symphony of flavor?" And I like to just grab some butter, make a big batch of it, and I keep it in my fridge so I can just use it whenever I need to instead of having to make it. I just cut a piece off and use it like I would normal butter.

Right, very convenient.

It makes really delicious frostings and icings.

Is there something you notice a lot of people do wrong when they brown butter?

The only thing that can happen with browning butter is you can over brown it. It becomes a beautiful blonde color at first with a slight nuttiness. As you cook it down further, which happens extremely quickly — as soon as it changes color, you're going to go from perfect to burnt in one or two minutes. You have to stir. So, you just want to stir it to make sure the bottom doesn't burn while the top is still cooking and find the shade that you like. I like it a little bit darker because I kind of like a bitter note, but you might want to have it just on the lighter side. You can experiment with it.

And if you're using American butter as opposed to European butter, American butter just has a higher water content. When you are melting it down, get ready for maybe some pops to happen and [for it to] be very frothy. You have to move the froth aside to look and see what the actual color is. If you're using your European butter, that's less of an issue because there's more butter fat in there.

Your whiskey glazed chicken thigh recipe is a fun twist for your updated version of chicken nuggets.

That's a family favorite.

How do the flavors of the whiskey and chicken work together?

The whiskey glaze gives you this sticky, glossy, caramelized, but umami, salty, sweet, spicy sauce to go on top. It has a little bit of everything. Yhe key is just to have your chicken ready and then you coat it in sauce at the last moment. The chicken is still really crispy and crunchy. I like to top mine with lots of scallions, and at our house we also add a bunch of peanuts on top as well. It gives it a little bit of extra crunch.

Do you have tips for achieving the perfect glaze?

It comes together quickly. I would just say if you're serving it to kids, for example, I would just add the whiskey in first and really let the alcohol cook off, and then you can add the rest of the things. If you wanted it to be a little bit looser, let's say you overcook it or something and it kind of gets a bit too thick, I would just add some chicken stock or even water in and that'll just loosen it back up and give you a beautiful consistency.

Nice. It looks like a great recipe.

Another one I really like is the orange chicken, a citrus glazed chicken from the book. I have two air fryers in my kitchen, I like to make a big batch of something so my husband and I can have it for lunch the next day. I'll have both of the air fryers going, but if you want you could just make it in the oven and it works really fine. ... That glaze as well is just the perfect salty, sweet combination. My time-saving hack, we do use orange juice and zest, but there's marmalade in there as well. The marmalade gives you that glossy consistency with a little bit of bitterness that's just lovely.

Do you pair the whiskey glaze with other proteins?

That would be great on salmon too. I would just split the sauce off in half, do a quick marinade of the salmon, bake it off, cook the sauce down, and then pour that on to finish. Delicious.

Very nice. Do you have a preferred type of whiskey or just whatever's in the cupboard?

Whatever you would be comfortable drinking. If it's the stuff in a plastic bottle that you would feel sick from the next day, I would not use that for baking. Use ingredients that you like to eat or consume.

There's a classic shrimp boil recipe in tin foil packets for the grill in your book. What's the key to the garlic butter in the packets?

It's going to give you such an explosion of flavor. Butter just changes the mouthfeel of everything that you eat with it. At a restaurant, they'll start a dish with butter and they'll finish a dish with butter because it just changes the way you taste things. It's going to coat the potatoes, the corn, and the shrimp, and really let you just taste all the flavors. That garlic is going to just cook just a little bit there to take the bite off and it's going to be super flavorful. My pet peeve is an over boiled, under seasoned dish, so this is just right.

Aside from a shrimp boil, would you do a similar version of the garlic butter in a packet with a white fish?

Yeah, or veggies. Grilling is so easy, it's like one of the joys of summer in my opinion. Whatever you want to do in a foil packet, you could add a compounded butter to it and it's only going to make it better.

Now with this cookbook release, what's next on the agenda for you?

Well, the next thing that I'm excited about is the book tour ... it's a very shortsighted goal, but it's one of the high points of my year really because my business is online. I get to see comments and reply, but it is not the same ... Many amazing stories come from meeting people in person and it's something I truly look forward to, I'm very excited.

That sounds wonderful. Are there any certain events during your book tour we should look out for?

I'm starting it on August 20th in New York and it rolls on through there.

"Preppy Kitchen Super Easy: 100 Simple and Versatile Recipes" is available for purchase from all book retailers as of August 20, 2024. Catch John Kanell on tour across the country at the end of August.