Two decades ago, a home cook named Deb Perelman launched a modest corner of the internet with a straightforward goal: to share recipes she was genuinely excited about. Armed with little more than a natural inclination to talk endlessly about the things she loved, she created Smitten Kitchen. At the time, the wider context of her life as a newly minted adult meant realizing that while she knew the basics of cooking, a vast culinary frontier remained unexplored. She had yet to figure out how to transform a simple can of tomatoes into a spectacular pasta sauce rather than just an okay one, how to craft truly exceptional meatballs, how to achieve ethereally smooth hummus, or how to bake a New York crumb cake so good that she would want to make it for the rest of her life.
Now, twenty years and more than 1,400 published recipes later, an outsider might wonder if this particular chapter of culinary exploration is drawing to a close. After all, what could possibly be left to discover in the kitchen after two decades? Haven’t home cooks kale-salad-ed, tomato-soup-ed, and apple-pie-ed their way to absolute fulfillment yet?
According to Perelman, the answer is a resounding no. In fact, on most days, she feels as though she is only just getting started.
That enduring curiosity is precisely what led to her latest creation, born from a very relatable modern kitchen dilemma. Sometime recently, Perelman realized she desperately needed a reliable recipe—or at least a foolproof technique—for making chicken tacos on a weeknight. Ideally, the dish needed to come together quickly in a single skillet. It could not require advance marination, nor would it force her to dump a jar of salsa into a slow cooker, or worse, drag out a heavy stand mixer just to shred cooked chicken. Above all else, the finished meal had to avoid the dry, overcooked fate that had convinced her for years that she simply didn’t like chicken.
Through a classic combination of culinary laziness, poor planning, and the realization that it was six o’clock in the evening with nobody having yet made dinner, she struck gold. The result has since become a frequent rotation staple in her household.
Reflecting on the milestone, Perelman notes that the greatest reward of reaching the twenty-year mark—aside from connecting with her audience and yammering about cooking week after week—is having accumulated enough kitchen experience to distill complex desires into their simplest and most practical parts. These days, a weeknight meal that never gets tired involves that very same skillet chicken, paired with an avocado on its last legs found in the back of the fridge, some finely shaved cabbage, quick-pickled red onions made using a newly developed shortcut, and a dash of preferred hot sauce.
Marking the twentieth anniversary has also prompted a series of retrospectives across the food and media landscape. In addition to celebrating with her readers through a dedicated newsletter where fans shared their all-time favorite recipes, Perelman has recently discussed her journey in interviews with Ravenous and the Columbia Journalism Review. She has also curated a collection highlighting twenty of the most iconic recipes in the history of Smitten Kitchen.
Central to these celebrations is the newly shared weeknight chicken taco recipe, designed with the same practical sensibility that has defined her work for a generation.
The process begins by preparing the fixings, a crucial step to avoid eating cold chicken by the time the rest of the meal is ready. Tortillas are warmed by wrapping them in foil or placing them in a warmer inside a 350-degree oven. The quick-pickled onions are prepared by combining red onion, red wine vinegar, a splash of water, kosher salt, and granulated sugar. For a faster result, a new shortcut involves microwaving the bowl for ten to fifteen seconds until the liquid heats up, allowing the onions to turn bright pink and pickled much faster as they cool alongside the rest of the meal. Cabbage is easily shredded into a fluffy pile of greens using a specialized peeler.
For the main component, chicken cutlets or thighs are lightly seasoned on both sides with a blend of salt, cumin, chili powder, paprika, and black pepper. A large skillet is heated over medium-high heat with a generous amount of olive oil. The chicken is cooked in a single layer until deeply browned underneath for several minutes before being flipped to brown the second side, without needing to be fully cooked through at this stage.
After temporarily transferring the chicken to a plate, minced garlic is added to the empty skillet to cook for a minute until golden. Broth is then poured into the pan, sizzling as it deglazes the surface and lifts any flavorful browned bits. Once the broth comes to a quick simmer, the chicken and its accumulated juices are returned to the pan. The heat is reduced to medium, allowing the meat to simmer in the reducing liquid for a few minutes until a thin puddle remains. The chicken is then shredded directly in the pan using two forks or broken into bite-sized pieces with the edge of a spatula, soaking up all the remaining pan juices.
The tacos are then assembled by piling warm tortillas high with the seasoned chicken, pan juices, pickled onions, shaved cabbage, avocado, and hot sauce. It is a midweek meal designed to be repeated week after week, capturing the exact spirit of practical, joyful home cooking that has sustained Smitten Kitchen for the past two decades.