For two decades, home cook and food writer Deb Perelman has been a defining voice in the digital culinary landscape. What began as a personal hobby to share recipes and figure out the fundamentals of home cooking has evolved into Smitten Kitchen, one of the internet’s most enduring and beloved food blogs. Celebrating its twentieth anniversary, the platform continues to shape how millions of people approach everyday cooking, proving that even after more than 1,400 recipes, the journey of culinary discovery is far from over.
Reflecting on the milestone, Perelman notes that the original inspiration for the website stemmed from a very relatable place: entering adulthood with a basic knowledge of cooking, yet lacking the finer points required to turn ordinary ingredients into extraordinary meals. Over the years, the site helped readers master essential dishes, transforming canned tomatoes into spectacular pasta sauces, perfecting meatballs, achieving ethereally smooth hummus, and baking enduringly popular New York crumb cakes.
Yet, rather than marking a closing chapter after two decades of recipe development, the anniversary has only reinforced a sense of beginning. The culinary landscape has cycled through countless trends—from ubiquitous kale salads and tomato soups to elaborate baking projects—but the fundamental desire to feed oneself and others simply and deliciously remains unchanged.
To mark the twentieth anniversary, Perelman has shared a curated retrospective, including a collection of twenty of the most iconic recipes from the site’s history, alongside interviews with outlets such as Ravenous and the Columbia Journalism Review, and a special newsletter engaging readers on their personal favorites. But true to form, the milestone is also being celebrated with a brand-new recipe designed for the realities of modern weeknight cooking: simple skillet chicken tacos.
The development of the chicken taco recipe arose from a classic domestic scenario familiar to home cooks everywhere: realizing it was six o’clock in the evening, that dinner had not magically materialized, and that complicated preparation methods were out of the question. Seeking an alternative to recipes requiring lengthy marinades, slow-cooker salsa dumps, or stand-mixers for shredding meat, Perelman engineered a fast, skillet-based approach. Crucially, the technique avoids the dry, overcooked chicken that so often plagues weeknight poultry dishes.
The method relies on seasoned chicken thighs cooked quickly in a hot skillet with olive oil, browned on both sides, and then briefly simmered in a small amount of broth with garlic until the liquid reduces to a savory glaze. The resulting chicken can be easily shredded or cut into bite-sized pieces directly in the pan, absorbing any remaining pan juices.
Accompanied by minimal, practical toppings—such as an avocado nearing the end of its shelf life, thinly shaved cabbage prepared with a specialized peeler, and a quick-pickled red onion shortcut utilizing a brief microwave burst to accelerate the pickling process—the dish represents the essence of practical home cooking. Wrapped in warm tortillas and finished with hot sauce, it exemplifies the kind of unfussy, reliable midweek meal that sustains a twenty-year-old food publication.