Molly Baz Is Starting Fresh
Simpler cooking, nothing extraneous.
This newsletter is just part of the puzzle! Tune into The Dinner Plan podcast to get full conversations—recently I’ve chatted with Karen Shimizu, Casey Elsass, and Rick Martinez.
And don’t miss this ever-growing list of my guests’ favorite cookbooks. Buying through the affiliate links there (or in this send) helps to keep this show on the road.
Molly Baz is working on her next cookbook. When we caught up for this week’s podcast episode, she said the manuscript was technically due in 10 days—but it’s not surprising that she needs a bit of an extension.
Running several businesses—her membership-only recipe website, her wine brand, and the line of “mayos gone wild” she launched last fall, as well as serving as head of culinary for a plant-based restaurant in Portland, OR—is already a lot to juggle. But “life kind of threw me a couple curveballs recently,” Molly says.
Her home burned down in the LA fires, and she lost her sense of taste in a bout of Covid shortly after.
“The recipes that I’m working on very much reflect this moment in time for me,” she says, “I’m kind of starting over and starting fresh with very little.” Her cooking these days is “very stripped down.” There’s “nothing extraneous coming out of the kitchen right now,” she explains.
It’s a bit of a change of pace for someone whose recent book was called More is More.
She’s stirring store-bought pesto into a can of butter beans. She’s making sandwiches for dinner. She’s taking advantage of inactive time—letting a meal’s flavors develop while she’s focusing on something else. She has lots of useful tips for anyone who feels overwhelmed right now.
I talked to Molly about how her cooking has changed since the birth of her son, the little moves that she recommends for lower-lift weeknight dinners, and the ways she’s dressing up hot dogs and cooking fresh corn this summer.
Find a few of Molly’s favorite recent cookbooks and recipes below, plus a one-pot dinner recipe that really benefits from its one-pot design.
This week’s giveaway—it’s a big one, you guys
This week, one paid subscriber to The Dinner Plan will win a really fun prize package including a copy of each of Molly’s books—Cook This Book and More is More—plus The Works from Ayoh, which includes their Original, their Dill Pickle Mayo, their Tangy Dijonayo, and (my fave) the Hot Giardinayo. Get your sandwiches ready.
How to enter:
Make sure you’re signed up as a paid subscriber to this newsletter by end of day Friday, June 27, 2025. Thank you so much for your support!
There’s nothing else you need to do to enter. But I do appreciate your clicking on the ❤️ at the bottom of the page and leaving a little comment to help bring this newsletter to the attention of new readers.
Giveaway winner will be alerted by Substack DM and email—be sure to check your messages! If there’s no answer from either within 48 hours, we will move on to another winner. U.S. addresses only, 18+. Giveaway not sponsored or administered by Substack. Ends Friday, June 27, 2025.
Molly mentioned:
Molly’s Recipe Club
Ayoh “Mayos Gone Wild” (use code DINNERPLAN for a discount)
Face Plant (Portland, OR)
Yuzu Co. Yuzu Super Juice
Mama Teav’s Hot Garlic Chili Crisp
Calvin Eng’s Salt Sugar MSG (Bookshop here), especially the Beef Chow Fun and Crispy Sheet-Pan Noodles
Zaynab Issa’s Third Culture Cooking (Bookshop here) especially the Cumin Fried Rice
Molly’s Salted Watermelon Juice (Bon Appétit)
Molly’s citrus granita video
Marinated raw-and-cooked zucchini salad (excerpted from from More is More)
Chorizo and Chickpea Carbonara (or watch video here) (excerpted from Cook This Book)
Phyllo Wrapped Tortilla Espagnola (MollyBaz.com)
A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR
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Maggie mentioned:
Molly’s Farro and Charred Corn Salad (excerpted from Cook This Book
Molly’s Yuzu Celery Root Remoulade (MollyBaz.com)
From the ad break:
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Cangshan Kita Series 8-inch Chef’s Knife
One Pot Chicken With Schmaltzy Rice and Lemony Yogurt
Excerpted with permission from Cook This Book, copyright © 2021 by Molly Baz.
This is comfort food at its best—one pot and supremely satisfying. Chicken thighs get nestled on top of a bed of garlicky rice where they steam together, yielding meat that is impossibly tender. This recipe uses basmati rice—a long-grain white rice that tends to cook up fluffier than jasmine rice, making it perfect for pilaf-y dishes like this one. You’ll soak the rice while you prep the chicken and aromatics to give it a jump-start on absorbing some water, which will result in more evenly cooked rice. It’s important to get the highest quality basmati rice you can find to ensure even cooking and optimal fluff, especially when sharing real estate with chicken thighs in a one-pot dish like this one.
Serves 4 to 6
PRODUCE
1 large white or yellow onion
7 garlic cloves
2 lemons
4 ounces sugar snap peas
1 large bunch dill or cilantro
DAIRY
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
MEAT
2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 6 small)
PANTRY
1½ cups basmati rice
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
¾ cup roasted, salted pistachios
Prep the rice:
Place 1½ cups basmati rice in a medium bowl and cover with room-temperature water. Let the rice soak for 30 minutes.
Crisp up the chicken:
Pat 2 pounds of chicken thighs dry with paper towels to remove any surface moisture; this will encourage crispiness and browning. Season the chicken thighs all over with 2 teaspoons salt and a few good cranks of black pepper.
Arrange the thighs skin-side down in a large, dry Dutch oven. Set the pot over medium heat and cook, undisturbed, until the skin releases easily from the pot and is light golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes.
Once the chicken skin no longer sticks to the pot, move the chicken thighs around a bit in the pot to ensure even browning and continue to cook until the skin is very crisp and deeply golden brown, 6 to 8 minutes longer. Parts of your pot will get hotter than others, so if some of the thighs seem darker golden brown than the rest, swap them for even cooking. When the chicken skin is very crispy, use tongs to transfer the thighs to a plate, skin-side up.
While the chicken cooks, do some prep:
Finely chop 1 large onion.
Finely chop 6 garlic cloves.
Drain the rice: Drain the soaked rice in a fine-mesh strainer, rinsing with cold water and swirling the rice around with your fingers until the water runs completely clear, 1 to 2 minutes. Set the strainer on top of a kitchen towel to drain any additional water.
Add the aromatics and toast the rice:
Reduce the heat under the Dutch oven (now with only the chicken fat) to medium-low and stir in the chopped onion. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is translucent and soft, about 6 minutes.
Add the chopped garlic to the pot and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 1 minute. Season with salt and lots of black pepper.
Stir in the rice and cook, stirring constantly, until the grains turn translucent around the edges, 1 minute. We are toasting the rice to coat it in all of that schmaltzy flavor.
Add 2 cups water, 2 tablespoons butter, and 1 teaspoon salt and stir to scrape up any bits that are stuck to the bottom of the pot. Bring the water to a boil over medium-high heat. Once the water boils, nestle the chicken thighs back into the pot, skin-side up, along with any accumulated juices. Cover the pot, reduce the heat to low, and cook without removing the lid (we don’t want any of that steam to escape!) for exactly 16 minutes. Immediately turn off the heat. Let the rice finish steaming, covered, for 10 minutes.
Make the lemony yogurt:
Finely grate the zest of 1 lemon and 1 garlic clove into a small bowl. Stir in 1 cup whole-milk yogurt. Cut the lemon in half. Squeeze in the juice of the lemon halves. Season the yogurt with salt.
Chop some stuff:
Cut 4 ounces snap peas crosswise into 1-inch pieces.
Coarsely chop ¾ cup roasted, salted pistachios.
Finely chop the leaves and tender stems from 1 large bunch of dill, discarding the tough stems. You should have about 1 cup chopped. Yep, that’s a ton of dill.
Cut a lemon in half.
Fluff and finish:
Transfer the chicken to a plate. Fluff the rice with a fork.
Add the snap peas, chopped dill, pistachios, and the juice of the halved lemon, fluffing with a fork as you incorporate them all. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed. Divide the rice and chicken among shallow serving bowls or plates. Spoon some of the lemony yogurt over top and finish with a few cranks of black pepper.
That clip is amazing—that’s so much to go through in such a short time. Can’t wait to listen to the rest.
The chicken / rice recipe is one of my favorites from Cook This Book! That cookbook is filled with so many weeknight bangers. My only note (for anyone planning to make it!) is that the portion sizes are pretty scant — throughout the book — so I’d recommend bumping up the quantities if you’re actually looking to feed 4-6.