Our Most Popular Recipes of 2025

Get more recipes, food news, and stories at wttw.com/food or by signing up for our Deep Dish newsletter. 
Have a food story or recommendation? Email us at [email protected].

From nostalgic classics to new twists, our most popular recipes of 2025 serve up a little comfort, plenty of curiosity, and dishes with diverse origins inspired by places near and far. As ever, trusted sources like America’s Test Kitchen, Cook’s Country, and Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street continue to shape the way many of us cook at home.

Be sure to check out more recipes anytime at wttw.com/food and sign up for our free food newsletter Deep Dish, and keep coming back, as we’ll have more for you next year. See you in 2026, and happy cooking! 

Hawaiian Macaroni Salad

Cook’s Country developed their own recipe for this simple Hawaiian classic, which is our most popular recipe for the second year in a row! It makes for a perfect side dish for a picnic or barbecue. 

San Diego Fish Tacos

Another Cook’s Country dish, this recipe for summery fish tacos was inspired by a restaurant in San Diego and features a vibrant Mexican sauce. 

Atomic Cake

A South Side of Chicago specialty, atomic cake features a towering array of layers that include various cakes, custards, creams, and fruits. We have a recipe adapted from one bakery's version, accompanied by an investigation into the cake’s origins.

Fettuccine Alfredo

This isn’t the recipe for the heavy, Americanized fettuccine alfredo that you think you know. This recipe, excerpted from Milk Street Backroads Italy by Christopher Kimball and J.M. Hirsch, is instead for the dish from which fettuccine Alfredo arose, the one variously called pasta in bianco (white pasta), burro e parmigiano (butter and Parmesan), or pasta pancia sconvolta – upset belly pasta. (Yes, fettuccine Alfredo originates as a meal fed to Italians when they feel sick.)

Classic Chewy Oatmeal Cookies

Looking to add a classic to your holiday baking? Sometimes simple is perfect, as in this version of a cookie staple from America’s Test Kitchen.

Greek Chicken

This Greek chicken recipe from Cook’s Country may be inspired by a restaurant in Alabama, but it could also be said to approximate a legendary chicken dish closer to home: the lemony, herbed chicken Kalamata from Lincoln Park’s Athenian Room.

Chicken Kyiv

Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street shared this recipe after visiting Ukraine and learning some new techniques to improve the old dish, namely using ground chicken instead of a cutlet. 

Chicago Thin-Crust Pizza

Cook’s Country might call this recipe “Chicago thin-crust pizza,” but we Chicagoans know what that really means: tavern-style. While you probably have a favorite joint to visit for tavern-style pizza around town, sometimes it can be fun to try your own hand at a classic food.

Chicken Rollatini with Provola and Artichokes

Usually adaptations of recipes go from meat to meatless in order to make a vegetarian dish. But in this chicken rollatini recipe from Lidia’s Kitchen, Lidia Bastianich has gone the other way, taking inspiration from a vegetable dish to create a filling meat version.

Barolo-Braised Beef Short Ribs

If you need a show-stopping centerpiece for your holiday meal, look no further. This recipe for Barolo-braised beef short ribs, from Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, is a sort of northern Italian version of Julia Child’s iconic boeuf bourguignon, with beef slowly cooked in wine and aromatics to create not just tender meat but also a rich, velvety sauce.