Everyone loves Mary! This beloved host of Mary Makes It Easy and The Good Stuff with Mary Berg, who Variety calls “the millennial Ina Garten,” is back with a cookbook of 100 all-new recipes guaranteed to become your stress-free sidekick in the kitchen.

The kitchen is Mary’s happy place, where worries melt away, a busy mind calms, and time seems to slow down. But she knows that for many people, the exact opposite is true! However you feel about mealtimes, Mary is here to help, with uncomplicated but delicious recipes, packed with tips and tricks, to produce flavourful results—every time.

• It’s What You Need: With chapters broken down into their main ingredient to facilitate easy searching, you’ll love Mary’s ideas for breakfast, veg & starch, pasta, fish, chicken, beef, pork & lamb, and, of course, sweets.
• Make It Easy! It’s not just the name of her award-winning TV program, it’s her culinary ethos. Mary’s recipes look easy because they are easy, and the ones in this book are her most straightforward yet!
• Find the “Why”: With notes in the margin of each recipe giving you the reason behind a certain ingredient or technique, you’ll learn tips that act as building blocks for all your culinary endeavours. And with call-outs that point to recipes where you can get ahead, build fast flavor, or get more bang for your buck, home cooks of all skill levels will find something to entice.

With every recipe Mary writes, her goal is to show you that cooking for yourself, your friends, and your family doesn’t have to be boring, difficult, or stressful. No matter the time of day, or day of the week, with In Mary’s Kitchen, you’ll find everything you need to make the kitchen your happy place too.

In Mary’s Kitchen: Stress-Free Recipes for Every Home Cook by Mary Berg is available at Amazon.com, Amazon.co.uk and Indigo.ca.   

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Chicken Noodle Roast Chicken

SERVES 4 T O 6

If you can’t tell by now, I am really into recipe mash-ups. I’ll blame it on my general and lifelong inability to decide what I want to cook and eat. With its bright-yellow color from the turmeric, this roast brings together a company-worthy classic and my childhood fave, neon-yellow chicken noodle soup from a packet.

1 whole chicken

2 tablespoons butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon chicken bouillon kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 leeks, cut into 1-inch pieces (see note)

2–3 field carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

2 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces

½ fennel bulb, thinly sliced and fronds reserved

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

3 sprigs fresh thyme

1¼ cups orzo or pearl couscous

¼ cup dry white wine, optional

4 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

If you can’t tell by now, I am really into recipe mash-ups. I’ll blame it on my general and lifelong inability to decide what I want to cook and eat. With its bright-yellow color from the turmeric, this roast brings together a company-worthy classic and my childhood fave, neon-yellow chicken noodle soup from a packet.

Preheat your oven to 450°F.

Spatchcock or flatten the chicken by removing the backbone. To do this, flip the chicken over so that it sits breast side down and, using a pair of kitchen shears, carefully cut along either side of the backbone. Flip the bird over and press down to flatten it.

In a bowl, mash together the butter, turmeric, and bouillon. Using your fingers or a small spoon, separate the skin from the chicken breasts and thighs and spread half of the butter mixture as evenly as possible under the skin.

Place a braiser or heavy-bottomed roasting pan over medium-high heat. Season the chicken skin with salt and pepper, add half of the remaining butter mixture into the hot pan, and sear the chicken, breast side down, until golden, 5 to 8 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside, breast side up.

Add the remaining butter to the pan along with the leeks, carrots, celery, and fennel and season with salt and pepper. Cook until the vegetables begin to pick up a little color, 6 to 8 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in garlic, thyme sprigs, and orzo, and cook for 1 to 2 minutes.

Deglaze the pan with the white wine or ¼ cup of water, then add the chicken broth. Place the seared chicken, breast side up, into the pan and carefully transfer to the oven. If the pan looks a little full, place a large sheet pan or a piece of aluminum foil on the rack below in case of any boil-over. Cook for 40 to 45 minutes or until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165°F.

If the chicken skin begins to brown too much, place a lid or a piece of aluminum foil overtop.

When cooked through, remove from the oven and set aside to rest for 10 minutes. Scatter over the parsley and fennel fronds and serve.

NOTE: To prepare and clean leeks, trim off the roots and dark-green tops. chop the white and light-green parts and place in a large bowl filled with tap water. run your hands through the leeks, so that any dirt falls to the bottom of the bowl. using your hands, scoop the leeks out of the water, allowing as much water as possible to drain away. If your leeks are particularly sandy, repeat this process with fresh water.

Excerpted from In Mary’s Kitchen by Mary Berg. Copyright © 2023 Mary Berg. Photographs by Lauren Vandenbrook. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.