‘Barefoot Contessa’ Ina Garten’s 9 Favorite Dinner Recipes of All-Time

'Barefoot Contessa' star Ina Garten has the secret to getting a delicious dinner on the table with 9 of her all-time favorite recipes.

by Perry Carpenter

Published on February 21, 2021

3 min read

Barefoot Contessa star Ina Garten is a master when it comes to comfort food and cozy dinners. But to make her favorite dishes, you don’t need her master-level cooking skills.

Here are Garten’s nine favorite dinner recipes of all time.

'Barefoot Contessa' Ina Garten on the Today show in 2017 — ‘Barefoot Contessa’ Ina Garten | Nathan Congleton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images

9. Ina Garten’s recipe for Baked Shrimp Scampi is for beginners

One of Garten’s favorite dinner recipes is her Baked Shrimp Scampi. All you need is a few ingredients and beginner-level kitchen skills to pull off this amazing dish. To make it, you’ll need to add a few things to your shopping list. You’ll also need a few pantry staple items.

Garten’s recipe calls for two pounds of shrimp in the shell, good olive oil, dry white wine, and panko bread crumbs. You’ll also need salt and pepper, unsalted butter, minced garlic, minced shallots, fresh parsley and rosemary, crushed red pepper flakes, grated lemon zest, lemon juice, and an egg yolk.

8. Mustard-Roasted Fish

Another beginner recipe in Garten’s favorites is for Mustard-Roasted Fish. To make this dish, you’ll need fish fillets, crème fraîche, Dijon mustard, whole-grain mustard, minced shallots, capers, Kosher salt, and freshly-ground black pepper.

7. Ina Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken

Anyone can make Garten’s Perfect Roast Chicken. All it takes is a five to six-pound roasting chicken, a head of garlic, a Spanish onion, one cup of chicken stock, two tablespoons of all-purpose flour, a large bunch of fresh thyme, one lemon, two tablespoons of melted butter, Kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

6. The Barefoot Contessa’s recipe for 1770 House Meatloaf includes homemade garlic sauce

Garten’s intermediate-level recipe for 1770 House Meatloaf calls for a pound of ground beef, a pound of ground veal, and a pound of ground pork. You’ll also need good olive oil, chopped Spanish onion, diced celery, parsley, thyme, chives, eggs, milk, panko bread crumbs, black pepper, and Kosher salt.

For the homemade garlic sauce, Garten’s recipe calls for good olive oil, garlic cloves, chicken stock, unsalted butter, salt, and pepper.

5. Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic

Garten has plenty of delicious chicken dishes in her arsenal, including this recipe for Chicken with Forty Cloves of Garlic. Of course, you’ll need plenty of chicken and garlic to make this dish. You’ll also need heavy cream, flour, thyme, white wine, Cognac, good olive oil, black pepper, salt, and butter.

4. Make-Ahead Roast Turkey and Make-Ahead Turkey Gravy with Onions & Sage

Garten includes a delicious Turkey dish on her list of favorites. This recipe for Make-Ahead Roast Turkey and Make Ahead Turkey Gravy with Onions & Sage is perfect for a big family dinner or holiday meal. Two to three days before you plan to roast the turkey, you’ll make a salt mixture to rub on the bird and wrap it tightly in plastic wrap.

3. Ina Garten’s recipe for Crispy Mustard Roasted Chicken has a lot of familiar ingredients

Garten loves to make chicken dinners. For her Crispy Mustard Roasted Chicken, the recipe calls for a lot of familiar ingredients the Barefoot Contessa loves to use in numerous dishes. They include garlic cloves, panko bread crumbs, fresh thyme, good olive oil, unsalted butter, Dijon mustard, dry white wine, Kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

2. Parmesan Chicken

To make Garten’s Parmesan Chicken, you won’t need any spaghetti noodles or sauce. Instead, you’ll serve this delicious dish with baby salad greens and a homemade lemon vinaigrette. This recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts, flour, eggs, bread crumbs, finely grated Parmesan cheese, unsalted butter, salt and pepper, and good olive oil. To make the vinaigrette, you’ll need freshly squeezed lemon juice.

1. Ina Garten’s Slow-Roasted Filet of Beef with Basil Parmesan Mayonnaise is perfect for company

Finally, Garten has an amazing recipe for Slow-Roasted Filet of Beef with Basil Parmesan Mayonnaise that is a must try. To season the beef tenderloin filets, all you’ll need is fresh tarragon, good olive oil, salt, and pepper. To make the homemade Basil Parmesan Mayonnaise, you’ll need egg yolks, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese, Dijon mustard, fresh basil leaves, minced garlic, vegetable oil, good olive oil, Kosher salt, and freshly ground black pepper.

Catch Ina Garten when The Barefoot Contessa airs Saturdays on The Food Network.