The 10 most popular recipes of July 2022 were mix of new recipes – from my easy chicken and potato soup recipe and spicy peanut butter noodles recipe to Terence’s tamago kake gohan recipe for Japanese egg on rice and our reinterpretation of Thai chef Ian Kittichai’s Khao Yam Bangkok recipe for a Bangkok Cobb salad.
Once again, it’s that time of the month when I review the Grantourismo stats for the month to learn what our visitors to Grantourismo searched for, read and (we hope!) cooked (or at least bookmarked to cook) and share those stats with you, so here are our 10 most popular recipes of July 2022 for your recipe-reading pleasure.
As I say every month, I always find it so interesting to see what recipes drew you to our site and what recipes most inspired you, and this month’s stats were especially intriguing. I would love to know how many of you actually cooked these recipes and whether you faced challenges accessing ingredients. Please let us know in the comments below.
Now before I tell you more about the 10 most popular recipes of July, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve cooked our recipes and enjoyed them, please consider supporting Grantourismo by supporting our epic Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon, which you can do for as little as the price of a coffee. Or you could buy us a coffee and we’ll use our coffee money to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
Another option is to use links on our site to buy travel insurance, rent a car or campervan or motorhome, book accommodation, or book a tour on Klook or Get Your Guide. Or buy something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers, James Beard award-winning cookbooks, cookbooks by Australian chefs, classic cookbooks for serious cooks, travel books to inspire wanderlust, and gifts for Asian food lovers and picnic lovers. We may earn a small commission but you won’t pay any extra.
Lastly, you could browse our Grantourismo store for gifts for food lovers, including food themed reusable cloth face masks designed with Terence’s images. Now let me tell you all about the 10 most popular recipes of July.
Most Popular Recipes of July from Peanut Butter Noodles to Thai Style Cobb Salad
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe
This easy chicken and potato soup recipe makes a homemade potato and chicken soup from scratch that is comforting and healing, so I was chuffed to see that this was the most popular recipe of July.
It’s a simple, hearty soup that’s subtly seasoned but given texture at the end with crunchy croutons and crispy fried onions, and is enlivened by fresh fragrant dill – or any aromatic herb of your choosing, as it’s also an incredibly versatile recipe.
The foundation of this warming winter soup is one of the easiest chicken stocks you’ll ever make, made from perfectly poached chicken breasts, which are then pulled apart and used in the soup.
It’s the same way that a stock is made for a Southeast Asian rice porridge or rice soup, such as this Thai rice soup for khao tom gai. We make the same kind of stock from the poached chicken water, only I add lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves and herbs to the water, for fragrance as much as flavour.
Don’t even think about making this if you don’t have a digital kitchen thermometer, as you’ll need one to check the internal temperature of the chicken breasts. When it reaches 74°C when you poke it into the thickest part of the chicken, remove the breasts and set them aside.
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Soup that Starts with an Easy Stock
Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe
This Vietnamese chicken salad recipe makes a fantastic year-round salad called gỏi gà bắp cải in Vietnamese. It was so cool to see that this was another of the most popular recipes of July.
It’s sometimes called a Vietnamese shredded chicken salad or a Vietnamese chicken and cabbage salad, as shredded cabbage is a key ingredient alongside the pulled poached chicken – goi ga bap cai or, more correctly, gỏi gà bắp cải, literally means salad (gỏi) of chicken (gà) and cabbage (bắp cải).
The healthy Vietnamese shredded chicken salad has heaps of texture thanks to shredded cabbage and carrot, crunchy peanuts and crispy fried onions. It’s also loaded with umami with a lively dressing of Vietnamese fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, garlic, and chilli.
I use a mix of both white/green and purple cabbage, for the colour combination, as we eat with our eyes, right? – which is also why I suggest purple shallots, but white/brown onions will work too.
I recommend using a mandoline to shred the cabbage and I use this snazzy tool for the carrot, otherwise, a good old-fashioned box grater or a food processor with a shredding attachment will do the trick.
Lastly, fresh fragrant herbs, pan-roasted peanuts and crunchy fried shallots are all a must.
Vietnamese Chicken Salad Recipe with Crunchy Cabbage and Crispy Fried Shallots
Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles Recipe
This spicy peanut butter noodles recipe makes a quick and easy bowl of noodles that are perfect for a fast lunch or mid-week dinner, and it was another of the most popular recipes of July.
If you’re in the mood for satay but don’t have time to pound pastes and grind peanuts, this spicy peanut butter sauce should satisfy your cravings. It’s also versatile – use whatever noodles and toppings you have at hand.
If you’re a lover of noodle dishes – and dry noodles doused in sauces, in contrast to wet noodles, which are essentially noodle soups and curried noodles – then you should enjoy tucking into a bowl of these spicy peanut butter noodles, garnished with crunchy pan-roasted peanuts, crispy fried garlic, sliced red chillies, and fragrant coriander or cilantro.
We used to make the ‘Queen of Asian Cooking in Australia’ Sri Lankan-born Charmain Solomon’s peanut butter sauce recipe for saus kacang, from her The Complete Asian Cookbook back in the mid-late 1980s, when we first began cooking Asian cuisines.
After we discovered David Thompson’s Thai Food cookbook and Terence began pounding spice pastes, sauces and relishes from scratch, the days of peanut butter sauce were over. Once upon a time I would have been too embarrassed to share this spicy peanut butter noodles recipe and my recipe for peanut butter sauce.
But I’ve been noticing recipes for peanut butter noodles and peanut butter sauce popping up everywhere in recent years, and they’re quite different to mine, so I thought it was about time I shared my spicy peanut butter noodles recipe, which is essentially a peanut butter sauce with noodles of your choice, sprinkled with garnishes to add texture, heat and fragrance.
Spicy Peanut Butter Noodles Recipe for a Quick, Easy and Tasty Bowl of Noodles
Japanese Fried Rice Recipe for Yakimeshi with Bacon, Egg and Cabbage
This Japanese fried rice recipe for yakimeshi with bacon and egg makes my take on the classic Japanese fried rice, which is why I was so excited to see it on this list of the most popular recipes of July.
I’ve added shredded cabbage, sesame seeds and roasted seaweed to give the fried rice greater texture, along with quintessential Japanese ingredients, such as Japanese soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin, sesame oil, and shichimi togarashi Japanese seven spice to intensify the flavour.
We had some leftover steamed Japanese rice in the fridge, which we had with Japanese fried chicken and the Japanese style cucumber and cabbage salad, for which we shared recipes in recent days. The best thing to do with leftover rice is make fried rice, so that’s what I did. I made Japanese fried rice.
But you know me: not content with making one of the many fried rice recipes in our archives, I couldn’t help but experiment. As regular readers know, in between working on our Cambodian cookbook and culinary history, I’ve been developing a rice cookbook during the pandemic.
The rice cookbook project emerged from a ‘rice war’ that broke the internet and resulted in these stories: Make Rice Not War, A Celebration of Rice Diversity to Inspire Curiosity and Connection and How to Cook Rice Around the World: 66 Rice Dishes by 65 Rice Lovers.
So whenever I get a chance, i.e. whenever we have leftover rice and other leftovers in the fridge, I’m concocting new rice dishes, particularly fried rice dishes, and this Japanese fried rice recipe for yakimeshi with bacon, egg and cabbage is another result of my rice experiments and I’m so happy with the result!
Japanese Fried Rice Recipe for Yakimeshi with Bacon, Egg and Cabbage
Thai Style Cobb Salad Recipe Inspired by Khao Yam Bangkok by Chef Ian Kittichai
This Thai style Cobb salad recipe is inspired by Thai chef Ian Kittichai’s Khao Yam Bangkok recipe for a ‘Bangkok Cobb salad’, which he serves at his beautiful restaurant, Issaya Siamese Club, in the Thai capital.
My version is essentially a Thai inspired take on the American Cobb salad rather than my take on khao yam. It makes a fusion of the classic American Cobb salad and the wonderful Southern Thai salad khao yam and it’s one of my favourite summer salad recipes so I was so delighted to see it was one of the most popular recipes of July.
It’s inspired by one of my favourite Thai food recipes, a delicious salad by Thai chef Ian Kittichai, which he calls Khao Yam Bangkok and translates to Bangkok Cobb Salad in his Issaya Siamese Club restaurant cookbook.
Chef Ian Kittichai’s Khao Yam Bangkok is essentially his take on a Southern Thai khao yam that he presents in the style of an American Cobb salad at his enchanting restaurant, Issaya Siamese Club, set in a splendid historic mansion in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok. Confused? Don’t worry, just make it, it’s absolutely delicious.
Thai Style Cobb Salad Recipe Inspired by Khao Yam Bangkok by Chef Ian Kittichai
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
This Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad recipe is made with quintessential Japanese ingredients such as sesame seeds and roasted seaweed, which give it a fantastic texture, while the dressing of rice vinegar, Japanese soy sauce, sesame oil, and grated ginger give it a delightful tartness.
This salad makes the perfect side to Japanese fried chicken, pork tonkatsu and katsu burgers, and it’s one of my favourite Japanese style recipes, which is why I was so thrilled to find it was one of the most popular recipes of July.
I think the food that we’ve missed most during this never-ending global pandemic – who would have thought this would last two and a half years and yet here we are – is Japanese food, and especially Japanese comfort food, and Japanese comfort food in Tokyo, which is why we’ve been making so much of this food at home.
I love making this Japanese style cabbage and cucumber salad recipe as much as I love eating it, as it’s such a breeze to make and can be made within ten minutes. Although let it sit longer and it tastes even better as the cabbage softens and the flavours meld together.
And I adore this Japanese style cucumber and cabbage salad so much that I’ve made it twice in the last week, while Terence has been testing his Japanese fried chicken recipe (publishing tomorrow!), as they’re a perfect match. As is this Japanese potato salad recipe. Make all three recipes and you’ll have a very satisfying meal.
Japanese Style Cabbage and Cucumber Salad Recipe with Sesame Seeds
Thai Rice Soup with Poached Chicken Recipe
This easy Thai rice soup recipe with poached chicken and soft boiled eggs makes khao tom gai, a beloved single-bowl meal in Thailand that’s eaten any time one is in need of comfort, nourishment or a hangover cure or prevention – whether it’s breakfast, brunch, lunch, dinner, or supper.
It may be a cinch to make, but this Thai rice soup recipe creates a sublime rice soup if you’re a lover of the Southeast Asian style rice soups and rice porridges that are enjoyed for breakfast or brunch, a snack or lunch, or even for dinner if you’re feeling under the weather, or supper if you’re seeking to prevent a hangover.
In contrast to a Thai rice porridge or jok, the Thai-Chinese take on congee, which is made with broken rice from scratch and simmered for hours – traditionally it was cooked overnight on charcoal – rice soup or khao tom can be made fresh or with leftover rice cooked in stock. We’ve gone with that latter option.
I make a stock from the water the chicken has been poached in then simmer leftover rice in that aromatic stock, then top the rice soup with the shredded poached chicken, along with soft-boiled eggs with runny yolks, a sprinkle of sliced scallions and crispy fried onions, and sliced chillies to add some heat.
This Thai rice soup recipe is the latest recipe in our Weekend Eggs series of quintessential eggs dishes from around the world and I was so excited to see it was another one of the most popular recipes of July.
Thai Rice Soup Recipe with Poached Chicken and Soft Boiled Eggs for Khao Tom Gai
Japanese Fried Rice Bowl Recipe with Soft Jammy Eggs and Karaage Chicken
This Japanese fried rice bowl recipe with jammy eggs and karaage chicken makes a Japanese donburi or rice bowl dish of yakimeshi fried rice with bacon, egg and cabbage, topped with Japanese fried chicken or chicken karaage and soft jammy boiled eggs. I garnished it with sliced spring onions and sesame seeds.
Like the Japanese fried rice recipe for my take on Japanese fried rice, which I made with bacon, egg, cabbage, and quintessential Japanese ingredients, such as nori and mirin, this Japanese fried rice bowl recipe was another experiment with leftovers that turned out so well I turned it into a recipe, so as you can imagine I’m so chuffed it was another one of the most popular recipes of July.
Do use Japanese rice if you can source it – if you can’t find it locally, you can buy it online – and definitely use a rice cooker to steam the rice. I find that two cups of rice will make enough for two people – one cup of rice per person – and is the perfect amount for a traditional Japanese donburi bowl.
Along with Japanese rice, we like to stick with Japanese products for Japanese cooking. If you can’t source them locally, they’re all available online, such as this Japanese soy sauce, sesame oil, and shichimi togarashi, the Japanese 7 spice blend. Our Japanese fried rice bowl recipe calls for a mix of white sesame seeds and black sesame seeds, but you could always use your favourite furikake, Japanese seasoning.
Japanese Fried Rice Bowl Recipe with Soft Jammy Eggs and Karaage Chicken
Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe
Our Thai chicken satay skewers recipe for sate gai makes delicious Thai satay chicken in the Southern Thailand style and it’s another one of our best Sunday chicken dinner ideas.
You’ll find these small skewers at street food stalls all over Thailand, including Bangkok, where satay pork skewers (sate moo) are preferred. Marinated in coconut milk and spices, the skewers are usually grilled over charcoal outside, but you can do them indoors on the stove on a griddle pan.
These Thai street food satay skewers are different to the ‘Thai’ satay skewers you typically see in foreign cookbooks, food magazines and blogs, which are often enormous, with big chunky pieces of chicken meat. I’ve never seen skewers like that on the streets of Thailand.
Tip: we’ve got a recipe for the authentic Thai peanut satay sauce that goes with it, but it’s a cooking project. However, we do suggest a few short-cuts such as using already-ground spices and a store-bought Thai curry paste.
Thai Chicken Satay Skewers Recipe for Sate Gai in the Southern Thai Street Food Style
Basque Garlic Soup Recipe for a Gently Spiced Bread and Egg Drop Soup
This Basque garlic soup recipe makes a gently spiced bread and egg drop soup that’s deliciously rich and hearty and it was another of the most popular recipes of July.
The creamy texture comes courtesy of whisked eggs drizzled into the broth and the deep flavours are thanks to generous amounts of garlic, paprika and sherry vinegar. Ground chillies give the warming soup an extra kick of heat.
If you’re in the increasingly-chilly southern hemisphere where it’s been a brutal winter for so many of you and you’ve cooked every comforting soup in your repertoire, and you’re looking for a new warming winter soup to try, please make this Basque garlic soup recipe.
You’re going to enjoy this gently spiced garlic soup, especially if you like those hearty rustic bread soups, which were originally invented to use up stale bread (which is essentially what this is), such as the traditional Italian ribollita soup, also known as a Tuscan bean, kale and bread soup.
If you’re also a fan of egg drop soups, such as the classic Chinese egg drop soup, where beaten eggs are slowly dropped into the hot soup so they leave delicate trails of creamy egg, which enrich the soup, then you’re definitely going to love this Basque garlic soup recipe.
Basque Garlic Soup Recipe for a Gently Spiced Bread and Egg Drop Soup
Tamago Kake Gohan Recipe for Japanese Egg on Rice or TKG for the KFC Generation
This tamago kake gohan recipe for Japanese egg on rice – or TKG for the KFC generation – makes a classic Japanese breakfast for egg lovers and it was another of the most popular recipes of July.
This deliciously-simple breakfast egg dish of raw egg stirred into piping-hot steamed Japanese rice can be customised, served simply with soy sauce and sesame oil, or sprinkled with spring onions, sesame seeds, furikake, bonito flakes, or roasted seaweed.
If you’ve enjoyed our recipes for Japanese comfort food dishes, particularly the recipes for donburi or rice bowl dishes, such as oyakodon, the Japanese ‘chicken and egg’ rice bowl, and katsudon, the pork cutlet and egg rice bowl, then you’re going to love this tamago kake gohan recipe for Japanese egg on rice.
A quick and easy breakfast dish of raw egg stirred into cooked rice, tamago kake gohan is versatile and can be customised as you like, with traditional Japanese sauces, pickles, condiments, and toppings, such as furikake seasoning, bonito flakes and roasted seaweed, or European ingredients, such as Italian Parma ham and Parmigiano-Reggiano, which is apparently very popular.
This tamago kake gohan recipe comes with a warning, however: if you don’t like raw eggs, this dish is not for you. If you do eat raw eggs, you probably know this, but do use pasteurised eggs to be safe, make sure the rice is piping hot, and stir the egg in as soon as you plate the rice, to reduce the risk of salmonella. If you have concerns, don’t make this dish.
Tamago Kake Gohan Recipe for Japanese Egg on Rice or TKG for the KFC Generation
Please do let us know if you make any of our 10 most popular recipes of July in the comments below as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
