Cast Iron Chef

My New Book!

183:750149353 (John Briggs) — Fri, 22 Nov 2024 13:48:44 GMT

My New Book - A Collector's Guide to Collecting Cast Iron Bundt Pans

Collectible Cast Iron: Bundt Pans and Gugelhupf Cake Forms

by John Briggs - The Cast Iron Chef

You may have noticed I haven't posted new recipes in a while. This is primarily because I have been spending the majority of my time getting this book ready for publication. My final edits have been submitted to the publisher (Schiffer Publishing), so now I can get back to publishing great cast iron recipes in this blog! Stay tuned! I have 12-15 new recipes just about ready to post.

For those of you interested in collectible cast iron, here's a description of the book, and where you can find it.

The first and only book for collectors of cast iron bundt pans. The author has spent years researching and compiling one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of American cast iron bundt and European gugelhupf pans in the world.

Besides documenting and cataloging the known American Bundt pans, the author exhaustively researched foundry archives, catalogs and brochures in Germany, France, the Czech Republic and Poland gathering information on more than 75 previously undocumented cast iron gugelhupf pans. The book contains more than 500 images and includes information on identification, rareness and values.

Amazon | Goodreads

Note: Publication date: June 28, 2025

Lemon Bread

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 19:04:30 GMT

Lemon Bread

This is another family recipe. Looking at the ingredients, I don't think it's a very old one! My mom learned this from her late sister Peggy. All you have to do is combine the ingredients, pour the batter into a loaf pan, and bake it in the oven. It doesn't get any easier than that!

Creamy Skillet Spaghetti

Sat, 18 Sep 2021 03:51:13 GMT

Creamy Skillet Spaghetti

This one-pot dish is a no brainer for the family. It’s so easy you don’t need to even boil the spaghetti noodles separately. Once it’s done, take it out of the oven and serve it right in the pan. It doesn’t get much easier than that. We usually serve it with garlic or cornbread .

Banana Bread

Fri, 28 May 2021 01:31:22 GMT

Banana Bread

I scored a nice cast iron loaf pan the other day, and I couldn't wait to get home and try it out with my banana bread recipe. My mom made banana bread all the time when I was a kid. I jazzed up her recipe a few years ago for my kids by adding chocolate chips. If you want just plain banana bread, remove the chocolate chips from this recipe and add one extra tablespoon of sugar.

Rosemary Braised Lamb Shanks

Fri, 26 Mar 2021 05:50:47 GMT

Rosemary Braised Lamb Shanks

Braised lamb shanks are another dish I discovered when I moved to New Zealand, where lamb is the red meat of choice, rather than beef. This recipe may look a bit familiar, because with the exception of the lamb shanks, it's exactly the same as my braised short ribs recipe. The lamb has such a different flavor, you'd never know it's the same recipe. Cook it for at least two hours and the meat will literally fall off the bone.

Seared Duck with a Blackberry Balsamic Reduction

Mon, 15 Jun 2020 08:52:09 GMT

Seared Duck with a Blackberry Balsamic Reduction

NOTHING cooks duck like cast iron. Find the largest breasts you can. Cook them skinside down for ¾ of the cooking time. I’ve always served my duck with some kind of fruit-based sauce. While the French duck à l'orange is more famous, I prefer my duck with a blackberry sauce made from fresh blackberries.

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 00:49:23 GMT

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

Want an easy-to-cook dinner the family will love? Cook them a chicken pot pie in your cast iron skillet!

Martha's Pork Chops with Apples and Onions

Wed, 03 Jun 2020 18:21:19 GMT

Martha's Pork Chops with Apples and Onions

There’s something about pork chops with apples. They are the perfect combination. This quick and easy recipe is simply the best.

Steak Fajitas

Thu, 21 May 2020 09:29:19 GMT

Steak Fajitas

Fajitas are one of those classic dinners cooked and served sizzling in cast iron. This isn’t just an everyday beef fajitas, this is a steak fajitas, made with top sirloin steak...

Porterhouse for Two

183:750149353 (John Briggs) — Fri, 15 May 2020 16:06:35 GMT

Porterhouse for Two

I love cooking a porterhouse because it gets you both a filet mignon and a New York strip steak. Just add salt, pepper and butter!

A more rustic dinner than the steak au poivre. It's not surprising since the name Porterhouse originated from English pubs that served “Porter” ale. Cutting them into strips enables you to ensure the smaller filet mignon cooks at the same rate as the NY Strip. This recipe says it's for "two", but really this can easily feed four people.

Try it with rosemary skillet potatoes and Brussels sprouts .

Skillet Crêpes

183:750149353 (John Briggs) — Thu, 14 May 2020 04:25:09 GMT

Skillet Crêpes

You have a lot of cast iron options when it comes to making crepes. An obvious option is a griddle, which is what I used to use. Recently I had several hungry mouths to feed, so I didn't want to make them one at a time. I ended up using three of my skillets at the same time (6', 8" and 10"). I ended up preferring skillets to my griddle. With the skillets you can swirl the batter in the pan to make the batter layer nice and thin. In the end I preferred my 6" pan over the others. The key is to get your skillet to about 400 degrees before starting. I made lemon/powdered sugar and Nutella crepes.

Adobo Chicken

Sun, 10 May 2020 21:14:05 GMT

Adobo Chicken

I first made this dish for Katie when we first started dating. I knew she had grown up in the Philippines, and wanted to make her something special. This recipe is fun because the cooking steps are backwards from a traditional Philipino adobo recipe. In the Philippines you typically fry the chicken first, then braise it in vinegar and soy. In this version, the chicken is braised first, then fried. That way when you serve the chicken with nice crispy skin, rather than with soggy skin. It must have been ok because she (eventually) married me.

Easy Dutch Oven Chili

Sun, 10 May 2020 19:55:35 GMT

Easy Dutch Oven Chili

I make this recipe for my kids about once a week. Beer is the secret ingredient. You can easily control the heat by altering the amount of chili powder and the tabasco sauce. it should be a crime to serve this recipe without cornbread .

Blackberry Scones

Sun, 10 May 2020 19:54:40 GMT

Blackberry Scones

If you haven’t noticed already, I have a thing for blackberries. When I lived in Mendocino, we had a bath down to the beach that was filled with blackberry bushes. In July and August, we’d pick buckets of blackberries. We’d make blackberry pancakes, blackberry pie, blackberry sorbet, blackberry cobbler, even blackberry barbecue sauce. The blackberry scones recipe is the latest, and maybe the best, blackberry recipe of them all.

Giant Cinnamon Roll

Sat, 09 May 2020 20:21:16 GMT

Giant Cinnamon Roll

While hunting around for a cinnamon roll recipe I could adapt to cast iron, I ran across an image of a single cinnamon roll filling an entire full size cast pan on the Tasty. I had to give it a try. It’s worth the effort and has quite a “wow” factor when it comes out of the oven!

Venison in a Blackberry Thyme-Sauce

183:750149353 (John Briggs) — Sat, 02 May 2020 02:18:26 GMT

Venison in a Blackberry Thyme-Sauce

I haven’t made this very often because venison isn’t widely available in the San Francisco Bay Area. But when it is, I buy it and use this recipe. You don’t have to be experienced at cooking venison to make this dish. You just brown the meat on all sides in your skillet then transfer it to the oven for 20 minutes or so. After that, it’s just making the blackberry-thyme sauce while the venison roasts in the oven.