This Week's Pick: Bowen Yang's Mapo Tofu

A comedian shared his mom's recipe without telling her. Within six days of publication, 64 NYT Cooking readers rated it five stars — the fastest engagement pace of any recipe published June 14–21. Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live cast member and co-host of the podcast Las Culturistas) contributed this Sichuan dish with a family twist: firm tofu instead of silken, ground pork instead of beef, and a slightly drier sauce that still delivers the signature tingle. Weeknight-ready at 35 minutes, and every ingredient is findable at a standard grocery store. 1

Recipe: Bowen Yang's Mapo Tofu Source: NYT Cooking (published June 15, 2026) 1

Key ingredients: firm tofu, ground pork (or beef), doubanjiang (fermented chile bean paste), Sichuan peppercorns, Sichuan coarse chile powder, Chinkiang (black) vinegar, chicken stock, ginger, garlic 1

The two ingredients to track down: Doubanjiang and Sichuan peppercorns are sold at most Asian grocery stores and increasingly at Whole Foods and well-stocked supermarkets. No doubanjiang? Gochujang plus a bit of soy sauce is a passable stand-in; the heat profile shifts from fermented-funky to sweeter, but the dish holds together.

Get the recipe: cooking.nytimes.com

Three other recipes crossed the engagement threshold this week, and each lost for a specific reason.

Melissa Clark's Best Buttermilk Pancakes (NYT Cooking, published June 16) finished with 65 ratings at 5★ — technically the highest raw count. 2 It's a legitimate result: Clark published a definitive guide to pancake technique, and the batter-rest method (rest 10+ minutes before cooking) addresses the single most common pancake failure point. But it's a breakfast recipe in June. A weekend project, not a weeknight dinner. For the reader making a single grocery decision on a Sunday, Mapo Tofu is a more complete meal answer.

BA's Miso Curry Beef With Green Beans (Bon Appétit, published June 15) is the source-diversity argument this week. 3 Bon Appétit published only two new standalone recipes during the window — this and a green goddess dressing — so this was BA's strongest shot. The recipe is genuinely good: ground beef in a miso-curry sauce with Japanese curry powder, ketchup, maple syrup, and white miso, served over rice with a fried egg. Thirty minutes, pantry-leaning, tagged for meal prep. But it has no public ratings (BA doesn't display star counts), which makes the engagement comparison direct: 64 verified five-star ratings beats zero-visibility. Mapo Tofu wins on confirmable community signal.

Harissa Chickpeas With Turmeric Rice (Yossy Arefi, NYT Cooking, published June 16) showed genuine early traction — 15 ratings at 4★ within a week. 4 Readers praised it, one noting it reheated better than it cooked fresh and another calling it a keeper. At 45 minutes and 6–8 servings, it's a strong batch-cook candidate. It loses here primarily because Mapo Tofu's engagement pace is significantly faster (64 ratings in ~6 days vs. 15 ratings in ~5 days) and because the celebrity story angle makes it this week's most memorable recipe.

Reader comments on the recipe surfaced a few practical details worth knowing before you shop:

On the Sichuan chiles: The recipe calls for 1 tablespoon Sichuan peppercorns (toasted and ground) plus 1 teaspoon Sichuan coarse chile powder — two separate items, not a combined measurement. This tripped up at least one reader. 1 One reader asked whether Korean gochugaru is a substitute for the Sichuan chile powder; it works in a pinch, though it lacks the woody depth.

On the tofu technique: The recipe parboils the tofu in salted, gently simmering water before adding it to the pork mixture. A rapid boil will crumble it. Use a slotted spoon when transferring. 1

Vegetarian path: Readers suggest jackfruit or TVP (textured vegetable protein, brands like Morningstar or Gardein) as pork substitutes, or finely chopped shiitake mushrooms with mushroom stock standing in for the chicken stock. 1

To stretch it: One reader adds green beans or bok choy directly to the sauce, which adds volume and a vegetable component without changing the prep time. Water chestnuts also appear in the comments as a texture addition. 1

Serious Eats had no new standalone recipes this week.

The full recipe is on NYT Cooking: Bowen Yang's Mapo Tofu. 1