Chrissy Teigen Recipe Book: Seared Scallops

Happy Monday!

Most of you are probably enjoying a three day weekend because of President’s Day & I’m currently heading to work so I’m a little salty to be honest. I mean, I technically had a three day weekend since I took Friday off, but I’m still salty!

Anyways, I’m back today with another cooking post! This time I’m trying a recipe from Chrissy Teigen recipe book. I personally love her and my boyfriend got me this book a while back, pretty much to be decoration on my desk since I don’t really cook. But, this year I’m attempting to learn. To be honest, it’s been a hot mess so far, but I’m really enjoying it and hey I’m just starting out so take it easy on me!

Today we’re making the “Perfect Seared Scallops with Warm Corn Salad.” I love scallops and always get them when I see it on a menu, but cooking them, nope had no idea how to. So I was really excited to give this Chrissy Teigen recipe book recipe a try.

CHRISSY TEIGEN RECIPE BOOK: SEARED SCALLOPS

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

For the warm corn salad:

2 tablespoons unsalted butter (tbh I think I used regular, not unsalted butter)

1 (15-ounce) can corn kernels, drained, or 2 cups fresh kernels (from 3 large ears) – (I used canned corn)

For the corn salad:

In a large heavy skillet, heat the butter over medium heat.
When it foams, add the corn, bell pepper, and scallion and sauté, tossing lightly, until cooked but still crips, about 3 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and black pepper and hold warm in pan off the heat.

For the scallops:

Pat the scallops dry with paper towels. (Chrissy’s Tip: If they’re really fresh they should smell sweet and good and you shouldn’t have to rinse them. And don’t salt them just yet!)
Heat a medium skillet (not nonstick) over medium-high heat for 2 minutes. It should be really hot, but not screaming hot.
Add 1 tablespoon of the oil, then add 1/2 tablespoon of the butter and swirl the pan. (Chrissy’s Tip: Adding the oil first helps prevent the butter from burning.)
Sprinkle half of the scallops heavily with salt and pepper and add them to the skillet seasoned- side down. (I added a sprinkle of Adobo since Adobo just makes everything better.)
Chrissy’s Biggest Tip: Do not move, touch or do anything to the scallops while they cook. Leave them be!
Cook the scallops until a crust forms, about 2 minutes.
Pat the tops of the scallops down with a paper towel, season them heavily with salt and pepper and flip the scallops.
Cook another 1 to 1/2 minutes max, until both sides are beautifully seared.
Wipe out the skillet if it is too dark and cook the remaining scallops.
When done, transfer to a plate and serve with warm corn salad.

HOW LONG DID IT TAKE TO PREP & COOK?

According to Chrissy Teigen recipe book, it should take 15 minutes for prep and 30 minutes to cook. So a total of 45 minutes.

Since I’m a mess and had no idea what I was doing and pretty much learning how to do basic things in the kitchen, it took me a bit longer. You know how in school, you always start out with like intro to Spanish or Spanish 101. Yeah, at this point, I need like intro to the intro of cooking. I would say this took me an hour and a half.

Not to make excuses, but I barely have any counter space at home so that worked against me on top of the fact that I didn’t know what I was doing, but just because it took me a year to cook this doesn’t mean that you can’t do it in 45 minutes.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Okay, I put these two photos together and I literally started busting out laughing. I mean my scallops aren’t twins, siblings or even cousins with Chrissy’s scallops. They’re like international pen pals.

But, let’s start with the positive. This isn’t a hard recipe to follow along to. Sure, I was tripping over myself, but it was my first time. I’m pretty sure I could make this again without having to reread the recipe multiple times like I did this time.

It also doesn’t take that many ingredients. The scallops are definitely expensive so this would be a great dinner for a special occasion, I made these on Friday for Lunar New Year, but they would also be great for a date night.

Although my scallops looked really different and uncooked from the picture, they were actually delicious. The corn salad was so simple, but so good. I love corn so I was really excited for this. Plus the colors are so vibrant that when you plate this it just looks so good. You’re probably looking at my plate and disagreeing with me, but I honestly think there’s no way you can plate this and make it look ugly.

Now, onto the cons and by cons I don’t mean about the recipe, I mean with myself.

In case you couldn’t tell, my scallops didn’t form a crust. I swear I didn’t touch them for 2 minutes like she recommended, I patted them down and everything and even left them on significantly longer than she recommended and a crust just wouldn’t form. I looked up other people trying this and it seems that everyone else formed a crust on theirs but yours truly so it’s definitely something I did. Maybe I used a nonstick pan or shame on me for not following the ingredients to perfection, but a crust would not form.

WOULD I MAKE THIS AGAIN?

Totally. I was kinda disappointed when my scallops didn’t form a crust and look like hers, but they were really good and I for sure would give it another try. I’m also excited that I somewhat know how to cook scallops now because they were so intimidating before, but they really aren’t that bad!

I hope you guys enjoyed today’s Cooking with Linda post! And if you didn’t, I hope you at least got a laugh out of my hot mess attempt at learning how to cook. Again, I’m not an expert or a food blogger, I’m just trying to learn how to be an adult and make a meal for myself and sharing my experience!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you all have a great week!

Chrissy Teigen Recipe Book: Seared Scallops | Live Laugh Linda (2024)

CHRISSY TEIGEN RECIPE BOOK: SEARED SCALLOPS