The Best Recipes to Cook During Fall: Gumbo, Chili, Pot Pie, and More

As much as we love subsisting on no-cook sandwiches and chopped salads all summer long, we’re excited to lean into fall cooking; there’s nothing like the first morning chill that indicates it’s time to fire up the stove or turn on the oven again. Whether that means baking a bubbly pan of focaccia, getting out the gumbo pot, or using up a haul of newly picked apples, these are the recipes Eater staff use to celebrate the onset of fall.

Paula Forbes, Texas Monthly

After months of being blasted by the Texas heat, there are few things I look forward to more than the first cool day of fall. After I throw open the windows to let in that crisp air and dig the cozy blankets out of the closet, I immediately set out to make a pot of chili. Or if I’m feeling extra lazy, I use Paula Forbes’s excellent recipe for Instant Pot chili, which allows me to sit on the couch and watch football while the pot does all the work of transforming beef and chiles into a perfect bowl of Texas red. And then, of course, I must immediately make a Fritos chili pie, that most Texan of creations that involves scooping a ton of chili onto corn chips before adorning it with cheese, sour cream, and plenty of pickled jalapeños. — Amy McCarthy, reporter

Daniel Gritzer, Serious Eats

I’m not above inhaling a bowl of gumbo in 80-something degree weather; let’s be clear. But cooler temperatures at least make the idea of spending hours over a roux a little more appealing — or in the case of this Serious Eats recipe, hours with the oven on. I love the hands-off nature of the recipe’s oven roux, and, as someone firmly on team #notomato, its embrace of that flavor profile. It also tastes and thickens just as well if you omit the okra (a summer vegetable around where I live). This recipe makes a lot, but I’m not sure there’s a better gift out there to the future weeknight cook than a quart of freezer gumbo. — Missy Frederick, cities director

Caroline Anderson, Grateful Pizza

Here is a paradox that always makes me sad. Summer is, in my opinion, prime time for eating focaccia — fluffy yet sturdy, focaccia sandwiches are my favorite for the beach or the park — and yet summer is also the time I least want to make focaccia, as it usually requires turning the oven above 400 degrees. And so, for me, getting back into the swing of focaccia making is a surefire sign of fall. It signifies that I’ve finally turned off the AC, grabbed a sweater, and don’t mind warming up my apartment a bit. I’ve tried a lot of focaccia recipes and always return to this one by the content creator and meal delivery business owner Caroline Anderson. It always results in a bread with a crisp crust and a chewy, bubbly interior, no matter how much I mess with different additions and toppings. A big slice of focaccia and a bowl of brothy beans is one of my favorite cool-weather meals, and eases the pain of summer being over. — Bettina Makalintal, senior reporter

Smitten Kitchen

I am absolutely one of those people who goes apple picking and ends up with way too many apples that are in danger of going bad before we can eat them all. I’ve searched many times for recipes that use copious amounts of apples, but I keep coming back to this Smitten Kitchen tart, which screams fall to me. It’s an impressive looking apple tart that relies on store-bought puff pastry to make it super easy. Surprisingly forgiving (you can’t make slice apples look bad), it’s a total crowd pleaser at a dinner party. Plus, it uses only ingredients I almost always have on hand. The only way to level it up further is to serve it with some excellent vanilla ice cream. — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief

Ken Forkish, Flour Water Salt Yeast

Even years into baking, I still find myself coming back to Ken Forkish’s Flour Water Yeast Salt as a guide to all things bread. This summer, while trying to rework my focaccia recipe, I took a leap of faith and transformed Forkish’s recipe for pizza dough with poolish into a sheet tray loaf. The overnight poolish added an immense springiness to the focaccia, which rose steadily over the next day, and blistered beautifully in the oven. I opted to top mine with kimchi, and mix in some whole wheat flour for chew, but my entirely all-purpose flour experiments worked just as well. The lower hydration of the dough versus usual focaccia recipes made dimpling simple, and the fully proofed product easily held indentations that collected the rich, silky, olive oil. — Rebecca Roland, associate editor

Sally’s Baking Recipes

As soon as September hits, all I want to do is get cozy, read a book, and finally turn my oven on again. Because I’ve been enjoying a summer of fresh strawberry pies or peach cobblers, I have pies on the brain — but I’m typically in the mood for something comforting and savory. This chicken pot pie recipe fulfills my requirements perfectly. I love how thick the gravy gets and the addition of thyme makes the filling so fragrant. The recipe for pie crust is easy enough to follow, but if I’m feeling particularly lazy I’ll just cheat and pick some up in the freezer aisle. — Kat Thompson, associate editor