Social media recipes that actually work (and some that don’t)
Are some of the biggest social media recipes too good to be true? I tried to replicate them with interesting results…
By Laura Wingrove
Videos with the hashtag food on social media garner billions of views and it’s been reported that cooking is the ‘most popular form of influencer content on social media’.
But are the recipes as good as they look or is it just clever editing? I decided to try some of the biggest trends to find out…
Marry me chicken
Despite this creamy chicken recipe originating seven years ago, it went viral on TikTok in 2023 and has been popular since. There are now different iterations of this recipe all over social media with one pasta version boasting 15 million views.
It’s just got so much going on taste wise. It’s creamy, due to the inclusion of mascarpone, but with smoked paprika and sundried tomatoes also in the sauce it’s also got a smoky tang to it. It was easy to see why it’s become so popular.
When I attempted it I thought it might be complicated and tricky to get right due to the number of ingredients, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. It’s incredibly simple and took no time to throw together.
You start by frying the chicken, before heating up the herbs, spices and sun-dried tomatoes then it’s a case of adding in your chicken and mascarpone and then finally stirring in the all-important parmesan. From pan to plate in less than 30 minutes, it’s a midweek winner for sure.
Some recipes serve this with new potatoes or mash, while I had mine with pappardelle pasta.
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'Marry me' chicken pasta
There's a reason this recipe has become such a success online. It lives up to the hype
TikTok spaghetti bake
The idea is that you assemble a quick creamy spaghetti, top it with a meaty bolognese sauce and finish with mozzarella, before baking in the oven. It’s a hybrid of spaghetti alfredo, bolognese and pasta bake.
It is delicious and worth the effort. The process is similar to making a lasagne, where you need to create several elements before piling it all into one dish and baking. A labour of love but worth it. Hearty, warming and both creamy and tangy.
TikTok baked spaghetti
This pasta dish is really comforting and filling
If you’re short on time and you want a similar result, you could also go forGeorgina Hayden’s one-pan pastitsio. It swaps spaghetti for pastitsio/bucatini or penne but because it’s one pot, it’s quicker and cuts down on the washing up.
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Date bark
It’s unclear where this recipe originated, as fruit dipped in chocolate isn’t a novel idea, but over the last couple of years, it’s grown in popularity. Some of the most popular recipes mimic famous chocolate bars. In lieu of a nougaty base you have a layer of dates, then next comes the nuts, which comes courtesy of the nut butter of your choice and then it’s topped with melted chocolate. You stick it into the fridge to set before cutting into slices.
It’s as straight forward as that. You do of course have to remove the stones from your dates and you’ll want to press them down flat onto a plate or chopping board so that it creates a good base level for the drizzling toppings, but then it’s as easy as pouring and spreading.
The result is a chewy sweet chocolate treat, perfect for that afternoon slump alongside a cuppa. I was mightily impressed. I found using deglet nour dates over medjool dates was better. Not only are they cheaper but they’re firmer so they make it easier to snap the bark into bite-size chunks.
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Want to experiment with dates? Try these recipes
Baked feta pasta
The baked feta pasta first made waves in Finland back in 2019 but the social trend blew up on TikTok in 2021, with one American video amassing 21.3 million views and counting. It’s no surprise it’s a family favourite and here to stay.
A true traybake dish, it takes no time to pull together. Chuck all the tomatoes and feta in a baking dish and roast in the oven. You then stir through cooked pasta for the best lunch or dinner. I’ll be making this recipe again and again.
Baked feta pasta
Three years on from when it went viral and it’s still incredibly popular
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Two-ingredient brownies
I had such high hopes for this two-ingredient brownie and that’s partly due to how popular they have become on social media with one video alone getting 2.5 million views. You begin by whisking six eggs together then folding in 300g of melted dark chocolate. Once mixed it resembled a thick chocolate custard and started to look promising. You pour it into a lined baking tray and bake for 25 minutes, then leave to cool completely before cutting into slices.
I was disappointed. The brownies were far from gooey and fudgy, instead they were dry and crumbly. Perhaps the oven temperature or timing needed a tweak.
What frustrated me more was the wasted ingredients, a risk when trusting any recipe online. I would have preferred to save my money and used my eggs for a tasty breakfast and the chocolate for some fool-proof cookies.
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Veggie lasagne soup
If you’ve never tried the viral lasagne soup, you absolutely must! With videos ranging from 2-20 million views, it’s clearly a crowd pleaser.
This recipe is perfect for a fridge raid and to use up leftover lasagne sheets. It can be made in under 40 minutes and there’s no need to blend or roast any elements.
This recipe really was simpler than I expected it to be. Just five simple steps: fry the veg, add the lentils and tomatoes, pour in the stock, add the broken lasagne sheets then finish with mascarpone and parmesan. Done. I made this on a drizzly day and it hit the spot.
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Two-ingredient doughnuts
Two-ingredient doughnut recipes are incredibly popular online. One TikTok ‘two-ingredient’ doughnut recipe alone has 9.2million views. So, they must be good, right?
Just to be clear the recipe does work. It makes sense, you mix yoghurt with self-raising flour and form a dough for your doughnut. So far, so easy and sensible. Yoghurt dough is a thing that works. But as you may have noticed, that is already two ingredients.
So, what about the egg wash you apply to your doughnut balls before cooking. And once they’ve baked in the oven/air fryer for 10-12 minutes, how about the butter, sugar and cinnamon you need to coat them? And, if you’re feeling fancy the melted chocolate to have as an extra topping/dipping sauce? That’s now five or six ingredients.
The recipes are being promoted under false pretences. Five-ingredient doughnuts, yes, they work and are great. Two ingredient ones? You’re going to have a nice, albeit dry ball of bread.
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Try these doughnuts that use more than two ingredients but are still quick to make
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Originally published June 2024
