28 Ingredients Bobby Flay Always Has On Hand

Every home cook should be able to find some joy and serenity in their pantry. For celebrity chef and food media personality Bobby Flay, a pantry and the refrigerator should be a source of inspiration for entertaining, staple dishes, and everything in between. "I love my pantry, it's a place that opens up lots of ideas when it comes to cooking," Flay explained in a pantry tour shared on Instagram. 

A seasoned chef like Bobby Flay must be able to use the ingredients in the pantry as tools across multiple dishes — not just one-hit wonders. After all, not everyone has the space to keep every type of exotic chili pepper, imported flour, and rare piece of produce they can find. Check out some of the ingredients Bobby Flay always keeps on hand to elevate the flavor and texture of his recipes — which are bound to become staples for any home cook. 

There's one spicy ingredient that pops up more often than not in Bobby Flay's recipes. Calabrian chilis are the unique red chili Bobby Flay constantly uses on "Beat Bobby Flay." 

These spicy peppers, originating from the Calabrian region of Italy, have a Scoville heat reading similar to that of cayenne pepper — and more than a jalapeno. Flay uses these peppers, which are a pantry staple, for recipes including his own seasoned cooking oil, in a Spanish seafood paella, and in an amped-up tomato sauce. 

Coconut milk is an ingredient all eaters should have in their pantry. It's one of Bobby Flay's favorite ingredients to transform into a curry. But the uses of this ingredient are much more diverse. 

You can use coconut milk to transform your desserts into dairy-free favorites, like flan or whipped cream. Or, use the ingredients to make DIY Thai takeout tom kha soup or use it as a marinading liquid or sauce component for chicken or beef.

While we may not know too much about Bobby Flay's snacking habits, we know that he has a way of incorporating snack foods into his culinary repertoire. Potato chips are the snack food that gives Bobby Flay's burgers a signature crunch. 

The "Crunchburger" is a staple at Flay's Bobby's Burger Palace restaurants — where diners can add a layer of potato chips to their burger free of charge. This snack makes the burger, whether diners choose a beef, turkey, chicken, or veggie option, because of the salt and the impressive consistency. 

Canned maraschino cherries are a staple ingredient for sundaes and cocktails. But Boby Flay uses special Italian cherries to take his cooking to a new level. These Amarena cherries are from southern Italy and have a unique tartness not shared by the more common maraschino. Since Amarena cherries are difficult to find in the standard grocery store, it's best to see if you can source them via online retailers. 

Flay takes special notice of these fruits for his cherry blinis or for cherry margaritas, where the dark red hue of the fruit shines through against the dullness of other ingredients. He's also use these fruits for his Manhattan or Old Fashioned cocktails or on top of gelato with chocolate sauce. 

Flay's go-to brand for tomato sauce is Simply Sugo. "It's like the sauce is already made for you, and then you can embellish upon it," he explained in an Instagram video. 

Flay notes that this ingredient is a staple canned ingredient to keep on hand because it allows you to put dinner on the table relatively quickly. Not only can you use the sauce straight from the jar, but you can also dress it up with a bit of fresh basil and oregano (or his favorite Calabrian chilis) and serve it with pasta. It's ready in under twenty minutes, which is perfect for a busy chef like Flay.

Bobby Flay is not just a good cook but also an entertainer. He always has a bag of tortilla chips or crackers in his pantry, per a video posted on Instagram. One product he specifically has on hand is buffalo butter crackers, also called Al Burro di Bufala, which he notes have a distinctive tang but are not easily found in grocery stores. These snacking ingredients are critical to Flay's cheese plates — or whenever the mood strikes. 

There's no convenient condiment quite like hot sauce. And Bobby Flay is probably at the level of "hot sauce connoisseur." His pantry features not one type of hot sauce but at least two: Frank's Red Hot and Cholula. 

Not only does Flay add a squirt to any food that needs a little bit of heat, but he'll also use it as an easy sauce ingredient for his chipotle-honey chicken wings. He pairs a chipotle-hot sauce like Cholula with sweet honey and aromatic cilantro for a wing sauce with a bit of a bite.  

Bobby Flay might have the most impressive mustard collection of any celebrity chef we've ever met. Not only does he have the standard yellow variety in his pantry, but he also stocks up on Dijon, whole-grain mustard, old-style mustard, honey mustard, and the classic yellow mustard for people who don't want to eat a more flavorful spread on their hot dog. Flay uses these mustards for tons of recipes, including his heavenly mustard aioli grilled potatoes and salmon with brown sugar and mustard glaze. 

If you are a fan of Thai or Indian cuisine, you'll want to take the word of chef Bobby Flay and stock up on red or green curry paste. The chef explains that he adds one type of curry paste, toasted in a pan, to coconut milk to make dinner in less than half an hour. Flay recommends putting the curry concoction over a protein, like chicken or salmon. "It has so much flavor, and it's so easy," he explained in a video posted on Instagram. 

Bobby Flay keeps an array of cooking oils in his pantry, including extra virgin olive oil and canola oil, as well as flavoring ingredients like his famous chili oil. Bobby Flay uses avocado oil when cooking pasta sauce because it has a more neutral flavor and higher smoke point than olive oil. He admits that he rarely cooks with olive oil because there are much better options that have a more nuanced flavor, like canola oil, for high-heat cooking. 

Bobby Flay loves improving his recipes with mushrooms. Not only does he keep dried mushrooms in his pantry — which he can easily rehydrate for a pasta or a rice dish — but he also frequently keeps a container of fresh fungus in his fridge. 

He upgrades the key ingredient in his Salisbury steak by swapping out the recommended type of mushroom for whatever variety excites your tastebuds. Although the recipe often suggests using white button mushrooms, Flay amps up the flavor by adding cremini mushrooms, flavorful shiitake, or meaty portobello mushrooms to the mix. 

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day — and that's no exception for celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay. Greek yogurt is Bobby Flay's go-to breakfast staple because of its versatility in the kitchen and unique tangy flavor. 

The chef has been known to start his day with a bowl of the dairy product along with pomegranate molasses, fresh berries, and honey. On some mornings, Flay will switch it up and make a breakfast smoothie with yogurt as a thickener, along with fresh blueberries and currant juice. 

Pomegranate molasses is an ingredient unfamiliar to many home chefs. This thick syrup is made by cooking pomegranate juice down, which maintains a sour, tangy flavor with a sweetness that is less evident than with maple syrup or honey. 

It's the secret ingredient Bobby Flay uses in salad dressings because it adds a subtle, sweet element and complements the floral ingredients in the recipe. You can also add a drizzle of the syrup to your Greek yogurt in the morning as Flay does, or save it for your Mediterranean spreads. 

Saffron isn't a spice many people have in their pantry, but for Bobby Flay, it's a must-have for making Spanish paella or a flavorful broth. He keeps a container of these threads in his pantry for the few dishes where the spice provides a floral, bright flavor to the other ingredients. One of his recipes where saffron shines is in a rice salad, where it complements the spicy Spanish onion, rice, red peppers, and cured olives.