Are you and your family tired of preparing the same old meals?
Well, the 2025 ESSENCE Festival of Culture provided the perfect solution for you and your loved ones during today’s Dinner Made Simple demonstration, which was hosted by ESSENCE’s Senior Lifestyle Editor, Victoria Uwumarogie, and presented by renowned cookbook author and social media food expert, Chef Scotley Innis. This session focused on reducing the stress of dinnertime without compromising flavor or nutrition.
Throughout the session, Chef Innis provided quick, wholesome, and delicious meal ideas that fit into a busy schedule, from one-pan wonders to make-ahead meals that save time and energy. One such recipe is his famous Oxtail Lo Mein, which features his delectable oxtail recipe and tender lo mein noodles garnished with scallions. And while Innis admitted that oxtail isn’t quick to prepare, the base of the dish was, and he loves eating it as it’s akin to his Jamaican roots. “I prepped my oxtail the day before. You know, oxtail is a braised dish that requires cooking for about three to four hours. So it’s a nice, savory dish. So, again, if you have leftovers from the night before or decide to eat peas and rice, it’s a Jamaican dish. I have it braised and pulled off the bone, as you will see right here. And then we have some vegetables and our sauce, and it’s gonna come all together,” he said.
Next, Uwumarogie and Innis walked the crowd through the preparation of the dish, surprising them with the relatively few steps required. But he made sure to add that the audience shouldn’t crack the noodles while placing them in the pot. “First, you want to do is put your pasta in there. Okay, so before adding a little oil, to prevent the pasta from sticking together,” he said.
He also suggested spreading out the noodles evenly, so they don’t become clumpy and stick together. “So, as we get that going now, we start preparing the ingredients for the dish. We have the julienne bell peppers and onions, also known as scallions. You might know it as a green onion. I have some brown sugar for sweetness. Then we have some sesame oil, and we have that nice oxtail gravy on the side, which goes simmer down and then bring the dish together,” Innis stated.
While the ingredients were simmering, Innis shared that the key to making dinner less overwhelming and intimidating for working people is having your ingredients and materials prepared ahead of time. “The issue that our home cooks run into is that they don’t have everything in place. So, by having everything in place, all you’re doing is dropping the cooking, putting the dish together, and going,’ Okay. ‘You always want to make sure you have everything to make it as simple as possible,” he said. “I’m all about the freshest ingredients to bring the precious dish together.”
Innis also discussed the importance of one-pot meals to him, stemming from his cultural background and Jamaican upbringing. “I grew up in a Jamaican household where, you know, one-pot dinners made so many wonders for us. So, you had the Snoopy, where you got the salted beans, the pigtail beans, the coconut berries, the fresh thyme, and garlic, and all of them were simmering together. And all of those flavors are like just blending and feathering together, in which it brings out some of the best dishes in the world—one-pot dinners.”
While the bell peppers were simmering, he explained how, in Jamaican culture, they use brown sugar, which they tend to toast in the pan, creating the browning. As you can see, our oxtail is slightly darker than the typical oxtail you might find at a soul food restaurant because we employ a browning technique. So as you see it in the pan, how it’s caramelizing,” he shared.
It was refreshing for the audience to hear that, typically, this dish takes no more than 10 to 12 minutes to prepare in our restaurant, as you already have your nice pulled-off-the-bone, braised pork and tender oxtail. “We’re just sautéing up the peppers, onions, and your pasta. Once it’s done, set it aside, bring it all together, and then here’s your dish,” said Innis.
His advice for home chefs who are stuck in a rut when thinking of meals? Please keep it simple. And just like that, the Oxtail Lo Mein was prepared, while our audience members received foodie and meal inspiration.