Recipes By Ali Slagle
497 recipes found
Pan-Seared Pork Chops With Charred Pineapple
In this quick skillet dinner, which is reminiscent of sweet and sour pork and tacos al pastor, boneless pork chops are seared with just a bit of sugar to promote browning, then pineapple chunks cook in the drippings until caramelized but still crisp. Once the pork is cooked, a spicy soy sauce is poured on top to add juiciness. It’s a perfect combination: The tangy, sweet pineapple cuts the richness of the pork, while the soy sauce balances the sweetness of the pineapple. You could also use tofu, boneless chicken thighs, thinly sliced pork tenderloin or shoulder, or a firm fish in place of the pork chops. Eat with rice, noodles, sliced cucumbers or sautéed greens.
Sheet-Pan Roasted Chicken With Greens
This one-pan meal features a bronzed bird and a pile of braised greens that are cooked unevenly to our benefit: The leaves under the chicken steam and absorb chicken juices, while those exposed to the oven’s heat brown and crisp. Use a mix of greens if you can, but either way, you’ll get a tangle of deep, dark greens so rich and soft, even the stems are edible. (And less prep work for you!)
Pork Chops With Kale and Dates
A fat and juicy pork chop will always shine on a dinner plate, and these are especially star-worthy. For browned outsides, evenly cooked insides and fewer splatters, cook them over moderate heat and flip often. Use this method for basic pork chops, or continue with the recipe for a tangy and bittersweet tumble of kale, dates, garlic and vinegar inspired by bittersweet meat dishes like suon kho, orange beef or root beer-glazed ham. Instead of kale, use another bitter green like escarole or radicchio, but keep the dates, which contribute a sweetness far more nuanced than straight sugar. Eat with roasted potatoes, grits or on top of a thick piece of toast.
Sheet-Pan Sausage With Peppers and Tomatoes
Good, flexible and fast, this recipe is a surefire standby: All you have to do is toss together sausage, tomatoes, peppers, garlic, shallots and olive oil on a sheet pan, then slide the entire thing under the broiler. In just 15 minutes, you’ll have nicely seared sausages, tomatoes and peppers, all of which have released juices that you should dunk bread into or spoon over pasta or rice. Experiment with adding cumin, paprika, oregano or red-pepper flakes in Step 1, or swap the garlic for scallions or red onion. You could also scatter crumbled feta, lemon slices, olives, pickled hot peppers or string beans across the top in the last few minutes of broiling.
Ginger-Dill Salmon
Salmon, gently roasted to a buttery medium-rare, stars in this make-ahead-friendly dish. Fruity citrus and dill join spicy radishes and ginger, and the result is a refreshing, jostling mix of juicy, crunchy, creamy, spicy and sweet. Both the salad and the salmon can be made two days ahead, and everything is good at room temperature or cold. To embellish further, consider baby greens, thinly sliced cucumbers or fennel, roasted beets, soba noodles, tostadas, furikake or chile oil.
One-Pot Broccoli Mac and Cheese
In the time it takes to make boxed macaroni and cheese, you can have a homemade version that’s creamy with lots of sharp Cheddar, studded with broccoli and doesn’t require making a roux. Instead, the sauce is thickened by the pasta’s starch: As the noodles cook in milk, the milk thickens to the consistency of cream and the pasta absorbs the seasonings. Here, that’s garlic powder, but you could also use mustard powder, ground cayenne or grated nutmeg like in traditional mac and cheese. The broccoli pieces end up soft and sweet, but if you want more bite, add them halfway through cooking. (Watch the video of Ali Slagle making one-pot broccoli mac and cheese here.)
Slow-Roasted Chicken With Garlicky Green Beans and Sage
This may look like just plain chicken and green beans, but by dropping the oven temperature to 325 degrees and slow roasting for 1½ hours, these simple ingredients become so much more: The green beans, which are tossed with olive oil, sage and garlic, will no longer be snappy and bright green, but will slouch and sweeten. The chicken will be tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. (Its skin will be crisp but pale, so for browner skin, broil for a few minutes after roasting.) And the flavorful chicken drippings will mingle with the aromatics on the sheet pan, creating a spectacular, no-effort pan sauce.
Sheet-Pan Sausages and Brussels Sprouts With Honey Mustard
This hearty pan of sticky, honey mustard-glazed sausages, brussels sprouts and potatoes only adds to the argument that sheet-pan dinners make the best weeknight meals. As the sausages roast, they yield a delicious fat that coats and seasons the caramelized vegetables. Use any fresh sausage you like, as long as it pairs well with the honey mustard. Feel free to substitute or add other vegetables like squash, cherry tomatoes, broccoli, carrots or cabbage. The mustard seeds and nuts provide texture and crunch, but leave them out if you prefer.
Skillet Hot Honey Chicken With Hearty Greens
Requiring just one pan, this recipe yields supremely crisp, juicy chicken thighs and hot honey schmaltz, which serves as a warm vinaigrette for sturdy greens and a sauce for your — let’s say it again — supremely crisp, juicy chicken thighs. Squint and the flavors are reminiscent of fried chicken with a side of braised collards: Crackly chicken cozied up next to spicy, tangy and a little-sweet greens fortified by animal fat. Make your honey-schmaltz as spicy as you wish: Green chiles will pack more heat than red.
Chicken Fried Rice
Fried rice is so perfect for using up whatever you’ve got that the rice sometimes becomes an afterthought. But not here: First, the rice is lightly seasoned with scallions, ginger and garlic, then judiciously studded with chicken, peas and small curds of egg so that you can still taste the rice itself. Ground chicken is used instead of sliced or cubed because it’s easy to infuse with seasonings and can brown without drying out. If you’d like to add additional vegetables, of course you can: Stir-fry them after Step 2, remove them from the pan, then add them back with the chicken in Step 4.
Chicken Parm Burger
When chicken Parmesan is refashioned into a quicker affair as a burger for sunny days and warm nights, it avoids the downfalls of many chicken burgers. This chicken patty is both juicy and flavorful thanks to the addition of Parmesan, herbs, garlic and tomato paste. It cooks over a lower-than-usual temperature, which maintains moisture while still browning, thanks to the sugars in the tomato paste. The burgers are assembled with tomato and arugula for freshness, and they wouldn’t properly nod to chicken Parm without a blanket of gooey, sweet mozzarella.
Rosemary Chicken Ragù
Requiring just 30 minutes of simmering, this is the ragù to make any old night. Made with chicken, it is lighter than traditional ragù, but has strong flavors from butter, anchovies, rosemary, garlic and a hefty kick of red-pepper flakes. (You can use less if that scares you.) With such a savory base of ingredients, you can skip browning the chicken and still be rewarded with juicy meat that willingly shreds when pulled with forks. The silky sauce and delicate strands of chicken like to twirl with long noodles, but they would also be great over polenta, mashed potatoes, white beans or farro. Meal planners, you should know that this recipe makes 6 cups of sauce and will keep 3 days refrigerated — and improves with time.
Roast Chicken and Vegetables With Tahini
This comforting but peppy chicken-and-vegetable combo accommodates any root vegetables that you like or need to use up. Roast them alongside morsels of boneless chicken thighs that have been tossed with ginger, dill and citrus zest. What comes out of the oven needs just a drizzle of straight-from-the-jar tahini: It is nutty, creamy and a great counterpart to sweet root vegetables, for those times you just don’t feel like making a sauce. Finish with more herbs and maybe a scattering of red-pepper flakes and sesame seeds, then pile the mixture over whole grains, a salad or sautéed greens, or into a pita. For a vegetarian version, swap the chicken for chickpeas, extra-firm tofu or tempeh.
Crispy Sour Cream and Onion Chicken
Picture sour cream and onion dip slathered on chicken cutlets, dredged in panko bread crumbs, and fried until crisp like a potato chip, and you’ll envision this recipe. The marinade doesn’t just deliver flavor here: The lactic acid in the sour cream also keeps the thin chicken breasts juicy. Shower the crispy chicken with fresh chives and lemon juice, or, if you crave something creamy for dunking, pair it with a dip of sour cream, lemon juice and chives.
Chicken-Zucchini Meatballs With Feta
These meatballs harbor a secret: They’re half vegetable, half chicken. More than just a surprise, the grated zucchini provides moisture that ground chicken can lack. Roast more zucchini next to the meatballs on the sheet pan, then top everything with feta tossed with lemon juice. For an easy starch, add chickpeas to the feta, or toast bread or pita on the free rack in the oven.
Chicken Salad With Lemon-Sesame Dressing
This main-dish salad is inspired by chicken larb, which is a dance of contrasts: light but rich, with tender meat, crunchy vegetables and seasonings that span sour, sweet, spicy and savory. This recipe dresses lean-but-juicy ground chicken or turkey with sesame oil, fresh lemon, miso, ginger, basil and celery, but there are many ways to adapt it: You could sauté crumbled tofu or cubed salmon instead of the chicken; or add yuzu kosho, wasabi paste or fried garlic. It’s good on its own, or with roasted potatoes, grains, salad greens, soba noodles or wrapped in nori.
One-Pan Chicken Thighs With Coconut Creamed Corn
If it’s possible to upstage crispy-skinned chicken thighs, the coconut creamed corn in this dish comes close. The sweetness of caramelized corn and coconut milk is balanced by the brightness of the ginger, chile, scallions and lime. As the corn simmers, the browned chicken thighs finish cooking right on top, so the flavors meld and deepen. It’s a complete summery meal in one skillet, although you can make it anytime. Just use frozen corn. Garnish it with cilantro, chives, fried shallots or coconut flakes, and serve it with a green side. If you feel like it, you could use shrimp instead of chicken. (Use this recipe as a guide.)
Pan-Seared Ranch Chicken
In this recipe, America’s favorite salad dressing serves double-duty: as a creamy, herbaceous sauce and as a marinade. But don’t reach for bottled ranch. Instead, make your own brighter, tangier version using Greek yogurt. Unlike lemon or vinegar-based marinades, which can toughen meat, yogurt tenderizes even the leanest of chicken breasts. When the chicken is seared in a hot pan, the yogurt-mayo coating forms a flavorful, caramelized crust. (It also makes an excellent marinade for fish, pork, shrimp or sturdy vegetables.)
Greek Chicken With Cucumber-Feta Salad
This meal has the flavors of a Greek combination plate with chicken souvlaki, Greek salad and tzatziki, but it is streamlined for the home cook. Boneless chicken thighs are coated with herby, garlicky yogurt, then seared until tender inside and crusty and browned outside. Extra yogurt dresses cucumbers and tomatoes that have had a chance to drain with salt so they taste their most vivid. Feta and olives add briny bites to the creamy, crunchy salad, but feel free to incorporate other elements of Greek salad or tzatziki, like romaine lettuce, bell peppers, mint or dill, toasted walnuts or thinly sliced red onion. Eat with lemon potatoes or toasted pita.
Kua Kling (Southern Thai-Style Red Curry)
Whereas larb is bright and acidic — light on its feet — this simple adaptation of a traditional Southern Thai dry red curry, is grounding and spicy. It owes much of its flavor to red curry paste, turmeric and fresh chile that have been toasted until they shake awake. For scorching heat (a curry like this is typically brutally hot), add more chile. As the chicken — though it could be ground pork, sliced beef or chicken, or mushrooms — cooks, its fat renders and the fired-up curry paste adheres. Season it with brown sugar and fish sauce, and serve with rice, cabbage, herbs, avocado, cucumber and-or a crisp fried egg.
Mojo Chicken With Pineapple
This simple, bright chicken dinner will transport you to a sunnier place, no matter what color the sky may be where you are. It starts with a citrusy, garlicky Cuban mojo. Instead of marinating the chicken in the mojo before cooking, you marinate it afterward: As the warm, broiled chicken sits in the mojo (for up to an hour), it soaks up the lively flavors.
Chicken Nuggets
This is a mash-up of two kids’ menu standbys: chicken nuggets and meatballs. And the result is adult-appropriate, too. The combination is a streamlined mix of flavors and textures, since some of the ingredients added to ground meat for classic meatballs (bread crumbs, garlic, and Parmesan) are often used in the crispy coating on chicken nuggets. Cooking the panko and Parmesan-coated meatballs on the stovetop in a mixture of olive oil (for browning) and butter (for flavor) means no splatters — and meatballs that are tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. Eat with ketchup, ranch or honey mustard; pasta; or with a layer of tomato sauce and mozzarella like chicken Parmesan.
Ginger-Lime Chicken
Though this may look like regular old chicken, don’t be fooled: It’s buzzing with the bright flavors of ginger and lime. Mayonnaise is the secret ingredient in this recipe, which is a trick J. Kenji López-Alt has written about. When slathered on boneless chicken and cooked, the beloved condiment carries flavor, sticks to the meat well, encourages browning and prevents the pieces of lime zest and ginger — or whatever seasonings you choose — from burning. Try this technique first with ginger and lime zest, then experiment with grated garlic, jalapeño, lemon, Parmesan and whatever else you can imagine. Serve with a pile of white rice and a fresh green salad topped with thinly sliced avocado.
Chicken Fajitas
You might think fajitas are too fussy for a weeknight, but this easy, foolproof version roasts on a sheet pan and can be ready in an hour. Because the ingredients are thinly sliced, everything cooks in a flash — and with little attention required. Smoked paprika, chipotle chiles and a quick stop under the broiler provide the smoky flavor that would traditionally come from the grill. This recipe is very adaptable: Chicken is called for here, but you could also use shrimp or skirt steak. For a vegetarian version, substitute fresh corn kernels, mushrooms, poblano peppers or zucchini for the meat. Cut the vegetables into sizes you’d want in a taco, coat them in the lime-chipotle marinade, roast until cooked, then broil until charred.