Main Course
8665 recipes found
Sheet-Pan Salmon and Eggplant With XO Sauce
XO sauce, a prized seafood condiment from Hong Kong, involves frying pricey dried shrimp and scallops with Chinese cured ham and aromatics until jammy and full of umami. This pantry-friendly version uses smoked mussels to replicate the seafood flavor without breaking the bank. The rich, sweet-salty sauce balances fatty salmon and silky eggplant, but the savory condiment has endless uses: Dollop it on scrambled eggs, fried rice, roasted veggies or noodles. Extra sauce can be refrigerated in an airtight container for one month.
Broiled Salmon and Asparagus With Herbs
Many people fear the broiler because they don’t know how to use it, or they’re worried they’ll overdo it and end up with a scorched dinner. But when used properly, it’s a useful tool ideal for crisping chicken skin, charring vegetables and melting cheese. Broiling is also a great method for perfectly cooking salmon: It yields a deeply browned crust and a tender center that isn’t overcooked. All broilers are different, and knowing the strength of yours and being aware of any uneven “hot spots” help maximize the efficiency of it. (As your dish cooks, look to see if it’s cooking evenly across the surface, which will tell you if you need to move things around.) In this recipe, soy-and-mustard-coated salmon and asparagus cook under the broiler, and are topped with an herb salad for a hit of brightness, freshness and acidity.
Sheet-Pan Tostadas With Black Beans and Peppers
In this vegetarian sheet-pan meal, crisp tortillas are topped with chile-laced black beans, sweet roasted peppers, avocado and plenty of crumbled queso fresco or grated Cheddar. A cumin salt, flecked with lime zest and sprinkled on right at the end, adds both brightness and a musky spice flavor. You will need 3 sheet pans for this. If you have only 2, crisp the tortillas in a skillet on the stovetop instead of in the oven.
Peanut Butter-Glazed Salmon and Green Beans
This fast and fun weeknight meal reveals an unexpected use for peanut butter, transforming it into a savory five-ingredient sauce. The pantry favorite is combined with tangy lemon juice, fragrant ginger and toasted sesame oil to create a rich, supernutty glaze that pairs well with fatty salmon. Here the salmon is roasted on a rack of green beans, but a bed of broccoli florets would be an excellent alternative. The sweet-salty glaze can be made a day ahead and brought to room temperature before using.
Crispy Oven Bacon and Eggs
Bacon browns and crisps evenly in the oven without the hassle of flipping slices on the stovetop, while eggs can oven-fry alongside for perfect sunny-side-up runny yolks and tender whites. The oven’s encompassing heat helps egg whites set on top before the yolks start to stiffen. Make sure to have the eggs sit at room temperature before cracking them into the hot pan: It ensures they’ll cook quickly and evenly.
Tofu and Green Beans With Chile Crisp
I love to cook with chile crisp, a fiery hot-pepper condiment born in the Sichuan Province of China that generally relies on fried shallots and garlic for texture, and on any number of umami-rich special ingredients for distinction and oomph. It’s magical: a boon to noodle soups and kitchen-sink stir-fries, to eggs and cucumbers, to plain steamed fish. Here, I use it as the base of a marinade and topping for baked tofu and green beans, with black vinegar, a little sesame oil, a wisp of honey, minced garlic and ginger, along with scallions and cilantro. But you could use the mixture on a mitten and have a very nice meal.
Spicy Sheet-Pan Sausage and Squash
Like chicken thighs, whose rendered skin leaves behind a puddle of schmaltz for frying vegetables, bread or beans, sausage yields a delicious fat for cooking. Paired with butternut squash and crisped in a hot oven, its spicy fat slicks the sweet squash, while parsley and lemon cut through all the richness. Feel free to switch up the squash for carrots, broccoli, potatoes: Any vegetables that are good roasted will work well in that liquid gold. If the meal seems light, bulk it up by topping with a cup of feta or rinsed canned chickpeas, adding arugula or watercress to the parsley, or serving it all on a bed of kale or mustard greens, like a warm salad.
Sheet-Pan Chicken With Rhubarb and Red Onion
This easy yet robust dish celebrates rhubarb’s savory side. Here, a bit of honey, some sliced sweet red onion and the rich juices of roasted chicken thighs and drumsticks temper its tartness. Serve this dish with a crackly baguette or some rice to catch the tangy sauce at the bottom of the pan. It’s the best part.
Sheet-Pan Tarragon Chicken With Sherry Vinegar Onions
Roasting chicken with tarragon is a classic combination, but here it’s given a twist. Instead of a whole bird, bone-in thighs are marinated in tarragon and garlic, then quickly roasted over a bed of sliced onions. As the chicken cooks, the fat renders, coating the onions, while the fragrant steam rising from the onions flavors the bird. It’s a succulent, easy and very flavorful dinner. If you’d rather use all white meat, substitute bone-in chicken breast halves, and start checking them after 20 minutes.
Sheet-Pan Shrimp Scampi
This has all the garlicky, lemony flavors of classic shrimp scampi, but is cooked on a sheet pan instead of a skillet. This allows the lemon to char and caramelize, and gives the shrimp a condensed, deep flavor from roasting at high heat. Serve it with crusty bread for dipping, or over pasta to absorb the sauce, and with more lemon juice and red pepper flakes showered on top for pizzazz.
Sheet-Pan Sausage With Spring Onions, Potatoes and Mustard
Fresh spring onions make this effortless sausage and potato sheet-pan supper feel elegant, but you could just as easily use scallions, leeks or nearly any other member of the allium family. The spring onions and potatoes make the perfect bed for roasting: They prop up the sausages so they brown instead of steam, and they absorb the sausage drippings while doing so. A spicy, tangy mustard relish cuts the richness of the sausage and offsets the sweetness of the spring onions. Should you have leftovers, they are excellent tucked between slices of toasted bread smeared with plenty of mayonnaise and more mustard.
Bricklayer-Style Nachos
Bricklayer-style beef, or puntas al albañil, made with tender pieces of beef, salty bacon and sometimes chorizo in a chunky fire-roasted salsa, is a beloved taco filling in Mexico. Once a common snack available near construction sites in central Mexico, it became popular beyond street food stands, expanding into homes and restaurants over the years. Here it’s used as the foundation for nachos, topped with mounds of melted cheese, tangy queso fresco, creamy avocado and crunchy scallions for a hearty, delicious meal.
Stracciatella With Spinach
This light, classic Roman soup may be all you want to eat for a few days after Thanksgiving. It’s traditionally made with chicken stock, but why not use turkey stock instead?
Gruyère and Chive Soufflé
This soufflé is as classic as they come, with beaten egg whites folded into a rich, cheese laden béchamel for flavor and stability. Gruyère is the traditional cheese used for soufflé, but a good aged Cheddar would also work nicely. This makes a great lunch or brunch dish. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Zucchini Soufflé
To keep the soufflé as light as possible, the zucchini is grated (the food processor makes short work of this), and then cooked with onion and garlic until it’s really soft, almost melting. (If there’s liquid in the pan when you’re done, drain it to further lighten the mixture.)
Spring Chicken Miso Soup
Soup is welcome all year round, but it goes without saying a springtime soup veers lighter, even if the weather is still cool. Fresh green vegetables, like young leeks, peas and spinach, should play a major role. This delicate yet flavorful soup re-works the comforting chicken-noodle concept with a Japanese-inspired ingredient list.
Spicy Green Garlic Chicken Soup
This rustic soup features green garlic, a delicious seasonal specialty that comes to the market in early spring. The tender shoots are as small as scallions or tiny leeks. Left in the ground, they will grow to be full-sized heads of garlic by mid-summer, but these young specimens are wonderful, with a mild but distinct garlic flavor. If you can’t find them, wild ramps make a good substitute. Otherwise, make this soup with 6 to 8 sliced cloves of regular garlic. The raw tomatillo salsa adds a welcome note of acidity and crunch. You can make it as spicy as you like by varying the amount of jalapeño.
Salt and Pepper Shrimp Rolls
Inspired by jiao yan xia, the classic Chinese dish of head-on, fried shrimp finished with a Sichuan or white pepper salt seasoning, these shrimp rolls celebrate the flavors of salt and pepper. Peeled shrimp are seasoned, breaded with cornstarch and fried until super crunchy, then sprinkled with a black pepper-salt. Once cooked, they’re tucked into toasted rolls smeared with a zingy garlic mayo. Fresh cilantro, sliced chile and a squeeze of fresh lime brighten the hearty sandwich. Store any leftover pepper-salt in an airtight container and use it as a seasoning for roasted meats and vegetables.
Salmon With Salsa Fresca
There was a time when the appearance of the first ripe tomatoes would have inspired me to make the southern Italian sauce of raw tomatoes, basil, garlic and olive oil. These days, I turn to a Mexican-style salsa fresca: tomatoes, white onion, chili and loads of cilantro and lime. I love salsa with fish, and since it is wild salmon season, the marriage seems opportune. Halibut and swordfish, whether grilled, broiled, roasted, or even steamed, are equally fine. Though the salsa is quick to prepare, it's best if allowed to sit for 15 to 30 minutes before serving. The tomatoes' juices will run, and the flavors will mingle. No more than an hour, though.
Grilled Shrimp With Chile and Garlic
Shrimp are a treat and should be handled as such — and this recipe guarantees grilled shrimp that are reliably juicy, charred and seasoned. First, try this trick from J. Kenji López-Alt for plump meat with a browned crust: Stir a little baking soda into mayonnaise, and season it with salt, garlic and chile, which will intensify in the mayonnaise’s fat. Coat the shrimp in the mayonnaise mixture and refrigerate for up to 30 minutes, then grill mostly on one side to avoid overcooking. Eat over grains, lettuces, lemon pasta or noodle salad; in tortillas or pita; or popped right into your mouth. As far as seasonings go, start with chile and garlic, then switch up subsequent batches with lemon zest, Old Bay, ginger and more.
Lemony Shrimp and Bean Stew
With minimal prep and a quick cook time, this shrimp stew feels elegant for such an easy weeknight meal. You can also take the dish in a number of directions: Substitute the shrimp with an equal amount of flaky white fish or even seared scallops, or stretch the dish into a meal for six by stirring in some butter and serving over cooked spaghetti or rigatoni. A good glug of your best olive oil would also be a welcome.
Brown Sugar-Cured Salmon
This grilled and smoked salmon recipe by the food writer Betty Fussell calls for curing the fish for several hours with salt, brown sugar and spices before smoking it over indirect heat on your grill. While the fatty fish absorbs the smoke beautifully, the fish can also be successfully cooked in a grill pan, or under the broiler. The salt and sugar cure, laced with sweet spices, both flavors the fish and firms up its flesh, giving it a meaty, silky texture. Serve it with a crisp salad for a light supper, or with rice for something more substantial.
Hot Honey Shrimp
Chile powder adds sting, honey lends sweetness, and butter gives a creamy richness to these succulent roasted shrimp. Even better, the dish comes together in minutes, making it an ideal after-work meal or extremely speedy appetizer. The shrimp are also excellent tucked into a baguette for a shrimp sandwich. If you happen to have a jar of hot honey (chile-spiced honey), you can use that instead of combining the honey and cayenne. Just be sure to use a light hand with the lime juice at the very end; hot honey also contains vinegar, so taste as you go. If you'd like to double the recipe, you can. Just use two baking pans so as not to crowd the shrimp.
Shrimp Étouffée
Found in both Creole and Cajun cuisines, étouffée is most commonly made with crawfish tails, which have a distinct flavor, but crawfish have a short season and aren’t readily available in most places. This version, with shrimp, is more than a worthy substitute, and an excellent dish all its own. The dish takes its name from the French word "étouffée,” which nods to its protein being smothered with sauce. This recipe uses a shortcut version of a roux: The flour is added after the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic have already been sautéed in the butter. If you omit the hot sauce, add apple cider vinegar in its place.