Main Course
8665 recipes found
Mayo-Roasted Thanksgiving Turkey With Gravy
Some recipes for mayo-roasted turkey promise extra-juicy results with minimal effort. This one does no such thing. The mayonnaise won’t help the turkey stay juicy: Only salting and resting (a light curing process known colloquially as dry-brining) and carefully monitoring its internal temperature as it roasts will. The mayonnaise will, however, produce a turkey with glistening, burnished, golden-brown skin evenly flavored with herbs, no basting required. The mayo’s viscosity helps it stay in place as it roasts, while the extra protein from egg aids in browning. This recipe will make a little more mayonnaise than you’ll need. Use the excess for leftovers sandwiches, or toss it with roughly chopped vegetables (carrots, broccoli, brussels sprouts, zucchini or squash) before roasting at high heat for 10 to 15 minutes.
French Onion-Braised Lamb Shanks With Barley and Greens
This warming stew starts with a mountain of lightly caramelized onions and leeks to combine the sweet-savory flavors of French onion soup with rich, red wine-braised lamb shanks. Onion soups can be delicious whether made with lightly caramelized onions or deep, dark, sweet onions, and achieving either is a simple matter of adjusting the cooking time on the onions. Barley and greens added toward the end of cooking make it a complete one-pot meal, though the stew would be equally delicious spooned over polenta or mashed potatoes. (If serving with potatoes or polenta, omit the barley and cook as directed.) Not into lamb (or can’t find shanks)? Try the exact same recipe with beef short ribs or oxtail.
Cantonese-Style Steamed Fish
This classic Cantonese dish is one of the simplest ways I know to prepare whole fish or fillets. Simply steamed lean white fish is seasoned with the umami richness of soy sauce and wine, then finished with a (careful) tableside drizzle of hot oil that sizzles and sputters, bringing out the bouquet of fresh ginger, scallions and cilantro piled on top of the fish. You’ll need a lidded pan wide enough to fit the plate you are steaming your fish on, and deep enough to cover the fish, the plate, and a steaming rack underneath. But you’ll end up with fish that is light and silky in texture and aroma, but deep in flavor.
Vegetable Maafé
A great maafé effortlessly balances sweet, savory, earthy and spicy. Maafé is often called West African peanut stew, but that’s an oversimplification. Across the region, there are many versions that feature peanuts as a base, and all are greatly nuanced: For example, there’s akitiwa in Togo, nkatenkwan in Ghana and miyan taushe across northern Nigeria. This highly adaptable stew can be made with any assortment of meat, poultry, seafood and seasonal vegetables you have on hand (see Tip), but this one goes all in on produce. Keeping the Scotch bonnet whole in the sauce controls the heat: cook to soften, then break it open to dissolve seeds in the sauce for more heat, or cook and remove the softened whole chile from the sauce for less heat. Serve it all over steamed rice, millet or fonio, with some lime slices for squeezing. Maafé can be made ahead, refrigerated and reheated for a warm, comforting meal whenever you need — its rich flavor only improves with time.
Spaghetti Aglio e Olio e Fried Shallot
Adding homemade or store-bought fried shallots to classic garlic spaghetti gives it extra caramelized sweetness and depth of flavor, along with crunch. Add the shallots in two stages so that some of them soften and give their flavor to the sauce, and the rest remain crispy. Cooking the spaghetti in a relatively small amount of water concentrates its starch, making it easier to form a creamy, emulsified sauce. If you can’t have your pasta without cheese, feel free to grate some Parm or pecorino on top at the table.
Ropa Vieja
Flank steak braised with vegetables and aromatics until it shreds into strands is the national dish of Cuba, though the cooking process is popular throughout Central America and the Caribbean. In Cuba, it’s called ropa vieja, which translates to old clothes, a reference to the beef’s tattered appearance. In Venezuela and Colombia, you’d call it carne desmechada. This version starts with a sautéed base of peppers and onions, which is further enhanced with olives, capers, raisins and tomatoes. The flavorful mixture works equally well with flank steak, pork butt or even chicken thighs. Serve it with cooked black beans and rice.
Coconut-Caramel Braised Tofu
In this quick vegan meal, versatile tofu takes on a flavorful coconut-caramel glaze with minimal effort. It’s simmered in a fragrant braising liquid of rich coconut milk, savory miso and aromatic ginger and garlic until the liquid reduces into a rich, sweet caramel sauce. Lightly charred green beans add subtle smoky notes, but broccoli or cauliflower florets would also work great. A final shower of fresh scallions and tart lime juice balances and brightens the sweet sauce; other herbs like basil or cilantro would also light up the dish in a lovely way. Leftovers can be reheated and tossed with noodles for lunch the next day.
Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)
Whether served on top of a bowl of rice or with chewy udon noodles, thinly shaved beef cooked with onions in a sweet-savory dashi broth is classic, warming Japanese comfort food that can be made in minutes once your pantry is stocked with a few simple Japanese staples.
Grilled Portobellos With Chile Sauce, Sour Cream and Corn Nuts
This is a wonderful vegetarian main dish to serve in the center of your table, with tortillas or rice and a zesty green salad. Be sure to ventilate your kitchen well when you’re grilling the mushrooms and onions indoors, but, if weather permits, you can always grill them outdoors. If you’d like to make this less spicy, then feel free to leave out the dried chiles, making a simple bell pepper sauce instead. Keep this dish vegan by swapping out the sour cream for a nondairy alternative.
Thin but Juicy Chargrilled Burgers
The key to cooking a thin, modestly sized burger on the grill is to use the highest heat possible, and to cook the meat most of the way through on one side before flipping it and briefly cooking the second side. This technique allows you to get a nice dark crust on that first side without the risk of overcooking. To form thin patties that hold together on the grill, massage the ground beef briefly — which is a cardinal sin with many other styles of burgers, but a necessity here for cohesion. This allows you to flatten the patty out extra-thin and wide to account for shrinking as the meat cooks.
Butternut Squash, Leek and Za’atar Pie
This comforting pie makes a great vegetarian centerpiece, ideal for a celebration. It benefits from being assembled the day before, receiving a good amount of time to set in the fridge and thus involving a lot less work on the day you plan to enjoy it. You can also bake the whole thing a few hours in advance, then just reheat it in the oven for 20 minutes, if you like. Use any extra pastry trim to cut out fun, festive shapes like holly leaves or stars to personalize your pie. Serve this alongside roasted veggies or a big leafy salad.
Roast Chicken With Apricot Glaze
The chef Fany Gerson makes her tangy and sweet roast chicken with an apricot glaze: a mixture of apricot jam, butter and garlic that is applied while the chicken is in the oven, keeping it juicy and flavorful inside and out. The apricot butter is also whisked into the pan drippings, along with shallots and red wine vinegar, to make a vibrant sauce.
Chicken and Cabbage Salad With Miso-Sesame Vinaigrette
This simple salad calls for a specific set of ingredients, but it can also be considered a loose guideline. Thinly sliced leftover steak, shredded salmon or sliced dense tofu could easily take the place of the chicken — and that chicken can be left over from the night before, whether it's been poached, grilled, pan-seared or cooked on a rotisserie. Any crisp, crunchy lettuce will do. You could opt for shredded carrots and diced jicama instead of cucumber and radish, or add a handful of split cherry tomatoes and raw snap peas cut on a bias. As long as the basic balance of protein, dressing, greens, vegetables and herbs is maintained, the rest is up to you and your vegetable drawer.
Brown-Butter Butter Beans With Lemon and Pesto
These roasted beans are treated in much the same way as toasted gnocchi, and yield similar results: They’re nicely browned on the surface, then coated in an unctuous, lemony, buttery sauce. Make sure to have your pesto and warm brown-butter sauce ready to pour onto the beans right when they come out of the oven, so that the beans remain crispy and the sauce nice and loose. For a vegetarian version, you can swap out the anchovies for some briny capers and leave out the Parmesan. The whole experience is quite rich, so serve these with some lightly cooked leafy greens.
Stuffing Dumpling Soup
Smash it up with eggs and flour, and leftover stuffing transforms into a tender dumpling dough. A simple bone broth made from your turkey carcass creates a savory base, which you then load up with kale and sweet potatoes for a hearty, healthy post-Thanksgiving meal. If you prefer to roll your dumplings into visually perfect balls, leave out the 1/3 cup turkey stock for a sturdier dough, but if you don’t mind a rustic look, that additional moisture ensures a lighter dumpling.
Squash and Spinach Salad With Sesame Vinaigrette
This vibrant squash salad can stand on its own as a main salad or as a side to accompany all sorts of roasted meats or fish. Kabocha squash can be cooked with its skin on, and a simple roast results in supersweet, creamy flesh. The triple-sesame vinaigrette combines sesame seeds for crunch, tahini for smooth texture and toasted sesame oil for rich, nutty flavor. Equally tasty warm or at room temperature, this salad is super adaptable. (Delicata or acorn squash also have edible skins and are great alternatives.) It makes a terrific lunch, with the addition of beans or soft-boiled eggs for extra protein.
Potato and Celery Root Gratin With Caper Brown Butter
This is the perfect side dish to a Sunday roast or winter spread. Cutting the vegetables into batons as opposed to thinly slicing them lends a wonderful texture to the dish, and it looks pretty funky too. If you can’t find celeriac (celery root), then swap it out for an equal amount of Yukon Gold potatoes or similar semi-waxy potatoes. This is the kind of dish that tastes better as it sits, so feel free to serve it at room temperature if you prefer, adding the brown butter just before serving.
Spiced Squash and Phyllo Pie
This savory vegetable pie is modeled after the classic Moroccan b’stilla, usually made with squab, pigeon or chicken. It isn’t traditional, of course, but this vegetarian version is quite delicious, flaky, buttery and fragrant with spices. A diced preserved lemon adds perfume and sharpness, but you can also use a regular lemon. B’stilla normally has a layer of scrambled egg, but here, it’s replaced with a mixture of thick yogurt and feta. As with the original, everything is encased in golden, crisp buttered phyllo, sprinkled with confectioners’ sugar and cinnamon and served piping hot.
Spicy Coconut Greens With Tomatoes and Shrimp
This dish is loosely inspired by laing, a Filipino dish of dried taro leaves cooked in coconut milk that is traditionally made with pork and bagoong, a fermented fish or shrimp paste. This is quite a diversion, prepared with braised chard and topped with burst tomatoes and seared shrimp. You use only half the chard stems here, so you should reserve the extra stems to throw into soups, stews or your morning eggs. Get ahead by making these coconut greens up to two days in advance, then reheating to serve; the flavors will only improve over time. Serve with jasmine rice for a complete meal.
Liberian Chicken Gravy
A staple of Liberian cuisine, this chicken tastes complex with its mix of spicy heat and richness, but comes together simply in just one pan. For the chef Thalmus Hare and other Liberians, this dish is part of the Thanksgiving table. (Liberia is one of the only countries outside the United States to celebrate Thanksgiving.) Peppers are staples in Liberian cuisine, and this recipe incorporates two kinds: sweet red bell peppers and more fiery habaneros. They’re a satisfying counterbalance to the intense chicken flavor that’s supercharged by both broth and Maggi seasoning. This shares similarities with Liberian pepper chicken, another popular dish, but is much saucier.
Fried Tagliatelle With Chickpeas and Smoky Tomatoes
Two pantry staples, chickpeas and pasta, come together to give you this hearty vegan main. (Do check the ingredient list on the packaging for your tagliatelle, as some may contain egg.) Frying the pasta nests before cooking them provides plenty of texture, even as the pasta softens and releases its starches into the chickpeas and their cooking water. Feel free to play around with the smoky tomato oil, adding different chiles or spices, such as cumin or coriander seeds. And be sure to start the night before by soaking your chickpeas. However, if you’re running low on time, you can also use two drained 14-ounce cans of chickpeas, adjusting liquid levels as necessary.
Jamaican-Spiced Turkey
When Francine Turone hosted her first Thanksgiving dinner in New York City, she declared turkey “bland and boring.” But after friends protested, she came up with this recipe inspired by her upbringing in Kingston, Jamaica. This turkey, a showstopping centerpiece for any big family event, roasts on a bed of whole vegetables, which absorb its fat. A deeply spiced brine and rub packed with cinnamon, allspice berries, thyme and chile pepper imparts huge flavors, rounded out by an herb-infused brown butter. If things are looking to be busy, the butter and rub can be prepared a day ahead.
Stuffing Panzanella With Cranberry Vinaigrette
The best way to reheat leftover stuffing? Press it into a pan, cut it into cubes and fry it in oil until crisp. The exterior browns and caramelizes, while the inside remains tender and creamy, just like the best bread pudding. This trick works best with stuffing made from smaller pieces of bread, but even if you don’t end up with perfect cubes, they will still be delicious. Serve them warm, on top of a fresh, raw salad tossed in a tangy cranberry-mustard vinaigrette, with fried pepitas running throughout for even more crunch. If you use a homemade cranberry sauce for the dressing, you may want to sweeten it with a touch of honey.
Bean and Cheese Burritos
Mexican refried beans are a cinch to make at home on a weeknight thanks to some staple pantry items and a few basic fresh ingredients. Buttery canned pinto beans are perfect in this dish, breaking down into a creamy, silky mixture. (Black beans would also work great.) While the beans are often fried in lard or bacon drippings, this vegetarian version builds flavor with caramelized onion, bell pepper, garlic and smoked paprika instead. Pico de gallo adds a touch of tang to counter the rich beans. Pan-frying the wrapped burritos guarantees a golden, irresistibly crispy exterior and an interior that oozes with melted cheese.