Main Course
8665 recipes found
Braised Chicken With Salami and Olives
Donald Link pays homage to New Orleans’ Sicilian roots with a dish that also appeals to his love of both salt and salami. The dish has the feel of chicken cacciatore, but its use of olives, salami and fennel brings more complexity. Mr. Link uses handmade salami from Cochon Butcher, his meat shop in New Orleans, but a hunk of good quality supermarket salami works fine. Jarred green olives would suffice in a pinch but they will make the dish extra salty and compromise its texture. Instead, find firm green olives such as Sicilian-cured Sevillanos or French Lucques or Picholine olives.
Penne With Tuna and Peas in Tomato Sauce
Meatloaf Stroganoff
This meatloaf pays homage to one that was served at the old M. Wells in Long Island City, when the restaurant was in a dodgy old diner where the cooks did prep work on the lunch counters and the vents occasionally caught fire. The chef, Hugue Dufour, folded knuckles of foie gras into this marvelous Stroganoff gravy that he used to nap big loaves of aged-beef meatloaf. I’ve made versions at home with beef and lamb and pork covered in sauce made with mushrooms both wild and supermarket-bland. I’ve spooned canned foie gras into my meatloaf mixture to mimic the original, and I’ve dotted it into the finished sauce as well. That last maneuver was in truth more successful, providing pops of richness against the silkiness of the cream, but I’ve also omitted the foie entirely and no one has been the poorer for it. The adaptations hardly matter. Make a good and juicy meatloaf with the best meat you can find, and cover it with mushrooms and cream. You’ve got a meal to suggest magic.
Roast Chicken With Cumin, Honey and Orange
An easy way to give roast chicken some character is to baste it with flavorful liquid. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this does nothing to keep the bird moist. Even a very lean bird remains moist as long as it isn't overcooked. But the liquid adds flavor to the skin and creates a ready-made sauce that can be spooned over the chicken as you serve it. If you add some sugar or other sweetener to the basting liquid, the bird gains a mahogany color that you have to see to believe. As it heats, the sugar caramelizes, becoming thicker and stickier and turning the chicken's skin crisp and gorgeous. The result is not overly sweet, because caramelized sugars have a bitter, complex component. I prefer honey to sugar and like to combine it — as I do here — with orange juice and ground cumin, which together add acidity and even more complexity. This aromatic mix creates pan juices that can be spooned over rice or sopped up with bread.
Cheesy Breakfast Egg and Polenta Casserole
If you’ve had the pleasure of a cheesy polenta dinner, topped with a creamy-yolked egg, you can imagine how good that combination is at breakfast. This quick casserole for a crowd is exactly that, made elegant and easy so you can have a perfectly cooked portion for each person with very little work. Layer your polenta with anything you desire, whether salami or ham — or keep it vegetable-centric with spinach or oven-roasted tomatoes. Make nests between your toppings and the polenta where the eggs will cook slowly, giving you a soft-cooked finish that’s loaded with flavor.
Herby Rice Salad With Peas and Prosciutto
This bright, lemony salad laced with fresh herbs is a passport to spring. Simmering the rice in plenty of salted water just until it’s al dente and then cooling it well is key. Blanched fresh peas are terrific if you can find them, but frozen work just fine. The trick is marinating them in lemony olive oil, a technique borrowed from the Michigan chef Abra Berens, who uses it in her comprehensive book “Ruffage: A Practical Guide to Vegetables” (Chronicle Books, 2019). The prosciutto adds a nice salty hit, but you could sub in a dollop of creamy ricotta or leave both out for your vegan friends. Either way, the recipe delivers a bright salad that can stand in for a light meal.
Jerk Fish
Choucroute Loaf
This recipe for choucroute loaf, vaguely Alsatian in its addition of smoked ham, apples, mustard and caraway to the usual mixture of ground chuck, veal and pork, makes astonishing meatloaf and terrific Sunday lunch sandwiches afterward. Paired with sauerkraut, the dish winks at real choucroute and in some ways is even more delicious. For finicky kids, provide a side dish of mashed potatoes.
Churrasco (Grilled Marinated Skirt Steak)
Like so many of the best Puerto Rican dishes, churrasco — garlicky wood-fire-grilled steak served with chimichurri — starts by tenderizing a tougher cut of meat (skirt steak) with a flavorful marinade. Although its origins are Argentinian and Brazilian (the word churrasco encompassing grilled meats in both Spanish and Portuguese), variations on the dish are Latin American staples. This recipe kicks up a classic Puerto Rican marinade with a bit of adobo seasoning, and then served with wasakaka, an herbaceous sauce from the Dominican Republic using lime juice. The steak should be grilled over an open fire (the smoke is key), but a gas grill will do, as will a cast-iron skillet. Serve with adobo roasted potatoes, maduros, white rice or arroz mamposteao, plus fresh tomato and avocado slices.
Black Cod Broiled With Miso
Black cod with miso was not invented by Nobu Matsuhisa, the chef at Nobu in TriBeCa, but he certainly popularized it. His time-consuming recipe, which calls for soaking the fish in a sweet miso marinade for a couple of days, is a variation on a traditional Japanese process that uses sake lees, the sweet solids that remain after making sake, to marinate fish. If you broil black cod with nothing but salt, you already have a winning dish. If you broil it with miso – the intensely salty paste made from fermented soybeans – along with some mirin and quite a bit of sugar, you create something stunningly delicious. And no long marination is necessary.
Spice-Rubbed Braised Brisket
With its assertive coffee and spice rub, this brisket cooks long enough to become very tender. A final sear under the broiler thickens the sauce into a glaze for the top. This recipe calls for the lean first cut, also known as the flat cut, and works with the much fattier second cut, sometimes labeled the point cut or deckle. This dish is delicious the day it’s made, but tastes even better prepared ahead of time. After chilling, the meat is easier to slice and the fat a snap to remove.
Chicken Ragù With Fennel
This is a simplified riff on a popular recipe that the food editor Andy Baraghani developed for Bon Appétit magazine. It’s a velvety ragù that relies on chicken thighs, bacon and onions for flavor. It takes a couple of steps — browning the chicken, letting it cool after it braises and then shredding it — but it is not too challenging for a weeknight. The recipe is versatile. Over egg noodles, it serves six for dinner, but it can also make a nice dinner for two or four. The leftovers freeze well, or can turn into a filling for hand pies, which are terrific tucked into lunchboxes the next day.
Corn and Celery Stir-Fry
Corn kernels stir-fried with pine nuts is a northern Chinese dish that shows off the versatility of fresh, sweet corn. While frozen kernels would work in a pinch, this dish is best made with corn at its peak; stir-frying at high heat for just a few minutes locks in the summer sweetness and ensures that every kernel stays plump and juicy. Similarly, flash-fried celery becomes highly perfumed while retaining its crunch. Pine nuts deliver pops of buttery nuttiness, but you could also use cashews or peanuts in their place. Eat alone as a light meal or with rice.
Creamy Ramp Pesto Pasta
Ramps are one of those items that seem so appealing at the market but can be a challenge to use when you get them home. This dish solves the problem. Because the recipe comes from Rachael Ray, who made her name teaching a generation to get dinner on the table in 30 minutes, it’s quick to make once you have the ramps blanched. The pesto comes together fast, so you can make it while the pasta is boiling. The creaminess of the ricotta tempers the ramps, which can vary in their pungency. Pink peppercorns are berries, not true peppercorns. They add a lovely look to the finished pasta and bring a more delicate fruitiness and a quieter heat than black pepper; if you can't find them, black pepper will do just fine.
Brown Stew Pork Shoulder
In the Caribbean, brown stew is a staple and this recipe showcases why it's a classic West Indian comfort food. The name comes from the dark hue, usually attained through the burned sugar essence, or browning, at its base. Here, the chef Ricky Moore of Saltbox Seafood Joint, in Durham, N.C., achieves the deep rich color from the inclusion of Worcestershire sauce and brown sugar. The slow-simmered pork shoulder acquires complexity from sweet allspice, woodsy thyme and the fruity fire of Scotch bonnet. Lively bursts of pungency from the addition of ketchup and apple cider vinegar, plus pockets of sweetness from carrots and bell peppers complete this rich, well-rounded stew. Serve with rice and plantains or with Jamaican festival to sop up every last bit.
Bryant Terry’s Millet Cakes With Smoky-Spicy Green Sauce
Bryant Terry is the chef in residence at the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco, where he creates events that celebrate the African-American intersection of food and culture. With millet, lentils and potatoes, these vegan cakes are a nod to ’70s-style macrobiotic dishes — but upgraded with a smoky, garlicky sauce built from roasted green peppers. They are also good on their own if you don’t have time to make the sauce, and are delicious topped with an egg as a non-vegan alternative.
Salmon Fried Rice
It’s always a clever idea to cook extra rice so that you can make fried rice the next night, or the one after that, using various bits and bobs in your fridge. Allowing the rice a day or two to dry out makes it doubly flavorful: Since the grains have less moisture, they’ll absorb even more flavor from whatever liquid you add to them. Plus, the dry grains remain separate, which means more surface area to soak up any seasoning. When it comes to fried rice, anything goes — leftover meat or fish, or whatever stray vegetables are lurking in your produce drawer or freezer will do. Just make sure you don’t crowd the pan, or your rice will steam instead of crisp.
Corn-Crusted Soft-Shell Crabs With Bean-Mango Salsa
Twice-Baked Potatoes With Cauliflower and Cheese
This is a recipe that nods at a lesson taught by the British writer Nigel Slater, which is to poach the cauliflower in bay-leaf scented milk while the potatoes bake. The soft florets are then mashed in with the potato flesh and a healthy splash of the cooked milk. Add butter. Top with cheese.
Any Vegetable Stir-Fry
It’s always a shame to let precious vegetables go to waste. Once they pass their prime, they can form the foundation for a tasty stir-fry. Wrap mature greens like kale, Swiss chard and spinach in a damp towel and refrigerate them and they will keep for about seven days. Once they start to become limp, they may no longer shine raw in salads but they are perfect for stir-frying. This recipe works with what you've got, building an easy stir-fry with any combination of toasted nuts, crunchy vegetables and sturdy greens.
Baked Spanakopita Pasta With Greens and Feta
This baked pasta is inspired by spanakopita, the classic Greek spinach and feta pie. This loose interpretation combines pasta with gooey mozzarella, briny feta, plenty of greens and a rich cream sauce, which is then piled into a dish and baked until golden. The key to this dish is in the greens: Use at least three kinds — a mellow one, a peppery one and a fresh herb or two — to create an exciting mix of flavors. No need to sauté them; just salt and massage them until they wilt slightly. This cozy dish might be the best way to eat your greens all year long.
Creamy Turmeric Pasta
This earthy pasta is cobbled together using ingredients that you almost certainly already have in your kitchen. Its approach is fairly standard: Melt some butter, sauté some garlic and shallots, simmer with cream, then add some Parmesan and pasta cooking water to create a silky sauce. That alone would make a great meal, but what makes this recipe really special is the addition of ground turmeric, which gives this simple dish its vibrant color and sophisticated depth of flavor. This is meant to be a lazy meal — the kind of dish you throw together, then eat out of a big bowl while sitting on the couch — but if you're feeling the need for something green, serve the pasta with a simple salad dressed with vinegar and olive oil.
Crispy Gnocchi With Tomato and Red Onion
Inspired by panzanella, the beloved Tuscan bread salad, this dish swaps out stale bread for pan-fried gnocchi. The plump, crusty dumplings do a surprisingly good job at soaking up the summery combination of tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and olive oil, while still maintaining their crisp edge. Shelf-stable gnocchi work best, as they are sturdier and crisp up well, but you could use frozen gnocchi, taking extra care not to move them around too much in the pan so they don’t break apart. Top with a sharp cheese such as Parmesan, pecorino or ricotta salata, for a hit of saltiness, if you like. This meal is best eaten immediately while the gnocchi remains crispy, but it can sit for up to 30 minutes, giving the flavors time to mingle. (However, don’t let it sit too long, as the gnocchi will turn mushy.)
Pan-Fried Salmon With Green-Coconut Chutney
Coastal flavors from India permeate this crispy-skin salmon. The coconut chutney carries the buzz of ginger and green chile, while a drizzle of tadka — a hot, bright red oil infused with mustard seeds, curry leaves and Aleppo flakes — is the crowning glory of the dish. For perfectly crisp skin, resist the urge to fidget with the fish until the appropriate amount of time has passed; the skin will start to crisp at the edges and the fillet will release with ease. Use fresh or frozen coconut to make the chutney. (Desiccated coconut simply doesn’t work as well here.) You can use freeze-dried curry leaves instead of fresh, but you might need to double or even triple the amount, as their intensity is noticeably weaker in comparison.