Main Course
8665 recipes found

Chicken and Mushroom Juk With Scallion Sauce
Originally created to soothe an upset stomach, this nourishing Korean porridge has become popular as a satisfying meal no matter how you feel. The simplest juk is made with just rice and broth, but here, the addition of chicken turns the porridge into a hearty one-pot dinner. Start by poaching a whole chicken, which creates a rich chicken stock as well as juicy, tender meat. Simmer rice in the homemade broth until it breaks down, forming a creamy porridge, then add thinly sliced mushrooms for an earthy flavor. Finish with a tangy ginger-scallion sauce, which brings brightness. (You can also prepare juk in a pressure cooker with this recipe, which uses boneless, skinless chicken thighs.

One-Pan Pork Chops With Feta, Snap Peas and Mint
Brawny and golden brown, these seared pork chops make a hearty one-pan dinner that’s rounded out by sweet sugar snap peas and loads of fresh mint. The feta, added at the end, melts into the pork and peas, spiking the sauce with its brininess. Be generous with the fresh lemon juice at the end; this rich dish gains a lot from the tang.

Turkey Tetrazzini
This classic turkey or chicken spaghetti casserole is rich with cheese and has a crunchy bread crumb topping. It was named after Luisa Tetrazzini, a famous Italian opera star at the turn of the 20th century. She enjoyed her fame with a flamboyant and generous public life, singing not only in opera houses but also for free on city streets: In 1910 she gave an outdoor Christmas Eve concert for a huge crowd in San Francisco. It’s unclear exactly how this particular dish came to be named after her — it was certainly meant as a compliment — but some accounts say it was her own recipe. The optional curry powder isn’t traditional, but it’s delicious, and a little added flair seems in the spirit of Ms. Tetrazzini.

Tomato-Fennel Soup With Brie Toasts
The childhood pleasure of tomato soup with a side of grilled cheese had been enshrined in my mind since I’d last had it, decades ago. A tart, bright tomato soup and a crispy sandwich with an oozing interior: no wonder they are an iconic match. This recipe, spiked with fennel and Pernod, is livelier and more sophisticated than your usual tomato soup. It has a more complex flavor, too, with the fennel bulb adding a pronounced sweetness, along with a very gentle licorice flavor brought out by the Pernod. Serve with slim croutons seasoned with fennel seeds and topped with Brie. (Here's a helpful tutorial on how to cut up fennel.)

Goulash and Spatzle

Extra Special Meat Loaf

Momofuku’s Bo Ssam
This is a recipe to win the dinner party sweepstakes, and at very low stakes: slow-roasted pork shoulder served with lettuce, rice and a raft of condiments. The chef David Chang serves the dish, known by its Korean name, bo ssam, at his Momofuku restaurant in the East Village and elsewhere. He shared the recipe with The Times in 2012. Mr. Chang is known as a kitchen innovator, but his bo ssam is a remarkably straightforward way to achieve high-level excellence with little more than ingredients and time. Simply cure the pork overnight beneath a shower of salt and some sugar, then roast it in a low oven until it collapses. Apply some brown sugar and a little more salt, then roast the skin a while longer until it takes on the quality of glistening bark. Meanwhile, make condiments – hot sauces and kimchi, rice, some oysters if you wish. Then tear meat off the bone and wrap it in lettuce, and keep at that until everything’s gone.

Tamales de Rajas con Queso (Poblano and Cheese Tamales)
A plant-based breakfast or midday snack sold in the streets of Oaxaca, tamales de rajas y queso rival pork- and chicken-filled tamales in their appeal. Unlike their corn husk-wrapped northern cousins, these tamales feature charred banana leaves, which give them a roasted, almost vegetal flavor. The masa is then pressed on top before it’s filled, sauced and wrapped.

Rice Bowl With Oven-Baked Miso Tofu
I use the same marinade for the peppers as I do for the tofu in this sweet and spicy mix of toppings. Kimchi is the main vegetable, but if you only want it as a condiment add another vegetable of your choice – steamed or blanched broccoli or greens, for example, or roasted squash, or anything else that floats your boat.

Rabbit In Wine Sauce

Tostadas Campechanas de Mariscos (Seafood Tostadas)
At the beautifully abundant Mercado Negro in Ensenada, Baja California, the clams, mussels, oysters, shrimp and fish that are for sale each day are highly sought after by locals and chefs. Almost more common than street tacos served there are these tostadas, made in stands that sell towers of fresh, raw seafood tossed with squeezed lime juice and topped with a number of different housemade salsas.

Twice-Cooked Pork Tenderloin
Here's a surprising and flavorful way to prepare tenderloin, one of the leanest and most economical cuts of pork. Brown the whole tenderloin. Let it rest for a few minutes, so the meat firms up a bit. Then slice the tenderloin into medallions, about an inch thick. Brown the slices on both sides and top with a quick French-style sauce made of heavy cream and Dijon mustard, lemon juice or Calvados.

Oven-Braised Guinness Beef Stew With Horseradish Cream
Classic beef stew is good, but this sophisticated beef stew — enriched with beer, cocoa powder and espresso — is really something special. Start by browning the beef and making a quick roux to guarantee a thick, flavorful stew instead of a watery, bland soup, and finish with hit of balsamic vinegar and lemon juice to balance out the rich, round notes. Dried shiitake mushrooms provide another layer of complexity, but if you can’t find them, leave them out. The stew will still be delicious. Top big bowls of it with swirls of tangy horseradish cream. (Here are slow cooker and pressure cooker versions of the recipe.)

Pomegranate Baked Rice and Onions With Dill
This tangy-sweet casserole is adapted from Shimi Aaron, an Israeli chef also known for his elaborate chocolate babkas. In this colorful dish, a layer of short-grain rice studded with pine nuts and dill is bathed in pomegranate juice and honey, and topped with shingles of red and yellow onions. When it emerges from the oven, the onions glisten like jewels, and the rice is fragrant, tender and a little sticky. Serve this as a meatless main course with a crisp salad, or as scene-stealing side dish alongside a simple roast chicken or fish.

Grilled Chicken With Yogurt Marinade
Boneless skinless chicken thighs are a reliable choice when it comes to grilling chicken. They’re thinner than breasts, so they cook more evenly, and the higher fat content makes them difficult to overcook. In this recipe inspired by Turkish chicken kebabs, a yogurt and herb marinade makes them supremely tender and helps them brown beautifully on the grill. While some citrus-heavy marinades begin to break down chicken after just a few hours, this marinade uses only the zest, saving the juice for a quick squeeze before serving. The result is incredibly tender chicken you can prep up to a day in advance. Oregano and thyme work well together here, but feel free to play around with herbs and use what you have on hand, or substitute dried herbs in a pinch.

Sunday Sauce
In many Italian American households, Sunday means there’s red sauce simmering all day on the stove. It might be called sauce, sugo or gravy, and surely every family makes it differently, but the result is always a tomato sauce rich with meat. This recipe (which you can also make in a slow cooker) follows a classic route of using shreddy pork shoulder, Italian sausage and meatballs. Once the sauce is done, coat pasta in the sauce, spoon some meat on top and share it with the whole family alongside a green salad, crusty bread and red wine. The sauce can keep refrigerated for up to one week and frozen for up to three months.

Chicken-Thigh Kebabs With Turmeric, Chile and Saffron
This recipe comes from Edward Khechemyan, the chef of Adana in Los Angeles. The food is not easily categorized. He learned to cook from his father, but given that that man was from Iran, that his upbringing was Armenian-American and that the Russian influence was strong everywhere, the menu is a hodgepodge in the best sense of the word, boasting of innumerable kebabs and more than a few intriguing salads and dishes of beans, and of rice and other grains. In his kitchen, Khechemyan moves quickly, and within 30 minutes, we had done four kebabs. The marinades are simple (he uses a lot of mild dried red chili powder, the kind you can most easily buy in Korean markets), and the grilling technique is not difficult. But it’s unusual: he grills slowly (over briquettes fired with gas, by the way), not too close to the fire, he insists, until gorgeously browned. The fire is not superhot, but it’s even — gas is good for that — and he keeps the grill grate a good six inches above the fire

Creamy Spinach-Artichoke Chicken Stew
This creamy chicken stew is spinach-artichoke dip reimagined as a simple stovetop braise. It comes together quickly, thanks to frozen spinach and jarred artichoke hearts, though if you have time, there is also a slow-cooker version of this recipe. Fresh dill and scallions are added just before serving, and provide bright, herbal flavor that offsets the richness of the finished dish.

Winter Tomato Soup With Bulgur
Inspired by a recipe in Diane Kochilas’s wonderful new book “The Country Cooking of Greece,” this thick, satisfying soup is based on a summer soup made with fresh tomatoes. It looked so comforting that I decided to use canned tomatoes and make a winter version. The onion not only contributes flavor but also texture to this thick potage.

Sawmill Farm Pancakes

Grilled Chicken and Corn With Tartar Butter
This entire meal is cooked on the grill and celebrates summer’s sweet corn and earthy okra, which pick up a light charred flavor. (Be sure to choose okra that are firm and unblemished.) The tartar butter — inspired by tartar sauce and spiked with tangy pickles, zesty capers and fresh parsley — brightens the smoky grilled chicken and vegetables. Should you have any leftover butter, refrigerate or freeze it for later use: It makes a great topping for baked potatoes, steamed vegetables or roasted cod.

Zucchini Phyllo Pizza

Chicken Flautas Ahogadas
These crunchy, tube-shaped flautas ahogadas — the name roughly translates to “drowned flutes” — are served in a pool of spicy tomatillo sauce, and the idea is to slather each bite in the sauce as you eat. They’re immensely popular in Mexico City, where they’re prepared using long corn tortillas specifically made for the dish. This faster version uses standard corn tortillas and a quick rotisserie chicken filling, but the tomatillo sauce, which is tart with an underlying sweetness, deserves to be made from scratch. Prepare it a day in advance or freeze it to save time. It’s worth making a double batch of the sauce, because it brightens up just about anything: tacos, quesadillas or eggs.

Hanjan Chicken Wings
Hanjan, on West 26th Street, is a fine place to find Korean soul food, but when it comes to chicken wings, Hooni Kim, the chef, takes a sharp turn away from the hot-oil-blasted treatment that’s in vogue at many Korean restaurants in New York. Instead, he takes wings from chickens that have been killed just hours earlier, and he gives them a gentle grilling so that nothing interferes with the essential flavor of the meat. The marinade? Just four ingredients that quietly mingle like old friends at a cocktail party. “So easy,” Mr. Kim said. Listen to the man.