Main Course
8665 recipes found
Broiled Fish Tacos
There’s no reason to reserve fish tacos for vacation or a night out. Put your broiler to work, and make them an easy weekly affair. Paprika and coriander give meaty white fish like mahi-mahi or halibut tons of impact, but the real star here is the lime-laced herb salad, which makes every bite pop. Make sure to start with the best corn tortillas you can find. And don't worry about loading the tacos up with cabbage and pico de gallo: There’s no need here. These are at their best (and easiest) when they're pared down.
Pasteles
Most of the components for pasteles, a traditional Puerto Rican holiday dish, can be made a day or two in advance, then brought to room temperature for assembly. You can prepare the masa ahead, and freeze it for up to several months. Pasteles can also be cooked right away, refrigerated for a few days or frozen in zip-top containers for several months. Some use only green bananas or green plantains – which are unripe, firm and very green – for the masa; some add potatoes or pumpkin; some add yuca, also known as cassava, and others use only yuca. If you can’t find one or more ingredients, use what you can find. Lucy Ramirez adds pork gravy to the masa (other cooks may add milk or oil) and makes sure there’s a little pork in every bite of the pastel. Traditionally, pasteles were fully wrapped in banana or plantain leaves before being wrapped in parchment paper or foil. Today, many cooks use a piece or strip of banana leaf to give each pastel the nutty flavor of the leaf. Serve them with a side of hot sauce or ketchup. Click here to learn how to assemble the pasteles.
Ginger Chicken With Sesame-Peanut Sauce
In this crisp-skinned chicken dish, full of bold, zesty flavors, chicken legs are flavored with toasted sesame oil, garlic and ginger, then roasted until golden brown. They’re served with a creamy peanut-sesame sauce that’s spiked with even more ginger and garlic, which can be quickly whisked together while the chicken legs cook. Be sure to save any extra sauce; it will keep for a week in the fridge and is terrific with cut-up vegetables as a snack, or spooned onto roasted or fried tofu.
Conventional Poached Eggs
Chicken Paprikas
Slow-Cooked Beef Cheeks With Spring Vegetables and Rosemary
Pickle-Brined Fried Chicken Sandwich
Pointedly low-fuss and remarkably moist, this recipe gets its verve from pickles used two ways: Dill pickle brine seasons and moistens the chicken from the inside-out, while chopped pickles add zip to the coleslaw. Many fried chicken sandwich recipes use breasts, but thighs have more fat, which means they’re more flavorful and harder to overcook. The chicken also fries at a lower temperature, so it finishes cooking and its crust crisps at precisely the same time. The buttermilk is key to the crispness here, so avoid any substitutions. Paired with cornstarch, it forms a thick crust that shatters with each bite. This sandwich is best enjoyed immediately, with your favorite hot sauce and a pile of napkins. (Watch the video of Alexa Weibel making pickle-brined fried chicken sandwich here.)
Chicken Legs in White Wine Sauce
Pork Cutlets Parmigiana
This Italian-American comfort food recipe came to The Times in 1993 in one of Pierre Franey's beloved “60-Minute Gourmet” columns. His version of the classic casserole calls for slices of pork loin, a “lean, moist and versatile” option, Mr. Franey said, which are pounded thin then breaded and pan-fried until golden. A simple tomato sauce of canned crushed tomatoes, onions, garlic and oregano comes together in about five minutes, which is layered in a baking dish with the cutlets and topped with a blanket of mozzarella. The whole dish is showered with a generous sprinkle of Parmesan cheese and baked until bubbly. Mr. Franey suggested serving it with spaghetti, which seems like a great idea to us, but we might add a tangle of sautéed broccoli rabe to cut through the richness.
Roasted Chicken Thighs With Garlicky Cucumber Yogurt
In this simple, homey weeknight dinner, boneless chicken thighs are tossed with garlic, herbs and red-pepper flakes, then roasted along with lemon wedges in the pan. As the lemons brown, their acids mellow, becoming softer and sweeter. When squeezed over the chicken for serving, they offer a rounded tang that’s complemented by dollops of cucumber-flecked yogurt and chopped fresh mint. The combination of cucumbers and yogurt is a classic across many cultures, from Indian raita to Persian mast-o khiar to Greek tzatziki and beyond. For this recipe, be sure to use thick Greek-style or other strained yogurt (such as labneh) or substitute sour cream. Thinner yogurt will make the sauce runny. Serve this over rice or with flatbread to catch the juices and the cucumber yogurt.
Spicy Yuba 'Omelet'
Fillet of Fish With Leek Sauce
Spicy Grilled Tuna Steaks
Butter Chicken
Butter chicken is a great, ever-evolving, cross-continental dish found in Delhi, London, New York, Perth and most points in between. In its purest form, it is yogurt-and-spice-marinated chicken dressed in a velvety red bath comprising butter, onions, ginger and tomatoes scented with garam masala, cumin and turmeric, with a cinnamon tang. This version was adapted from Amandeep Sharma, a young kitchen hand at the restaurant Attica, in Melbourne, Australia, who used to make it for staff meal. It is wildly luxurious. Serve with basmati rice and mango chutney, with papadums or naan if you can find them, with extra rice if you cannot.
Vermouth-Braised Short Ribs
When it comes to short ribs, you have choices. Boneless short ribs are easier to serve to a crowd and can be substituted pound for pound in your grandmother’s time-honored brisket recipe. Bone-in short ribs require a very large pot and are somewhat more awkward to plate. The upside is that they have even more flavor because the marrow that seeps out of the bones seasons the sauce. You can buy them either cut across the bone, called flanken, or along the bones, often called English style — the way it is done in fancy restaurants. You’ll need about three-quarters of a pound of bone-in short ribs per person. If you cook the beef the day before and chill it overnight, you’ll be able to lift off much of the fat that hardens on top of the sauce.
Black-Skinned Chicken Slow-Cooked in Dark Soy Sauce
Classic Beef Brisket With Caramelized Onions
This is a classic brisket recipe with no bells and whistles, just deep flavor, moist succulent meat and lots of caramelized onions. The only caveat: Buy a brisket that’s not too lean. You want it well-marbled with fat or the result will be dry, not juicy.
Creamy Braised Chanterelles and Potatoes
The simplicity of this dish may make it sound dull, but its flavors are stunningly earthy, rich and deep. It makes a luxurious fall or winter vegetarian main course. The chef who wrote the recipe for this Russian classic, Bonnie Frumkin Morales, says she knows it is tempting to add garnishes like snipped chives or seasonings like black pepper. But the pure flavor of the mushrooms and cream, which saturates the potatoes, is best appreciated alone. You'll need to buy crème fraîche or smetana (not regular sour cream) and heavy cream that hasn't been ultrapasteurized to ensure the sauce stays stable without separating and becoming greasy.
Cumin Steak With Kale, Fennel and Feta Salad
Want a juicy steak dinner on the fly? Skirt steak is fast, flavorful and forgiving. With a searing-hot grill and a quick marinade (30 minutes does the trick), you can yield a deeply charred, flavor-packed crust with a tender inside. Make sure not to overcook this; medium to medium-rare is ideal. The equally fast side of shaved kale, fennel and crumbled feta is a willing accompaniment to any steak dinner, and just as at home with a pork tenderloin or chops. Raisins, a subtle addition, add a bit of natural sweetness, but skip them if you’re raisin-averse.
Braised Picnic Ham With Brussels Sprouts
Braised Beef 'Stroganoff'
Coconut Curry Chicken Noodle Soup
This sweet, spicy and fragrant chicken soup, called curry mee, is a happy contrast of hot broth, springy noodles and a madness of garnishes. Coconut milk has a particular weighty creaminess, called lemak, that can make some curries and soups too rich. Here, a combination of coconut milk and half-and-half is used to balance the broth.
Turkey (or Chicken) Soup With Lemon and Rice
This comforting soup is inspired by a Middle Eastern chicken soup. It’s great with or without leftover turkey — don’t hesitate to pull turkey stock from the freezer and make it with just vegetables and rice.
Salty-Sweet Salmon With Ginger and Spicy Cucumber Salad
This 2006 recipe came to The Times by way of David Myers, the American chef and restaurateur, when Amanda Hesser called upon him to re-interpret this 1961 Times recipe for Chinese barbecued spareribs. He kept the simple soy-garlic-ketchup (yes, ketchup) marinade intact and applied it to salmon. He then served it with a preserved ginger relish and a cucumber salad seasoned with shichimi togarashi, a fiery Japanese spice blend (red pepper flakes make a fine substitute). If you don't have the time to make the relish and cucumber salad, serve the salmon with a few slivers of preserved ginger from a jar, a pile of white rice and some sautéed greens. That's better than your standard grilled salmon by a mile.