Main Course
8665 recipes found
Roast Turkey With Berry-Mint Sauce and Black Walnuts
The flavor of heritage turkey breeds is richer and more pronounced than that of commercial turkeys sold at supermarkets nationwide. Put plainly, heritage breeds taste more like turkey. Heritage birds are raised outside, pecking at a varied diet. They tend to have meatier thighs and smaller breasts, and a higher ratio of dark meat to white meat. The Onondaga tribe, among others from the Northeastern United States, would have been able to serve them with forest berries, perking up the rich, dark meat with color and flavor. Sparked with mint, this berry sauce is bright and fruity, with just enough acid to complement the richness of the turkey.
Braised Pork All’Arrabbiata
This spicy pork shoulder’s long-simmered flavor is one you’ll crave all season long. The browned pork shoulder braises with fire-roasted tomatoes, red wine and basil in the oven until it becomes fork-tender and breaks down into a rich ragù. The red-pepper flakes create a gentle heat, while basil adds sweetness. Serve over polenta or toss with tubed pasta, like penne or rigatoni. If serving with pasta, loosen the sauce with a little pasta cooking water to help the sauce coat the pasta.
Char Kway Teow
This stir-fry noodle dish, char kway teow, was inspired by one served at a crab restaurant in Kuala Lumpur frequented by the chef Zakary Pelaccio.
Grilled Marinated Lamb Brochettes
Chicken Bog With Middlins Risotto
Chicken Mafe
This West African favorite, adapted from Rama Dione and Papa Diagne, balances the richness of peanut butter with tomato and aromatics, cooked down to a thick gravy. The addition of Southeast Asian fish sauce gives the dish depth and is somewhat traditional, given the Vietnamese influence, via the French, in Senegal. But absolutely traditional would be to eat this with guests, directly from a large platter, to demonstrate welcome and unity.
Smoky Pork Shoulder With Chile Paste
A well-seasoned, chile-paste-slathered pork shoulder is already going to win, no matter what you do to it. Which seems to me like the ideal reason to try a new technique: slow roasting, off-flame, with ambient heat, using your outdoor grill as a coal-fired oven in the off-season of dead winter. Even if your live coals snuff out, or smoke too heavily, or you get bored of the snow-muffled silence or feel lonely in the winter solitude of your backyard, even if you miscalculate sunset and find yourself in the dark with a cellphone flashlight trying to read the internal temperature of the meat to discover it’s still raw in the center — all you have to do is close up shop out back, come inside and shove the thing in your conventional oven and then read the newspaper until dinner.
Mussel Risotto
I usually keep a good supply of arborio rice on hand for risotto, but on the day I first decided to make this I had just about run out. So I cooked up some short-grain brown rice and stirred it in toward the end of cooking, and what resulted was a wholesome mixed-grains risotto. You won’t get the creaminess if you use all brown rice (and it will take forever), but if you want some whole grain, use the combination option.
Israeli Couscous, Bean and Tomato Salad
Finely chopped tomatoes seasoned with garlic, balsamic vinegar and basil serve as both dressing and vegetable in this main dish salad. I’ve been making tomato concassée all summer and using it as a sauce for pasta and fish. I decided to use it as a stand-in for salad dressing in this hearty salad, a simple combination of cooked Israeli couscous and beans. I used canned pinto beans, and they were just fine. Chickpeas would also work. Use lots of basil in the mix. The red onion contributes some crunch. You can add a little celery if you want more texture. Make sure to use sweet, ripe, juicy tomatoes. I love the finishing touch of the feta, but it is optional.
French Onion Panade
Panade is the French country cook's answer to stuffing — a satisfying and efficient way to use up stale bread. Because there are so few components, taking care to ensure that each one is just right will make all the difference in how the final dish tastes. Start with a stale, crusty loaf of sourdough bread. Cook the onions slowly, until they're a deep caramel color, and then season them properly with vinegar and wine. Buy good Gruyère and Parmesan, and grate it yourself. And finally, use either homemade chicken stock, or buy some from a butcher. The result will be triumph of upcycling: basically French onion soup without the soup — just bite after bite of cheesy, onion-and-stock-soaked bread. Serve it as a main course, with a light green salad and a dry white wine or an ice-cold beer.
Baby Artichoke Risotto
Here’s another great dish to add to your repertoire of artichoke recipes. The tiny lemon zest and juice really bump up the flavor, so don’t leave them out. Cheese is optional here.
Chicken With Morels, Fava Beans And Spring Potatoes
Corviches
Many cuisines have some version of a starchy vegetable stuffed, then fried, but the corviches of Ecuador speak to tropical and African influences in a delicious way; the plantains give them great crunch and a mild sweetness, while the peanuts offer an intriguing toasted, buttery taste. Stuffed here with quickly stewed tuna, they're great as appetizers or as a light meal when paired with a salad.
Filipino Embutido
This recipe for embutido, a festive Filipino meatloaf featuring ingredients that appeared in the Philippines during the American occupation, is adapted from Emma Phojanakong. She often prepares it as a stuffing for chicken; inspired by that, this recipe features a simple citrus-and-soy-spiked chicken sauce to go alongside. Serve it with watercress and steamed white rice, but it also makes great next-day sandwiches.
Grilled Maple Chicken With Corn Relish
Chicken in a Pot
Serve this as a stew, with everything in the bowl, or as a plain broth, followed by the chicken and vegetables on a platter. Canned stock is a decent option here, as is water, because the cooking liquid gains flavor from the chicken and vegetables during simmering. Of course, real stock is the best option.
Spaghettini With Zucchini
Crawfish Étouffée
This recipe for étouffée, which is the French word for “smothered,” comes from Karlos Knott of Bayou Teche Brewing in Arnaudville, La. This is “pretty close to a traditional Cajun crawfish étouffée,” said Mr. Knott. “If you substitute a green bell pepper for the chile and omit the dried thyme, you would be cooking one exactly like my grandmother used to make. Some people like to stir in the juice from half of a lemon into the pan just prior to serving.” Look for precooked Louisiana crawfish tails in 1-pound packages in your fishmonger’s freezer section. Though according to Mr. Knott, who gets his crawfish from the family pond behind his brewery, the best tasting version is made with leftovers from a crawfish boil — that way you have lots of leftover crawfish fat.
Sicilian Lamb Spezzatino With Saffron and Mint
This simple stovetop lamb stew is seasoned with only a pinch of saffron and a splash of wine, then showered with lots of chopped mint. Once assembled, this fragrant stew takes only about an hour to cook. It has a bright-flavored lightness that makes it ideal for these balmy evenings. I served it with plain boiled potatoes — nothing more was needed.
Caramelized Onion and Fennel Risotto
A hearty risotto flavored with a taste of fall by caramelized onions and fennel. “Being vegetarian or vegan around the holidays is incredibly difficult,” says Joe DiMaria of Somerville, who sent us this recipe. “It’s even more difficult when you don’t like squash, root vegetables or sweet potatoes.”
Spam Musubi
Spam, the love-it-or-hate-it canned ham, was introduced in 1937 and gained popularity during World War II, when more than 150 million pounds were shipped to American troops overseas. Soldiers introduced it to locals, who used the product to create spin-offs of regional dishes like Japanese onigiri and Korean budae jjigae. According to Hormel Foods Corporation, residents of Hawaii eat more Spam than those of any other state. A popular way to eat it there is in the tradition of Japanese omusubi: Stack a pan-fried slice of Spam and a rice patty and wrap a piece of roasted nori around it. This version of the dish is adapted from “Aloha Kitchen: Recipes From Hawai‘i,” a cookbook of classic Hawaiian dishes by Alana Kysar.
Risotto With Duck Confit
Braised Cube Steak
Through good times and bad, the cube steak has remained a wallflower among meat cuts. Old-fashioned and a little mysterious, it’s a steak without pretension, or maybe a hamburger with humble aspirations.
Carrot Maqluba
Maqluba is a traditional Palestinian dish made of rice, meat and fried vegetables, most often eggplants (in summer) or cauliflower (in winter), although some like to combine both, and add carrots as well. There are probably as many variations of this dish as there are families. A very popular, easy version is the one made with only carrots. Although maqluba is usually perceived as a time-consuming dish — you typically make broth, fry all the vegetables, assemble in layers and so on — this version uses a boneless, tender cut of meat, ready-made broth and a single pot. The whole dish is quick, and easy enough that you can make it on any weeknight in under an hour.