Main Course
8665 recipes found
Eggs Kejriwal
This spicy egg-and-cheese on toast has its roots in the social-club circuit of Mumbai, though chefs in London, New York and Oakland have riffed on it recently, too. The dish is quick and simple, ideal for breakfast or a hearty snack between meals, and can be customized with a variety of cheeses and toppings. To make this updated Eggs Kejriwal, toast good bread and smear it with mustard, then pile on some grated cheese mixed up with chopped up green chiles, red onion and cilantro leaves. Once the cheese is bubbling under the broiler, just slide on a fried egg.
Thrice-Roasted Chicken With Rosemary, Lemon and Pepper
This recipe from Justin Smillie, the chef at Upland in New York, is all about layering extra flavors, textures and fragrances onto a basic herb-roasted chicken. It’s perfect for a dinner party: crowd-pleasing, but not at all boring. First you brine the chicken for juicy flesh; then air it out to get crispy skin; then rub it with an herb paste to give it flavor. This takes time — you'll need two days for the brining and drying — but the actual cooking is minimal. Don’t be alarmed by the idea of “thrice” roasting — it’s a basic restaurant technique of searing a protein on top of the stove, cooking it through in the oven, then bringing it back onto the stove for a final basting (with butter, of course). A large, heavy skillet is all you need to pull this off.
Baked Oatmeal With Berries and Almonds
A fruit-filled take on an Amish recipe, this homey baked oatmeal is crunchy from chopped almonds but still soft and comforting from the buttery egg custard that suffuses the oats. You can use any fruit here instead of — or in combination with — the berries. Cubed apples or pears, bananas, pineapple or even mango will add a sweet juiciness to the mix. And for something even richer, serve this doused in heavy cream.
Eggs Benedict
Decadence is what makes eggs Benedict a star of the brunch table. To get there, order and timing are key. First, you'll want to make your hollandaise. While intimidating in theory, the process is a lot like making mayonnaise. If the emulsion is stable, it won't break, even when held at room temperature. Next, poach your eggs, and toast the English muffins while you crisp up the Canadian bacon. From there, it's as simple as stacking your ingredients and sprinkling them with herbs, salt and pepper. Once you’ve mastered this basic version, you can explore its variations: Add sliced avocado, or even swap in some smoked salmon (eggs Hemingway) or wilted greens for the Canadian bacon (eggs Florentine).
Ratatouille
In this classic Provençal dish, summer vegetables, like eggplant, onions, peppers, tomatoes and zucchini, are covered in olive oil and roasted separately, then all together, until they become a soft, harmonious stew. This recipe calls for seeding and peeling the tomatoes, which is a bit of work. But it’s worth it for the intensity of flavor and the velvety texture. Ratatouille takes some time to make, and tastes better the next day, so plan ahead. The upside is that it’s a perfect make-ahead dish for a party. You can store it in the refrigerator for up to 5 days, then gently reheat it, or bring it to room temperature before serving. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Omelet
This recipe is for a basic French omelet with three eggs: enough for a hearty breakfast or brunch, or a light supper for one. The key to mastering this recipe is controlling the heat so the eggs do not brown, and whisking the eggs in the skillet so they set on the exterior but remain fluffy inside. A good nonstick or well-seasoned carbon-steel skillet is central to cooking the ideal omelet, which should be tender and slightly runny. Once you’ve got the technique down, you can play around with your seasonings, adding minced herbs, grated cheese, diced ham or sautéed vegetables. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Lamb Tagine
The word "tagine" refers to both a North African cooking pot with a conical lid, and the aromatic stew traditionally cooked inside. Tagine, the stew, classically incorporates savory and sweet ingredients to make a complex dish with a richly spiced sauce. Here, dried apricots, cinnamon, nutmeg and a sprinkling of almonds toasted in butter provide the sweetness, while lamb, saffron, turmeric, tomato paste and a bright garnish of scallions, herbs and lemon juice make it deeply savory. If you have a tagine, the pot, feel free to use it here. Otherwise, a Dutch oven or a different large pot with a tightfitting lid will work well. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Sole Meunière
The dish that made Julia Child fall in love with French cuisine, sole meunière highlights the simple flavors of fresh fish, butter, lemon and parsley. Fish is the center of the dish, so using a quality fillet is important: A true English Dover sole is preferred. Clarified butter, which takes a few extra minutes to prepare, can take on heat without browning, making it ideal for pan-frying fish. A classic sole meunière is made with a bone-in fillet, but boneless sole is faster and easier. You'll find a recipe for clarified butter here. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Melissa Clark's Cassoulet
This slow-cooked casserole of white beans and several kinds of meat has long been considered the pinnacle of regional French home cooking. It takes planning (you’ll need to find all the ingredients), time and a good deal of culinary stamina. But the voluptuous mix of aromatic beans surrounding rich chunks of duck confit, sausages, roasted pork and lamb and a crisp salt pork crust is well worth the effort. Serve this with a green salad. It doesn’t need any other accompaniment, and you wouldn’t have room for it, anyway. This recipe is part of The New Essentials of French Cooking, a guide to definitive dishes every modern cook should master.
Farro With Roasted Squash, Feta and Mint
Falling somewhere between a grain bowl and a warm grain salad, this colorful dish is substantial enough to be a meatless main course, or it makes a hearty side dish to simple roasted meat or fish. You can use whatever kind of squash you like here, either peeled or unpeeled. Squash skin is perfectly edible; let anyone who objects cut theirs away at the table (though see if you can get them to try it first). If you don’t have farro, you can substitute brown rice. Just increase the cooking time by about 20 minutes.
Chicken Soup From Scratch
Chicken soup is one of the most painless and pleasing recipes a home cook can master. This soup has all the classic flavors (celery, carrot, parsley) but has been updated for today's cooks, who can't easily buy the stewing hen and packet of soup vegetables that old-fashioned recipes used to call for. A whole bird provides the right combination of fat, salt and flavor. Don't be tempted to use all white meat, as the flavor won't be as round. Because making soup involves the bones and deep tissues of the bird, it is particularly reassuring here to use the highest-quality poultry you can find. This method produces a fragrant, golden, savory soup you want to eat all winter long; it's a perfect backdrop for noodles, rice or matzo balls.
Spinach Salad With Pancetta and Fried Eggs
Laced with nuggets of pancetta and crisp-edged fried eggs, there’s a lot going on in this hearty salad, and you need a green that can stand up to it all. With its thick, ruffled leaves and almost mineral flavor, mature spinach (as opposed to those ubiquitous baby leaves) does the job well. If you can’t find it, you can substitute baby spinach, though it will wilt when it makes contact with the hot eggs. Or try kale, which also holds up nicely. Serve this for a light dinner or a hearty brunch with some good bread and olive oil for dipping on the side.
Whole Roasted Breast of Veal
A whole breast of veal is a succulent, fatty, tender magnificence to enjoy, at any time, but especially so when you have holiday turkey and ham fatigue. It doesn’t make immediate sense that I consider the veal — with its fat and cartilage and bone and sinew and silver skin — a light meal, but in my experience, the few bites of sticky tender meat you end up with are so outrageously succulent and hit the spot so hard you don’t need more. The long, slow, low overnight cooking is perfect for both the meat and your schedule if you are trying to pull off a real, civilian party — and sit down at it.
Coconut Pork Stew With Garam Masala
Coconut milk adds richness and a gentle creamy sweetness to this hearty pork stew, while garam masala, cumin, and cayenne add fragrance and a jolt of spice. Because yellow split peas are cooked along with the pork, you don’t necessarily need to serve this over another starch, making it a warming one-pot meal. However, a side of rice will tame the heat if you’re looking for a slightly mellower meal. And if you want to cool this down even further, substitute mild chiles for the hot ones called for in the garlic coconut oil.
One-Pot Spaghetti With Cherry Tomatoes and Kale
In this simple recipe, raw pasta and cherry tomatoes are simmered together in a single pan, cooking the pasta and forming a thick, starchy sauce at the same time. The efficient technique is internet famous, but this is the British cookbook author Anna Jones’s vegetarian take on the phenomenon, adapted from her book “A Modern Way to Cook.” The technique is easy to master and endlessly adaptable: When you add the kale, you could also toss in a couple of anchovies and a generous pinch of red-pepper flakes. When you season and top with cheese, you could add a pile of fresh chopped herbs, like mint, basil or oregano.
Roasted Chicken With Figs and Rosemary
This is truly one of the easiest company-worthy chicken dishes out there. Marinated with citrus zest and rosemary then quickly roasted at high heat, the chicken turns golden, juicy and richly flavored, while the figs cook down into sweet jammy puddles. Use your favorite bone-in chicken parts here, or a mix of pieces. Or if you’re starting with a cut up small whole bird (here's a video demonstrating how to do that), add a couple of drumsticks or thighs to reach the 4 1/2 pounds you’ll need.
Buttermilk Fried Chicken
Here is a basic yet delicious recipe for buttermilk fried chicken, with a crisp crust and luscious interior. Learn this recipe and perfect your frying technique, and then expand your fried chicken repertoire. Try adding some paprika or cayenne to the dredge, or a bit of hot sauce to the brine. And don't forget to drizzle hot honey over it all before serving.
Simplest Grilled Shrimp
Here is the easiest way to grill shrimp. It can be done on a gas or charcoal grill, with skewers or a grill basket or without. Whichever method you use, remember that shrimp cook quickly, particularly when they’re peeled. Larger shrimp are better for the grill.
Simplest Grilled Salmon
For those who love seafood but don’t like to cook it, fearing that the scent will overpower their kitchens, the grill is among the greatest of gifts. And cooking salmon on the grill couldn't be easier. You can use a charcoal or a gas grill, and you only need olive oil, salt and pepper to bring out the salmon's rich flavor. A clean grill is crucial for cooking fish, which doesn’t have a lot of fat, meaning it’s more liable to stick to the grate. Scrape and oil, always.
Grilled Roast Chicken With Spinach-Ricotta Crostini
This whole chicken cooked on the grill is truly a best-of-both-worlds recipe: You get the incredibly succulent meat and brittle-crisp, burnished skin of a roast chicken, combined with the deep smoky flavor of the grill. To make it, you essentially use your grill like an outdoor oven, cooking a whole splayed chicken in a skillet instead of directly on the grill grate. Splaying the bird first — that is, flattening the legs so they lay flat in the skillet — helps the dark meat cook quickly and evenly. The skillet helps to distribute the heat and captures the juices, which would otherwise incinerate in the fire. Those juices are then put to good use as a cooking medium for dill-flecked, garlicky spinach. The greens absorb all of the chicken drippings before being heaped upon ricotta-smeared crostini. Added bonus: You don’t have to worry about setting off your smoke detector. Here, the smoke stays in the grill with the bird, which is exactly where you want it.
Martha Rose Shulman's Chicken Fajitas
The ingredient that makes this marinade both spicy and sweet is adobo sauce from canned chiles in adobo, a useful sauce that I had not thought to use in marinades until I was introduced to the idea by the cookbook author and television host Pati Jinich. The sauce has enough heat, so I don’t use the canned chipotles, though you could add one if you wanted. I hold back a couple of tablespoons of the marinade and use it to finish the vegetables and deglaze the pan.
Kimchi Fried Rice
Not the high-heat stir-fry you might expect, Grace Lee’s home-style fried-rice recipe uses a simple technique — make an easy, flavorful kimchi sauce, mellowed out with butter, and sauté leftover rice in it. It's perfect for a snack or a quick, simple meal. The Spam, though optional, reflects many Koreans’ love of foods introduced by the American military.
Braised Chicken With Artichokes and Olives
Imbued with the classic Mediterranean flavors of artichokes, garlic, mint and olives, this braised chicken is complex and highly satisfying, with a white wine sauce brightened with lemon. Fresh artichokes have the most pronounced character and meatiest texture, but if you can’t get them or don’t want to go to the trouble of cleaning them, you can substitute frozen artichoke hearts (you'll need a 9- or 10-once package). Serve this with crusty bread for sauce-mopping.
Beer-Brined Roast Chicken
This recipe, from the chef Adrienne Cheatham of Red Rooster Harlem in New York, pairs a whole roast chicken, brined overnight in lager, with roasted potatoes, brussels sprouts, pearl onions and sage. The resulting bird is crisp-skinned, with juicy, flavorful meat.