Dinner

Homemade stock made from a whole bird has two upsides: You get a rich, balanced liquid for the gumbo, and plenty of tender poached chicken meat.

Use a very sharp cheddar to make this—it’s the difference between pimiento cheese and cheesy mayonnaise.

Ask for a thick center-cut piece of halibut, which makes for the nicest presentation.

This slow-roasted pork shoulder comes out of the oven before it collapses into a shreddable texture; it will be succulent and tender but easy to slice.

A palate-cleansing fennel salad to balance rich pork and hearty sides.

Gigante beans have a nutty, buttery flavor and creamy texture, and hold together when cooked.

Loaded with fresh herbs and sturdy kale and then set off by a bright and spicy dressing, this salad from Hot Joy is an ideal counterpoint to the more decadent dishes on the table.

Jaew is a tart, smoky dipping sauce from Thailand, usually served with grilled meats and sausages. Hot Joy chef Quealy Watson takes it to a Tex-Mex place in this eggy, cheesy rice dish that might remind you of nachos (it works). Watch the step-by-step video here.

The intensely flavored soffritto is the foundation of this rich pasta; double the ingredients and freeze half for next time.

In search of a classic tuna melt? This is the best we’ve tried. Palace Diner makes its own pickles, but of course you can start with store-bought.

Chorizo adds smoky flavor to this vegetable-heavy frittata; use bacon if you prefer.

There are as many stromboli fillings as there are pizza toppings. Feel free to improvise, but don’t use too many wet ingredients in this stromboli recipe, or the dough will be gummy inside.

Not that this pulled chicken recipe is hard, but you can make it even easier by using a store-bought rotisserie chicken instead of the breasts called for here.

Think of this pasta from Tosca as a carbonara, but with tomatoes in place of the eggs.

We’re now obsessed with this snail-shaped pasta (which is made from scratch at Tosca).

Does Tosca’s roast chicken recipe take work? Yes, but the results—from the drippings-soaked sourdough toasts to the glossy pan sauce—are transcendent.

The more chiles you use, the closer you’ll come to the tear-inducing flavor of the dish as it’s served at Thai-Khun.

Prefer a turkey, pork, or lamb sausage? By all means, use that instead.

Is it hot? Sure, it’s hot. But the bracing pickled cabbage, cooling fresh herbs, and sweet-tasting rice will help keep the flames in check in this incendiary dish from Thai-Kun.

Bright, herbal, and sharp, this comically simple condiment is just what you want alongside braised meat.

Lamb shoulder has great fat content and rich (not gamey) flavor, which makes it ideal for this sweetly spiced, Mediterranean-inspired braise.

Hot Joy chef Quealy Watson, who’s from Louisiana, grew up on his mom’s dirty rice; that dish helped inspire this bastardized fried version. The chicken-liver base tastes very concentrated and intense on its own, but becomes nicely balanced in the finished dish. Watch the step-by-step video here.

The funky flavor in these mind-altering chicken wings comes from a jarred condiment that’s pretty easy to find at Asian markets.

Rose's Luxury chef Aaron Silverman combined his buttermilk biscuit recipe with his sous chef’s to create what he says are “the best biscuits I’ve ever tasted.”