This soup uses store-bought low-sodium chicken broth doctored with vegetables and herbs to brighten its flavor. Once completed, the soup is served immediately.

This recipe was published in our cookbook The Best Light Recipe.

Per 1 1/2-cup serving:
Cal 120; Fat 1.5 g; Sat fat 0 g; Chol 0 mg; Carb 22 g; Protein 6 g; Fiber 5 g; Sodium 930 mg

Flank steaks smaller or larger than 2 pounds can be used, but adjust the amount of salt and pepper accordingly. We prefer flank steak cooked rare or medium-rare. If the steak is to retain its juices, it must be allowed to rest before being sliced. If using a gas grill, cook the steak over high heat, following the times in step 3, but keep the cover down. If the meat is significantly underdone when tested with a paring knife, turn off one burner and position the steak so that the thinner side is over the cool part of the grill and the thicker side is over the hot part of the grill.

Hamburgers are easily one of America’s most popular foods and the true test of a grill cook. A great grilled burger is well browned on the exterior and juicy and tender on the inside. But they rarely turn out that way. More likely, they are gray, tough, and bland. We wanted to make the ultimate no-holds-barred burger. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

Make a “panade”—a blend of breadcrumbs and milk—to bind the burgers together.

Add bacon fat to the beef mixture. The rich, smoky-tasting fat adds flavor and will keep the meat moist.

A little minced garlic goes far in flavoring the meat.

Be gentle with the beef mixture while mixing and shaping the burgers. Overworking will yield tough, dense burgers.

For this recipe, you want ground beef that is 85 percent to 90 percent lean. With the added bacon fat, 80 percent lean beef will make slightly greasy burgers. Crumble the cooked bacon slices over a salad, or use the slices as a burger topping.

The test kitchen prefers the hearty strands of egg-enriched fettuccine usually sold in 12-ounce boxes. We found that you need to salt the water used to cook the pasta and vegetables quite heavily to make sure they emerge nicely seasoned.

Freezer Chicken Enchiladas

Preparing enchiladas can be a multi-hour, labor-intensive endeavor. There’s the sauce to prep and the filling to cook, and finally, all the rolling. We wanted to find a way to streamline chicken enchiladas and make them freezable so that they could be prepared well ahead of time and stored at the ready. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

• Freeze the rolled enchiladas and sauce separately; otherwise they will turn into a mushy mess.
• Spray the tortillas with vegetable oil cooking spray and briefly heat them in the oven to make them pliant enough to roll easily.
• Bake the enchiladas while still frozen. We found that defrosting them actually leads to a dried-out texture once baked.
• Partially bake the enchiladas “naked,” or without sauce. A light coat of vegetable oil spray will keep the tortillas from drying out too much.
• For authentic flavor, puree and “fry” the sauce until the flavor and color has intensified. Most Mexican sauces are prepared in this fashion.
• Smoky chipotle chiles add both heat and a rich flavor to the sauce. These chiles, which are smoked jalapeños, come packed in a tomato-based adobo sauce. They are found in the Mexican foods section of most supermarkets.

Use leftover cooked chicken or a store-bought rotisserie chicken in this recipe. Note that you won’t need 1 1/2 cups of the cheese until you bake the enchiladas. Serve with avocado, pickled jalapeños, shredded lettuce, and/or sour cream.

Takes a long time, but sooooo worth the effort

The ultimate weeknight dinner, this salmon is on the table in less than 15 minutes from the time the pan hits the stove. With the addition of the fish fillets, the pan temperature drops; compensate for the heat loss by keeping the heat on medium-high for 30 seconds after adding them. If cooking two or three fillets instead of the full recipe of four, use a 10-inch skillet and medium-high heat for both preheating the pan and cooking the salmon. A splatter screen helps reduce the mess of pan-searing. Serve salmon with a sweet and sour chutney (see related recipe), a fresh salsa, an herb-spiked vinaigrette, or squirt of lemon or lime.

This chowder, made with half-and-half instead of cream, has a lighter consistency than traditional, heavy chowders. Be sure not to let it come to a boil because it will curdle. It can be made early in the day, but wait to cook the shrimp until just before serving so they don’t overcook.

PER SERVING: 340 calories, 21.5 g total fat (10.5 g saturated fat), 21 g protein, 16 g carbohydrate, 175 mg cholesterol, 645 mg sodium, 2 g fiber