SERVES 4

Serve the salad with the crisp inner leaves of romaine lettuce and wedges of pita bread.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
To keep our tabbouleh from becoming too soggy, we salted the tomatoes to rid them of their excess moisture. But to make sure that our tabbouleh recipe still guaranteed the fresh flavor we wanted, we soaked the bulgur wheat in some of the tomato liquid and lemon juice instead of in the flavor-robbing water found in most tabbouleh recipes.

Serves 4
For a milder dish, use one seeded chile. If you prefer your food very hot, use up to all three chiles including their seeds and ribs. Scotch bonnet chiles can be used in place of the habaneros. Wear gloves when working with the chiles.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Traditional Jamaican jerk recipes rely on island ingredients for both marinade and cooking technique. Fortunately, we were able to achieve the characteristic spicy-sweet-fresh-smoky balance with the right combination of stateside staples. Keeping the marinade paste-like and cooking the meat first over indirect heat prevented the jerk flavors from dripping or peeling off during grilling. Enhancing our hickory chip packet with a few spice-cabinet ingredients allowed our jerk chicken recipe to mimic the unique smoke of authentic pimento wood.

MAKES 3 CUPS

Do not substitute frozen corn for fresh. For a spicier salsa, add some or all of the jalapeño seeds and ribs. This salsa can be served atop chicken or fish or with corn chips.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Steeping corn kernels in boiling water with a touch of baking soda worked like magic to soften the raw corn and loosen the hulls. As the corn steeped, its hulls softened just enough that they weren’t leathery, but the kernels in our corn salsa recipes still burst with crisp sweetness.

SERVES 4

In step 5, if your skillet is not broiler-safe, once the clams have started to open transfer the mixture to a broiler-safe 13 by 9-inch baking dish lightly coated with olive oil; scatter the shrimp over the pasta and stir them in to partially submerge. Broil and serve as directed. Serve this dish with lemon wedges and Aïoli, stirring it into individual portions at the table.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Traditional recipes for fideuà can take several hours to prepare. We wanted to streamline the recipe but keep the deep flavors of the classic recipes. To replace the slow-cooked fish stock of the classics, we made a quick shrimp stock using the shrimp’s shells, a combination of chicken broth and water, and a bay leaf. We also saved some time by streamlining the sofrito, the aromatic base common in Spanish cooking, by finely mincing the onion and using canned tomatoes (instead of fresh), which helped the recipe components soften and brown more quickly. The final tweak to our recipe was boosting the flavor of the shrimp by quickly marinating them in olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.

Serves 4
In step 5, if your skillet is not broiler-safe, once the pasta is tender transfer the mixture to a broiler-safe 13 by 9-inch baking dish lightly coated with olive oil; scatter the shrimp over the pasta and stir them in to partially submerge. Broil and serve as directed. Serve this dish with lemon wedges.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Traditional recipes for fideuà can take several hours to prepare. We wanted to streamline the recipe but keep the deep flavors of the classic recipes. To replace the slow-cooked fish stock of the classics, we made a quick shrimp stock using the shrimp’s shells, a combination of chicken broth and water, and a bay leaf. We also saved some time by streamlining the sofrito, the aromatic base common in Spanish cooking, by finely mincing the onion and using canned tomatoes (instead of fresh), which helped the recipe components soften and brown more quickly. The final tweak to our recipe was boosting the flavor of the shrimp by quickly marinating them in olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper.

MAKES ABOUT 3/4 CUP

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
The garlic was our biggest challenge in getting the four primary ingredients to come together in our aioli recipe. We found that a fine, even mince maintained the smooth texture of the sauce and prevented oversize garlic bombs that exploded in the mouth. A good garlic press or a rasp-style zester/grater ensured an acceptable mince. We also scaled back the quantity of garlic in our aïoli recipe—a single clove provided a pleasant, not shocking, heat.

Serves 4

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
To cut down on the cooking time for our Roast Chicken Pita Panini with Cucumber-Olive Salad, we used a whole, cooked rotisserie chicken instead of cooking the chicken ourselves. Weighing down the sandwiches with a Dutch oven created a makeshift panini press. For easy cleanup, we covered the bottom of the Dutch oven with aluminum foil.

Serves 4 to 6

For easier pounding, cut any ribs that are longer than 5 inches in half crosswise.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Boneless country-style ribs present several cooking challenges. Each piece not only varies wildly from the next, but is also a mishmash of lean white meat and rich dark meat. Unfortunately, if the ribs are cooked to optimize the white meat, then the dark meat stays tough, and if they are cooked to optimize the dark meat, the white meat turns dry and chalky. To even out the cooking, we brined the ribs so that the white meat would stay juicy and pounded the ribs to an even ¾-inch thickness to “break down” the fattier dark meat. As for flavor, a double layer of barbecue spice and sauce and a quick smoke on the grill turned these ribs into something to sing about.

SERVES 4

Since the yogurt and cucumbers in the Tzatziki Sauce need to drain for 30 minutes, start making the sauce before the patties. Although we prefer the richness of plain whole milk yogurt, low-fat yogurt can be substituted. Greek yogurt can also be substituted, but use 1/2 cup and skip the step of draining. While we didn’t like the flavor of dried mint, dried dill may be used in place of fresh, but reduce the amount to 1/2 teaspoon. For the patties, the test kitchen prefers the flavor of fresh oregano, but 1 teaspoon of dried can be substituted. If using pocketless pitas (see illustrations below for folding instructions), do not cut top quarters off pocketless pitas; instead, use a portion of a fifth pita to create pita pieces in step 5. The patties can be prepared through step 5 and refrigerated for up to a day or frozen before cooking as directed in step 6 (frozen patties should be thawed in refrigerator prior to cooking). This recipe can be doubled.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
For a home-style lamb sandwich recipe that would give us the same flavors and textures as restaurant gyros, even if they didn’t have the traditional appearance, we pan-fried ground lamb patties flavored with oregano, onion, and minced garlic. To make the patties juicier, we added a panade (a paste of fresh bread crumbs and milk), substituting pita crumbs for the traditional bread crumbs. For readers who can’t easily find ground lamb, we developed a ground beef version of our lamb sandwich recipe.

Stovetop version from Greek-Style Lamb Pita Sandwiches with Tzatziki Sauce—Gyros Published July 1, 2007.

Serves 4

A whole 4-pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces, can be used instead of the chicken parts. Skinless chicken pieces are also an acceptable substitute, but the meat will come out slightly drier. A Dutch oven with an 11-inch diameter can be used in place of the straight-sided sauté pan.

WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
Crackling-crisp, golden-brown, and juicy—what’s not to love about fried chicken? In a word, frying. Heating—and then cleaning up—more than a quart of fat on the stovetop is more trouble than most home cooks care to bother with. We wanted to find a way to prepare fried chicken—golden brown and crisp with a buttermilk- and flour-based coating—without having to heat up a pot full of fat.

To season the meat and ensure it turned out juicy, we soaked chicken parts in a buttermilk brine (buttermilk heavily seasoned with salt). We also incorporated baking powder, an unconventional ingredient in fried chicken, into our dredging mixture (flour seasoned with garlic powder, paprika, and cayenne pepper). As the chicken fries, the baking powder releases carbon dioxide gas, leavening the crust and increasing its surface area, keeping it light and crisp. And while most dredging mixtures contain purely dry ingredients, we added a little buttermilk to our mixture because the small clumps of batter it forms turn ultra-crisp once fried.

To streamline frying the chicken, we turned to a hybrid method where we fried the chicken until just lightly browned on both sides in less than half the amount of oil we’d typically use. Then we transferred the chicken to a wire rack set over a baking sheet and slid it into the oven to finish cooking through. Setting the chicken on a rack promoted air circulation all around the meat for an evenly crisp crust. And with a lot less oil to deal with post-frying, cleanup was a breeze.