Poultry

Pat: A passion for pasta via Memphis equals . . . barbecue spaghetti?!? Initially, our customers were skeptical about trying this dish—that is, until Tony and I started giving out free samples to everyone who came through the door. After about two weeks, the sampling wasn’t necessary, because people were hooked. These days we go through about 200 gallons of barbecue spaghetti a week; people from all over the country go wild for the tangy, saucy noodles tossed with smoky chunks of meat (it’s become one of our best-selling dishes). And we promise, after making this dish, you’ll understand why. Serve it as a side dish (with barbecued or roasted meats) or as a meal.

A plain old grilled chicken breast can be a bit uninspired, so we like to jazz up our breasts (who said that?) in this version of grilled chicken salad that has plenty of moxie. The marinade of fresh lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and fresh herbs infuses the chicken with a bright, sunny flavor (so yummy that you’ll want to use the marinade again and again for grilled meats). Here we team the grilled chicken with potatoes, celery, green olives, pistachios, and a creamy mayonnaise dressing for an over-the-top texture-and-flavor combination. This recipe doubles or triples beautifully, so it’s great for special lunches (think birthday parties, anniversaries, or bridal showers). It’s also great with a glass of chilled white wine and a crackly baguette.

We prepared this gumbo on our “Pass It On” show, because it is a generational favorite that dates back to Gina’s Nana. Nana made it for Gina, Gina makes it for our daughters, and the hope is that someday our daughters will prepare it for their children. Gina and I love seafood and spicy Louisiana flavors, and this gumbo delivers plenty of both. It’s delicious served over Gina’s Perfect Rice (page 27). Gumbos throughout the South are made with countless combinations of seafood and meat (chicken, wild game, and spicy sausage), and ours is brimming with crab, shrimp, chicken, and ham.

Gina: Few dishes are as soothing or as comforting as this creamy stew of poached chicken and tender egg noodles. As kids, when any of us were feeling low, we could always count on my mom (these days she’s known as Grandma Jean) to have a pot of this soup on the stove. It seemed to me that anytime I had a bowl of it I was instantly cured. I’m not sure if it was the combination of ingredients, or the love my mother put in every pot, but I know that now, when I make it for my family, they feel the same way. Grandma Jean would simmer a whole chicken for hours (Grandma Jean took her time with everything). We, however, who always seem to be pressed for time, have thankfully found a way to create similar flavors with a shortcut (don’t tell Grandma!). We poach sliced chicken breasts to juicy perfection in the stock, and then add green peas and lemon juice for a final layer of fresh flavors and color. This one comes with our Neely guarantee: One bowl of this stew and you are on your way to recovery. Thanks, Mom!

Gina: This appetizer—a Neely Señoritas’ Night favorite—couldn’t be easier to prepare (or more satisfying to eat). I use the meat from a store-bought roasted chicken, and combine it with tortilla chips and a homemade version of that molten guilty pleasure, cheese dip made from processed cheese (hola, Velveeta!). I also add Southwestern flavors, like green onions, pickled jalapeños, and cilantro, and a Neely finish, Barbecue Pico de Gallo, which gets its sweet, tangy undertone from our sauce (and comes together in minutes in the food processor). Chicken nachos are a great appetizer, especially when there’s a game on television, but they also make a fun end-of-week dinner with a couple of cold beers. So, whether the occasion is Señoritas’ Night (put on the salsa music, girl) or game day, these nachos are always a hit.

Gina: They call me the spice fairy on our show, but my husband is the hot man! If you can’t take the heat, you might want to reconsider this dish. Pat: Living in the South, I have, of course, acquired a taste for both spicy food and fried chicken. In fact, I love fried chicken so much that I eat it at least once a week. And the wings happen to be my favorite part of the bird. No cut is more succulent or flavorful, especially when dusted with fiery seasonings, dipped in batter, and fried. To fire up the flavor in this recipe, I season both the wings and the batter with cayenne, red-pepper flakes, black pepper, and even a little hot sauce. Like Gina says, I just can’t seem to get enough spice or fire. I should add that Gina not only understands my fried-chicken affliction, she encourages it, and several years ago, she went so far as to purchase me a countertop fryer. This has made it easy for me to come home any night and fry up some chicken (it has also saved on time and mess). You will definitely want to adjust the heat levels in this recipe. I have to do the same thing at home, because if it’s too hot my girls won’t eat it.

Gina: Homemade chicken stock is our way of adding a little extra love to any dish, from soup to stew to rice pilaf. And it’s so easy to make: We throw a whole bird (yeah, the whole thing) in the soup pot, along with plenty of aromatics, and let it simmer for a few hours. This gives our stock plenty of taste. For an even richer chicken flavor, add the carcass of a roasted chicken to the stock as you are cooking it.

Here is a quick, tasty, and light dish that can also be done with veal scallopine or turkey-breast cutlets. Served with a tossed salad, it’s all you need for a great summer meal. Leftovers, if there are any, make a tasty sandwich stuffer.

I like basting roasts with a mixture of pan juices, balsamic vinegar, and honey. It adds flavor and a wonderful mahogany color to all kinds of roasts, from poultry to pork to veal. I also like to serve roasted vegetables as a contorno (side dish) with roasted meats. It makes sense: the oven is going, so you might as well make use of it. Sometimes I add more large-cut carrots and celery to the roasting pan with the meat and serve them alongside the carved roast. Or I put together a separate pan of other root vegetables—leeks, onions, parsnips, turnips, or even mushrooms—season them with salt, olive oil, some of the herbs I used to season the roast, and roast them on a separate shelf from the meat. While they roast, I add enough chicken stock to moisten them and stir them once in a while until they are caramelized and tender.

This is a more contemporary version of one of the standbys of Italian-American cooking. Instead of coating a thin, breaded, and fried chicken cutlet with tomato sauce, I like to top a chicken thigh with sliced fresh tomatoes and slices of fresh mozzarella or Fontina cheese.A light sauce made with fresh tomatoes and basil finishes the plate. Fontina is a mellow, lightly aged cow’s-milk cheese that melts beautifully. Take the time to search out Italian Fontina—you’ll appreciate the creamy difference. You can prepare this dish using veal or pork cutlets as well (see variations below).

The finished sauce will be lightly thickened by the bread crumbs that fall into it as the chicken bakes. My favorite way to serve this is with simply steamed green beans: set the chicken on top of the beans and pour the tasty sauce around the chicken, not over it—you want the bread crumbs to stay crunchy.

Poussins—young chickens that weigh about 1 pound each—are great for this dish. Figure on one per person, and cut them into pieces at the joints; there’s no need to cut them into smaller pieces across the bone. As good as poussins are, I made this dish using supermarket-bought fryer chickens, because I want to be sure you try this delicious recipe. The secret to golden-brown chicken pieces is to leave them be as they cook. They will brown better if you’re not constantly turning them or checking on their progress.

For this dish I prefer luganega, a thin (about 1/2-inch-wide) pork sausage seasoned only with salt and pepper and without fennel or other seeds. If that is unavailable, use the wider (about 1-inch-thick) sweet pork sausages, preferably made without aromatic seeds of any kind. Cut the smaller luganega into 1-inch lengths, and the wider sausages into 1/2-inch lengths. When I cook a whole chicken, or any chicken on the bone, I always salt it three times: in its raw state, when I first begin to cook it, and as it finishes cooking. It seems that the first two saltings are absorbed and somewhat dissipated, especially if you add more ingredients as the chicken cooks. The last salting should be to balance the whole act. Each time you salt, it should be done judiciously, to avoid oversalting and ruining the dish.

The caccia in cacciatore means “hunt,” so I guess this is chicken hunter’s-style. Somewhere along the line—probably on its trip from Italy to America—the hunter’s pheasant or guinea hen in this dish was replaced by chicken. If you don’t want to cut up a whole chicken, you can buy pieces—get all legs and thighs, if that’s what you like; they are very good in this dish. It can be made using only chicken breasts, if that’s your preference, but to keep the chicken from drying out, you should cut the cooking time in half, and reduce the wine to 1/4 cup and the tomatoes to 3 cups. Best of all, though, is to make this dish with an older hen. In that case, increase the cooking time by 20 minutes, adding more water or stock as needed to keep the hen pieces covered as they cook. When you cut up chicken, or anything for that matter, your knife should glide along. If you’re struggling, stop for a second and take a look at what you’re cutting; you should be cutting between the bones at the joints, not actually cutting through the bones. If you’re off target, just wiggle the blade of the knife to get a feel for where the joint is, then make another cut. With practice, you’ll get a sense for where the joints lie.

The title of this dish, alla sorrentina, means it comes from Sorrento, across the bay from Naples. You may have had this dish prepared with mozzarella cheese, which is the cheese of the area, but I am showing you an alternative way here, using Fontina. Use whichever you like, and whichever you can get. By the way, alla sorrentina is a good indicator that the dish you order will contain eggplant in some form or another. If you prepare this dish without the eggplant, you’ll have scallopine alla bolognese. You can add a little elegance to the dish by straining the sauce as you spoon it onto plates. That is something I do in my restaurants. But in my home—and most likely in yours—the sauce is just fine the way it comes out of the baking dish.

Cooking is all about making decisions. Sometimes you have to decide if you are going to have great looks or great flavor. Of course, I try to have both, but if it is ever a question of giving up one or the other, I always go for the best flavor. In this dish, for example, lightly cooked peppers would look brighter, but I prefer the flavor of peppers that have simmered until they begin to break down. So I cook them longer, for better flavor. Choosing two different-color peppers helps make up for what little we lose in appearance by cooking the peppers fully. Fresh herb sprigs serve as more than decoration. The heat from the dish releases the aroma and adds to the enjoyment.

Cerignolas are large green olives, each the size of a plump almond, with a very nutty, buttery flavor. They are usually kept in brine. If you cannot find them, other brined green olives will do. But use the ones with pits, which you will remove. They have more flavor.