Poultry

When searing meats or fish, the size of the skillet is important. A roomy skillet will retain more heat after you add things to it, and will climb back to searing temperature much more quickly than a smaller skillet. Once you put the slices of liver in the pan, let them sit undisturbed, giving them a chance to form a caramelized crust. If you like your liver rare or medium-rare, as I do, the second side should always cook less than the first—about half the time. If you like more well-done meats, reduce the heat under the pan after you have flipped the meat over to prevent it from scorching, then cook it to your liking. Salt draws liquids and juices from meats, and that is why I season the liver after it is cooked.

This meat filling is similar to the one for cannelloni on page 165. You can use them interchangeably.

You have all seen those large, wax-coated provolone cheeses hanging like oversized pears in Italian groceries. When the same cheese is made into smaller shapes, which are hung to dry only briefly, they are sold as a softer, milder cheese known as provola. The wonderful soft texture of the cheese is perfect for this reinforced soup. If you cannot find provola, substitute a young soft cheese like Fontina or fresh Pecorino. You can use fresh mozzarella, but it will be very stringy when ladling and eating the soup. Boiling the meatballs before adding them to the soup may seem a little odd, but it removes some of the raw-meat flavor and helps keep the clear flavors of the soup intact.

Capon soup is an Italian holiday tradition, but I like to use at least a little capon every time I make stock. I buy a capon, cut it in pieces, and freeze the pieces separately. When I make chicken stock, I add a piece or two of the frozen capon. I also add some turkey wings when I make chicken stock—I think it adds richness of flavor. The tomato (or paste) adds a little color and balances the sweetness of the carrot.

Considering that this dish is the Holy Grail of Mama’s cooking, I truly debated whether or not to mess with it. It took six attempts to make over this dish, but I finally figured the low-cal version out—and Mama loved it!

These little lasagnas, made with fat-free ricotta and reduced-fat mozzarella, are cheesy and satisfying and totally big on flavor. Make sure the dishes (8-inch, preferably) you use are broilerproof—they go under the flame to make the cheese brown and bubbling right before serving.

Classic Salisbury steak is a patty made of ground beef and seasonings that is fried in butter or oil and smothered in a brown sauce. Although it was once considered health food by its inventor—a 19th-century English-American physician named James Salisbury—it’s really not. This grilled version, made with ground turkey breast and fresh vegetables and smothered in a low-fat cheese sauce, makes the grade.

Bolognese is a type of ragù—a thick, hearty meat sauce for pasta. As in most traditional types of ragù, this version starts with mirepoix, a combination of finely diced carrot, onion, and celery, to give the sauce flavor and texture. But instead of having beef as the star ingredient, this lightened-up version features ground turkey and is ladled on top of whole-grain egg noodles.

In Mexico, tacos are small, fresh, and simply prepared. I once had a taco al pastor there that was mind-bendingly good, and it had all of three ingredients! Somehow, when the taco got to the United States, it morphed into double-crust, Taco Bell Beef Supreme Chalupa with sour-cream-out-of-a-caulking-gun madness. Here I do my best to honor the Americanized taco everyone seems to love, while bringing some traditional flavors into the picture.

This was originally a rich chicken dish made with lots of cream and sherry, peas, and pimientos, and served on hot buttered toast points or in pastry shells. There are as many stories about its origin as there are versions of the recipe. It likely made its debut at the Brighton Beach Hotel in New York at the turn of the 19th century, created by the chef in honor of the owner, Mr. E. Clark King II. I went with a green-pepper version and added celery seeds to the sauce because that’s how I like my à la king. If you can’t live without the pimientos, feel free to add them—they will have virtually no impact on the fat and calorie content.

There is much debate over whether chili should have beans in it. Some folks think beans make chili cheap—in the same way, they say, that breadcrumbs do to meatloaf. Actually, in both cases, those interloping ingredients contribute substantially to the dish. Breadcrumbs make meatloaf tender, while beans add texture and additional meatiness to chili—and lots of fiber and antioxidants, too.

In this country, dishes of Mexican origin have a reputation for being fat-laden and bad for you. At the same time, we can’t seem to get enough of them! The funny thing is that in Mexico, the traditional food is generally fresh, healthy, and wholesome—lots of grilled fish and meats, intensely flavored (and cream-free) sauces, fresh vegetables and fruits, and herbs. The problem is the blanket of full-fat cheese and sour cream under which most Mexican-American dishes are served. The Mexican flavors we love come from healthy foods like bright-tasting tomatillos and cilantro, so I banked on them in this new version of enchiladas.

Although white rice is always included in the fast-food version of this dish, I left it out here. It would have added about 100 calories per serving, and these burritos are really good without it—even better, I think. If you can’t find corn salsa, buy fresh refrigerated salsa and stir in some low-sodium canned corn.

Classic Chicken Marsala calls for Marsala wine (of course), a fortified wine from Sicily, white flour, and butter. In this modified Chicken Marsala, the white flour and the butter had to go, but the rest was retained—especially its namesake. The combination of mushrooms, garlic, herbs, and chicken broth is as delicious as the butter-laden original.

Chicken Parm is one of my all-time favorite dishes. It’s as much an American classic as a burger and fries or angel food cake. The good news is that Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese is made from skim milk to start with, so there is no need to replace it with “cheese food” or anything else that’s unsuccessfully impersonating the real thing. In this version, thin chicken cutlets are grilled and topped with reduced-fat mozzarella and then sprinkled with breadcrumbs just before finishing the dish for a crispy browned topping.

Many cooks overload Italian-American-style red sauce with olive oil. While it is a healthy fat, it’s still a fat. At 120 calories per tablespoon, that’s a lot of leeway in the hands of a liberal cook. In this version, the olive oil has been reduced to 1/2 tablespoon for all 4 portions and it still tastes great. If you use chicken thighs, you’ll end up with a little more cholesterol but a lot more flavor. (If your diet requires very small amounts of cholesterol, use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of the chicken thighs, and simmer them for only 10 to 12 minutes to prevent their drying out.

Sweet and spicy General Tso’s Chicken was likely invented in the kitchens of Chinese restaurants in New York City (its first known mention was in the New York Times in 1977). Some say it’s similar to a classic Hunanese dish the general is said to have loved—a dish that is more sour than sweet. It’s usually made with battered and deep-fried chicken thighs bathed in a glossy sauce flavored with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, chiles—and lots of sugar. This chicken breast version is breaded and baked until crisp, then tossed with a reasonable version of Tso’s sauce that is low in fat and contains no sugar but is still sweet.

Jerk is a style of cooking native to the island of Jamaica that transforms ordinary chicken into a flavorful, highly aromatic eating experience. Meats are dry-rubbed with a spice mixture called jerk seasoning, then grilled. This seasoning relies principally on two elements: allspice and Scotch bonnet peppers (among the hottest peppers on earth). Typically, whole pieces of bone-in, skin-on chicken are barbecued over wood—usually over the wood of the allspice tree. The skin is omitted here—and with that goes about 80 calories per portion.

This is one of those Italian-American classics—a dish that looks and tastes as though it was born in the Old Country but that was really born in the United States. Capers are used liberally in Sicilian cooking, and a lemon-caper sauce lives up to its name, piccata, which some say means “piquant.” Other translations say piccata means to add fat—which might be where all of the butter in the original sauce comes in. This recipe calls for just a dab of butter for flavor in the tangy, tart sauce.