Poultry

This recipe is one of my favorites ever. It comes from my aunt Marcela, a chef who inspired me to enter the magical world of the culinary arts. We not only share the same name and the same career, we also agree that sweet and spicy is one of the best combinations when preparing Mexican food. Store-bought apricot preserves, used here, work well; just be sure to buy the best you can find. A kitchen syringe is a useful tool for injecting the hens with a flavorful mixture of broth, butter, and tequila. The result is a moist and succulent dish.

There was always a roast chicken in our fridge when I was growing up—but I’d be lying if I said my mom cooked it. There was a wonderful rotisserie place a few blocks from my house and they would deliver a succulent roast chicken, fresh salsa, homemade tortillas, and frijoles charros (like the frijoles on page 155 but with tons of bacon in the mix). We’d all stand around the kitchen table and make soft tacos, adding a few slices of avocado. We used leftovers for chicken salad, flautas (rolled up and fried chicken tacos), or tostadas (fried tortillas spread with refried beans, topped with shredded chicken, shredded iceberg lettuce, crema, salsa, avocado slices, and, in my house, a drizzle of olive oil and red wine vinegar). This recipe is so easy and yields such a flavorful, succulent chicken that I doubt any rotisserie place in your neighborhood can rival it. And I doubt you’ll have leftovers. But if you do, go to town with tortillas, beans, avocado, and any of the salsas in this book and make tacos.

I love tandoori-style cooking, derived from India’s clay tandoor oven, because the chicken stays unbelievably moist and juicy, even after grilling. To give new life to the traditional yogurt-based marinade, I add flavors more indigenous to Mexico and pair this dish with a pineapple and serrano salsa.

I borrowed a page from one of the masters, Martha Stewart, for the presentation of these chicken salad sandwiches, but the recipe is all mine. Mexican and Mediterranean ingredients put a spicy spin on a traditional lunchtime favorite. Think Martha—but with a kick.

My dad used to hunt, and quail was his favorite game, so grilled quail regularly appeared on our dinner table. When pressed for time, my mom would marinate the quail in store-bought Italian dressing spiced up with chile powder, grill it, and serve it as an appetizer followed by carne asada. In this recipe, I create the marinade from scratch, with just the right amount of chile powder. Squeeze a lime over the quail and don’t be afraid to eat it with your hands—it’s messy but delicious! This marinade is also great with chicken.

This is the best burrito you will ever taste in your entire life, and that’s no exaggeration. To “confit” is to preserve the duck meat by first curing it in salt, then cooking and storing it in its own fat. This is one of those things that I eat only on occasion, for obvious reasons, but look forward to tremendously. Take into consideration that the duck must be prepared a day ahead—but believe me, it’s worth the extra effort. (You could also buy duck confit already made to cut the prep time way down.) I must confess to you that, on occasion, I’ve used lard from a local butcher when I don’t have enough duck fat (which I buy at Whole Foods), with the response from my uninformed family usually being, “Marcela, the duck tastes different today. It tastes . . . better.”

This recipe plays on my favorite combination: spicy and sweet. Don’t worry about the chicken drying out in the oven—all of the flavor and juice is sealed in by the crunchy pecan glaze. Drumettes are the part of a chicken wing that, when separated from the rest of the wing, looks like a miniature drumstick. You can carve the wings yourself, ask your butcher to do it, or purchase frozen drumettes in the freezer section of the supermarket (thaw them overnight in the refrigerator).

Few things are more enticing than the smell of a chicken roasting, but for a special meal or a romantic evening such as Valentine’s Day, I like to serve game hens, so each person can have a whole bird of his or her own. It’s a beautiful presentation that is ridiculously easy to put together, and the pan juices, full of fresh citrus flavors, are especially delicious. If you prefer, though, you can easily make this with a large chicken; just increase the roasting time to 60 to 75 minutes, depending on its weight.

Chimichurri is the A1 sauce of Argentina, and no self-respecting steak there would be served without a dose of this herby green sauce. But chimichurri also has a lot in common with an Italian salsa verde, which gave me the idea to pair it with the more delicate combo of chicken and shrimp. I add oregano for a deep earthiness, and crunchy bites of pancetta put it over the top; you’ll want to serve this sauce over everything from broiled fish fillets to sliced tomatoes or even crostini.

I like to make turkey meatloaf as a way to serve up a satisfying meaty entrée without resorting to red meat. I load it with sweet sun-dried tomatoes and salty bites of feta, which just barely melt as the meatloaf bakes. When you cut into the meatloaf it looks so colorful. This is one of my top picks for serving a large group because it makes a lot, is hearty, and doesn’t require any last-minute fussing. Leftovers make terrific sandwiches the next day, too.

Cutlets cooked à la milanese—breaded in a cheesy crumb coating and pan-fried until crisp—are popular in every part of Italy (and here, for that matter!). They are usually made with veal, but my little aunt Carolyna wanted something she could serve her college friends, many of whom don’t eat veal. So I substituted chicken for the veal and added fennel to the quick pan sauce in this dish I devised for her; it is quite light and fresh-tasting, yet still true to the original.

Burger purists often complain that substituting ground chicken or turkey for beef results in a dry, bland burger, but that needn’t be the case; these are super juicy and full of flavor. To keep them moist, I mix some of the garlic mayo right into the burgers themselves, then smear a bit more on each bun for good measure. Easy and yummy, yummy, yummy.

Nothing warms up a cold winter night like chicken soup, especially when there are hearty chunks of chicken and pieces of pasta waiting in the bottom of the bowl. When I came home from the hospital with Jade, friends and family took turns bringing food by for Todd and me. Sandra Tripicchio, who is an invaluable part of putting together my shows and books, made us a big batch of this lemony chicken soup, and it’s been a staple in our house ever since. You’ll love the way the lemon brightens the soup’s flavor.

This chili is perfect cold-weather comfort food. I like to make a quick batch of it for when Todd and I go skiing. Hearty and healthy, it’s full of ground chicken, corn, Swiss chard, and spices that warm up both you and the dish at the same time.

Spezzatino is an Italian vegetable stew that has meat in it. This one boasts small bites of chicken and a sprinkle of crunchy pancetta. I love artichokes, so I add them, along with the beans, to make this soup a meal.

You can substitute italian linguine or spaghetti for the rice noodles in this dish. Although the texture will not be the same, the dish will still be good. Boil the noodles nearly to doneness in the normal fashion, then rinse before proceeding

Cassoulet in forty minutes or less is heresy, of course, but even “real” cassoulet was designed as a bean stew containing whatever meat, preferably fatty and flavorful, was available to throw in. That’s the spirit here, too. Although the pork tenderloin need not be browned before further cooking, the sausage benefits from a quick browning, definitely worth the five-minute effort. If you can get duck confit, just brown it lightly on both sides, adding both it and its fat to the stew in place of the duck breast.

Wrapping one food with another is familiar, especially if meat, cheese, or vegetables make up the filling—think of ravioli, stuffed cabbage, or egg rolls. Making meat the wrapping is a nice role reversal, a neat twist that is extraordinary enough to allow a simple preparation to wow a crowd. Such is the case with the Japanese negima, in which beef is wrapped around chives or scallions, then brushed with soy sauce and grilled.

Here’s a simple procedure for duck in which you first roast the bird and then braise it briefly. It keeps even the breast meat moist while making the legs ultratender. There are many options for the braising medium, but none provides more complementary flavor with less work than sauerkraut. The result is a moist bird with a sauce that doubles as a side vegetable. Although the cooking takes some time, you can practically ignore the duck as it roasts; if the oven temperature is moderate, it will brown more or less automatically and render its fat at the same time.