American

How do you make grilled corn taste even better? Douse it in flavorful herb butter.

With tongue in cheek, I call this chicken "unfried." That's because I am well known for fried chicken, which may be the crown jewel of southern cooking but is a dish I avoid these days. I like unfried chicken just as much. The chicken is soaked in tangy buttermilk and then coated with flavorful breading, just like fried chicken. The difference is that it's baked. This dish was on the menu at LYFE Kitchen. I first prepared it when Oprah's movie Beloved opened. One of the many lessons I learned from Oprah is to offer people a choice at meals, and one of those choices should be a healthy one. To this day I honor that lesson in my home and my restaurants.

This recipe was given to me nearly thirty years ago by Garnet McCollum, a North Carolina farm woman I profiled for Family Circle magazine. In that article, I featured about a dozen favorite family recipes, among them her superb fried chicken. I cannot improve upon it. Once salted, this chicken is refrigerated overnight, so you must begin the recipe a day ahead. Note: Back when I interviewed Mrs. McCollum, chicken breasts weren't D cup in size. Now that they are, I suggest that you halve each breast crosswise so that the chicken cooks more evenly.

These light and airy biscuits owe their texture to three leavenings: yeast, baking soda, and baking powder.

What I love about wings is that you get a two-in-one treat when you eat them. Wings are great for weeknight cooking too, because they take very little time to prepare and cook.

Editor's note: Use this sauce to make Myron Mixon's Smoked Whiskey Wings . I have heard people eating barbecue at festivals say that "the sauce makes the barbecue." It's not true. The smoke makes the barbecue. The sauce is a finisher. It's what you put on your meat after it cooks to enhance its appeal. It can add a great punch, but I've had plenty of delicious barbecued meat with no sauce at all. I've been around barbecue sauces of different stripes all of my life. My family's sauce recipe, which my parents were just beginning to market when my father suddenly passed away, is what got me into cooking competitive barbecue in the first place. We have always preferred a hickory-style sauce, meant to closely evoke and complement the flavor of hickory-smoked meats. It's world famous and a secret recipe, so the only way you'll taste the original is to order it from me, but if you insist on not giving me your business, here's a reasonable approximation that is still damn delicious.

Squeeze out as much liquid from the zucchini as possible.

Avoid rookie mistakes when it comes to barbecuing. If you apply the sauce too early, it will scorch. And most bottled sauces are too sweet, which is where this vinegary version comes in.

Brined birds taste better. Here's our all-purpose buttermilk-based recipe, along with four souped-up variations.

Chicken breasts aren't the only cut sold skinless and boneless. Thighs are, too. They're fattier than breasts, which means they're more flavorful; plus, they're less expensive. Put them to work in any fast weeknight preparation, starting with these spiced tacos.

This drink is named for the Honolulu neighborhood where Town, Chef Kenney's restaurant, is located.

Chef Kenney says that combining the herbs for the salsa verde with seaweed really gives this dish "that fresh-from- the-sea flavor." In Oahu, he uses just harvested limu, but hijiki, which is widely available, works well, too.

Use a metal cake tester or thin paring knife to check the potatoes; they should still hold their shape but offer no resistance when pierced.

There's quite a bit of lore surrounding beer-can chicken, and for good reason. Just look at that burnished mahogany bird. The steam from the brew flavors the meat and keeps it moist. The can props the chicken up, so it roasts evenly—no scorching, no flipping, no stressing. And you get to drink some beer. We're believers.

In Texas, barbecue is about beef: specifically brisket, the cut by which any joint is judged. Brisket has become a favorite of restaurant chefs, too, hence the smoke ribbons and Hank Williams songs drifting out of restaurants as far away as Brooklyn. But can great brisket be made at home? I devoted a weekend to the task and learned that with a few key ingredients— salt, pepper, patience, and advice from Aaron Franklin, my neighbor and the pitmaster at Franklin Barbecue in Austin—swoonworthy results are doable. You just have to take the time—12 smoky hours. Brisket (from the cow's breast or lower chest) is rich in connective tissue, so it requires a low-and-slow process to relax the muscle into tender goodness—a pleasure that can't be achieved with a quicker method. Luckily, those first unforgettable bites are worth the weekend. So let's get started.

A Confederacy of Dunces (1980)
By John Kennedy Toole Originally handwritten on piles of paper, A Confederacy of Dunces found life only after its author lost his own; John Kennedy Toole committed suicide, his mother found those secret pages, and she began hawking the thing around their home state of Louisiana, claiming it was the next great American novel. (Sorry, guys: sometimes moms are right.) Now a universally adored Pulitzer-winner starring a brilliant New Orleans nut with a heart of odd, this classic goes best with another: the Big Easy's own Sazerac. Raise a glass to the tragically shortchanged Toole—and everything else he might have written.

A burger with a fiery twist. This classic cheeseburger gets a tasty update with the addition of GOYA® Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce. These chipotle chiles are jalapeño peppers that have been dried, smoked,and then packed in a flavorful sauce made of tomatoes and other spices.

Tex-Mex Perfection for Everyone. Our Fajitas recipe relies on GOYA® Mojo Criollo as a flavorful marinade that delivers juicy, tender meat, and GOYA® Flour Tortillas for a pocket everyone can pick up.