Chicken Breast

Pomegranate (originally from the Middle East) brings sweetness; chiles (from Mexico) bring heat. This can be made with chicken breasts instead, but be sure to roast them until cooked through.

Although the recipe calls for boneless skinless breasts, you can use chicken tenders or a cut-up chicken with skin, but the cooking time will vary (see Cook's Note). If you want to use fresh or frozen sliced peaches instead of canned, add 2 tablespoons honey to the marinade. Grilled pitted fresh peach or nectarine halves are great alongside. Serve with potatoes and a crisp green salad. Any leftover sliced chicken is great on a sandwich with a little lettuce, honey mustard, and peach jam.

While tamales are one of Mexico's most famous street foods, they are also one of its most popular party foods, which is fitting since a tamal is packaged like a small gift waiting to be unwrapped. The many steps involved in tamal making have discouraged countless cooks. But they should not, because the process is very easy. And if you gather a few friends to help with the assembling, you can have a tamal-making party before the real party begins.

It's so straightforward to put everything under the broiler at once and remove each component as finished—when the bread is toasted, the romaine is wilted, the chicken is cooked, and the tomato is juicy.

Prepared mustard is about as underappreciated as a staple could be. After all, it’s fat-free, low in calories, and high in flavor. Despite these assets, its main role in most households is as a condiment for meat and, perhaps, as an occasional ingredient in vinaigrette. In this chicken dish, however—essentially broiled chicken smeared with a spicy mustard paste—it plays a leading role. You can make this dish with chicken breasts if you prefer, but I recommend starting with bone-in breasts and following the same procedure. If you want to use skinless, boneless breasts (forget about crispness), smear the meat all over with the mustard mixture, then broil for just about six minutes, turning two or three times to prevent burning.

Your whole meal—both meat and side—is cooked in just one pan. Us e the food processor grating disk to make quick work of shredding the beets.

For those with a fear of frying, this oven method produces moist, flavorful meat and all of the requisite crunch—thanks to the crisp panko bread crumbs—with none of the usual mess. It's a terrific choice for an easy family dinner or casual entertaining.

You can ask almost any southerner about the comforting savor found in a bowl of chicken and dumplings—or just see for yourself. This version is quick, light, and embellished with mushrooms.

Cinnamon sticks are made from long pieces of bark from various laurel trees that are rolled, pressed and dried. The type of cinnamon used in Thailand is from the Cassia tree. Cinnamon has a sweet, woody fragrance in both ground and stick forms. Rich in therapeutic essential oils, cinnamon warms the body and enhances digestion. It boosts metabolism and is thus useful for weight loss. It is also good for diabetes as it stimulates insulin production.

Most of the ingredients used in this recipe are staples, so all you need to buy are the breadcrumbs, chicken, and parsley. Look for panko in the Asian foods section of supermarkets and at Asian markets.

Chicken breasts are a terrific foundation for an easy-to-make dish that's sweet, salty, dilly, and—is this even a word?—grilly.

This sandwich gets a toasty power-up from your grill pan. Melted mozzarella bolsters chicken cutlets, and its gooey richness is offset by the fiery spark of cherry peppers. A tomato-basil salad rounds out the meal.

Farro is a nutty-flavored grain that's popular in Tuscany. It's not as heavy as some other whole grains, but it's still packed with protein, fiber, magnesium, and vitamins A, B, C, and E. Here, it's the base for a satisfying summer salad.

The salsa has a perfect sweet-spicy balance, and it's an easy way to turn simple grilled chicken breasts into a dish that's dinner-party special.

Chef and owner Akasha Richmond creates local, seasonal, organic dishs for green-chic celebs. This high-protein favorite fuels stars in need of mega energy on-set.

Although this main-course salad sounds suspiciously Waldorfesque—it includes walnuts, celery, and apple—the fresh vinaigrette gives it a modern flair that sets it apart from its mayonnaise-dressed muse.

With an adjustable-blade slicer, it's easy to transform zucchini into long, delicate pastalike ribbons that make an eye-catching partner for panfried chicken.

Musa Dagdeviren is the go-to guy if you want to know about Turkish barbecue. Spend a couple of hours with him in the open kitchen of one of his Çiya restaurants (in Istanbul), and you'll wonder if there's anything he doesn't know about Turkish cuisine, let alone grilling. He'll start with chicken thighs marinated in creamy Turkish yogurt, chile paste, and garlic—to be grilled on skewers over charcoal. Before you know it, he's grilling meatballs, quinces, shallots, even bread dough loaded with ground beef. Here’s one of the "simpler" dishes in Musa's repertoire—if simple means merely marinated, spice-crusted, and grilled—and the combination of creamy yogurt, pungent garlic, and smoky pepper flakes produces the sort of chicken that has made the Turks the Near East's undisputed grill masters for centuries.