Braising

It's not Rosh Hashanah without it.

Super flavorful, totally satisfying, and easy enough for weeknight cooking.

These Korean soy sauce braised short ribs are a triple threat: super unctuous, savory, and sweet, all at the same time.

A rich winter meal, too, easy and forgiving to cook under their sleek caps of fat, melting into tender chunks of pull-apart beef in the oven.

This shortcut pot roast is almost entirely hands-off, and makes lots of leftovers for a hearty winter soup.

Shredded meat — beef, pork, or chicken — is one of the most versatile dinner elements you can imagine! Cook up a few pounds to stash in the freezer, then dole it out for weeknight meals all month long. Or make a huge batch and feed a whole crowd of people in one go. Today, let’s talk chicken: Simple, inexpensive, and relatively quick, chicken has some advantages over the heavier beef and pork.

Braising sounds fancy, doesn’t it? This classic, refined cooking method promises a combination of caramelized flavor and long-cooked tenderness, nudged along by gentle heat and a solicitous chef. To braise vegetables gives them their proper due, and it’s the perfect treatment for all kinds of spring produce — especially wedges of sweet fennel. Fennel and shallots are perfect braising partners.

When I think about throwing a dinner party, especially a big one like this polenta supper I’m sharing with you this week, my thoughts immediately go to: What can I make ahead? Last week, I had an easy answer: a shredded, succulent mess of beef braised in red wine and tomatoes, falling apart in its juices. It’s a terrific make-ahead dish, since like most braises, this beef gets better overnight, and takes all the stress of a main dish off your hands entirely. Sound good?

This may be our very favorite meal. It is incredibly hard to screw up, and yet turning a big hunk of pork shoulder into tender shreds of juicy meat still feels like a noteworthy accomplishment every time we do it. We’re going to take you through the steps of trimming, seasoning, braising, shredding, and serving a pork shoulder—with instructions, photos, and a basic recipe, too. This recipe is meant to be a guide.

Just add mashed potatoes, rice, or crusty bread.

A slow-cooked meal meant for a lazy day at home.

Yes, Thanksgiving can be a one-pot meal.

Between the option to prep in advance, ample hands-off cook time, and a totally luxurious and impressive result, it's the ultimate dinner party main.

(No, it's not beef bourguignon.)

In my life, I've enjoyed adobo many ways — and this is my current favorite.

You'll turn to this technique all winter long.

This pork shoulder ragù is so restorative that this is now the recipe I reach for time and time again when I need to come back to myself.

Enjoy it with a thick slab of Irish soda bread slathered with butter, and a pint of Guinness.

Guaranteed to be the best thing you cook all week.

A whipped parsnip puree pairs perfectly with rich and meaty lamb shanks in this luxurious dinner for two.

I've been making it for 14 years and have no intention of stopping.

I’ve even served this to devout Brussels sprout-haters and listened to them rave.

It always feels like a special treat.

This makes a simple and hearty one-pot meal. The meat becomes fork tender and the stock simmers down to a rich sauce.

And you only need one pan.

It's like a blanket in a bowl.

If you’re a fan of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches then boy oh boy, are you in for a treat. This snack cake starts with a tender, moist cake full of peanut flavor, but the crowning touch is in the hypnotic swirl of jelly over the top. A creamy peanut butter mixture and dollops of grape jelly mix and mingle throughout the cake batter and bake up so that every single bite of this cake tastes as though a PB&J and yellow cake collided.

“Wow, what’s the special occasion?” my husband asked when I set this dinner on the table. It was just an average Wednesday night, but judging by the looks of the shallow bowls filled with tender cod fillets, vibrant veggies, fresh herbs, and a fragrant lemon and white wine broth, I can see how he thought I’d planned a fancy dinner. And that is the beauty of this weeknight recipe — it is so beautiful and nourishing, yet so surprisingly easy to pull together.

Green beans are a part of most every Southern family’s suppers. Their key distinction is that they are cooked down in liquid until quite soft, almost to the point of “mush.” In traditional Southern cooking, they are also cooked and flavored with ham hocks or pork knuckles. This take on the classic uses a smoked, bone-in ham steak for flavor, which can be found in almost every grocery store.

Collard greens are one vegetable I just can’t resist. Their thick, meaty leaves, propped up by huge center ribs, are monsters in the world of leafy greens. I love their beauty, so big and elephantine, leathery and deep blue-green. I cut away those middle ribs and slice the leaves into ribbons, and braise them until they are tender and juicy.

There’s nothing I love more than having a mammoth-sized batch of soup on the stove, whether it’s going to serve a room full of people or supply me with a stockpile of meals. This New Mexico pork and green chile stew is the perfect candidate to make on a lazy Sunday and then live off of the rest of the week. It’s spicy, savory, and hearty, and just when you think it can’t get any better, it does! I hosted a formal Christmas party last year for all our family and friends.

When I think of cooking zucchini the summer I think of grilling and roasting, shredding and baking, slicing and frying. But do I think of braising? Not so much — and yet Deborah Madison makes a strong case for it in this double-green dish of zucchini and chard that puts zucchini squarely in the center of the table. This dish is for everyone who likes zucchini a little softer and well-cooked.

Let’s talk about this tagine for a second: it’s crazy good. The dish has so much going on—the fragrant and heavily-spiced sauce, the jammy apricots, the crunchy almonds—and yet it totally works. There’s good reason why this Moroccan dish is a classic. Tagine is the name for both the North African dish and the vessel in which it’s prepared.

Plus a tip for faster-cooking caramelized onions.

Boeuf bourguignon is so much more than just another beef stew.

Yes, you can (and should!) make lamb shanks at home.

This week I’m really feeling the briefness of the December daylight and the deepening of the cold temperatures. While I normally make a big effort to eat only small amounts of meat and to eat clean and light, especially at night, this dreary week I have braises and rich sauces on my mind. It seemed only right to pop out to the butcher, buy a whole oxtail, and cook it into slow submission.

Braising is not just for carnivores. Although I do enjoy a good pot roast, I love braising vegetables, and feel this is often the best way to play up their flavors. The other advantage of vegetarian braises? They are much, much quicker than meat. For example, this cauliflower gets browned in olive oil and garlic, letting a thin golden crust form on its firm white stalks.

For a long time I avoided radishes, thinking they were only meant to be eaten raw. I was a little put off by their sharp heat, too. But then, one spring a few years ago, inspired by a bunch of lavender and scarlet Easter egg radishes, I rebelled a bit. Why not cook radishes? In fact, why not braise them? This tangy, bacon-laced recipe was the result, and when it comes to cooking radishes, I’ve never looked back. Radishes are a quintessential spring and early summer vegetable.

What is warm-weather cooking, to you? For me, it means keeping things as simple as possible. In the spring and summertime I want meals that come together in one big pot — easy to cook and easy to reheat later. I want meals that taste like the garden, fragrant with herbs and bright flavors. I want hands-off meals, so I can retire to the back porch with a cucumber gimlet while my supper cooks. Well, this braised chicken dish fits all those requirements beautifully.

For years I’ve been cooking my broccoli until it’s bright green and ‘tender-crisp’, finishing it with a squirt of lemon and maybe a little ground black pepper. Here’s a recipe that takes things in the opposite direction by braising the broccoli with olive oil and garlic on a slow, mellow flame until it is sweet and meltingly tender. A final flourish of crunchy lemon-spiked breadcrumbs adds texture and a bright flavor boost.

When I moved from Los Angeles back to the South, I begrudgingly left behind a handful favorite restaurants. Not that there isn’t amazing food in Atlanta, but some of these places just can’t be replicated. Whenever I return to California, I have to check each one off my list so that I can stay fully satisfied until my next visit. Many times friends ask if I want to try somewhere new, and I just look at them like they’re crazy. Why would I ever want to do a thing like that?

If you happen to be into chick flicks, which I am, then maybe you love the Christmas movie The Holiday as much as me? (Unfortunately I have to watch it alone, because it doesn’t meet my fiancé’s manly standards.) In one scene in particular, Kate Winslet offers to whip up some “Christmas fettuccine” for Jack Black, who is in need of some much-needed cheer.

I have absolutely zero interest in football, basketball, or baseball — so for me, gatherings around game days are all about the food. The spread always includes a few of the grubby, nostalgic snacks we grew up with — cheesy queso dip, I’m looking at you — as well as some fresher, lighter snacks that often incorporate flavors from one of the many international cuisines that surround us here in Los Angeles.

Rogan josh is one of the better known Indian classics, and this fiery lamb or mutton dish from the Kashmir region of India is now popular all over the world. My version stays very close to an authentic Hindu-style recipe, but I have tweaked it to make a rich and spicy slow-cooked dish that is perfect for chilly winter days. There are several versions of rogan josh in existence, but the two most common are the Kashmiri Pandit (Hindu) version and the Muslim, or Mughal, version.

Q: I see a lot of very good-looking, healthy recipes popping up on my Pinterest feed and also on The Kitchn, but a slow cooker is needed. I don’t own one and I’m not planning to buy one, due to lack of storage space, but I still would love to try some of the recipes. Is there any way to convert slow-cooker recipes to make them in the oven or on the stovetop? (Of course, I would be making them when I’m around and not leave my stove running while at work.

With tender chickpeas swimming in an earthy oregano- and garlic-spiked tomato sauce and topped with plenty of melty feta cheese, you’ll want plenty of good, crusty bread on hand for this comforting meatless main — it’s one of those swipe-the-bowl-clean affairs. Need more convincing to make this tonight? The recipe is only a notch more involved than cracking open a can of beans from the back of the pantry and calling it dinner.

With every bite of this skillet dinner, there’s something new to get excited about. Whether it’s the caramelized mushrooms, the sweet sun-dried tomatoes, the tender white beans, the juicy chicken, or whatever combination of those four you happen to scoop up with your fork, there’s nothing but good flavor happening here. Fresh rosemary and garlic sing over them all for an Italian-inspired dinner that quickly comes together on even the busiest of evenings.