Main Dish recipe collection

Whole chicken roasted French-style in a covered casserole with sherry, baby onions, and potatoes. The herb-stuffed cavity perfumes the bird while pan juices reduce into a thin gravy.

Fresh apple and sausage quiche: a savory-sweet brunch pie with bulk pork sausage, sauteed onions, sharp cheese, and cubed Red Delicious apples in a custard. Sweet, salty, and unexpected.

Fresh chile and corn fritters made with Anaheim and serrano chiles blended into sweet corn purée, pan-fried in ghee and served with sauteed apples. A Southwestern vegetarian main with sweet-hot-savory balance.

Fresh fruit pizza with sliced apples, pears, raisins, and pine nuts on a golden pizza crust under a sweet egg-and-milk custard. An Italian-style sweet bake for brunch or dessert.

Fresh herb turkey loaf with oats, egg whites, red bell pepper, celery, parsley, and basil. A lighter take on meatloaf that's leaner and packed with vegetables.

Salmon au poivre: fresh salmon (or tuna) steaks pressed with crushed peppercorns and brushed with olive oil, then broiled or grilled. Three ingredients, French steakhouse technique, 30 minutes.

Grilled salmon with crushed tricolored peppercorns, fresh dill, and a Dijon lemon butter drizzle. An elegant fish dinner ready in 15 minutes.

Fresh tomato basil pasta with a no-cook summer sauce: ripe tomatoes, fragrant basil, and garlic marinated in olive oil, then tossed with hot pasta. Light, bright, and ready in the time it takes to boil noodles.

Fresh tuna and red potato salad dressed with low-fat yogurt, red wine vinegar, and cumin instead of mayo. Grilled yellowfin tuna, celery, and parsley make this a lighter, protein-packed main dish salad.

Broiled fresh walleye brushes fillets with a lemon-garlic-basil paste, dusts with paprika, and broils skin-on until flaky. Classic Midwest shore-lunch style fish in 20 minutes.

Veal fricassee with fiddleheads gently simmers cubed veal in white wine and cream with onions and fresh chervil, finished with tender spring fiddlehead ferns. Elegant French country dinner.

Fried calamari with spicy anchovy mayonnaise: squid rings in a graham cracker and flour coating fried crisp, served with a bold anchovy-cayenne dipping sauce. A restaurant appetizer at home.

Oven-fried chicken breast with a crispy seasoned breadcrumb coating, no deep frying needed. Dipped in yogurt, flour, and egg white for a crunchy crust with less fat than traditional fried chicken.

Fried chicken breasts rubbed in ancho peppers: chicken slathered in a rich ancho chile paste, then dredged in a chili-spiked cornmeal coating for a shatteringly crisp, Southwestern-spiced crust. A bold twist on classic fried chicken.

Fried country ham with red-eye gravy: the classic Southern breakfast of thick-sliced salt-cured ham fried in its own fat, deglazed with hot coffee. Two ingredients, pure tradition.

Old-school fried crab cakes bound with just enough breadcrumbs and a single egg yolk so the sweet lump meat actually shines. Worcestershire and dry mustard sharpen the edges, served with lemon wedges and golden crisp.