188 meat tenderizer recipes

Mandarin Cornish hens: small game hens roasted and basted in a bright orange juice glaze for tender, citrus-kissed meat and burnished skin. An elegant, simple main with one bird per person or to share.

Slow cooker beef stew loaded with zucchini and sweet corn in a savory steak sauce broth. Fork-tender meat meets a glossy cornstarch-thickened sauce in this set-it-and-forget-it dinner.

Chicken Alla Spina braised with red wine, onions, and oregano in a roasting pan. An Italian-American one-pan chicken dinner with tender meat and a savory wine sauce for sopping with bread.

Barbecued venison roast slow-cooked low and slow after a 24-hour beer marinade with garlic, onions, and bay. The Crock-Pot method that turns lean wild game into pull-apart tender meat.

Homemade Purim ravioli with a tender spinach and chicken filling, sealed between paper-thin sheets of pasta and boiled, then served with marinara or meat sauce. An Italian-Jewish holiday labor of love.

Braising can turn a tough piece of meat into a tender, fall off the bone, comfort food. I can think of no better example than the classic dish osso buco, made from veal shanks.

Two whole chickens simmered with leeks, carrots, celery, and fresh thyme yield a crystal-clear broth and tender diced meat. A from-scratch chicken soup that's worth every minute of the 2.5-hour simmer.

Wild goose roasted at 325F and basted with a glossy orange-currant glaze made with fresh OJ, port wine, and orange sections. Slow-cooked for 3.5 hours until the drumstick meat is fall-apart tender.

Traditional Mexican barbacoa: whole lamb slow-roasted in a maguey leaf-lined earth pit for hours. This ancient communal feast from Mexico City feeds 24 and delivers smoky, fall-apart tender meat like nothing else.

Flank steak slow cooks with peppers, onions, and Mexican spices in this set-it-and-forget-it fajita filling where the crockpot turns tough meat into shredded, tender strands ready to pile into warm tortillas.

Provencal beef stew (daube) marinates chuck overnight in red wine vinegar, garlic, thyme, and orange zest, then braises low and slow in dry red wine for fork-tender meat with sun-soaked southern French character.

Rendang is the legendary Indonesian beef curry: chunks of beef slow-simmered in spiced coconut milk and tamarind until the sauce reduces almost dry and the meat turns fork-tender. Deeply fragrant and richly spiced.

By using braising to cook the chicken slowly over a long time creates fall-off the bone tender meat and allows the rich flavors to mingle perfectly together. Creamy and rich flavor without all the fat.

Swordfish Bolognese swaps ground meat for tender chunks of swordfish simmered in white wine with capers, garlic, and fresh vegetables. Served over buttered noodles, this 30-minute seafood spin on the Italian classic is weeknight gold.

No-boil lasagna with ground beef meat sauce, ricotta-mozzarella cheese filling, and uncooked noodles that soften right in the pan. Skip the boiling step and still get a classic family-style lasagna with tender layers.

Banquet meat loaves are a 50-serving, banquet-scale recipe for tender ground beef loaves bound with sauteed onion, celery, eggs and breadcrumbs moistened with beef stock. Bake-ahead, slice and reheat for caterers and large gatherings.