66 meat tenderizer recipes

Budget-friendly turkey drumsticks browned and braised low and slow with poultry seasoning until fork-tender. Just 5 ingredients and a couple hours of hands-off cooking for juicy, fall-apart meat.

Prime rib roasted in a rock salt crust that seals in every drop of juice, producing fork-tender, deeply seasoned meat. A showstopping Old English technique you crack open with a hammer.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Korean roasted whole chicken (tongdak) steamed first for tender meat, then basted with a sesame-soy-ginger-garlic sauce as it grills or rotisserie roasts. Finished with a brush of sesame oil for golden color and nutty flavor.

Taco chicken grill marinates oven-baked chicken in a tangy taco-spiced barbecue sauce with molasses and tomato, then finishes over coals with melted Monterey Jack. Two-stage cooking for fall-off-the-bone tender meat with a smoky crust.

This is a favorite dish of my family's, especially on holidays like Easter and Christmas. Most people cringe at the idea of eating a cow's tongue, but actually the meat is very tender, and even if you have to close your eyes and plug your nose to try it, please do. I guarantee it won't be what you expect!

Classic homemade baking powder biscuits with five ingredients and just 35 minutes from start to finish. Tender, flaky, fresh-baked breakfast biscuits that beat any tube or boxed version.

Mary Rogers's sourdough biscuits use an overnight starter sponge for a tender, tangy biscuit with a soft crumb. A pioneer-style overnight rise that beats any quick biscuit hands down.

Whole wheat yogurt bread bakes up tender and tangy in the bread machine, with sesame seeds folded right into a soft crumb that beats any all-wheat brick. Dump, press start, walk away.

Therapeutic oatmeal cookies where you squeeze, smash, and beat the dough to release stress: brown sugar, margarine, oats, and flour become tender cookies through aggression.

Beaten biscuits, a historic Southern recipe made by beating dough with a rolling pin until it snaps. Crisp, tender, and shelf-stable for weeks. Makes about 100 small biscuits.