40 wedding cake recipes

Crispy battered chicken strips with a tangy lemon sauce, tossed with colorful bell peppers. This Chinese-style deep fried lemon chicken is ready in one hour and rivals your favorite takeout.

Savory Creole corn muffins packed with cheddar, American cheese, red bell pepper, pimiento, and onion. Golden, cheesy, and ready in under an hour.

Deep-fried buttermilk-battered round steak with a shattering crust, served with classic cream gravy and mashed potatoes. This is Texas chicken fried steak done right.

Mash-up casserole layering chili beans, green chiles, pimento olives, and roasted red peppers under a fluffy egg-and-cheese custard. New Orleans muffaletta meets Tex-Mex chiles rellenos.

Thick ground beef chili with kidney beans, stewed tomatoes, and green chiles, topped with fluffy sour cream dumplings cooked right on top. Comfort food that's a complete meal in one pot.

Cajun chicken sauce piquant with a dark roux, Chablis wine, tomato sauce, stuffed olives, and hot pepper sauce, slow-cooked for hours and served over spaghetti. Big-batch Cajun cooking.

Vegetarian Mexican pie with a spiced bean and corn filling sandwiched between layers of stovetop cornbread, baked until golden. A hearty, budget-friendly meatless main dish.

Chile corn bake with cornmeal, cheddar cheese, green chiles, and sweet red peppers in a custardy casserole. A Southwestern side dish that's somewhere between cornbread and a savory corn pudding.

Bean soup with dumplings simmers kidney and black beans with corn, green chiles, and chili powder, then steams fluffy cornmeal dumplings right on top. A hearty, Southwestern one-pot meal with cornbread-style dumplings.

Cornmeal and corn kernel cakes spiced with cumin, green chilies, and hot sauce, pan-fried in butter and topped with a fresh sweet pepper and lime-cilantro relish.

Mexican corn casserole kicked up with jalapeños and red bell peppers in a cornmeal-buttermilk base loaded with cheddar cheese. Bakes into a moist, spicy side dish that feeds a crowd.

Cajun-style fried hand pies stuffed with ground pork and beef, onions, green onions, parsley, and a kick of red pepper. Crimped pastry pockets fried golden and crisp.

Ground beef and kidney bean chili served inside a golden Parmesan choux pastry bowl baked in a heart-shaped or round pan. A show-stopping one-dish dinner that's easier than it looks.

A succulent chicken dish that is also made with savory cornmeal dumplings that make one scrumptious dinner!

Creole tomato bread machine loaf studded with mushrooms, celery, red pepper and pimento, spiced with chili, paprika and cayenne. New Orleans flavors baked right into the crumb.

Self-crusting bean and cheese pie packed with chickpeas, kidney beans, and taco seasoning under a bubbly cheddar top. The cheesy biscuit crust forms right in the pan.