Poultry

Dark-meat chicken is the best for grilling: Unlike lean breasts, thighs have plenty of fat, so they won't dry out.

Cherries form an addictive sauce for duck breast when stewed with tomato paste, cumin, red wine, shallot, and a host of other aromatics.

An overnight soak in buttermilk and a few key spices makes for the most flavorful, tender fried chicken.

These skewered meatballs are a quintessential Japanese bar food, a great drinking snack that can be turned into a larger meal with rice. Flavored with plenty of garlic and ginger and brushed with a sweet-and-savory soy glaze, these meatballs are a great defense of ground chicken, which can be bland if not seasoned well.

Lyon, France, is filled with bouchons - old-fashioned bistros - where everything is seasonal and driven by the classics. I learned this classic at my very first job, at the legendary restaurant Nandron.

We'd serve this dressed-down chicken salad for brunch, pack it for lunch, or make it as a light dinner on a hot summer night.

No doubt about it, six tablespoons of cayenne is a lot, but that's what Hattie B's considers "medium." For a milder heat, decrease to two tablespoons.

The Indian-spiced yogurt raita does double-duty, flavoring the chicken and serving as a dipping sauce.

The key to crispy nachos is to limit the number of ingredients that go into the oven with the chips. These start with three essential ingredients: a dollop of homemade pinto bean dip, sliced jalapeños, and plenty of grated cheddar.

Savory, slow-cooked turkey and crispy skin are enhanced by a smoky pasilla purée and a sweet and tangy peach salsa in these Southern-inspired tacos.

The difference between this papaya salad and a Thai-style one comes down to spice and sugar, says Tanis. The Vietnamese one is sweeter and less hot. Have all the ingredients assembled, but dress the salad just before serving.

Tanis insists on making broth for this restorative and iconic soup (pho ga) from scratch and warns against overcooking the noodles: "They should be pretty firm and snappy, not flabby."

Chicken thighs are appealingly fatty, but this can sometimes cause flareups when grilling. Bank the coals before igniting so that you have a cooler side, and move the chicken there if needed.

A little bit of sweetness makes these especially appealing to pint-size palates.

There's an entire chicken in this soup, and then some. Not a mistake. You'll pull out the breast early on and use the white meat to garnish the finished bowls, but everything else stays and simmers for hours, enriching the stock with concentrated flavor and lip-smacking body.

Browned for deep flavor (and good looks), then braised for succulent results, this spring chicken has it all.

Kosher Status: Poultry Cooking doesn't have to be difficult or complicated, and it doesn't need to use lots of ingredients to be perfect. The better cook you are, the quicker you learn that. Here's one recipe that proves it.

You can roast a chicken in less time, but going low-and-slow yields a meltingly tender, shreddable texture.