Chicken

(Braised Chicken with Vinegar and Tarragon)

At New York's Nosmo King (the name is a clever twist on "no smoking"), Alan Harding does a terrific job of cooking upscale food with almost entirely organic ingredients.

Leftover roasted chicken or turkey makes this rendition of a popular salad a snap to prepare. It's made spicy by combining chilies with linguine, green onions, snow peas, cilantro and a peanut dressing.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Accompany the curry with rice, broccoli and a variety of condiments like peanuts, chopped green onions, chutney, raisins and chopped bell pepper.

Use leftover cooked chicken, or buy a cooked chicken at the market or a take-out place. Serve the salad with warm tortillas, or try the chicken mixture (without the lettuce) as a sandwich filling.

This dish known, as pastitsatha, is one that evolved from Corfu to stretch scant supplies of meat. Consisting of chicken, turkey, beef or veal braised in tomato sauce fragrant with spices, it is served over thick tubular pasta from Corfu called "perciatellli" (if you can't find it, use spaghetti). Kefalotyri is a nutty tasting hard cheese similar to Parmesan. It is available at Greek markets.

Adapted from a recipe by Chef Robert McGrath of Windows on the Green, Phoenix, Arizona.

The traditional b'stilla is an enormous pigeon or chicken pie wrapped in golden paper-thin pastry leaves. However, we made individual pies for ease of serving. The idea of meat mixed with spices and encased in pastry was brought to Morocco by Arabs from the Middle East; the delicate pastry sheets, it is thought, came specifically from Persia. Spices play a big part in Moroccan cooking. This legendary spice mixture is translated as "top of the shop."

The herbes de Provence used in this recipes—a blend of dried marjoram, thyme, summer savory, basil, rosemary, fennel seeds and lavender—is typically found in the cooking of southern France. It can be purchased at specialty foods stores and some supermarkets in the States.

(Moroccan Chicken, Chick-Pea, and Lentil Soup) A marvelous vegetarian harira sampled at the United Nations' Delegates Dining Room--prepared by chef Mohamed Boussaoud, from the hotel La Mamounia in Marrakech--provided the inspiration for the following chicken-based version. In Morocco this soup is often made with lamb as well as chicken and is traditionally served after sundown during the month of Ramadan to break each day's fast.

This zesty soup is based on a chicken and curry stew popular in the South. The origin of its name is unclear, but according to one account, it was brought to Savannah in the early 1800s by a sea captain who traveled the spice route from India.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Cava, Spain's sparkling wine, is readily available at supermarkets and liquor stores.