Poultry

With an adjustable-blade slicer, it's easy to transform zucchini into long, delicate pastalike ribbons that make an eye-catching partner for panfried chicken.

Shawarma is the Middle Eastern version of a large vertical shish kebab known as doner kebab in Turkey and gyro in Greece. It's made by impaling layers of meat on an oversize spit with a flat base and roasting the meat in an upright rotisserie. There are at least three advantages to this singular method of cooking. The dripping fat bastes the meat below it; the meat is sliced to order (at least it should be) from the outside, which gives every customer a crusty end cut; and because the crusty meat slices are piled on pita bread with fresh vegetables, pickles, and tahini sauce, you get a whole meal—and a healthful one—in a single sandwich. Traditionally, shawarma was made with lamb, but more and more Israeli grill masters use thinly sliced chicken or turkey. Shawarma is easy to prepare if you have a vertical rotisserie, and somewhat more challenging to adapt to the home grill. But direct-grilling the turkey slices does give you a close approximation of the taste and texture of classic shawarma.

Musa Dagdeviren is the go-to guy if you want to know about Turkish barbecue. Spend a couple of hours with him in the open kitchen of one of his Çiya restaurants (in Istanbul), and you'll wonder if there's anything he doesn't know about Turkish cuisine, let alone grilling. He'll start with chicken thighs marinated in creamy Turkish yogurt, chile paste, and garlic—to be grilled on skewers over charcoal. Before you know it, he's grilling meatballs, quinces, shallots, even bread dough loaded with ground beef. Here’s one of the "simpler" dishes in Musa's repertoire—if simple means merely marinated, spice-crusted, and grilled—and the combination of creamy yogurt, pungent garlic, and smoky pepper flakes produces the sort of chicken that has made the Turks the Near East's undisputed grill masters for centuries.

Look for marinated feta in the refrigerated section of the supermarket where other specialty cheeses are sold.

Smoked duck is available at some supermarkets, specialty foods stores, and Asian markets, and from dartagnan.com. Smoked chicken or smoked turkey make great substitutes.

When I take people out for Ethiopian food for the first time, this chicken stew, called doro wett (also spelled doro we't, doro wat, and doro wet), is a great introduction. It's the first Ethiopian dish I ever had, and I immediately liked the tender meat, the spicy eggs, and the flavorful sauce laced with berbere and ginger. It's a great dish to make for people who haven't eaten African food before, because it's easy to understand and like. Don't be alarmed when the sauce doesn't bind together and thicken like a traditional European-style sauce—it should in fact be liquidy and broken to soak into the injera it is served on.

Peperonata—an Italian condiment usually made of sautéed tomatoes, peppers, onions, and garlic—is spiced up with a poblano chile. Here, we've added chicken breasts to turn it into a satisfying main course. Serve Italian-style, over polenta, or Mexican—style, wrapped in warm tortillas with slices of avocado and dollops of sour cream. Instead of chicken, you can also spoon the peperonata over grilled flank steak or crusty grilled bread.

A hot skillet and an egg will quickly enliven any leftover rice parked in your refrigerator. Add meaty pieces of broiled chicken and bacon for a satisfying, inexpensive meal.

Caution: May require finger licking. Gooey chicken wings are sure to please a crowd, not to mention your wallet. The sweet and spicy glaze requires only five ingredients, including peach preserves (though apricot preserves work well, too).

The yogurt in this lightly spiced marinade results in extremely tender lamb, chicken, or shrimp.

The hens roast in about half the time it takes to cook a whole chicken. Offer wilted spinach alongside.

This dish requires just four ingredients (aside from oil, salt, and pepper). Serve with an arugula salad.

Why get takeout when you can make orange chicken so quickly at home?

Supermarket roast chicken can be easily dressed up, as in this lovely salad. Look for almond oil at some supermarkets and at specialty foods stores.

If you can’t find haricots verts, look for slender green beans.

Good for Slathering: Pork; chicken, turkey, duck; beef; lamb: It doesn't get any easier than this! And this mop is probably what 90 percent of the competition barbecuers use—with maybe a little beer mixed in for good measure!

Good for Slathering: Pork; beef; duck; ribs My students make this barbecue sauce every month in my Southern-barbecue classes. It is the only red sauce that we make in the class, and we always double the recipe because the class slathers it on everything! This sauce has been printed in many places and thousands of students have the recipe, but I couldn't write a sauce chapter and not include it here. The Dr. Pepper gives this sauce an edge over most basic sweet barbecue sauces.

Quick-cooking bulgur can be found at some supermarkets and at natural foods stores.