Keto

You can transform this perfect crisp side salad into a main-course salad by slicing up any meat you like and tossing it on top. Or try it alongside Grilled Caesar Pork Tenderloin (page 89) or Down-Home Pinto Beans and Ham Hocks (page 127).

We don’t use much sesame oil in our cooking, but we love how a little bit gives your whole dish a nice nutty flavor. We were playing around with trying to re-create an Asian salad dressing we had in a restaurant when we struck gold with this combo. But don’t limit it to when you’re cooking up Asian-inspired food. It’s also great with tangy dishes like Double Orange Pork Chops (page 24) and Broiled Tuna with Pineapple-Chipotle Salsa (page 57).

We came up with this salad, inspired by traditional burger fixin’s, to eat alongside cheeseburger casserole. It’s a match made in heaven. Try it with Turkey and Black Bean Burgers with Corny Salsa (page 44) or our Grilled Sausage, Pepper, and Onion Sub Sandwich (page 84).

Our Aunt Peggy doesn’t serve a meal without this delicious salad. She sometimes makes a variation with banana peppers or bell peppers added in. It’s such a simple, healthy side, and all you need to get dirty is your cutting board and one bowl. Its fresh garden flavor is a terrific complement to the spicy rice or just about any main course in the book, but we especially love it with Honey Mustard Baked Chicken (page 33) and any kind of pork chop (pages 22, 23 and 24).

When we were traveling around the country shooting episodes of our Food Network show, Road Tasted, we ate lots of fried, barbecued, and sugary food (Hey, it’s a tough job but somebody has to do it). Wherever we were, Bobby would seek out a salad for lunch or dinner to add a little balance to his diet. The night he discovered chopped salad, it was love at first sight. He developed this easy week-night recipe as soon as we were back home. It’s a salad that accommodates almost any ingredient—feel free to add your own personal favorites into the mix.

This recipe was born in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee where, as kids, we went camping with our parents. We caught fresh trout, and Mama cooked them right up on the grill in foil packs. It was the best-tasting fish we’d ever had. If we’re making this over a campfire, we serve it on its own. At home, it goes well with green beans.

Salmon is something so healthy that we just had to put mayonnaise on it. The lemon mayo gives it a great zesty flavor and oomph—it keeps the fish moist, too. Our lettuce and cucumber salad is a perfect match for this light dish.

Baking chicken on top of zucchini is a great way to get your green vegetables in. The zucchini absorbs all the chicken and herb flavors in the pan and winds up tasting a whole lot better than any vegetable really should. We love to bake chicken pieces with a slice of lemon on top because the lemon browns right along with the chicken skin and adds a nice zesty flavor.

When you cook a whole hog, one thing you should never do is throw out the skin. It’s the key ingredient for one of the tastiest by-products in the world. If you’re not cooking a whole hog, I’m not going to fool you by saying it’s easy to pick up some pig skin, but you might be able to get some from your local butcher or from someone who is cooking a whole hog, a ham, or a pork shoulder and is willing to part with it.

This is a good way to make use of those unnecessarily large bouquets of parsley that we get at our supermarkets, as well as fennel fronds that usually go to waste.

It is so easy to make a vinaigrette, the classic French salad dressing, that I can’t fathom why so many people living alone go out and buy bottled dressings. Not only do they pay more, but the dressing never tastes as fresh, and you can’t vary the seasonings as you wish. So I beg you to make your own vinaigrette as part of your cooking life. The amounts I’m giving will be enough to dress two or three small salads, but you can double or triple the quantities if you’re an avid salad consumer and want enough dressing to see you through the week. Just refrigerate the extra in a jar, tightly sealed.

The large portobello mushroom makes a natural saucerlike container for tasty fillings. For modest appetites, one amply stuffed big mushroom will make a satisfying lunch or supper dish, but if you’re really hungry, make two.

Don’t throw away your chicken carcass or the package of giblets. Here’s a way of making a simple chicken stock (or broth—I use the terms interchangeably) that you’ll be using in all kinds of soups. This will produce only about 4 cups, so you may want to freeze the chicken elements until you have enough to make at least twice that amount.

Steamed mussels make a lovely dish to eat alone slowly, plucking the plump flesh from the shells as messily as you like and sopping up the heavenly liquor with chunks of French bread.

Store-bought beef broth works just fine, but—just as with chicken broth—it simply doesn’t compare in taste to the homemade version. The trick with beef stock is to roast the bones first in order to achieve a nice caramelized flavor.

If you are looking to save money, taking the time to roast your own chicken really can go a long way. Plus this foolproof method makes for a delicious chicken every time. After trying this traditional, scrumptious recipe, don’t forget to make your own chicken broth from the chicken bones, which are rich in flavor. Talk about more cluck for your buck.

So why make your own broth? The main reason is that you’ll get a richness of flavor in your homemade stock that you just can’t buy at the store. Homemade broth has an intense chicken flavor and an unbeatable smell. While the thought of making your own broth may seem intimidating, we promise that it’s not! In fact, it requires little attention once all the ingredients hit the pot.

These are one of my favorite things to make: oyster mushrooms tossed with olive oil, salt, and crushed red pepper. They’re salty and spicy and they taste like bacon! To me they’re kind of like mushroom jerky. Who knew an oyster mushroom could be so delicious?