Stew

Braised dishes are often served with a creamy side like mashed potatoes, polenta, or grits. Black beans offer an earthy change of pace and complement the chile purée.

Inspired by Vietnamese pho (pronounced "fuh"), this soup creates its own broth as meaty short ribs and beef shank simmer with ginger, garlic, chile, and the sweet spice of star anise and cinnamon—supermarket ingredients that come together with slippery rice noodles to produce a wonderfully fragrant and authentic-tasting dish. It’s a great choice for a party, because everyone gets to customize their bowl to their own taste with a spritz of lime, some fiery Sriracha sauce and sweet hoisin, and a scattering of mint and cucumber.

Octopus comes with its own braising liquid: just put it in a pot on the stove top, turn on the heat, and a couple of inches of water will soon appear at the bottom of the pot. It is a great little secret that this dish is actually quite simple. Of course, any Neapolitan will tell you that the only octopus worth eating come from the Tyrrhenian Sea, and finding a Tyrrhenian octopus in California is a tall order. But we do have access to fresh octopus from the Pacific, which are a treat. If you cannot find fresh octopus, frozen ones are more widely available. Sometimes you will see frozen cooked octopus for sale, which are not the best option for this soup, though they will do. If you do use precooked octopus, decrease the braising time to 30 minutes and add about 2 cups water to the pot (the cooked octopus won't release sufficient liquid). And if you buy only octopus tentacles, you will also probably need to add water to the pot. Finally, I make this soup with the 4-pound specimens we get at A16, so if you can only find 2-pound octopus, you will need to buy a pair of them. Don't worry if they look large. They will shrink up as they release their water.

Up until the late 1950s, crawfish was eaten only by the fishermen who caught the crustaceans in the Atchafalaya Basin. Now, crawfish is king and is much sought after by both visitors and locals alike. This étouffée is a classic Cajun-style dish.

Here is a Cajun-style gumbo, a one-pot dish made with chicken and andouille from the farm, with the addition of salty oysters from the bays along the Gulf of Mexico. It is usually served with baked sweet potatoes or potato salad.

Adding Sherry wine vinegar and herbs at the end of cooking this vegetable stew makes the pure flavors shine even brighter.

While on a research trip to San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, food editor Ian Knauer met restaurateur and fellow traveling cook Alexandro Garcia, who made a special point of sharing his family's recipe for goat. This dish combines the subtle perfume of bay leaves and cloves with the depth and spice of dried chiles. It's a combination so compelling we found ourselves going back for more even after we were full.

The beans need to soak overnight.

This richly flavored chili pays homage to the Texas "bowl of red," in which meat is the star. Mole paste, ancho chile powder, and cumin add depth of flavor. Set out bowls of beans, cheese, onions, and other garnishes so that guests can have their chili just the way they like it.

In this rustic marriage of land and sea, red-pepper flakes add just the right amount of heat to hearty potatoes and wonderfully tender octopus (from a can!)

Carbonnade is a Belgian beef stew flavored with beer, onions, and brown sugar. We’ve substituted inexpensive chicken thighs. Serve over egg noodles.

The resulting dish is brothy but thick; it can be thinned with stock for a more traditional soup.

The rich, intense flavor base of this traditional Malaysian dish comes from the rempah, or curry paste, that is made from scratch and infused into the oil before cooking the remaining ingredients. This recipe uses whole chickens that have been broken down into 10 pieces (2 drumsticks, 2 thighs, 2 wings, and 4 breast pieces each). If you're not comfortable cutting up a chicken yourself, you can ask your butcher to do it or buy chicken pieces.

Few can resist this soup-stew of tender cannellini beans, silken pork shoulder, tomatoes, and herbs. We give the cherry tomatoes a little extra love in the oven to boost their flavor before we stir them into the beans. Rosemary is a natural in this dish, but it’s the generous amount of parsley added at the end that’s the real revelation. The herb adds a zesty top note to the beans. Simple side dishes—garlic bread, a green salad—complete the picture.

This full-bodied stew will bring the crowd running when you lift the lid. First, pieces of chuck are browned to develop their flavor, then they’re braised in a red-wine beef broth. Adding the potatoes and carrots toward the end of cooking keeps their character and color bright.

Chicken soup is an automatic crowd-pleaser, but this Mexican-inspired tortilla soup does the classic one better. Homemade broth is key here, providing a base for brown rice, black beans, and chunks of sweet potato. Cooling pieces of avocado play off of a warm, earthy undercurrent of chipotle chiles.

For this interactive dinner, use a camping or induction burner at the table, or just get cozy around a warm stove. As the broth cooks the chicken and vegetables, it becomes a flavorful homemade soup.