New York City Chef Recipes Made Easy
Crispy Monkfish with Capers
This is Daniel Boulud’s take on Wiener schnitzel, a breaded and fried veal cutlet. He lightens the dish by making it with thinly pounded monkfish fillets, breaded on only one side. He serves it with a mix of asparagus, zucchini and butternut squash.
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Chopped Greek Salad
Michael Psilakis feels strongly about using dried Greek oregano to make this vinegary, feta-packed salad. Greek oregano, he claims, has a lovely floral fragrance that ordinary dried oregano doesn’t. Look for it at specialty food markets.
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Grilled Beef-Tenderloin Skewers with Red-Miso Glaze
Addictively tangy and salty-sweet, these skewers by Jean-Georges Vongerichten are also delicious when made with chicken breast or pork tenderloin.
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Chicken with Piquillos
Pilar Sanchez, an elderly home cook who lives in Asturias, taught Mario Batali and Mark Bittman how to make pollo casero, a luscious chicken in rich white wine and pepper sauce. When they asked where she buys her poultry, Sanchez told them to go to her yard and listen for the “singing in the field” from the chickens she raises.
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Chicken and Okra Fricassee
“If you don’t stew it, you can’t eat it,” says Eric Ripert about cooking Brazil’s tough but flavorful chickens. Here, he lightens a traditional chicken stew with lemongrass and ginger.
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Beet–and–Red Sorrel Salad with Pistachio
Sorrel is a leafy green that gives dishes a tart, almost sour flavor. For this salad, Paul Liebrandt likes using red ribbon sorrel—a European variety with bright green leaves and intense red veins—because it’s so pretty with the beets and because its tang is so nice with the nutty pistachio sauce.
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Grilled Mackerel with Sicilian Caper-Tomato Salsa
“Give mackerel a chance,” begs Michael White. The Spanish fish he imports from Europe is grilled, which makes the skin enticingly crisp, then topped with a refreshing tomato-caper salsa.
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Seared Scallops with Basil, Anchovy and Sweet Corn Pudding
The quality of the seafood is key in this lemony, piquant dish. April Bloomfield recommends seeking out day-boat scallops, caught by fishermen who return from a day at sea with supremely fresh scallops that haven’t been treated with any kind of preservative. Instead of being milky white, they’re almost coral-colored.
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Chicken with Zucchini Salad
This simple dish by Psilakis uses lemony vinaigrette in two smart ways: as a quick marinade for chicken and as a dressing for crispy slices of zucchini and squash.
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Sugar Snaps and Snow Peas with Grated Fresh Horseradish
Convenience-store wasabi-coated peas, a fiery, crunchy snack, inspired this vibrant summer dish from David Chang. Chang decided to echo the flavor of the peas by tossing some of his favorite crisp vegetables from the farmers’ market (including snow peas and sugar snaps) with fresh horseradish. Be sure to grate the horseradish at the very last minute, he advises, since it loses potency quickly as it sits.