All-American

This is a brilliant marriage of two classics: cornmeal-dusted green tomatoes and a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich.

Crisco is used to fry this chicken to perfection.

Baby potatoes have a naturally sweet flavor and creamy texture that’s delicious in this classic recipe.

“Putting potato chips inside sandwiches has always been a favorite trick of ours,” says chef Jon Shook. He and co-chef Vinny Dotolo serve chips on Tabasco-spiked lobster salad tucked into buttery toasted buns.

For a zippy version of a New England classic, Laurence Jossel bakes buttery Rancho Gordo Yellow Eye beans in a tangy-hot mixture of apple cider vinegar, molasses, brown sugar and crushed red pepper. Regular Italian cannellini or Great Northern beans can replace the Yellow Eyes.

For this refreshingly crunchy salad, Mark Peel adds mineral-rich romaine lettuce, frisée and sliced radishes to the classic Waldorf salad mix of apples, celery and walnuts. In place of the traditional mayonnaise-based dressing, he makes a lemon—walnut oil vinaigrette flavored with cumin.

Since puff pastry can be tricky to prepare, this version uses a high-quality, store-bought puff pastry.

White beans substitute for the usual potatoes in this chowder, made with sweet butternut squash, briny littleneck clams and smoky bacon. Rancho Gordo cellini beans give the soup a buttery richness, but Great Northern beans are terrific as well.

Jay Foster does brisk business in these fried-fish sandwiches at Outside Lands music festival.

The cooking times for this recipe are approximate: Temperature readings are the most reliable way to judge doneness.

Big Bob Gibson Bar-B-Q chef Chris Lilly butterflies a whole chicken, smokes it, then dunks the bird into a vat of tangy white barbecue sauce. Home cooks can grill pieces of chicken until crispy and nicely charred, then serve them alongside Lilly’s terrific white sauce.

Baking these easy dumplings right on top of the simmering stew makes them extra fluffy.

Adam Fleischman creates beef patties by flattening balls of ground meat on the griddle. Tip: Burger purists handle ground meat as little as possible; over-working the beef can create a tight, meatloaf texture.

To make this juicy and delectably crisp chicken, chef Thomas Keller soaks it in a lemony brine, then coats and fries it.

Linton Hopkins calls this vinegary slaw a maceration salad, because it sits overnight to develop its superbly tangy flavor.

The best grilled cheese is the gooiest grilled cheese, says author Laura Werlin: “After you bite into it, the cheese should stretch out past your face as far as your arm will reach. Otherwise, it's just not right.“

“This is a culmination of all the meat loaves I’ve ever eaten,“ says Andrew Curren. “My mom always made a good meat loaf—it never had the tomato goo on top of it. Then I tasted a meat loaf that had cheese in it; that was a good idea. In Italy, I was introduced to soffritto and realized the importance of cooking with carrots, onion, celery.” Curren serves the meat loaf with creamy gravy.

For ultrafluffy potatoes, Grace Parisi presses them through a ricer. To achieve a similar texture, pass the potatoes through a food mill or a fine-mesh sieve. If you choose to mash them by hand, be gentle; otherwise, the potatoes will turn gluey.

A blend of three chiles flavors this bold short-rib chili.

This soup is delicious chilled or hot. Naomi Pomeroy serves the soup with a side of maple-candied bacon, which she prepares by sprinkling bacon slices with maple sugar and baking them until crisp.

Cooks usually reserve dark, tough leek greens for stock. Here, Grace Parisi sautés them until they’re soft and supple, then folds them into a luscious macaroni and cheese made with nutty Manchego.

Using a slightly tart apple, like a Granny Smith or Pink Lady, is key to this frozen-yogurt sundae; sautéing brings out the fruit’s sweetness. The crispy, salty cheddar crisps that accompany the sundaes are as good with cocktails as they are with desserts.

This silken frozen pie is adapted from one of David Guas’s favorite New Orleans neighborhood restaurants. (Recipe adapted from DamGoodSweet.)

Prepare bite-sized versions of this recipe for a petit four plate, or bake full-size cupcakes in a standard muffin pan. Sprinkle the frosted cupcakes with a bit of cocoa powder mixed with instant espresso.