Braise

Large pieces of butternut squash get braised in a coconut sauce spiked with chile, cayenne, and turmeric for a low-effort dish that’s full of flavor—perfect to star as the vegetarian- or vegan-friendly main event on your Thanksgiving dinner table. Serve with your favorite festive sides or simply with rice or potatoes and a side salad. A squeeze of lime juice at the end adds tang, and almonds bring some contrasting crunch.

Chunky apples, plus onion, thyme, and cider make this comforting dish especially appropriate for the holidays.

While the pork braises away in the slow cooker, use the oven to make creamy scalloped potatoes and the microwave to make lightening-fast steamed broccoli.

This makes a simple and hearty one-pot meal. The meat becomes fork tender and the stock simmers down to a rich sauce. Leftovers are terrific served over corn cakes.

Doubling down on proteins in recipes shows sophistication and speaks to a hallmark of Soul cuisine—utilizing the entire animal. Chicken hearts are an underutilized part of the chicken. They provide an earthiness to dishes that allows fattier, delectable morsels of food to stand tall. You can find this same quality in mushrooms, but I think hearts are a fun way to explore new techniques.

Buckwheat flour adds a deep, earthy flavor to spiced chicken-filled crepes.

When braised in a tart brine, gizzards are truly delectable! This is an easy dish to serve guests, as it can be made a day in advance and reheated. Cooked barley is a perfect side to soak up the rich sauce.

This grand gesture of thrift (at just one dollar per serving) and deliciousness has the flavors of a cozy gravy, of roasted birds on cold winter days. 

Tagines are typical street food in Morocco, and this is the one that is most commonly found, except that street vendors cut the potatoes into small dice and I prefer to use new potatoes, which I leave whole if they are very small or halve if they are medium.

Enough cannot be said of the Sri Lankan delicacy black pork curry. It is a delicious and truly flavorful dish—every family has their own generational recipe. 

Simmer duck legs in a chile-infused, maramalade-based braise until tender, then reduce the sauce to a sticky-rich lacquer to glaze over the crisp skin.

Cooking cabbage wedges until very tender is one of the easiest, most delicious things we can think of. If the spiced tomato broth has reduced to the point where the pan starts getting dry and dark before the cabbage is ready, just add a splash of water to loosen it and keep going.

With the texture of duck confit and extra-rich, deep flavor closer to pork carnitas than your average Thanksgiving bird, these turkey legs beg to fall apart with the push of a fork.

This Trinidadian version of curried chicken is an earthy, rich stew of whole chicken pieces in an aromatic, vibrant broth, spiked with hot chile and a traditional herb paste.

Sweet red or green grapes also have just the right amount of acidity. Sweet fennel and honey, Calabrian chile paste, and red wine vinegar make this a balanced meal.

Smothered pork chops may be an iconic soul food specialty, but this recipe proves you can smother anything. All it really means is coating slow-cooked meat with a blanket of saucy aromatics that end up as gravy too.

No cookout in the South is complete without baked beans. This is a simple recipe that combines sweet and smoky ingredients for a thick, rich, and perfect side dish.