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Grilling whole fish is not as tricky as it sounds. We tie ours with kitchen twine, which makes them easy to handle.

This chicken feels light and summery. That's because there's no mayo, just lots of herbs and spiced pita chips.

An aggressively seasoned marinade delivers big flavor.

Adding vinegar to the chorizo topping cuts the richness of the sausage and brightens the entire dish.

This steak pairs well with grilled corn or a crunchy salad.

This riff on gazpacho gets unexpected sweetness—and great color— from the addition of cherries and a peach.

Just as easy and fun to cook as they are to eat, mussels deserve a spot in your weeknight dinner rotation.

Warm spices, supersweet Sun Gold tomatoes, and a short cooking time reinvent the ordinary marinara.

This recipe proves that streusel makes everything better.

My dear friend Matt Michel caters pizza parties from his wood-oven pizza truck, Rolling in Dough. Who better to help me perfect my pizza dough than the man behind the wheel? Nasturtium petals are unexpected in pizza crust, but their peppery essence works so well. I like mine served sauceless with lots of toppings, but to each his own.

With tongue in cheek, I call this chicken "unfried." That's because I am well known for fried chicken, which may be the crown jewel of southern cooking but is a dish I avoid these days. I like unfried chicken just as much. The chicken is soaked in tangy buttermilk and then coated with flavorful breading, just like fried chicken. The difference is that it's baked. This dish was on the menu at LYFE Kitchen. I first prepared it when Oprah's movie Beloved opened. One of the many lessons I learned from Oprah is to offer people a choice at meals, and one of those choices should be a healthy one. To this day I honor that lesson in my home and my restaurants.

Served at LYFE Kitchen restaurant, this breakfast sandwich is perfect when you are on the run, and even better when enjoyed around the kitchen table with your family. Be sure to buy whole wheat muffins, a better source of complex carbs than the traditional English muffins.

This is an old-school pasta cooked a new-school way. Grilling the pasta makes it entirely new, adding a smoky flavor and the occasional browned crunchy bit of pasta, which is delicious. For my Harvest Dinner, because I was cooking pasta for 100 people, I vac-packed the meatballs the night before the party. I've given instructions for this method of cooking for those of you who have vac-pack equipment; it's a great way to cook for a crowd. Don't worry if you don't have sous-vide equipment or a vac-packer; we've also included steps for cooking meatballs the usual way. This recipe makes a lot of meatballs. You can halve it if you like; I never mind having some meatballs in my fridge the next day.

Cookbook author and meat authority Bruce Aidells created this recipe exclusively for Epicurious. Aidells' garlic and fresh herb rub and bacon-infused barbecue sauce make for ribs that burst with flavor, while his cooking method—the ribs are baked first then quickly finished on the grill or in the broiler—means home cooks can make tender, meaty ribs without a lot of fuss. The recipe makes 2 cups of barbecue sauce, but you'll need only about 1/2 cup to glaze the ribs. Aidells recommends serving the extra sauce alongside the ribs, and holding onto any leftovers, which can be kept, covered, in the refrigerator for 2 weeks. "It's a great thing to have around for other barbecues," says Aidells. "And you can use the sauce to rewarm leftover ribs by gently heating the ribs in the sauce." For more on Aidells' ribs, rub, and barbecue sauce, see Classic Recipes: Barbecue Ribs and Barbecue Sauce.

Long before I discovered my love of sashimi, I fell in love with the viscous, sweet taste of teriyaki. With anywhere from 300 to 700mg of sodium per tablespoon, however, teriyaki chicken from the local takeout is now out of the question. So, to meet my cravings, I let go of the original dish and focused on finding a substitute with a similar color, thick coating, and unique flavor. The low-sodium answer lay in tamarind paste—a sweet and tart concentrate made from tamarind seed pods. It is popular in Indian, Middle Eastern, and East Asian cuisines, and can even be found in Worcestershire sauce. Its acidic properties help tenderize meat, and in Ayurvedic medicine it is said to have heart-protecting properties. Or in Western medicine speak, it may help lower bad cholesterol. While it is no teriyaki, this tamarind sauce sure makes a convincing look-alike. The savory sweetness of the tamarind will delight your palate. If you have any leftover herbs in your kitchen, like mint, cilantro, or even some green onion, dice and sprinkle them over the chicken at the end for some extra color and cool flavor. And to make a traditional bento presentation, serve with a slice of orange and crisp lettuce salad.

Between the bacon (around 200mg of sodium per slice) and the scallops (over 330mg per 3 ounces), the classic dish is too salty for me to enjoy. But when the bacon is replaced with smoky zucchini ribbons and the scallops are swapped out for halibut rounds, you have a whimsical reinterpretation that actually tastes equally thrilling. I used smoked paprika and cumin to mimic the smoky fl avor of bacon and I decided to glaze the halibut rounds in honey and sugar to mimic the natural sweetness of scallops. The curry is purely for color and to balance the sweetness of the fish, and the spinach pasta lends a rich backdrop for the yellow-tinted "scallops."

This is my version of the traditional Chilean squash and bean stew. It's wonderfully hearty and warming and, like so many such dishes, even better if you leave it for twenty-four hours and reheat it gently before serving.

This beautifully simple, light curry is closely based on a wonderful recipe from chef Angela Hartnett. It's always preferable to use some carefully selected ground and whole spices in a recipe like this, but if you're in a hurry, use a ready-made curry powder instead of the dry spices.

This recipe was given to me nearly thirty years ago by Garnet McCollum, a North Carolina farm woman I profiled for Family Circle magazine. In that article, I featured about a dozen favorite family recipes, among them her superb fried chicken. I cannot improve upon it. Once salted, this chicken is refrigerated overnight, so you must begin the recipe a day ahead. Note: Back when I interviewed Mrs. McCollum, chicken breasts weren't D cup in size. Now that they are, I suggest that you halve each breast crosswise so that the chicken cooks more evenly.