Gluten Free

Small and lean baby-back ribs are a quick-cooking (and very tender) alternative to spare ribs. If desired, coat them with your favorite spice rub before baking. Serve the ribs with any of the potato side dishes on page 284 or steamed corn on the cob.

Turn leftover meat from Flank Steak with Parsley-Garlic Sauce (page 194) into one of these weeknight dinners. The steak for the salad can be served cold, while the steak in the fajitas will warm through as it gets cooked with the rest of the ingredients.

For the most tender slices, cut flank steak against the grain, at a slight angle. This recipe calls for cooking two steaks, so you should have about one pound left over to incorporate into the salad or fajitas on the following page.

Butterflying a steak is actually quite simple and can be done quickly at home, but you can also ask your butcher to do it.

Crisp scallions provide the vegetable base for this tasty stir-fry. If the scallions are particularly thick, cut the white parts in half lengthwise; they will cook through more quickly.

Try the colorful salsa that tops these steaks on grilled hamburgers or chicken, or as a dip for tortilla chips. Or replace it with one of the varieties on page 59.

Lean, tender eye-of-round is an inexpensive option for roasting, and you can get another meal out of the leftovers. This recipe calls for a two-and-a-half-pound roast, half of which can be used in the recipes on the following page.

The key to achieving clear grill marks is to make sure the grates of the grill are properly cleaned, heated, and oiled before cooking the steaks; see page 367 for instructions. The steaks can marinate up to overnight in the refrigerator.

Broiling is a great year-round method for preparing steaks, since the high heat browns the meat quickly without overcooking the interior. For a Spanish variation, substitute an equal amount of smoked paprika for the regular variety used in the spice rub.

You don’t always need a grill to cook skewers (or kebabs); here, they are conveniently broiled instead. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for fifteen minutes to keep them from scorching.

To get the perfect sear, make sure to heat the skillet well before adding the shell steaks, and wait until they release easily from the bottom of the skillet before flipping them.

Chili powder, chocolate, and cumin are often combined in Tex-Mex cooking, and this turkey chili stays true to those roots. The recipe makes a large yield, so you can serve some chili right away, then freeze the rest to enjoy later.

Using only one of the Thyme-Roasted Chickens with Potatoes (page 166) will leave you with an extra cooked bird (about four cups shredded or cut-up meat) to incorporate into one of these recipes. Of course, you can also make either of these dishes (page 169) with store-bought rotisserie chicken.

This recipe calls for roasting two chickens in the same pan: Serve one bird and half the potatoes as a meal for four, and save the rest for the recipes on the following page. If cooking only one chicken, simply reduce the ingredients by half.