You've cooked a big pile of ground beef. Or maybe a small mountain of chicken breasts. Or perhaps an entire pork butt (and stop giggling; it's the shoulder).
Now what?
It's so easy to fall into cooking habits. If you have cooked ground beef, you make spaghetti, or maybe tacos. If you have a chicken breast, you make a stir fry, or maybe tacos. If you have pulled pork, you make barbecue. Or maybe tacos.
But surely there is more to life than these old standbys, or whatever your standbys happen to be. Surely there are ways to enliven your dinner table, to awaken your senses and to rejuvenate your palate.
We set out to find four different ways to beef up ground beef, to add spice to chicken breasts and to give zest to pulled pork.
Although to be fair, one of the pork recipes is for tacos. I couldn't help myself. Besides, it has a cool twist.
In all cases, I started with meat that I had already cooked. Often, then, I made a sauce on the stove and, at the last minute, reheated the meat in the sauce.
GROUND BEEF
For beef, I started with a fast and easy one, sloppy Joes. It's a great favorite of childhood, but a lot of us (OK, me) have forgotten about it as adults. The version I made tastes as great as it is easy to make: It's just the ground beef, ketchup, barbecue sauce and a bit of Worcestershire sauce.
One small addition makes it stand out. I added a can of diced tomatoes, which gives the sloppy Joes an additional, bright flavor and a complementary texture.
Next, I made a dish I often make at home when I just want to throw together a quick meal. Because it is like a more elegant version of a sloppy Joe (well, they both have diced tomatoes), I decided to call it a Prim Joseph. Frankly, I am happier with the dish than I am with the name.
This dish begins with aromatics _ onions and garlic _ cooked in olive oil. I sprinkle on a little oregano, add a can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes and, while it all simmers, the cooked ground beef. It goes wonderfully on rice.
Shepherd's pie was almost inevitably going to be one of the dishes, because I am such a fan. Though it is traditionally made with ground lamb, you can also use ground beef. I mixed the beef with onions and some vegetables, and added thyme and red wine vinegar for an important acidic counterpoint.
The most notable part of shepherd's pie is also the best. It is topped with a thick layer of mashed potatoes before being baked. For an extra boost of flavor, I melted cheddar cheese into my mashed potatoes before putting the whole dish in the oven.
My final ground-beef dish is based on one of those all-time great combinations. Few foods in this world are better than mushrooms and cream. I added a bit of beef broth to give it some depth and then, when it was all simmering nicely, stirred in the ground beef to reheat it.
It hadn't occurred to me what I had actually made until the next day, even though I didn't serve it on noodles. My name reflects what it truly is: Ground Beef Stroganoff.
CHICKEN BREASTS
For my first chicken recipe, I wanted to work with a fabulous sauce that pretty much defines Tunisian cooking. Harissa is a paste made from spices, red bell pepper and chiles. When made the traditional way, it can be obliteratingly hot.
I decided to tone down the amount of heat in two ways. I added less chile pepper than they use in North Africa (I used crushed red pepper and some paprika, including hot paprika), and I tempered the paste with plain yogurt.
The result is a creamy and tangy sauce for chicken that can still be hot if you want it, but which allows you to taste the rich, full flavor of the harissa.
The next chicken recipe is an old favorite from China. It briefly became popular in this country in the 1980s, but it has largely been forgotten since then.
Not by me. Cold noodles with chicken and peanuts has everything you could want in a noodle dish. It has an unexpected temperature (it's chilled) and the surprisingly complex combination of peanut butter, peanut oil, soy sauce and vinegar. A sprinkling of chopped scallions is an absolute necessity, and chopped peanuts add a delightful crunch.
Chicken Caesar salads are ubiquitous these days, and chicken Caesar sandwiches are nearly as popular. And why not? The Caesar dressing is an irresistible addition to the chicken and lettuce, and even the bun.
I was going to make my own Caesar dressing for my sandwiches, but then I remembered I had a bottle of it in the fridge. If you use a store-bought dressing, nothing could be easier. It's just chicken, dressing, lettuce and a bun.
My last chicken dish took more effort, but it is just as classic. Chicken and lemons go together like mushrooms and cream, especially when you throw a little garlic into the mix.
The version I made of chicken in lemon sauce throws in an extra flourish. You simply chop together parsley with lemon zest and use half of that mixture in the sauce. The other half gets sprinkled on top as it is served for added emphasis.
PULLED PORK
For my pork dishes, I began with the pulled pork tacos. But these tacos are different from all other tacos by the addition of avocado crema. That is, ripe avocado mashed up with sour cream.
It is a cool _ if caloric _ punctuation that brings out the best of the pork and the corn tortilla. It acts as a welcoming bed on which to add the cilantro and lime.
Next up was an easy dish. Pulled pork cornbread cups begin with a cornbread muffin. You could buy them at the store, but I made my own from a mix, which still felt a little bit like cheating.
Hollow out the middle of each one, stuff it with a smattering of pulled pork and top it with coleslaw. It couldn't be easier. And someone has to eat those hollowed-out middles. It may as well be you.
For the next recipe, I thought to combine Chinese five-spice powder with pulled pork. The spice mix has a heady, almost exotic aroma that is a perfect match for the sweetness of the pork.
Shiitake mushrooms add an earthy umami kick, while a sprinkling of chopped scallions brings a lovely hint of sharpness to the sweet and mellow sauce.
Finally, I had to try a dish that caught my eye. It's a grilled cheese sandwich with pulled pork inside, only the cheese isn't regular cheese, it's a beer cheese.
The beer cheese in this sandwich is a white cheddar cheese that is melted into a combination of beer and milk, thickened with a little roux. Pour that over pulled pork on butter-toasted bread, and you have a memorably spectacular sandwich.
It might just go into your meal rotation as often as tacos.
