Damon Lee Fowler

A certain well-known take-out chicken with eleven herbs and spices is not the only Southern fried chicken that is seasoned with a complex blend of herbs and spices; it is just one of many. You can experiment with the combination until you have your own unique blend. If you don't have a couple of the spices on hand, feel free to omit them. When deep-fried, which is the way I prefer to cook this one, the chicken makes great picnic fare because it stays crispy long after it's cold, and the spice and herb seasoning stands up well to other highly seasoned picnic food.

This old "gourmet" standby can indeed be spectacular, or it can be exceedingly dull. Everything rests on the quality of the ingredients. With good cheese, first-rate ham, homemade crumbs, and a little care in the cooking, you can't go wrong. If, however, you use indifferent, packaged boiled ham and ordinary cheese, and add insult to injury by overcooking them, you'll kill yourself wondering what all the fuss is about.

Although the method is very similar to the classic marinated and fried chickens of France, the marinade here has a particularly Greek aroma with its oregano, juniper berries, and coriander seeds. The marinade is also lovely on grilled chicken.

This macaroons recipe combines two of our favorite things: coconut and chocolate.

Chicharrones are cracklings — the flavorful solids that are left over from making lard; the resemblance these little morsels of chicken bear to them accounts for the name "chicken cracklings." Chicharrones de pollo is a typically South American dish, variations of which can be found all over that continent and up into the Central American peninsula. The chicken is chpped up Chinese-style — bones, skin and all — into small pieces. Then it is usually marinated, rolled in wheat or corn flour, and deep fried — although sometimes it is not marinated, and sometimes it is fried without any breading at all.