Ground Chicken

Serve these with olive oil and herb potato chips, available on the snack aisle of the market.

Serve with chopped raw vegetable salad and fancy store-bought chips of choice.

My first New York restaurant job was at an American restaurant with a Thai chef. Thanks to him, I learned about Southeast Asian cooking well before its current popularity. One of his specialties was grilled lemongrass chicken, and I've adapted its flavors to these meatballs, served as they might be in Vietnam, on a bed of rice vermicelli with a tangy dipping sauce.

A bit of blue cheese in each patty ups the chicken's savoriness without adding much fat or calories.

Traditional pot stickers, complete with fresh dough and the requisite number of pleats, are best saved for a special occasion. This version, made with store–bought wonton wrappers, is easy enough for a weeknight meal. A flavorful filling of ground chicken and celery (left over from Sage Stuffing) is seasoned with sesame oil and soy sauce and enclosed within the simply folded wonton—no pleats involved. We do cook the pot stickers the conventional way, by first frying them and then steaming them until the water evaporates and the bottoms are crisp and golden. It is imperative to use dark chicken meat (from legs and thighs) because it doesn't dry out the way leaner white meat can.

Here's an excellent reason to make a beeline for the ground-chicken section of the meat department: moist, flavorful meatballs speckled with pancetta and glazed with tomato paste. These are wonderful made with white or dark meat.

If you have trouble getting the chicken mixture to roll into balls, chill it for up to 30 minutes or add another 1/4 cup of crumbs.

Cha gio are considered culinary treasures, delighting everyone who's tried them. Light and crispy, spring rolls are traditionally wrapped with rice paper. At Lemon Grass, however, we use a more durable type of spring roll wrapper made from wheat flour. Also used for Filipino-style lumpias, they are marketed under the Menlo brand and stocked in the frozen food department of Asian grocery stores. These 8 X 8-inch wrappers seal the filling so well that no oil can seep through during frying; this is not the case with rice paper.

Tori Soboro This gingery soy-simmered chicken is a popular topping for rice and stuffing for omusubi. Less soupy than a Sloppy Joe, the texture is similar to a dry curry or stiff chili con carne. It freezes well, so do not hesitate to double the recipe.

The skewers grill above the flames, suspended between two bricks to keep them from touching the grates of the barbecue. No bricks handy? Substitute disposable foil mini loaf pans (found on the baking aisle at the supermarket).

Based on the classic Thai dish called larb, this pretty appetizer is easy to put together.

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Ground turkey is a fine substitute for the chicken.