Serves 6 Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes

Can be made up to 3 days ahead, covered, and refrigerated. Shredded cooked chicken (rotisserie chicken works beautifully) is sauced with a combination of tomato, onion, garlic, chipotles in adobo sauce, spices, and tomatillos, all easy ingredients to keep on hand. I usually make a double batch and serve half of it one night with a side of Red Rice and Refried Beans, or with Blissful Corn Torte and a salad. Then I have the rest to repurpose over the next few days as a delicious filling for tasty tingadillas, tortas, or a topping for tostadas.

8 ripe Roma (plum) tomatoes (about 2 pounds)
2–3 tomatillos (about 4 ounces), husks removed, rinsed
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup chopped white onion
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
½ teaspoon dried oregano, preferably Mexican
¼ teaspoon dried marjoram
¼ teaspoon dried thyme
1½ teaspoons kosher or coarse sea salt, or to taste
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 whole canned chipotle chile in adobo sauce (optional), plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce, or to taste
5 cups shredded cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken
1½ cups broth from Mexican Chicken Soup, or canned chicken or vegetable broth

Place the tomatoes and tomatillos in a medium saucepan, cover with water, bring to a simmer over medium-high heat, and cook for 8 to 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes and tomatillos are soft and mushy but not falling apart. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a blender or food processor. Cool slightly, then blend until smooth.

Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until soft and translucent, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook just until it is fragrant and lightly browned, about 1 minute. Carefully pour the tomato-tomatillo puree into the skillet; it will steam and bubble. Stir in the oregano, marjoram, thyme, salt, and pepper. Add the chipotle chile (if using) and adobo sauce, partially cover the skillet (the sauce will spatter), and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce deepens in color, becomes a darker and earthier red, and is no longer soupy, 10 to 12 minutes; add more adobo sauce and chiles near the end if you want more heat.

Add the chicken and broth to the sauce and stir until well mixed. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the chicken has absorbed most of the sauce, 6 to 8 minutes. Serve hot.

Mexican Cook’s Trick: Don’t bother peeling or coring the tomatoes and tomatillos. Simply cook them whole in simmering water, then transfer them to the blender and cool slightly before pureeing.

Excerpted from PATI’S MEXICAN TABLE, © 2013 by Pati Jinich. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

Recipe from Mitchel London of Fairway Market:

- 2 bowls assorted butter lettuce (a mixture is the way to go!)

- Dress salad with basic mustard vinaigrette of your choice

- Place picandine chevres on a toasted crouton until it softens

- Place on top of salad and eat at once!

Note: Warm asparagus tips are a nice addition, too!

Makes 16 bars

 Why this Recipe Works:

While these dessert bars may not pack the same fatty punch as whole slices of cheesecake, they’re not exactly diet food either. We wanted to cut the fat from this rich, decadent treat, but still keep the creamy texture and luscious flavor. Ditching the full-fat cream cheese in favor of the reduced-fat variety was a good start, but the filling wasn’t as smooth and creamy as we expected. After trying a variety of low-fat and nonfat dairy ingredients, we landed on ­nonfat cottage cheese, which we processed to an ultra-smooth texture in the food processor. For the crust, we combined graham cracker crumbs with just a few pats of butter and a small amount of brown sugar for moisture and flavor. Now our revamped cheesecake bars offered all the great textures and flavors of a slice of cheesecake—without any of the guilt.

Crust
    7    whole graham crackers, broken into 1‑-inch pieces
    3    tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
    3     tablespoons packed light brown sugar
    1/8    teaspoon salt

Filling and Topping
    8    ounces (1 cup) nonfat cottage cheese, drained if necessary
    8    ounces 1/3 less fat cream cheese (neufchatel), softened
    2/3    cup (42/3 ounces) granulated sugar
    2    teaspoons lemon juice
    1    teaspoon vanilla extract
    2    large eggs
    5    small strawberries, hulled and sliced thin

1. For the crust: Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350 degrees. Make foil sling for 8‑­inch square baking pan by folding 2 long sheets of aluminum foil so each is 8 inches wide. Lay sheets of foil in pan perpendicular to each other, with extra foil hanging over edges of pan. Push foil into corners and up sides of pan, smoothing foil flush to pan. Lightly coat foil with vegetable oil spray.
2. Process graham crackers in food processor to fine, even crumbs, about 30 seconds. Add melted butter, sugar, and salt and pulse to incorporate, about 5 pulses. Transfer mixture to prepared pan and press firmly into even layer using wide metal spatula. Bake until crust is fragrant and beginning to brown, 12 to 15 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking. Let cool on wire rack for at least 15 minutes.
3. For the filling and topping: Process cottage cheese in food processor until smooth and no visible lumps remain, about 30 seconds, scraping down bowl as needed. Add cream cheese and process until smooth, about 1 minute. Add sugar, lemon juice, and vanilla and process until smooth, about 1 minute, scraping down bowl as needed. With processor running, add eggs one at a time and process until smooth, about 30 seconds. Pour filling over baked crust. Bake bars until edges are set but center still jiggles slightly, 30 to 35 minutes, rotating pan halfway through baking.
4. Let bars cool completely in pan on wire rack, about 2 hours. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, 3 to 24 hours. Remove from pan using foil sling and cut into 16 squares. Garnish each with strawberry slice and serve.

Serves 4

 Why This Recipe Works:

Fried to a golden brown and tossed in a buttery hot sauce, Buffalo wings are about as far from health food as you can get. Luckily, we found a way to slash the fat and calories by about ­half—­turning this barroom and ­game-­day staple into a guilty pleasure we wouldn’t feel so guilty about. Tossing the wings with baking powder helped to dry out the skin so it became crisp when roasted in a ­super-­hot oven; baking the wings on a wire rack let the rendered fat drip away. A quick stint under the broiler crisped the skin even further and ensured a flavorful char. To lighten the sauce, we cut back on the butter. A single tablespoon was enough to temper the hot sauce and give it a glossy sheen. A spoonful of molasses added depth and richness to our made-over yet still finger-­licking-­good Buffalo wings. The mild flavor of Frank’s RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce is crucial to the flavor of this dish; we don’t suggest substituting other brands of hot sauce here.

    3    pounds chicken wings, halved at joint and wingtips removed, trimmed
    1    tablespoon baking powder
    1/2    teaspoon salt
    2/3    cup Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce
    1    tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
    1    tablespoon molasses

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Line rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil and top with wire rack. Pat wings dry with paper towels, then toss with baking powder and salt in bowl. Arrange wings in single layer on wire rack. Roast wings until golden on both sides, about 40 minutes, flipping wings over and rotating sheet halfway through roasting.
2. Meanwhile, whisk hot sauce, butter, and molasses together in large bowl.
3. Remove wings from oven. Adjust oven rack 6 inches from broiler element and heat broiler. Broil wings until golden brown on both sides, 6 to 8 minutes, flipping wings over halfway through broiling. Add wings to sauce and toss to coat. Serve.

Makeover Spotlight: Buffalo Wings
1. Cut Up the Wings: Cutting up the wings made it easier to work with them and made them easier to eat. Using kitchen shears or a sharp chef's knife, cut through the wing at the two joints and discard the wingtip. (Sometimes, the butcher will even do this for you.)
2. Use Baking Powder to Get Crisp Skin: Before cooking our wings, we tossed them with baking powder and salt. The baking powder helped draw moisture from the skin so that it became -super--crisp in the oven; the salt simply added flavor.
3. Elevate the Wings on a Rack and Roast–Don't Fry:
To cook our Buffalo wings, we bypassed the vat of hot oil called for in traditional recipes and roasted our wings in a 475‑-degree oven instead. Cooking them on a wire rack set in a rimmed baking sheet ensured that the wings cooked through evenly and made it easy for the rendered fat to drain away.

4. Broil for a Crisp Finish and Toss with Lower-Fat Sauce: After roasting our wings in a hot oven, we turned to the broiler to guarantee super-crisp, well-browned skin before tossing them in our sauce. Though most recipes call for at least half a stick of butter in the sauce, we found that just a pat -provided plenty of richness and sheen. Frank's RedHot Original Cayenne Pepper Sauce offered a mild, vinegary tang, while a bit of molasses added complexity.

Recipe from Dan Glickberg and Mitchel London of Fairway Market!

INGREDIENTS
•    1 boneless pork loin (2-2 1/2 lbs), butterfliedl
•    1 1/2 cups dried figs, halved
•    1 1/2 cups dried pitted prunes, halved
•    1 1/2 cups dried apricots
•    1/4 cup red wine vinegar
•    2 tablespoons Fairway honey
•    10 leaves rosemary, chopped
•    1-2 tablespoons Fairway olive oil

DIRECTIONS
1. Fill a pot with 2 cups of water and place on stove over a medium heat.
2. Add dried fruit and heat for 20 minutes, mixing every few minutes.
3. When the fruits have started to meld together and turn into a compote, add the red wine vinegar and honey. Mix well.
4. Remove the compote from the pot and place in a bowl. Add the rosemary and salt and pepper to taste and mix.
5. Season the inside of the pork loin with salt and pepper and generously stuff the loin with the compote, reserving the extra. Close and tie with kitchen twine.
6. Add the olive oil to a heavy pan and place on stove over a medium heat. Brown the pork well for 2 minutes on each side.
7. Place the pan in a preheated 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest for 10-15 minutes.
8. Slice and serve with the rest of the fruit compote on the side.

Recipe from Dan Glickberg and Mitchel London

of Fairway Market!

Makes: 35 Macaroons

INGREDIENTS
• 10 egg whites
• 2½ cups of sugar
• 4 pounds sweetened coconut
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• ½ pound bar of semi-sweet chocolate (optional)

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
2. Place the egg whites, sugar, and vanilla in the bowl of your electric mixer and blend for 1 minute.
3. Add the coconut and continue to mix until well blended.
4. Keeping your hands wet, form the mixture into small mounds or hay stacks onto a baking sheet pinching them together slightly so that the macaroon holds.
5. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 – 25 minutes until the outside is golden brown.
6. Chop the chocolate coarsely.
7. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler over low heat. You can also use a pot over very low heat or the microwave provided you pay close attention and mix it frequently during the melting process.
8. Once the macaroons are cooled, dip just the bottoms of each haystack into the chocolate and place them on parchment paper.
9. Let cool at room temperature and enjoy!

Makes: 1 Loaf

INGREDIENTS
•    4 cups flour
•    3 teaspoons double acting baking powder
•    1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
•    1 1/4 teaspoon salt
•    2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
•    8 tablespoons shortening
•    1 cup currants
•    3 teaspoons caraway seed
•    2 eggs
•    1 1/3 cup buttermilk
•    ½ cup milk to brush top of bread

DIRECTIONS
1.    Preheat the oven to 350-375 degrees.
2.    Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, sugar, caraway seeds and currants to a bowl and mix it all together.
3.    Cut the shortening into quarters and add it to the mix, breaking up the shortening.
4.    Blend the eggs and buttermilk in a separate bowl and then add them to the dry ingredients.
5.    Incorporate all of the dry and wet ingredients together. This will form your dough.
6.    Briefly knead the dough.
7.    Grease an 8" pan and add the dough to the pan.
8.    Cut a bold cross into the top of the dough to avoid splitting.
9.    Brush the top of the bread with milk.
10.    Bake in the preheated oven for about 35-40 minutes.

Recipe provided by Dan Glickberg and Mitchel London from Fairway Market on today's show!

Ingredients

4 fillets skate
4 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons butter
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste

Instructions

Dredge in flour. Heat 2 tablespoons butter in a heavy pan over medium heat. Place the fillet in a pan skin side up. Cook for 2 minute then turn over and cook for 2 minute on the other side. Remove from pan and place on a warm plate. Keep warm. Add 4 tablespoons cold butter to the pan. Let foam up. Add lemon juice, parsley and sea salt to finish. Serve.

Recipe from Dan Glickberg and Mitchel London from Fairway Market!

Makes 2 pints

Ingredients
5 lbs tomato, large dice
2 quarts water
20 ounces sugar
Juice of 1 lemon

Instructions
Boil the tomatoes in water for 4-6 minutes.  A rapid boil.  Remove the tomatoes from the pot and let sit in a colander for 5 minutes.  Drain well.  Add the tomatoes to a heavy stainless steel pan and add the sugar and lemon juice.  Bring to a rolling boil for 1 minute then reduce to a simmer and simmer for 30 minutes.  Skim off whatever foam comes to the surface.  Place in a large bowl and let cool for a minimum of 4 hours.  The longer the better overnight okay.  Serve with a soft stinky cheese and a crusty bread.  Store in your refrigerator.

Chet's note: You will know the jam is done when you put it on a plate and it doesn't run.