Aromatic broths and flavorful sauces dress up the next round of ‘Week of Meals’ recipes

For the next round of recipes in our Week of Meals series, chef and food writer Jenny Dorsey brings five dishes teeming with some seriously flavorful broths and stews. It’s the type of weeknight cooking that utilizes an arsenal of pre-marinated and prepared elements to bring together dishes that feel like they’ve been cooking for hours, when it’s really only been less than one.

You’ll buy one chicken, break it down into pieces then split them up over two different meals. The first meal calls to poach breasts, seasoned with star anise and allspice salt, until tender and then serve them under a blanket of classic Hainanese scallion, ginger and garlic sauce, with an added perk of fresh mint. The second meal marinates the dark meat pieces in a chipotle chile paste that seeps deep into the chicken and offers a flavorful broth for braising the chicken whenever you’re ready to cook it.

Pre-formed pork meatballs, perfumed with rosemary and shallots, make quick work of a simple soup made with wilted mustard greens, broth and beans. Dorsey makes her own broth and beans for the soup, but if you don’t have the time to do the same, store-bought versions work brilliantly.

A big fan of offal, Dorsey has you par-cook pig trotters on the day you shop so they’re ready to use in a speedy pressure cooker-braise that infuses the offal with star anise, lemon and ginger in just 45 minutes. The broth gets lip-smackingly sticky from the collagen in the trotters, which are velvety tender — the ideal thing to eat under a bed of warm rice.

And for a meal that requires no pre-planning at all, Dorsey offers her spin on the classic tomato and egg stir-fry, here bolstered with ginger and scallions. The dish comes together in the same time as it takes to cook a pot of rice. It proves that, with a little advance planning, dishes that taste like they’ve cooked all day needn’t always take that much time at all.

Mustard Greens and Beans Soup with Herby Pork Meatballs

Dorsey makes bone broth and beans earlier in the week in this simple, comforting soup, but you can use store-bought broth and beans and it will taste just as great. If you want to add flavor to your rice, do like Dorsey and add some fried garlic before it cooks so the alliums perfume the rice.
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Cook time: 30 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Tomato & Egg Stir-Fry with Sautéed Mustard Greens

A classic Chinese preparation, tomatoes and eggs are cooked with scallions and garlic in Dorsey’s version, and then served with a cumin-scented rice and simple garlicky greens. Make the greens and stir-fry while the rice is cooking so everything comes together at the same time.
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Cook time: 30 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Chipotle-Braised Chicken with Tomatillo Bean Salad

Dorsey loves to serve this chile-infused, braised chicken dish with piquant pickled red onions. If you don’t have them, the tart tomatillo dressing in the bean salad will add plenty of acidity and brightness to the meal. Make the bean salad ahead of time to allow the tomatillo dressing to really soak into every part of the beans and cucumbers.
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Cook time: 50 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Quick-Braised Pig Trotters with Star Anise and Lemon

The broth for this dish is teeming with tart lemon peel and aromatic star anise, both of which perfume the pig trotters to their core. Using an electric pressure cooker makes cooking tough cuts of meat, like pig trotters, a quick operation. Plus, while everything cooks in the machine, you have plenty of time to make a simple pot of rice to serve alongside.
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Cook time: 1 hour.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)

Salted Chicken with Ginger-Mint Sauce and Sautéed Lettuce

Warming, toasted star anise and allspice add color and intense flavor to simple boneless, skinless chicken breasts in this easy preparation, enhanced with a flavorful minced sauce of garlic, ginger and scallions. You can prepare the sauce days ahead, if you want. Once it cools, store it in an airtight container in the fridge and it will get better each day that it sits.
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Cook time: 45 minutes.

(Silvia Razgova / For The Times)