how ti prepare a fyll course meal serious eats

by Adan Franecki 7 min read

What is a full course meal?

16 Broiler Recipes for Quick Summertime Cooking. Spicy Steamed Mussels With 'Nduja Recipe. Five-Minute Grilled Chicken Cutlets With Rosemary, Garlic, and Lemon Recipe. Pasta al Limone Recipe. Easy Stovetop 'Nduja Mac and Cheese Recipe. Chicken Marsala With Mushrooms and Shallots Recipe.

What are the different courses on a dinner menu?

Aug 10, 2018 · The best chicken salad starts with the best chicken, and we make ours by cooking breasts sous vide with tarragon and lemon until they are extremely tender. Once that's done the rest of the salad stays pretty classic with mayo, Dijon mustard, lemon, celery, red …

What is an 8 course meal at a restaurant?

A common and logical way for your full course meal to proceed is by starting with light plates, continuing with richer dishes, and finishing off with small and delicate items. Below are sample full course meal sequences, but you can choose which …

What is the purpose of a second course in a meal?

Korean Chicken and Rice Porridge (Dak Juk) Recipe. Light and Fluffy Buttermilk Pancakes Recipe. Traditional Scottish-Style Oatmeal With Butter Recipe. Creamy Irish-Style Oatmeal With Brown Sugar Recipe. Winter Main Dish Recipes. Pressure Cooker Jewish-Style Braised Brisket With Onions and Carrots Recipe.

What Is a Full Course Meal?

A full course dinner is a meal featuring multiple courses. The basic full course meal consists of three or four courses. Full course meals normally...

What Is a Meal Course?

A meal course is a single food item or a set of food items served at once, such as a sandwich, soup and crackers, or steak and mashed potatoes. An...

How Many Courses Are in a Meal?

Many meals only contain one course. The most basic full course meal is made up of 2 or 3 of the following courses: an appetizer, a main dish, and a...

Noodle Salads

If you've read our New Rules of Pasta Salad, you know that we're not a fan of fresh produce and cold noodles. We prefer to think of pasta salads as room-temperature versions of hot dishes. That means instead of tossing raw tomatoes with pasta, we prefer to cook them into a rustic sauce with olive oil and garlic.

Seafood

Poke restaurants are a dime a dozen these days, but as long as you have a good fishmonger you can make great poke at home. This simple version starts with high-quality raw ahi tuna, which we mix with sweet onions and hijiki seaweed and dress with a mixture of soy sauce, sesame oil, sesame seeds, and honey.

Chicken

The best chicken salad starts with the best chicken, and we make ours by cooking breasts sous vide with tarragon and lemon until they are extremely tender. Once that's done the rest of the salad stays pretty classic with mayo, Dijon mustard, lemon, celery, red onion, garlic, and herbs.

Steak

Have some steak leftover from your cookout, too? It's almost impossible to reheat without drying it out, so we prefer to leave it cold instead. Inspired by Japanese tataki, this salad pairs leftover steak sliced as thinly as possible with cucumber, scallions, and a ponzu vinaigrette.

Other Salads

We think Niçoise salad is best served un-composed. The classic combination of green beans, potatoes, hard-boiled eggs, anchovies, olive, and tuna looks good arranged artfully on a plate but tastes better mixed together. We cut all the ingredients into pieces and toss them with a vinaigrette to make a more manageable salad.

What Is a Full Course Meal?

A full course dinner is a meal featuring multiple courses. The basic full course meal consists of three or four courses. Full course meals normally begin with precursors to a main dish, such as an amuse-bouche or soup, followed by the main course (s), and they are finished off with sweets, coffee, and tea.

What Is a Meal Course?

A meal course is a single food item or a set of food items served at once, such as a sandwich, soup and crackers, or steak and mashed potatoes. An average meal consists of one or more meal courses.

Sample Sequences for Up to 12 Meal Courses

A common and logical way for your full course meal to proceed is by starting with light plates, continuing with richer dishes, and finishing off with small and delicate items. Below are sample full course meal sequences, but you can choose which meal courses you would like to include on your menu.

12 Course Meal Menu

Below are explanations of the courses that may comprise a 12 course meal as well as dish suggestions for each course.

How to Create a Full Course Meal Menu

Preparing for a full course meal can seem like a daunting task, especially if it's for a large crowd. However, if you follow a central theme or cuisine when deciding what will be on your menu, it is much easier to come up with your dishes. Below are some tips for creating your menu.

Quick Tips for Serving a Full Course Meal

The way you serve or enjoy a full course meal is up to your discretion and can be as casual or formal as you prefer. Below are some tips to curate a full course meal, along with information on traditional etiquette.

Monday

It's easier to face Monday with homemade baked goods and a pre-prepped lunch. Dinner's as easy as it gets with spicy chorizo quesadillas and a fresh cabbage and onion slaw. The Margarita isn't required, but just in case you need it, you'll find the recipe below.

Tuesday

Early in my food writing career, I volunteered to subsist exclusively on mac and cheese as I attempted to narrow down New York City's best options. I (mostly) didn't regret my commitment to such an important piece of journalism, and it's still a go-to comfort food, especially when making it is as easy as Kenji's three-ingredient version.

Wednesday

If you have time to buy fresh fish, crispy pan-seared salmon fillets can be yours in just 10 minutes tonight. If not, a pantry meal like Spaghetti Puttanesca or Cacio e Pepe will save the day.

Thursday

As Kenji put it, "Chicken + Egg + 15 Minutes = Dinner", and that's the kind of math I can really get behind. I'd add "+ Rice Cooker" in there, too, because I love how hands-off a rice cooker is and how much it assuages my rice-technique anxiety.

Friday

I love a good cream cheese-topped bagel with nova on top, but sometimes you don't have a decent bagel around, and sometimes you want to mix up your routine a bit. Enter the smoked salmon-topped avocado toast, spread with tangy goat cheese and sprinkled with capers. It's sophisticated enough that I'm sure you'll forgive my Friday lunch plan.

Saturday

Nothing says weekend like waffles, but we don't always have time to fuss with a fancy yeast-raised version. Stella's buttermilk vanilla waffles are perfect for those times: prepped in just five minutes, and fully ready in twenty.

Sunday

After a Sunday of chasing a certain toddler around the playground, I'm wiped. And I want someone to feed me something nice—someone who has more time to cook than I do.

Rule 1: Ask Why You're Cooking it This Way

"Just because you can doesn't mean you should." "When all you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail." How many clichés can I throw at this thing? Look, the bottom line is that there's no need to cook a sheet-pan dinner for its own sake. Do it if it makes sense.

Rule 2: Just Because it's Been Cooked on a Sheet Pan Doesn't Make It a "Sheet-Pan Dinner"

Cooking a single thing on a sheet tray, like this pork shoulder, is not enough to make it a "sheet-pan dinner.".

Rule 3: Think About Your Equipment

A small eighth-sheet pan is one-quarter the size of a standard half-sheet pan. It, along with quarter-sheets and sizzle platters, are important tools in sheet-pan dinner success.

Rule 4: Know Your Oven

An oven-thermometer should be in every oven in the land. Otherwise, you have no way of knowing if your oven is true to temp or not.

Rule 5: Establish Your Recipe Goals

Okay, so we've defined our terms, set our general objectives, and paid mind to our equipment. Now it's time to cook. This is where things get interesting, and tricky, and fun.

Rule 6: Think About Architecture, Consider the Ring of Fire

How you use the space on your sheet pan is critically important. That's because the sheet pan doesn't heat evenly all over. Just look at the zucchini slices I roasted on a sheet pan in the above image as an example.

Rule 7: Hedge With High-Heat-Tolerant Proteins

Salmon tends to be an oilier fish that, even if cooked through more fully as in the bottom photo, will still be tasty. Not all fish and meats are so forgiving.

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Sunday

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Baking is one of the things that I miss most when I'm busy, so I've been trying to set aside some time on the weekend to stash my freezer with homemade baked goods. After an easy omelette breakfast, I'll knock out muffins or scones for upcoming breakfasts (and, you know, sample one for quality assurance purposes.…
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Monday

  • It's easier to face Monday with homemade baked goods and a pre-prepped lunch. Dinner's as easy as it gets with spicy chorizo quesadillas and a fresh cabbage and onion slaw. The Margarita isn't required, but just in case you need it, you'll find the recipe below. Breakfast: A muffin or scone and yogurt. Lunch: Leftover Caldo Verde. Snack: Hummus (homemade, or, let's be honest, storeboug…
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Tuesday

  • Early in my food writing career, I volunteered to subsist exclusively on mac and cheese as I attempted to narrow down New York City's best options. I (mostly) didn't regret my commitment to such an important piece of journalism, and it's still a go-to comfort food, especially when making it is as easy as Kenji's three-ingredient version. If you're feeling a little fancier, try Daniel'…
See more on seriouseats.com

Wednesday

  • If you have time to buy fresh fish, crispy pan-seared salmon fillets can be yours in just 10 minutes tonight. If not, a pantry meal like Spaghetti Puttanesca or Cacio e Pepewill save the day. Breakfast: Fluffy Scrambled Eggs. Lunch: Sichuan Shirataki Sesame Noodle Salad With Cucumber, Sichuan Peppercorn, Chili Oil, and Peanuts or Easy Make-Ahead Carrot and Chickpea …
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Thursday

  • As Kenji put it, "Chicken + Egg + 15 Minutes = Dinner", and that's the kind of math I can really get behind. I'd add "+ Rice Cooker" in there, too, because I love how hands-off a rice cooker is and how much it assuages my rice-technique anxiety. Oyakodon is a classic dish of simmered chicken and egg, served with rice (and a raw egg yolk if you're into that sort of thing; feel free to skip it if not.…
See more on seriouseats.com

Friday

  • I love a good cream cheese-topped bagel with nova on top, but sometimes you don't have a decent bagel around, and sometimes you want to mix up your routine a bit. Enter the smoked salmon-topped avocado toast, spread with tangy goat cheese and sprinkled with capers. It's sophisticated enough that I'm sure you'll forgive my Friday lunch plan. Breakfast: Avocado Toas…
See more on seriouseats.com

Saturday

  • Nothing says weekend like waffles, but we don't always have time to fuss with a fancy yeast-raised version. Stella's buttermilk vanilla waffles are perfect for those times: prepped in just five minutes, and fully ready in twenty. (Here's our review of the best waffle irons, if you're in need of one.) Dinner's made quickly on the grill—delegate that job so you can stir up a quick butterscotc…
See more on seriouseats.com