New Orleans Flavor: 15 Big Easy Recipes

David Kinch playfully combines two New Orleans classics: chicory coffee and beignets.

Recipe: Chicory Beignet

New Orleans cooks traditionally make this smothered greens dish without meat for Good Friday. David Kinch, however, prepares his version with a generous amount of pork, as well as eight different kinds of greens, including carrot tops.

Recipe: Gumbo z'Herbes

David Kinch's version of escabèche (marinated cooked seafood) combines sweet crab and crisp vegetables in a spiced-vinegar mix.

Recipe: Fresh Crab Eescabèche Recipe

This spicy one-pot take on the New Orleans classic, dirty rice, makes a hearty main dish or an excellent accompaniment to a simple protein.

Recipe: Eggplant Dirty Rice

New Orleans-style "barbecue" shrimp is made with Creole seasoning, Worcestershire sauce, beer, and butter, but David Kinch switches out those flavors here for a garlicky Italian anchovy sauce known as bagna cauda.

Recipe: Barbecue Shrimp Bagna Cauda with Crudités

In New Orleans, red beans and rice are traditionally served on Mondays because the dish uses up leftover Sunday ham. Grace Parisi likes making the recipe any day of the week, and she replaces the ham with smoky bacon.

Recipe: New Orleans Red Beans and Rice with Pickled Peppers

In this recipe from The Dooky Chase Cookbook, chef Leah Chase uses okra (and lots of it) to thicken the dish.

Recipe: Okra Gumbo with Blue Crabs and Shrimp

At his restaurant, John Besh simmers the broth for his bisque with the crushed shells of whole blue crabs. Chopped shrimp boiled in their shells flavor the broth for a home version of Besh's tapioca-studded bisque.

Recipe: Shrimp Bisque with Crab and Tapioca

At Besh Steak, chef John Besh prepares mini meat pies with house-made dough and a rich, spiced filling of beef, pork, and chicken liver sautéed in duck fat. At home, use store-bought empanada dough instead of making your own.

Recipe: Natchitoches-Style Meat Pies

When New Orleans bartender Chris McMillian mixes mint juleps at Bar UnCommon, he recites an ode, written in the 1890s by a Kentucky newspaperman, that calls the cocktail "the zenith of man's pleasure…the very dream of drinks."

Recipe: Mint Julep

Inspired by tagine blends from Morocco, New Orleans chef John Besh of Restaurant August created a flavoring mix of cinnamon, star anise, black pepper, and sugar to sprinkle on the duck breasts. The spices provide terrific aromas, while the sugar gives the meat a burnished crust in under 10 minutes of cooking.

Recipe: Sugar-and-Spice Skillet-Roasted Duck Breasts

Mixologists around the world make this fizzy, lemony drink with gin, but New Orleans bartenders opt for cognac.

Recipe: French 75

Instead of using high-calorie coconut milk, Sue Zemanick of New Orleans' Gautreau's substitutes coconut water (the clear liquid inside young coconuts) and a touch of full-fat sour cream to add richness to this curry sauce.

Recipe: Grilled Pork Tenderloins with Vegetable Curry

This silken frozen pie is adapted from Clancy's, one of David Guas's favorite New Orleans neighborhood restaurants. (Recipe adapted from DamGoodSweet.)

Recipe: Lemon Ice Box Pie

John Besh of Restaurant August in New Orleans serves this lightly sweet, fruity white-wine sangria over plenty of ice cubes. "Use Viognier — it has a nice balance of fruit and acidity," he says.

Recipe: Mango-Peach Sangria

There's so much this great nation has to offer. Check out more recipes from the South from Food & Wine:

Cajun and Creole Recipes

New Orleans Cocktails

Best Southern Food in the U.S.