America's Test Kitchen is the place I go to when I want to know how to healthify a recipe - especially comfort food recipes. They have pros that work on this approach every month. And their suggestions are so good and so fool-proof, I thought you'd like to know what they are, too.

They start with smart ingredient substitutions (no fake fats or artificial sweeteners allowed), and innovative cooking methods to make comfort food that you'll actually be comfortable eating.

The Test Kitchen's first technique? They replace high-fat cooking methods with lower-fat ones. For instance, when coating with the right breading, oven-fried chicken or oven-fried shrimp delivers the same crisp crust as it would if it were deep fried. And instead of pan-searing chicken in oil for salads such as chicken Caesar salad or Cobb salad, they poach it - you'll still get moist and tender meat. They say that with this approach, you can then lavish those saved calories where they really count: on bacon, cheese, and creamy dressings.

Their second technique is to make a little go a long way. The test kitchen uses recipes that include bacon, butter, and other high-fat ingredients, just like you and me. They don't eliminate them because cutting out fat entirely would compromise the flavor or texture of a dish. So to keep the calorie and fat count manageable, they simply use smaller amounts of these rich ingredients and found ways to maximize their impact. In their New England clam chowder, they finely chopped a few slices of bacon so that its smoky, rich flavor would permeate the broth. For a rich-tasting chicken piccata, they cut back on the butter but stirred a pat into the sauce at the end to add noticeable richness and flavor. And then they made shortbread-like crust for lemon squares, they didn't eliminate the butter. They reduced the amount relied on a little milk to bind the crust together for a bar cookie so buttery that they say we'd swear was the classic high-fat recipe.

The Test Kitchen's third technique is to use low-fat and nonfat ingredients wisely. Low-fat, reduced-fat, and nonfat ingredients were key in their makeovers of many comfort foods - but they say the success of any recipe comes down to knowing which ones to use and when to use them. For casseroles such as baked macaroni and cheese, 50% light cheddar provides plenty of creaminess and super cheesy flavor. For open-faced tuna melts, they were wanting a gooey, melty topping, and they found reduced-fat American cheese worked perfectly fine. They admit that sometimes the taste and texture of full-fat cheese can't be replaced, so they worked around this issue. They stuck with full-fat sharp cheddar in twice-baked potatoes, for instance, and saved on calories with low-fat sour cream and skim milk instead.

The fourth thing the Test Kitchen does to healthify comfort foods is to add rich savory flavor with meaty, glutamate-rich ingredients. Leaner cuts of meat, while healthier, tend to have little flavor. So to increase their savory taste, the Testers included flavor powerhouses like mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, soy sauce, anchovies, and tomato paste. They trimmed fat and calories from linguine with bolognese by using ground turkey, but for more intense flavor, they added dried porcini and a little anchovy and doubled up on the tomato paste. Their meatloaf (complete with tangy glaze) used lean ground beef, but its flavor was supercharged with meaty sauteed mushrooms, soy sauce, and tomato juice. And they healthified tacos by ditching the fatty ground beef in favor of ground turkey, pumping up the flavor by cooking the turkey in a zesty sauce of chicken broth, tomato sauce, cider vinegar, brown sugar, and spices.

The fifth thing the Test Kitchen cooks did to create healthier comfort foods was to use lean ground beef or poultry, but they found ways to keep it moist and tender - a real necessity. Opting for lean ground meat and poultry slashed fat, but the substitution can also make a dish dry and flavorless. Lean ground beef and turkey helps lighten the cheeseburgers, but mixing in a panade (a paste of milk and bread) and cooking the burgers in a covered skillet, was the essential trick to moist, tender patties. For Shepherd's Pie, they added a small amount of baking soda, which keeps lean beef tender and juicy. WHO KNEW? And to keep the ground turkey in their chili recipe moist and meaty, and to prevent it from breaking down into little pieces, they sauteed just half of it at the start and added the remaining turkey in pinched pieces toward the end of simmering so it mimicked big bites of tender ground beef.

Lasty, the Test Kitchen experts suggest we stock our kitchen with star ingredients that help us cook lighter food with more flavor - these play a huge role in the outcome of each dish. They say the right ingredients is our smart start to healthifying any comfort food recipe. Their favorite ingredients are:

1. Greek Yogurt. It provides a thicker, creamier, fewer carbohydrates, and more protein than regular yogurt. And plain Greek yogurt is a great stand-in for high-fat sour cream. They use this as a topping for shredded pork tostadas and nachos and even in potato salad, which allowed them to cut back on the mayonnaise!

2. Low-Fat Breadings. Panko crumbs creates a crunchy coating in baked (not fried) dishes such as coconut shrimp and the oven-fried chicken and shrimp mentioned above. The Test Kitchen favors Ian's Panko Bread Crumbs. When they needed breading that offered a crispy texture and ultra-buttery flavor without a lot of fat (think Chicken Kiev), Reduced-Fat Ritz Crackers worked well.

3. Cocoa Powder: For rich chocolate flavor and intensity, without using a lot of chocolate, Test Kitchen pros turned to cocoa powder. They could use a full cup for big flavor without a ton of fat.

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Source:
www.americastestkitchen.com