Learn how to cook a hen in the oven with our simple braised hen recipe. Discover the best way to tenderize tough chicken meat and enjoy a delicious, flavorful meal with minimal effort.

A pig's heart is one of the animal's most active organs, so it's quite lean. It has a rich, dense flavor, especially when it's fresh and the fat is trimmed away ahead of time. Once it's ready, draw out that flavor by cooking it one of two ways: slow and low or fast and flashy.

Pork-jowl bacon doesn't differ much from pork-belly bacon, except for one thing: technically, it's offal. Although you wouldn't know by its appearance -- both jowl bacon and regular bacon are cured and smoked -- pork-jowl bacon comes from the inside of the pork cheek, just below the eye.

You can cook your entire meal on a grill all at once using skewers and squares of food items to create shish kebabs. Mixing your favorite fruits, vegetables and meats together can make for an exceptionally tasty meal because the flavors intermingle as they cook.

Working with fresh crabs can be awkward. They're highly perishable once they're killed, and require a degree of cleaning and preparation. If they're still alive they'll defend themselves vigorously, at some hazard to your fingers.

When turkey is served as a meal, it is usually the star attraction. The last thing you would want is your guests to chomp on a dry piece of this large bird. When a turkey is overcooked, it becomes dry and unappetizing and lacks any flavor.

If you're looking for a fish that's tasty, low in fat and calories, and high in protein -- and that can be prepared a number of ways -- catfish could be your answer. A 3-ounce serving of catfish contains approximately 1 gram of saturated fat, 100 calories and 13 grams of protein.

Cooking a turkey in NuWave oven could save you time in the kitchen, and frees up your traditional oven to cook other items for a special dinner. NuWave is a countertop oven that uses conduction, convection and infrared heat simultaneously to cook foods as much as 50 percent faster than a traditional oven.

Broiling corn on the cob is an ideal alternative when you want the taste of grilled corn but don't have access to a grill. The broiler element in your oven reaches a high enough temperature to quickly cook and brown the corn, similar to the flames of a hot grill. You only need to husk the corn before broiling.

Start to Finish: 5 minutes for American sliced bacon, 1 hour for English bacon Servings: 4 to 6 Difficulty: Easy

Using precooked turkey breasts cuts down on the amount of time you need to spend in the kitchen. Most precooked turkey breasts will include a roasting bag that you are directed to keep the meat sealed in while you heat it. When removing the outer packaging, do not to dispose of the bag.

If you have a game hunter in your family or a good butcher who can provide you with a pheasant to cook, count yourself very lucky. Pheasant requires no more skill to cook than a turkey, and it takes a similar amount of time. The best part about preparing a pheasant, however, is how impressed your dinner guests will be.