10 Sweet and Savory Recipes You'll Love

Sometimes contrasting flavors make magic together. You could call it the Maple Bacon Effect. Finding those perfect pairings takes time and a pinch of luck. We had both!

Writer: Hannah Agran; Photographer: Blaine Moats

Apple Harvest Chili [1]

Fresh apple, dried fruit and cashews add color, sweetness and crunch to a ready-in-45 vegetarian chili. For a twist on the traditional toppers (and to hint what’s inside), garnish with apple slivers.

Apple Harvest Chili [2]

Sweet and Spicy Steak Salad [5]

Sirloin strips marinated in raspberry-chipotle vinaigrette get caramelized edges on the grill. Pile skewers on mixed greens with goat cheese and veggies, then pass the tongs and dressing.

Sweet and Spicy Steak Salad [6]

Cinnamon-Spiced Beef Stroganoff [9]

A few pinches of pantry spices jazz up the traditional sour-cream gravy. This cozy weeknight dish dances on the line between comfort food and curry.

Cinnamon-Spiced Beef Stroganoff [10]

Lemon-Rosemary Pork Loin with Cherry Sauce [13]

The classic fruit-and-pork combo gets a bold update: Slather the meat with a paste of garlic, mustard, lemon and rosemary, then serve with ruby red cherries. This recipe multiplies easily for entertaining.

Lemon-Rosemary Pork Loin with Cherry Sauce [14]

Grape-Stuffed Chicken with Lemon Orzo [17]

Fruit-and-nut stuffing transforms everyday chicken breasts into a company-ready feast. Bonus: It's deceptively simple; you’ll have dinner on the table in an hour.

Grape-Stuffed Chicken with Lemon Orzo [18]

Spicy Beef, Bean and Vegetable Stew [21]

Affordable beef chuck roast, apple, parsnip and sweet potato slow-simmer in broth flavored with dark beer, herbs and spices. Warm corn bread muffins and cold winter night optional.

Spicy Beef, Bean and Vegetable Stew [22]

Salty Caramel and Pecan Oatmeal Cookies [25]

These cookies come with a friendly warning: Chewy caramel, toasted pecans and a flurry of sea salt will make you popular. Very popular. A product called caramel bits gives these cookies great flavor and chewy texture. Some supermarkets carry them, and they’re widely available online. (Search for Kraft Caramel Bits.) Take care to follow recipe directions when baking: caramel bits melt quickly.

Salty Caramel and Pecan Oatmeal Cookies [26]

Toasted Fennel-Lemon Cake [29]

This moist beauty begs for a mug of afternoon tea. Fennel seeds add the faintest hint of licorice flavor, just enough to make the cake stand out from the other Bundts in the room. We like the sweeter flavor of Meyer lemons in this cake. Look for them sold in bags at large supermarkets. If you substitute regular lemons, reduce the finely shredded peel to 2 tablespoons.

Toasted Fennel-Lemon Cake [30]

Bacon-Pear Macaroni and Cheese [33]

Crispy bacon, extra-creamy cheese sauce, pears sauteed in brown sugar and butter. It took our Test Kitchen three tries to get all the pieces right. Oh man, was it worth it.

Bacon-Pear Macaroni and Cheese [34]

Spiced Chocolate-Pistachio Cookies [37]

Bright green pistachios and subtly spicy flavors give this buttery chocolate cookie plenty of personality. Serve a plate of them with coffee.

Spiced Chocolate-Pistachio Cookies [38]

Sweet and savory blends [41]

Common pantry ingredients take on new roles in our recipes, bending the definitions of sweet and savory.

Salt brightens almost any dish, even dessert. A generous grind is the final flourish on Salty Caramel and Pecan Oatmeal Cookies. [42]

Chocolate in all its many forms is a kitchen chameleon, morphing along a flavor spectrum of bitter and sweet. We used two kinds in Spiced Chocolate-Pistachio Cookies [38].

Inspired by mulled cider and German sauerbraten, we seasoned Spicy Beef, Bean and Vegetable Stew [43] with allspice.

Cuisines across Asia and Africa use pumpkin pie spice in savory dishes. We chose to update an old favorite, creating Cinnamon-Spiced Beef Stroganoff. [44]

Get your apple a day in a new way. Morsels of fruit add nutrition and sweet-tart zing to Apple Harvest Chili [45].

Chipotle peppers infuse campfire smoke in grilled Sweet and Spicy Steak Salad [46]. Pick a pepper: Chipotles are smoked jalapeños. Most recipes call for the canned kind, which are available at big supermarkets and come in flavorful adobo sauce. Puree or mince the extra peppers with the sauce, and freeze in a flattened resealable plastic bag. Break off pieces when you want to add smoky heat to a recipe. (One tablespoon of puree equals about one pepper.) We also like Tabasco’s chipotle sauce; it’s milder, but super convenient.