Close friend cooked and brought in meat dish (9)
I believe the answer is:
confidant
'close friend' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'cooked and brought in meat dish' is the wordplay.
'cooked' is an anagram indicator (letters cooked into a new form).
'brought in' is an insertion indicator.
'meat dish' becomes 'confit' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'and' is an anagram of 'dan'.
'dan' going within 'confit' is 'CONFIDANT'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for confidant that I've seen before include "Trusted friend" , "Close friend entrusted with secrets etc" , "Sharer of secrets" , "intimate" .)