Weeknight
3429 recipes found
Honey Garlic Shrimp
This speedy dinner comes together in less than 30 minutes and relies on pantry staples like honey and soy sauce for easy weeknight flavor. The honey-garlic sauce works double-time, serving as a sweet-and-savory marinade and as a pan sauce for the crustaceans. While large shrimp work best for this recipe (and are the most forgiving when it comes to cooking time), smaller shrimp will work, too. If your shrimp cook through before it’s time to add the sauce to the skillet, transfer them to a serving dish and reduce the sauce on its own before pouring it over the shrimp. Serve with steamed rice, and a simply cooked green vegetable or cucumber salad.
Honey Mustard Dressing
This tangy and sweet vinaigrette is a must-have for all of your dressing, drizzling and dipping needs. It’s easy to make with pantry staples and lasts for up to one week refrigerated in an airtight container. Dijon mustard and apple cider vinegar make this version creamy and extra punchy. If you prefer a sweeter dressing, add more honey to your liking. For further riffing, you can use lemon juice instead of vinegar and swap in different types of mustard.
Blackened Salmon
Coating fish fillets in a flavorful spice mixture and cooking them in a searing-hot pan until blackened is a technique popularized by legendary Louisiana chef Paul Prudhomme. In this version, center-cut salmon fillets gain a crisp, deeply seasoned crust while remaining tender and flaky on the inside. For the telltale blackened crust, you’ll need to start with a hot pan (cast-iron works best). Be sure to crack a window and turn on the exhaust fan, if possible, as there will be some smoke. Serve blackened salmon with any combination of side salad, rice and grilled or roasted vegetables; or use as a filling for tacos or fish sandwiches.
Roasted Broccoli and Whipped Tofu With Chile Crisp Crunch
The concept here is simple, but the results are truly spectacular: Broccoli florets are tossed with olive oil and soy sauce, steamed in the oven until softened, then crowned with crunchy chile crisp bread crumbs. The broccoli is bundled up in aluminum foil, then cooked, so that it tenderizes swiftly and retains moisture. Meanwhile, chile crisp, panko, cashews and olive oil are toasted in a skillet until seasoned and crunchy. (This mix would also be stellar over peanut noodles, roasted vegetables or salad greens.) The optional base of two-ingredient cashew cream (tofu and cashew butter) adds lusciousness and protein. This dish has got heat, but it’s more about texture.
Baked Chicken Meatballs
These weeknight-friendly chicken meatballs come together in a snap, with minimal chopping and minimal mess. They’re made with a panade — a simple combination of bread crumbs and milk — which makes for light and tender meatballs. Baked meatballs aren’t quite as charred and caramelized as the pan-fried variety, but they do brown nicely underneath, thanks to contact with the hot sheet pan. A hit with adults and kids, chicken meatballs can be served as a snack with your favorite sauce for dipping, or tossed with a simple tomato sauce and served over pasta.
Egg Muffins
Baked egg muffins are an ideal weekday breakfast: They’re portable, easy to make in advance and endlessly adaptable to what’s in the fridge. This recipe calls for a colorful mix of spinach, tomatoes, bacon, Cheddar and feta, but feel free to experiment with your own combinations. Aim to keep roughly the same ratio of ingredients that contain more water, such as tomatoes and spinach, to less wet ones like cheese and bacon. For a vegetarian version, replace the bacon with chopped steamed broccoli or sautéed mushrooms.
Spicy, Creamy Weeknight Bolognese
This pasta sauce captures the soul-soothing essence of a long-simmering Bolognese even though it cooks quickly. Searing ground beef gives it a caramelized taste that mimics the depth of slow-cooked meat. Adding a few spoonfuls of red curry paste doesn’t make it taste like curry, but gives it instant nuance and depth. Some rich cream at the end rounds the sharp heat to an enveloping warmth. To save even more time, you can chop the vegetables while the meat is cooking. The sauce tastes great on any type of pasta, but it’s especially nice with varieties that can capture it in their curves.
Baked Cod
This is a very simple method for baking cod, with an ingredient list both short and mighty. Minced herbs, garlic and scallions give the mild, flaky fish lots of flavor -— but you can feel free to substitute whatever fresh or dried herbs you happen to have on hand, since cod takes well to a range of herbs and flavors. As the fish bakes, the lemon juice mixes with the olive oil and seasonings, resulting in a bright and savory sauce. Spoon it over the hot fish and serve directly from the baking dish, with roasted potatoes and a green salad on the side.
Gai Lan (Chinese Broccoli)
A member of the brassica family, gai lan (also known as Chinese broccoli) tastes like a cross between broccoli and broccoli rabe, with a nice balance of slightly sweet and bitter. Gai lan is typically boiled or steamed with aromatics, then enjoyed plain or drizzled with oyster sauce. Here, it’s simply pan-steamed with garlic, ginger and toasted sesame oil. White pepper, common in Chinese cookery, offers milder heat that pairs well with the gai lan, but black pepper is also fine. This quick side is wonderful with roasted chicken and fish; leftovers can be chopped and added to fried rice or pasta the next day.
Baked Chicken Drumsticks
Chicken breasts and thighs are perennial favorites when it comes to weeknight dinner recipes, but for another quick-cooking and flavorful chicken dinner, consider these baked drumsticks. Coated with a mix of everyday pantry spices and roasted until browned and tender, they are reliably delicious with very little effort. Like chicken thighs, drumsticks are forgiving to cook: While technically cooked through at 165 degrees, they remain juicy and moist at even 175 degrees and higher. Serve them with your favorite weeknight side dishes, such as rice pilaf and lemony steamed broccoli, or a big plate of crudités and ranch dressing for dipping. Finally, if you like things on the spicier side, add a pinch of ground cayenne to the spice mixture, or sprinkle with a few shakes of your favorite hot sauce when the chicken comes out of the oven.
Slow-Cooker Boneless Chicken Breasts
These simple, savory chicken breasts are money in the bank on a weeknight: Chop them for a salad, tuck them into quesadillas or tacos with cheese and salsa, add to a ready-made simmer sauce, or toss with pasta. The seasoning is punchy but neutral enough to work in many preparations, and you can easily tweak it to your taste by, for instance, slightly increasing the cumin and red pepper to make tacos, or decreasing the cumin and increasing the thyme to make a classic chicken salad. The real key to this recipe is checking the internal temperature of the chicken. White meat will dry out if overcooked, so pull the chicken out of the slow cooker when the thickest part of the breast reaches 155 degrees for about a minute, which will ensure juicy, tender meat that’s fully cooked.
Kimchi, Egg and Cheese Sandwich
For heat, crunch and a jolt of brightness, add kimchi to your breakfast sandwich. Most classic egg sandwiches, like sausage or bacon, lack the necessary acidity to balance out the richness of the other ingredients, which is why we often slather on ketchup — it’s sweet, but also tart. By replacing the meat with kimchi, the flavors in the sandwich are awakened. If your fridge isn’t always stocked with kimchi, you can also use another pickled vegetable, like sauerkraut or chopped pickled peppers or dill pickles.
Miso-Parmesan Noodle Soup for One
This speedy, veggie-rich, solo bowl of soup uses a combination of water, miso paste and Parmesan to create a creamy, savory broth. Leeks, peas, kale and pasta add sweetness and heft, while ginger and black pepper (or chile oil) bring a little heat. For more protein, add a handful of cubed tofu or white beans, or swirl in a beaten egg like stracciatella. The recipe is also easily doubled.
Skillet Gnocchi Alla Vodka
Penne pasta might be the most common canvas for creamy, dreamy vodka sauce, but consider branching out: Toss plump, pan-fried gnocchi with the Italian-American favorite and the result is possibly even more cozy. To keep this dinner weeknight-friendly, everything comes together in a single pan. While the recipe is quick-moving, don’t skimp on the few minutes it takes to caramelize the tomato paste: Cooking an entire can of tomato paste until it’s rusty red in color and almost burnished in spots is the secret to a deeply savory sauce without hours of simmering on the stovetop.
Broccoli-Quinoa Soup With Turmeric and Ginger
Turmeric and ginger are generous ingredients: You need only a little of each to deliver plenty of complex, comforting flavors. They work together in this recipe to bring warmth, earthiness, smokiness and spice to this hearty soup. Often a salad ingredient, quinoa proves its versatility here, providing a substantial and protein-packed foundation. The quinoa will continue to absorb the broth once the cooking is complete, so serve immediately for the ideal broth-to-quinoa ratio. (However, if you plan to prepare this soup ahead of time, you can simply thin it out with a little water or stock once you’ve reheated it.) There’s a lovely finishing touch: The chile oil cuts through the richness of the coconut milk and adds to the vibrant colors of this dish.
Smoky Tomato Soup
A grown-up version of grilled cheese’s best friend, this tomato soup is subtly complex thanks to the addition of ancho chile and smoked paprika, but it still has all of the nostalgic qualities of a really good tomato soup: It’s silky, robust and wonderfully tomato-y. Taking a cue from this classic tomato soup, this recipe calls for sweating the onion and garlic with a little flour to thicken the soup, which creates a velvety texture that doesn’t hide the pure tomato flavor. Simmering a whole ancho chile in the soup produces an undercurrent of heat; but if you prefer more spice, pluck off the stem and blend the chile into your finished soup rather than discarding it. Adjust the amount of cream and the level of heat as you like and the soup will taste just right to you.
Pollo a la Piña (Pineapple Chicken)
Pineapples are grown all along the Pacific Mexican coast and are used in raw salsas as a condiment and in cooked salsas to give a sweet and tart counterpoint to spicy chiles and roasted meats and veggies. Pollo a la piña is a bright and savory dish with a smoky spicy kick from canned chipotle chiles in adobo and tropical sweetness from chopped pineapple and orange juice. This tender and juicy chicken makes a great taco filling. Or pile it on a bun with pickled jalapeños and shredded cabbage for a sweet, spicy and smoky sandwich reminiscent of the best BBQ but without firing up the grill.
Lemony Chicken Thighs With Chickpeas and Dates
This flavor-packed, one-pan dinner harnesses the full power of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. By gently searing the chicken skin, you get the crispiest skin possible, plus a pool of chicken fat. Use that fat to soften and season the chickpeas, jammy dates, onions and garlic that round out the dish. Sprigs of rosemary and strips of lemon peel perfume the chicken as it gently cooks in the oven, while a squeeze of fresh lemon juice adds a bright finish at the table.
Gukbap (Beef and Bean Sprout Soup With Rice)
Gukbap means “soup rice”: a rich category of Korean dishes where a scoop of steamed white rice is served inside a warming bowl of brothy soup. This variation of a classic Korean gukbap from Jeonju, South Korea, leads with beef and radish, bolstered by a hearty handful of kongnamul, or bean sprouts, which lend both protein and aroma. Many soups can be gukbap, so long as you serve it with the rice. The key to a good gukbap is the homemade broth, threaded with quiet umami: the kind of flavor you can’t get from a box.
Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt
This quick skillet dinner of spiced, seared ground beef over cooling yogurt combines elements of two Persian classics: kebab koobideh (grilled kebabs) and mast-o-khiar (cucumber yogurt). The creamy yogurt base keeps close to the original, while the ground beef is hard-seared on one side like a scallop for a crisp texture. Walnuts and raisins, traditionally toppings for mast-o-khiar, get toasted in the beef fat, adding crunch and sweetness to balance the savory meat and tangy yogurt.
Turkey Sliders
These juicy turkey sliders are incredibly versatile: They’re simple enough for weeknights, but they’re also the perfect size for parties. The key is to use turkey with enough fat (ground turkey breast isn’t ideal here) so that your sliders will be perfectly moist; slathering them with a combination of barbeque sauce and mayonnaise provides additional insurance. Optional caramelized onions are the perfect savory, jammy topping to balance out the sharpness from the Cheddar and the sweet Hawaiian rolls, but the sliders are also great unadorned.
Pepper Steak and Celery Stir-Fry With Lemon
Lemon is the star of this quick weeknight stir-fry. Using both the peel and juice of the lemons gives this dish a wonderful scent and tangy finish. As with any stir-fry, you’ll want to have all your ingredients sliced and measured before you start cooking, since the meal comes together quickly once you start cooking. The celery softens just slightly, so it retains its herbal brightness plus a crisp-tender bite. Though you can opt for a leaner cut of meat like sirloin for the beef, fattier cuts like skirt or hanger will be more tender and boast richer beef flavor.
Sheet-Pan Coconut Curry With Squash and Tofu
In this warming sheet-pan dinner, winter squash receives the royal treatment, as it roasts in a (shallow!) coconut curry. Choosing a thin-skinned winter squash such as red kuri, kabocha, delicata or butternut means that no peeling is necessary. (In fact, the skin helps the squash keep its structure while cooking.) The whole curry is cooked on one sheet pan: The squash is roasted first, then the tofu, greens and coconut milk are added for an easy, hands-off approach. All curry pastes will vary in saltiness and heat, so add according to your taste preference. If you wanted a bigger flavor punch, you could add some grated ginger and garlic to the coconut milk. The leafy greens will crisp up around the edges, bringing a lovely textural contrast.
Camarones al Ajillo (Shrimp in Garlic and Guajillo Sauce)
A classic from the Pacific Mexican coast, ajillo is the combination of the words ajo and guajillo — garlic and guajillo chile. This dish makes cooking with dried chiles easy: There is no toasting or soaking, and the chiles go from dry to softened in garlicky oil in just one minute. Guajillo chiles are barely spicy, which makes them a great entry-level option for the hesitant but chile-curious. The fresh lime juice and butter at the end makes a silky and punchy sauce that goes perfectly with arroz rojo, but is also good enough for dipping. Usually, this dish is served with crackers for swiping through the sauce.