11 Quick Dinners That Make Home Cooking Feel Easy

These quick, flavor-packed meals will help make home cooking an easy habit.

By Robin Shreeves
Published January 18, 2026
Salmon fillets topped with pomegranate seeds and greens on a baking sheet

Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Ward, Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless, Food Stylist: Margaret Monroe Dickey

If cooking more of your meals at home is one of your goals this year, you’re going to need a little inspiration. These 11 recipes deliver exactly that: They’re made with fresh ingredients, packed with smart tips for getting maximum flavor, and easy enough for any weeknight. Plus, most cook in 45 minutes or less—one of them in just 10.

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  • Pasta c'Anciuova e Muddica Atturrata (Sicilian Pasta With Anchovies and Toasted Breadcrumbs)

    20200916-Pasta-canciuova-e-muddica-atturrata-1-sasha-marx
    Sasha Marx

    Simple but rich, this sauce gets its deep, savory flavor from tomato estrato (tomato concentrate) and anchovies, balanced by the natural sweetness of onions and a handful of golden raisins. It’s best with bucatini or another thick, long pasta, which gets coated in the sauce and finished with toasted breadcrumbs. If you can’t find estrato, tomato paste works—just skip the raisins, since the paste is already sweeter.

  • Sheet-Pan Chimichurri Chicken

    A dish with grilled chicken thighs vegetables chimichurri sauce and white rice on a plate utensils and a sauce bowl beside it

    Serious Eats / Qi Ai

    You’ll need a 60-minute marinating window between prep and cooking—perfect time to change out of work clothes, walk the dog, help with homework, or just unwind. A quick whirl in the food processor turns herbs, garlic, and olive oil into a bright chimichurri for the chicken and veggies. Once everything roasts, serve it with extra chimichurri for drizzling, plus rice, flatbread, or roasted potatoes on the side.

  • Macarona Bil Laban (Pasta With Garlic Yogurt Sauce)

    Plate of pasta with ground beef and herbs being served

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Think of this 30-minute meal as mac and cheese’s Levantine cousin. The layered sauce is a mix of yogurt, garlic, and fresh lemon juice. The pasta is short and tubular. There’s a layer of toasted pine nuts. And the final layer—a well-seasoned mix of ground beef or lamb with onion and garlic—goes right on top for a comforting, flavorful bowl.

  • Sheet-Pan Drumsticks With Green Beans and Potatoes

    Plate of herbed chicken drumsticks green beans and mashed potatoes

    Serious Eats / Larisa Niedle

    This sheet-pan dinner comes with a clever twist: The cubed potatoes are covered with foil and roasted first, then mashed with some of the chicken’s rendered fat and the roasted garlic. The chicken gets coated in a garlic-herb butter, and as it cooks, the melted butter and drippings flavor the green beans underneath. The result is an easy meat-potato-veg dinner with a ton of flavor.

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  • Spaghetti Puttanesca (Spaghetti With Capers, Olives, and Anchovies)

    20210202-spaghetti-puttanesca-melissa-hom-8
    Melissa Hom

    This deeply savory pasta starts with sautéing garlic, anchovies, and red pepper flakes in oil, then adding capers, olives, and finally tomatoes. If you like, a can of tuna in oil can go in at this stage, too. While the spaghetti boils, the sauce comes together, and the two are combined in the saucepan with a generous sprinkle of Pecorino Romano or Parmesan. You’ll be plating dinner in about 20 minutes from start to finish.

  • Sheet-Pan Salmon and Kale

    Salmon fillets topped with pomegranate seeds and greens on a baking sheet

    Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Ward, Prop Stylist: Julia Bayless, Food Stylist: Margaret Monroe Dickey

    Make a quick salsa-like mix of pomegranate, walnuts, herbs, and oil. Add massaged kale and salmon to a baking sheet drizzled with olive oil, and bake. While everything cooks, whisk together a pomegranate sauce to drizzle on top once it’s out of the oven. It’s a healthy, flavorful dinner that comes together in about 45 minutes.

  • Maple Mayo Broiled Salmon

    Side view of broiled salmon

    Serious Eats / Jordan Provost

    Take your salmon out of the freezer in the morning and let it defrost in the fridge while you’re at work. Once you’re home, you’re just 15 minutes away from broiled salmon coated in a Dijon–mayo–maple syrup mixture with an optional kick from smoked paprika, chipotle powder, or cayenne. Microwave a steamable bag of veggies while the salmon broils, and dinner is done with almost no effort.

  • Spicy Mexican Shrimp Pasta

    A plate with spaghetti and shrimp, garnished with herbs, placed on a table with a fork nearby

    Serious Eats/ Shri Repp

    Small, simple touches add big flavor to this 40-minute meal. Sautéing the shrimp shells in the butter infuses the sauce with a rich, nutty shrimp flavor. Crushing the garlic and chiles—rather than slicing them—turns them into a paste that melts into the sauce, along with a squeeze of lime. Toss the sauce with pasta and the cooked shrimp for a spicy, citrusy, boldly flavored dinner.

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  • Chicken Paillard (Chicken With Lemon-Herb Butter Sauce)

    A plate with chicken paillard and a side of greens, placed on a wooden table with a fork and a napkin

    Serious Eats / Fred Hardy

    Slice the chicken breasts in half lengthwise and pound them thin, then dredge in flour. Cook them in a skillet with a little oil, then use all those flavorful browned bits to build a quick pan sauce with stock, garlic, butter, lemon, and seasonings. In about 30 minutes, you’ll have a French-inspired chicken dish finished with flaky salt and lemon zest.

  • 10-Minute Chana Masala

    Overhead view of 10 minute chana masala

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Open a can of chickpeas and be sure to save some of the liquid. Make a quick sauce with butter, garlic, ginger, spices, tomato paste, sugar, heavy cream, and garam masala, then season with salt. Add the chickpeas and simmer briefly. Thanks to the tomato paste, the sauce thickens fast—so you’ll be sitting down to dinner in just 10 minutes.

  • Pasta al Limone

    20171206-pasta-alla-limone-vicky-wasik-13
    Vicky Wasik

    Bright and fragrant, this pasta gets its flavor from fresh, simple ingredients. The sauce comes together with butter, lemon, garlic, salt, and a splash of pasta water. Toss the silky mixture with the cooked pasta and Parmigiano-Reggiano, then finish with more cheese and a little lemon zest.

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