12 Hands-Off, Make-Ahead Winter Dinners for When You Need an Easy Week

These hands-off, make-ahead-friendly winter dishes set you up for easy meals and great leftovers all week.

By
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson
Emily Johnson
Emily has worked as a food writer and editor for ten years, across publications such as Lucky Peach, Epicurious, Bon Appétit, and The New York Times Cooking.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Published January 19, 2026
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J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

I’ll let you in on a low-key New Year’s resolution of mine. Instead of coming home tired and hungry, frantically Googling “fast dinner ideas” or “30-minute meals,” I want to work ahead—to set myself up for success before the exhaustion hits. The goal isn’t to put more effort into dinner on the nights when I’m wiped. It’s to make a big batch of curry at the start of the week so it’s ready for cold nights; to throw together a quick sheet-pan chicken and vegetable dinner on Sunday that can double as lunches; to dump a few ingredients into the pressure cooker, take a calming shower, and return to a saucy braise. Basically, yes, the goal is meal prep—and no, it’s not revolutionary. But with so many “fast” recipes floating around the internet, I wanted to gather low-effort options that may take time overall but ask very little of you. Some of these dishes have components you can repurpose into new meals throughout the week. Others are so good you’ll happily eat them three or four times. Together, they make up an optimistic checklist for becoming a think-ahead cook—for me and, hopefully, for you too.

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  • Chickpea, Coconut, and Cashew Curry Recipe

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    Andrew Janjigian

    Canned chickpeas are probably my favorite weeknight ingredient. They bring fiber and protein to a dish, but they also add luxurious creaminess and a nutty depth that makes any meal more satisfying. Here, they shine in a simple, fast curry that delivers way more flavor than the effort suggests—thanks to a powerhouse spice blend of cumin, coriander, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, blade mace, and green cardamom. Deeply browning the ginger, garlic, and onion adds even more complexity, giving this quick weeknight curry the richness of something that simmered for hours.

  • Lazy Roast Chicken (The Cold-Start Method)

    A roasted chicken placed on a baking tray photographed in a kitchen setting

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    Starting your chicken in a cold oven isn’t just a way to skip the preheat. It lets the meat cook gently at first while giving the skin a chance to crisp as the oven heats up. And roast chicken might be the ultimate meal-prep move: It’s a cozy winter dinner on night one, then the leftovers can be shredded into salads, pastas, rice dishes, and more throughout the week.

  • 1-Hour Pressure Cooker Texas-Style Chili con Carne Recipe

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    J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

    The pressure cooker is your friend when you want perfectly tender, deeply flavored Texas chili in an hour or less. This isn’t quite a dump-and-cook recipe—you’ll make a paste from dried chiles and sear the beef—but those quick steps add real depth while still keeping the process hands-off overall. And, as always, chili only gets better as the week goes on.

  • Creamy Vegan Saag Paneer (With Tofu) Recipe

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    J. Kenji López-Alt

    This recipe cleverly replaces paneer with tofu—marinating it in lemon juice and miso to give it the tang and savoriness of fresh cheese—creating a fully vegan take on this classic Indian dish. Its signature creaminess comes not just from nut milk but also from pureed cauliflower, which adds both body and extra nutrition.

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  • Sheet-Pan Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts

    Serving on sheet pan chicken and vegetables on a plate with a fork and knife and a red cup. To the side of the dish is the tray of chicken and vegetables with a red napkin

    Serious Eats / Robby Lozano

    No list of hands-off dinners would be complete without a sheet-pan meal. Pro tip: When you’re searching for these recipes, look for ones that stagger cook times—vegetables rarely finish at the exact same moment as meat. In this version, preheating the sheet pan helps the sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts brown more deeply. Enjoy it as a composed dinner on night one, then store the chicken and vegetables separately so you can repurpose them into salads, grain bowls, and other easy meals throughout the week.

  • Slow-Cooker Pulled Pork With Dr Pepper Recipe

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    Stephanie Stiavetti

    This recipe takes just ten minutes to prep, and the slow cooker handles the rest. The unexpected secret weapon is Dr Pepper—its proprietary blend of spices adds complexity and depth you won’t get from any single ingredient. The recipe is flexible, too: If you don’t have a slow cooker, you can simmer it over low heat in a Dutch oven. Use the finished pork as meal prep for sandwiches, rice bowls, and tacos throughout the week.

  • No-Boil Baked Ziti

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    Serious Eats / Robby Lozano

    Unlike manicotti or lasagna, baked ziti comes together with very little effort thanks to its simple sauce and streamlined ingredient list. After extensive testing, Kenji Lopez-Alt found that soaking the noodles—rather than parboiling them—produces the ideal final texture. A soak lets the pasta absorb moisture without overcooking, which is key for a dish that spends a good amount of time in the oven. As a bonus, you won’t have to dirty another pot or wait for water to boil.

  • Easy Weeknight Chicken Pot Pie

    Baked Pot pie with one serving taken out of skillet and on a plate. Skillet is on a white tablecloth and has serving plates around it.

    Serious Eats / Morgan Hunt Glaze

    This recipe proves that chicken pot pie—the all-star of cozy winter dinners—can absolutely be a weeknight meal thanks to store-bought puff pastry. Carrots, leeks, celery, and garlic add aromatic depth; lemon zest brings bright lift; and frozen peas provide a welcome pop of texture.

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  • Easy Weeknight Meatballs

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    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    If you want to spend a lot of time making perfect meatballs, we’ve got that recipe. But this simplified version from Serious Eats' editorial director, Daniel, uses a few smart shortcuts that still deliver robust flavor and tender, juicy texture. Don’t skip soaking fresh bread in milk instead of using dried breadcrumbs—it’s essential for that juiciness. From there, you can choose your own adventure: mince fresh onion and garlic, or rely on dried versions, which offer concentrated flavor with zero effort. Broiling the meatballs gives them a beautiful brown exterior without the mess or work of pan-frying.

  • Mapo Beans (White Beans Cooked in the Style of Mapo Tofu)

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    Video: The Serious Eats Team. Photograph: Sasha Marx

    If you make a big pot of beans at the beginning of the week and want to repurpose them for multiple meals, this recipe is a great place to start. Cleverly, white beans stand in for silken tofu, offering the same creaminess to balance the bold, funky heat of Chinese broad-bean chile paste, doubanjiang. As long as you begin with cooked beans (or use canned), the whole dish comes together in 20 minutes or less. It’s a perfect example of using meat as a condiment—just a little ground beef or pork adds richness without overpowering the other ingredients or driving up your grocery bill.

  • Loaded Baked Potato Soup

    Overhead view of Baked Potato Soup

    Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

    It’s hard to think of anything more comforting than a creamy bowl of potato soup, and this one only requires five minutes of prep and finishes in about 35 minutes. Even though it’s low effort, the recipe does ask you to take the extra step of ricing the potatoes instead of blending everything with an immersion blender. Trust me: The creamy-but-not-gluey texture is absolutely worth it. Plenty of sour cream—both in the soup and on top—adds tang that balances the starchy potato flavor. And for the best texture moment, skip the skins and finish your bowl with potato chips.

  • Easy Pressure Cooker Chicken Enchiladas

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    J. Kenji Lopez-Alt

    The pressure cooker isn’t just great because it cooks food quickly—it also builds a sauce for you with almost no effort. In this recipe, chicken and vegetables release their juices under high pressure, creating the salsa you’ll use to finish your enchiladas. And honestly, who doesn’t want reheatable enchiladas waiting in the fridge all week?

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