13 Quick and Easy Dinner Recipes

Here’s a fresh list of quick and easy dinner recipes for when you’re too hungry or tired or busy. Thirty minutes or less and you could be on your way to Thai basil pork, pork chops with applesauce, chicken piccata, or even a pepper and egg sandwich. It’s all here and it’s all fast.

A white bowl filled with quick chicken chili with a spoon resting inside and a lime wedge on top.
This quick chicken chili is easy and healthy and made with boneless chicken, plenty of spice, cannellini beans, and green chiles. It’s exactly what you want when you crave something that’s satiating as heck but fast as can be.
Recipe
A white enamel pot with a blue rim with spaghetti, chili flakes, and oil in the bottom. A set of wooden tongs sits inside.
This simple spaghetti with garlic and chile flakes couldn’t be more simple. Just spaghetti, garlic, oil, and red pepper flakes. Great for lunch, snack, or a fast weeknight dinner.
Recipe
A wooden cutting board with a rectangular plate and spoon on top, the plate has a mound of rice on the back half. On the front half, there's a pile of ground pork, basil, and peppers.
This Thai basil pork recipe is easy and slightly spicy and made with ground pork, fish sauce, soy sauce, garlic, shallots, Thai chiles, and basil. A quick weeknight dinner that’s cheaper and better than takeout.
Recipe
Four cheeseburgers with everything sauce tucked into a white casserole dish with sweet potato chips and a dish of everything sauce.
These cheeseburgers with everything sauce are as classic as they come. Burgers smothered with melted Cheddar and topped with tomato, lettuce, onion, pickles, and a ketchup, mustard, and mayo sauce. All smooshed together between perfectly toasted hamburger buns.
Recipe
A yellow and white pot filled with smoked salmon pasta and garnished with fresh chives.
This smoked salmon pasta is a simple meal that creates lotsa flavor by easily tossing together spaghetti and smoked salmon with a lemon cream sauce. Did we mention it’s on the table in less than half an hour?
Recipe
Two bowls, one filled with smoked paprika and chickpea soup, with a spoon resting inside, and the other bowl empty.
This is something to make in a hurry when you want a hearty, simple soup and don’t have any time or any stock. Don’t overdo the smoked paprika—it should exude a slightly smoky mystery to the soup, not the obvious taste of full-blown paprika.
Recipe
Two pieces of breaded fish fillets sprinkled with salt on a grey plate with a portion of steamed broccoli and a fork.
These breaded fish fillets are coated in breadcrumbs and gently pan-fried in oil and butter until crispy, flaky, and golden. They’re as fast to make as the frozen boxed variety yet taste infinitely better.
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A white platter with four pork chops with applesauce in a jar on the side and fried sage leaves sprinkled over the pork chops.
Though delicious on its own, pork can be wonderfully accepting of flavor enhancers—fruit is the surprising and undeniable favorite.
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A skillet filled with classic chicken piccata
This chicken piccata, made with boneless chicken breasts cooked in a buttery lemon and caper sauce, is on the table in less than half an hour. Easy!
Recipe
A pepper and egg sandwich on a wooden table with pieces of pepper and onion falling out.
This pepper and egg sandwich is simply (and satisfyingly) scrambled eggs along with sweet bell peppers and onions and stuffed into bread. An Italian American staple perfect for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in between. Here’s how to make it.
Recipe
A steak and arugula salad with pesto vinaigrette in a white bowl, with a wooden board and sliced steak next to it.
This steak and arugula salad with pesto vinaigrette is an easy meal of peppery greens, pan-seared strip, shaved Parmesan, and a pesto dressing, that’s quick enough for a weeknight, yet special enough for guests.
Recipe
A skillet filled with shrimp with chorizo and toasted bread slices on the side.
Shrimp with chorizo is startlingly simple, considering how impressive it is. Shrimp, smoky sausage, garlic, chile, and lemon come together in just about half an hour. Serve it as a main for 2, or share it as a tapas-style app.
Recipe
A white plate topped with a piece of brown butter flattened chicken, tomato sauce, arugula and red onion salad, and pine nuts.
This brown butter flattened chicken is served with a buttery tomato sauce and a pickled red onion and arugula salad. The finished dish rivals a restaurant-quality meal, yet it takes only 30 minutes to toss together.
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