Dinner Ideas & Recipes

It's all about the marinade.

Picture this: You’ve got guests coming over for a cookout in less than an hour. What can you grill that will be both impressive and quick? The answer is almost always grilled pork tenderloin. Pork, especially the pork tenderloin, takes incredibly well to the smoky char of the grill. With just a smart dry rub of sugar, salt, and spices, pork tenderloin grills up with a thin, tender-crisp crust, while being incredibly juicy and, well, tender in the interior.

If you’re craving a juicy, tender, cheese-topped burger — one that you can really sink your teeth into — then you need to try the stovetop method. No dry hockey pucks here! Just the kind of burger you’d normally pay big bucks for at a restaurant. Today we’re talking burgers. From the best kind of ground beef to use to tips for shaping the patties, with a step-by-step recipe for simply the best burgers you’ve ever had — at home or elsewhere. Ready?

When the sun is shining and you’re contemplating grilling outside, don’t forget that easy grilled sweet potatoes can be a delicious addition to the summer dinner plate. All you have to do is toss thick slices with some oil and salt, and after just 10 minutes on the grill they’ll be sweet and tender with a hint of smokiness from the flames. To up the ante, toss the still-warm grilled sweet potatoes in a sweet-and-spicy dressing. Heat the grill.

As a Midwestern gal, born and raised, I do love my corn on the cob. What I don’t love, however, is standing over a boiling pot of water waiting for the cobs to cook on a sweltering summer day. Boiling has also always felt to me like a lot of labor for what amounts to a few minutes of actual cook time. Enter: the microwave. Ever since we first talked about this method, the microwave has become my favorite tool for quickly cooking a few ears of corn for a weeknight summer dinner.

Make it fancy with an easy herb butter.

At home, the guac isn’t extra.

It's the no-cook dish of my dreams.

My family asks for it every week.

This basic chicken breast technique gets meal prep done faster!

A step-by-step guide to the best sandwich of summer.

Fresh salmon that’s been rubbed with herbs and grilled slowly over wine-soaked cedar planks: Let me tell you, this right here is some of the best salmon you’ll ever put in your mouth. This is such a simple and elegant technique for cooking salmon. The fish steams gently in the heat of the grill, staying incredibly tender and moist. It also picks up smoky flavors from the grill and woodsy flavors from the cedar, along with whatever was used to soak the planks. So good.

Whether you’re a first-time fryer or a seasoned chef, this step-by-step guide for making the very best fried chicken at home will create the most honest-to-goodness, crispy, juicy, finger-licking delicious chicken — a fried chicken with a glistening coating so full of crunchy ripples, herbs, and spices that it is hard to stop eating it once you start.

Petition to put coconut shrimp in the shellfish hall of fame.

It’s ready in just 30 minutes!

Psst: It’s all about that marinade.

And they have so much flavor.

For all the times I have ordered chicken lettuce wraps at restaurants like P.F. Chang’s, inhaled entire “appetizers” by myself, and sighed with happiness while licking sticky sauce from my fingers, it never once occurred to me to try making this dish at home. Partly, lettuce wraps have always felt like an indulgence that needed restriction to restaurant visits only.

No messy breading and frying required.

It doesn’t get any better than this.

A Juicy Lucy is a simple but ingenious twist on a cheeseburger (with a super-cute name). Instead of cheese melting on top of a hamburger patty, it’s stuffed inside of it, creating an oozy, cheesy center.The first time I heard of this concept, I was instantly intrigued (which isn’t surprising, given how much I loved Oscar Mayer cheese-stuffed hot dogs growing up).

It’s so crispy!

Two ingredients and less than half an hour is all you need.

Friday nights will never be the same.

It comes together so quickly.

And you only need six ingredients.

It's bursting with corn flavor.

Where once I’d pounce on a chef-made bowl of al dente pasta and crisp-tender spring vegetables, now it’s a dish I prefer to make at home. Using what’s fresh and new at the market, I slice and dice carrots, bell peppers, peas, spring onions, and baby Broccolini before tossing them into a pot to quickly cook with penne pasta. Finished with bright and citrusy lemon butter and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese, this warm-weather supper is perfection. And the best part?

We’re here for the feta.

It’s time to ditch the big pot.

For all your potluck and BBQ needs.

Here’s my dinnertime strategy: Bring on the vegetable recipes. I try to make vegetables the star of the show most of the time when I am thinking about what to make for dinner (in addition to keeping mealtime easy, of course!). By making my plate more about the vegetables, I find I automatically eat a more wholesome diet without radically changing much. Some nights that means eating a big dinner salad, while other nights I’ll make a hearty veggie sandwich or one-bowl meal.

There really isn’t a more versatile ingredient to always have on hand in the refrigerator than eggs. In fact, you can make eggs any time of the day, from breakfast and weekend brunch to a simple lunch and weeknight dinner.Eggs for breakfast help us start our days off right. They give our baked goods moisture and structure. They’re also inexpensive, full of protein, and a lifesaver at dinner when you need to throw a quick weeknight meal together.

This is our favorite method.

Ah summertime: it’s when temperatures soar and we all head outdoors to soak up every bit of the season. Who wants to spend time indoors cooking this time of year? Since we can’t subsist on refreshing watermelon and icy popsicles alone, I’ve armed myself with a roster of quick and easy dinners I know I can pull off — even on the hottest of nights.

Just 5 ingredients!

The spice blend is everything.

They are zesty, tangy, a little bit spicy, and absolutely irresistible.

Sticky-sweet BBQ chicken is the quintessential summer dinner that shouldn’t be limited to the lucky folks with backyard grills. I love BBQ chicken from the grill as much as anyone, but if we’re being really honest here, it is kind of time-consuming to do well. You’ve got to cook the chicken pretty perfectly without the sauce, and once the sauce is added you have to spend a lot of time flipping and basting to get that burnished-but-not-burned coating we all crave.

Given the opportunity, my 6-year-old would eat hot dogs every single day. And I can’t blame him. These snappy, savory sausages packed into squishy buns are satisfying and delicious. There are so many ways to cook hot dogs, too. While he and his neighborhood crew would settle for a boiled dog, I miss the sizzle of a skillet-seared, air-fried, or grilled hot dog. Now, when I’m feeding a crowd of hungry kids (and kids at heart!), I skip the simmer and click on the oven instead.

Homemade noodles take it to the next level.

Is there a more quintessential warm-weather side dish than cold pasta salad? This cool salad keeps well, and it’s the perfect make-ahead lunch that you can pack throughout the week. Just about everyone in your family, from your kids to your mother-in-law, will eat it! This recipe is truly as simple as boiling water and tossing in a few key pasta salad ingredients.

It’s juicy, tender, and so savory.

It's my forever recipe.

The cream sauce is wildly delicious.

They’re that good.

Lately, I have been all about flank steak. This cut isn’t quite as fancy — or typically as expensive — as premium steaks, like ribeye and filet mignon, but it cooks just as quickly and delivers big on flavor. I love it for more casual weeknight meals, like easy steak fajitas or alongside some roasted veggies. Plus, the leftovers make tasty steak sandwiches for lunch the next day.

Unparalleled crunch.

Banish all thoughts of stringy, tough, sad chicken from your mind. For our chicken salad sandwiches and quick chicken weeknight meals, we want nothing but the best. And for that, poached chicken is definitely the way to go. This poached chicken method is easy, fast, and foolproof. Totally tender chicken breasts that are as good for dinner as they are for lunch the next day? Not a problem.

It's the easiest dinner you'll ever make.

It cooks in less than 10 minutes.

Just toss and eat.

The homemade teriyaki sauce only has five pantry ingredients.

It’s ridiculously flavorful.

A double hit of lemon balances out the creaminess.

They're ready in 30 minutes or less.