Sometimes I scroll through a recipe and just shake my head. Who actually has the time or patience to make that? Most nights, I want dinner now. Like: I want to walk through the door and have it greeting me on my kitchen counter. Instead, I often find myself relying on delivery apps or cheese-and-crackers (okay, that doesn't even qualify as real dinner—I know). Or at least I did...until senior food editor Rick Martinez developed five lightning-fast recipes, built off one grocery list, for those of us who don't have time to cook. If the idea of going to town on a rotisserie chicken sounds like your ideal Tuesday night, stay with me. There will be chicken—but there will also be ways to make it taste like you didn't just pluck it out from underneath a supermarket heat lamp.
In one shopping trip, you can pick up the groceries you need for your Monday to Friday meal plan (but make sure you have a few things in your pantry).
Everything You'll Need:
1 rotisserie chicken
2 Granny Smith apples
½ cup salted, roasted peanuts
3 medium red onions
12 oz. fideo, vermicelli, or angel hair pasta
2 bunches fresh parsley (about 2 cups total)
40 large shrimp
1⅓ cups dried sour cherries
2 15-oz. cans cannellini beans
1 28-oz. can whole peeled tomatoes
1 cup medium-grind white grits
4 oz. thick-cut bacon
1 whole wheat Pullman loaf
9 Tbsp. fish sauce
6 limes (juice plus wedges for serving)
2⅓ cups pimiento cheese spread (about 19 ounces)
Congratulations! You actually went grocery shopping, and, if you followed the list above, you're about ready to get going with your Monday night meal. Save whatever ingredients you have leftover after each recipe—you'll need them for the next few nights.
Monday: Spicy Pasta with Shrimp and Tomatoes (Step-by-Step, Recipe)
Thin, nimble noodles (in this case, fideos, vermicelli, or angel hair pasta) take on sophisticated character if you just throw them into a dry pan with oil for a few minutes before you cook them. Add to that simply cooked shrimp and a hit of spicy chili-garlic sauce, and you've got yourself a quickie meal that is not microwavable mac and cheese. If you can spare the money, opt for fresh-cleaned and deveined shrimp; frozen works just fine, if it makes your wallet easier to look at after the meal. Even though you'll need only about 1 lb. of shrimp for this particular recipe, cook all of your shrimp tonight so that you'll have some ready to go later in the week when you make Wednesday's recipe.
Tuesday: Crispy Chicken Thai Salad (Step-by-Step, Recipe)
We are in no way above the magic of the store-bought rotisserie chicken. We have, however, gotten over the phase of just eating it by itself. Here, Martinez devised a way to lend that chicken extra crunch (i.e., throwing it in a pan for a few minutes) and dressing the whole thing up for its big Thai night out. When you're shopping for a chicken, try to find one with skin cooked on the lighter side, since you'll be cooking it more at home, and the only thing zero people have time for is overcooked chicken.
Wednesday: Bacon-y Shrimp and Pimiento Cheese Grits (Step-by-Step, Recipe)
Use pimiento cheese to make instant-cheese grits topped with shrimp. Bacon—the smoke, the salt, the fat—brings it all together. Martinez prefers a hardwood-smoked, thick-cut deli bacon for something like this.
Thursday: Chicken Stew with Cannellini Beans and Cherries (Step-by-Step, Recipe)
The word "stew" should not make you dive for the Previous Orders section on your delivery website of choice. Turns out: It ain't that hard. Don't believe us? This one, which is ready in under 30 minutes, takes on the layered, well-developed flavors that signal the work of a cook who knows her way around a kitchen. Street cred, check. Slightly spicy, super comforting, slightly tart and herby chicken stew for a weeknight, check and check.
Friday: Pimiento Grilled Cheese with Apple-Cherry Chutney (Step-by-Step, Recipe)
You can handle grilled cheese, but you already know that. This grilled cheese is as easy as American cheese slapped between two slices of bread—except with restaurant-level flavor. Swapping out American for more (!) spreadable pimiento cheese lends extra heat and spice, and the chutney brings tartness, crunch, and just enough produce for you to feel like you're adult-ing like a champ.