22 Easy Five-Ingredient Recipes For Nights When You Need Dinner Done ASAP
Most come together in less than 45 minutes too!
If making dinner is just another item on your long to-do list, cross it off quickly with these super-easy, five-ingredient meals, featuring everything from chicken to steak to pasta. These recipes all contain five easy ingredients or fewer—plus some basics, like salt, pepper, and oil. Truly, they couldn't be simpler!
Let’s talk about kitchen staples. We mentioned salt (kosher is our favorite!), pepper, and oil because those are things we know you’ve already got at home. We’re adding butter and garlic to the list too, because they’re both vital to almost every savory recipe on our site (seriously, what doesn’t benefit from more garlic flavor?). If you’ve got these in your arsenal, you’ll be ready to turn even the most simple of ingredients into something wonderful for dinner.
All right, what’re we making? Chicken is “what’s for dinner” a lot at our houses, but we’d never recommend serving a boring plain chicken breast. Instead, jazz it up with spices, like our Cajun-stuffed chicken or chicken fajitas, or serve it in a store-bought or simple homemade sauce, like our BBQ chicken twice-baked sweet potatoes or our skillet chicken piccata. Store-bought sausage is another of our go-tos, since half the flavor work has often already been done for you. Try our sheet-pan sausage and vegetables, our one-pan cheesy-sausage gnocchi, or our orecchiette with broccoli rabe to see how versatile sausage can be. Looking for something vegetarian? We’ve got you too. Pasta is one of our go-tos for quick and simple plant-based meals. Check out our fettuccine Alfredo or our baked feta pasta. Not a noodle fan? Try our black bean tostadas or our cauliflower Parmesan—we bet you won't even miss the meat when dinner gets on the table this fast!
Want more simple dinner ideas? Try our one-pot meals, our top quick dinners, and our favorite sheet pan dinners too.
Did you know you can shop for all the ingredients for these recipes with the click of a button? Look for the Shop With Instacart button and simply click, shop, and wait for your delivery to arrive. Dinner truly made easier.
Sheet Pan Sausage & Vegetables
Whenever we need an easy weeknight dinner that doesn't require much, this is what we make. It works with whatever veggies you already have and requires basically zero effort. Most of the time spent is waiting while the sheet pan is in the oven, and there are minimal dishes to clean when it's all said and done. What more could you need?
Cajun-Stuffed Chicken
Cajun seasoning is a top 5 go-to seasoning mix for our Test Kitchen chefs. We love the spicy, zesty flavors it can provide to everything it touches. The spice also makes this stuffed chicken dish a perfect leftover contender because the flavor last and lasts.
Get the Cajun-Stuffed Chicken recipe.
One-Pan Cheesy Sausage Gnocchi
This easy dinner harnesses the power of seasoned sausage, jarred marinara, and fresh potato gnocchi to make a super-flavorful dish with minimal prep and active cooking time. Perfect for a lazy night when you're craving the 3 C’s: comfort, carbs, and CHEESE.
Black Bean Tostadas
With only 5 ingredients, these black bean tostadas are the easiest and fastest meal to throw together. You can always add on additional toppings like corn salsa, avocado ranch, or endless crunchy veggies like radishes or pickled red onions, but these are also delicious if you keep things simple, like we did here.
Get the Black Bean Tostadas recipe.
Homemade Philly Cheesesteaks
Philly cheesesteaks are iconic—and for a really good reason! The combination of thinly sliced ribeye, jammy caramelized onions, and ooey-gooey melted cheese is truly addictive. We added bell peppers and mushrooms like they often do on the West Coast, but feel free to keep it simple (or add more to make it your own!).
Get the Homemade Philly Cheesesteaks recipe.
Orecchiette With Broccoli Rabe
Orecchiette, literally translating to "little ears" in Italian, is a crazy-underrated and underutilized pasta. The tiny little indentations catch so much sauce! Here, the sauce is similar to that of cacio e pepe. You just need butter, pasta water, pepper, and cheese. Toasting the pepper in butter is key, folks. DO NOT skip it.
Cheesy White Bean Skillet
Need a quick meal on the fly? We bet you’ve got the ingredients for this in your kitchen already. Believe it or not, if you've got eggs, canned white beans, and some marinara, you can make this! The best part? This easy, cheesy recipe comes together in less than 30 minutes. 😉
Get the Cheesy White Bean Skillet recipe.
Chicken Fajitas
We can thank the cuisine of Tex-Mex for the origin of the classic fajita. These days you can find steak, chicken, shrimp, or even vegetarian fajitas, so go wild! Whatever you choose, minimal prep, cook time, and ingredients means these can be on your dining room table FAST.
Get the Chicken Fajitas recipe.
BBQ Chicken Twice-Baked Potatoes
Missing summertime BBQ chicken? Stuff sweet potatoes with rotisserie chicken and your favorite BBQ sauce, then top them with Gouda for a healthy chicken dinner you can enjoy long into fall and beyond.
Pasta Alla Gricia
This is easy to make and even easier to indulge in. The real Italian way uses guancial—cured pork jowl—which has a slightly sweet, delicate flavor. If you can't find it, use pancetta or thick-cut bacon instead!
Get the Pasta Alla Gricia recipe.
Garlic Butter Baked Chicken Thighs
Allow us to make a case for bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. In our humble opinion, they're all-around better. The reason? More fat equals more flavor. Plus, is there anything more delicious than crispy chicken skin?
Garlicky Lemon Mahi Mahi
This easy mahi-mahi recipe comes together in 30 minutes or less. After searing the fish for a few minutes per side, make a super-simple lemon butter sauce with garlic. We like to sauté some asparagus too, but use whatever vegetable you like (or skip it altogether).
Get the Garlicky Lemon Mahi Mahi recipe.
Smothered Cube Steak
With a prep and cook time of just under an hour, this budget-friendly dinner hits all the marks for a comforting weeknight meal. Cube steak is particularly tasty here, dredged in a seasoned-flour mix and prepared with an irresistible gravy flavored with onion soup mix.
Get the Smothered Cube Steak recipe.
Skillet Chicken Piccata
Looking for an easy chicken recipe? This lemony chicken piccata is so easy to throw together. While many piccata recipes bread the chicken, we skip that to get this on your table FAST.
Get the Skillet Chicken Piccata recipe.
Pesto Ramen
We bet you're already familiar with making store-bought ramen when you need a quick meal, but have you ever considered skipping the soup and just using the noodles? Trust us, adding pesto and Parmesan (and ditching the flavor packet) can make even the most rushed of dinners into something a bit more special.
Get the Pesto Ramen recipe.
Cauliflower Parm
Chicken Parmesan is absolutely incredible, but it can be a bit heavy. When you're trying to be healthy, but are really craving good Italian food, make this vegetarian cauliflower dish. You won't be disappointed.
Get the Cauliflower Parm recipe.
Caprese Chicken
You can't go wrong with this summery combo. Tomatoes cooked in balsamic vinegar are the perfect sweet-tart complement to this cheesy chicken.
Get the Caprese Chicken recipe.
Crockpot Salsa Chicken
This is probably THE simplest recipe... ever? A slow-cooker meal made with only 4 ingredients is really something to celebrate. The chicken falls apart and becomes immensely tender, brimming with the familiar flavors of chunky salsa and taco seasoning, and brightened up with bursts of lime juice. Yum!
Get the Crockpot Salsa Chicken recipe.
Copycat Pizza Hot Pockets
To re-create the beloved pizza hot pocket, we used canned pizza dough, store-bought marinara, cheese, and pepperoni. The egg wash gives the crust a beautiful shine and helps it get golden brown, but you can skip it if you like!
Get the Copycat Pizza Hot Pockets recipe.
Air Fryer Pork Chops
Most of the time, we don't get very excited over pork chops. Often overdone, they come out dry, sad, and flavorless. Cooking them in an air fryer changes all that! Due to the intense heat circulation that happens, the outside crisps slightly while the inside stays nice and juicy.
Get the Air Fryer Pork Chops recipe.
