Weeknight Meals

You can serve this addictive chutney alongside roasted meat (rotisserie chicken); it’s also good on a sandwich with deli cold cuts. 

Quaker brand grits work really well in this recipe, and they are distributed very widely. If you can’t find them, use any other white, medium-grind, long-cooking grits.

If you’re not following our weekly meal plan and not making the Grilled Cheese (though you really should; it’s delightful), which you need wheat bread for, use country loaf or sourdough bread, crusts removed, for optimal breadcrumbs for this chicken stew recipe. Check out step-by-step photos here.

A half a cup of olive oil may seem like whoa, too much, but that's the key to crisping up the chicken.

As you’re crisping the rice for this chicken salad recipe, the leeks and carrots may look very dark. Don’t be scared or angry at us; the veggies aren’t burnt, they’re just deeply caramelized and will add lots of flavor to the final dish. Check out step-by-step photos here.

This is going to seem like a lot of oil, but you really need it to a) crisp up the rice and b) make it seem like fried rice and not a rice pilaf. To that end, you can’t use freshly cooked (meaning, still warm and moist) rice for this recipe. If you do, it will get gummy in the pan and won’t crisp. Day-old rice is ideal, or you can quickly dry out a just-made batch. Spread rice on a sheet tray and put in a low oven 5–10 minutes. Let air-dry for about 1 hour and up to 5. Seems nitpicky, but worth .…

Instead of chicken, this curry recipe is really good with boneless pork chops. Cut into ½" pieces and proceed as written. Check out step-by-step photos here.

For a hearty vegetarian version of this pasta recipe, use squash, mushrooms, or eggplants in place of shrimp.

Think of this butternut cacio e pepe recipe as pasta cacio e pepe...with sausage. It’s comfort food-y, so it could use some fresh greens and/or veggies to help balance it out. Check out step-by-step photos here.

If you don’t happen to have or particularly enjoy pastrami, bacon or pancetta would be a delicious substitute for this minestrone recipe. Check out step-by-step photos here.

Kabocha squash is a tempura classic, but acorn squash works well too. The honey and crushed red pepper flakes, albeit untraditional, add a spicy-sweet dimension to the dish. 

Cooking the brussels in two stages for this recipe ensures that the cores will be tender and the outer leaves will still have bite.

Spicy, mouth-tingling, porky: Those are the words you’ll be using to describe this tofu recipe.

Garlic and collard greens make a healthy addition to this porridge recipe, but you can use any leftover greens you have on hand.

These are extra saucy and a little sweet like the original SpaghettiOs, but with grown-up flavors all around.

You don’t need hours to simmer tomato sauce. This recipe shows you how to make an excellent one in 30 minutes, with 5 ingredients, in 1 pan, with very little effort.

The genius of this pasta recipe is in the contrast of the textures and flavors. If spicy isn’t your thing, sub in any fresh sausage you like.

Not a big fan of chorizo? This chili recipe can also be made with chicken, turkey, or Italian sweet or spicy sausage.

You can finish this carbonara with other seasonal vegetables, such as shredded brussels sprouts or Napa cabbage. This recipe is from Oberlin, one of the Hot 10, America's Best New Restaurants 2016.

This colorful salad packs a bit of heat by adding the jalapeño; it balances out the cooler flavors, but feel free to omit it.