19 Easy 5-Ingredient Meals to Include in Your Weeknight Repertoire
Incredibly fast, incredibly tasty meals do exist! We have 20-plus quick and easy dinner recipes that require a grocery list of only a handful of ingredients. (We're assuming you already have oil, salt, and pepper in your pantry.)You can prepare some of our 5-ingredient meals in 15 minutes! So which of these meals will you try tonight?
Cauliflower Chorizo Tacos
Number of Ingredients: Four, plus desired toppings
Skillet-browned cauliflower florets (one of the trendiest veggies around) absorb chorizo flavor like little sponges. These flavor-packed tacos stand on their own, but the optional toppings make a big impact. Round out the meal with 5 ingredients or less by crowning each taco with your choice of jalapeños, queso fresco, and/or green onions.
Easy Pumpkin-Roasted Red Pepper Mac and Cheese
Number of Ingredients: Five
Take a break from boxed mac. This decadent dish is almost as easy and fits the bill as a 5-ingredient meal. (That's pretty much on par with the pasta, cheese powder, butter, and milk you'd need for the box mix.) This baked mac and cheese is uber-creamy because of the Alfredo sauce, pumpkin puree, and Fontina cheese. Cook the pasta casserole uncovered for the final 5 minutes to lightly brown the top.
Salmon with Roasted Tomatoes and Shallots
Number of Ingredients: Five
Cooking perfectly flaky seafood at home need not be stressful. Proof: This 5-ingredient dinner recipe is as easy as seasoning the salmon and veggies, roasting, and serving. The shallots, garlic, and oregano amp up the complexity for better-than-restaurant results.
Honey-Sriracha Grilled Chicken Thighs
Number of Ingredients: Five
Who needs Asian takeout when you can whip up a homemade 5-ingredient meal full of flavor? We'll enthusiastically dig into these quick-marinated chicken thighs basted with a sweet-hot glaze. Round out this quick dinner with any veggies you have on hand; we're green bean fans here.
Quick Skillet Lasagna
Number of Ingredients: Five
For a 5-ingredient meal that's easy, cheesy, and full of comfort food appeal, turn to this semi-homemade lasagna recipe. This traditional Italian favorite can be prepared and cooked in 30 minutes in one skillet. Seek out mini lasagna noodles (mafalda) to skip the fussy layering step.
Spicy Spring Picnic Pork
Number of Ingredients: Five
No smoker is required to prepare the meat for these pork sandwiches. (Although, if you needed one, did you know you can DIY on a standard grill?) Braise the shoulder roast low and slow in spicy barbecue sauce and sweet Dr. Pepper—trust us!—in your slow cooker. The results will have you asking, "Why didn't I try this 5-ingredient dinner recipe before?!"
Smoky Slider Skewers
Number of Ingredients: Five
Here's one 5-ingredient dinner that's good to grill (or sear on a grill pan indoors come cold weather). Rather than sandwiching slider patties inside mini hamburger buns, try loading them into corn tortillas. Top the pint-size burger recipe with salsa or queso to match the Mexican flavors in the spice blend.
In-Your-Sleep Chili
Number of Ingredients: Five
This is one of the most chill chili recipes our Test Kitchen has ever developed. Easy-prep ingredients, such as canned diced tomatoes, chili beans, and vegetable juice, mean you can have this 5-ingredient meal stewing in the slow cooker in 15 minutes flat. For a lower-calorie entrée, trade ground chicken or turkey breast for the beef.
Butternut Squash Soup
Number of Ingredients: Three
You'll be hard-pressed to find 3-ingredient recipes for dinner that taste like comfort food. But this fall-flavor soup fits the bill. Once the butternut squash cubes are roasted, this creamy blender soup recipe is ready in minutes. Sprinkle with chives, if you please, and serve with a side salad or a whole wheat baguette to complete the meal.
Grilled Salmon and Leeks with Rosemary-Mustard Butter
Number of Ingredients: Five
Whether you prepare this salmon dinner on a grill pan indoors or on an outdoor charcoal or gas grill, it will be ready to plate in less than 30 minutes. The rosemary-mustard butter melts into a delectable sauce for the 5-ingredient dinner recipe. Our optional but recommended item number six: a bottle of your favorite white wine to share.
Spicy Shrimp Pasta
Number of Ingredients: Five
Shrimp is one of the quickest-cooking proteins. (Not to mention one of the highest in protein and healthiest too. Choose one of these sustainable options at the seafood counter.) Use the versatile seafood superstar in this pasta party of a 5-ingredient dinner spiced with chopped jalapeños.
Grilled Pork and Pineapple
Number of Ingredients: Five
Pork chops and apples are a classic combo. Still, we're fond of mixing things up by using pineapple in this Asian-inspired 5-ingredient dinner recipe. Give the pork chops and pineapple slices a swipe of orange marmalade while you grill them for a pleasantly caramelized crust. Cool each bite with the yogurt-marmalade dipping sauce.
Striped Bass en Brodo
Number of Ingredients: Five
En brodo, meaning "in broth," refers to how firm fish is cooked in this light 5-ingredient dinner recipe. The poaching process works well for any firm whitefish. Confession: We're skirting the rules a bit by including this recipe in this roundup since a sixth item—warm bread—is a nearly mandatory side to soak up every last drop of the broth.
Jamaican Pork Stir-Fry
Number of Ingredients: Five
Add some sizzle to your supper menu any time of the year with this 5-ingredient dinner recipe using frozen fajita vegetables. If you can't find pork strips at your grocery store, slice pork loin into thin pieces to make this 20-minute meal. The sweet plum sauce and spicy jerk seasoning make this speedy stir-fry recipe taste surprisingly complex.
Grilled Mussels with Garlic Butter
Number of Ingredients: Five
If you've never made mussels at home, start here with this easy seafood recipe. You'll only need five ingredients including butter, white wine, and garlic. As the mussels cook, they become sweet and tender. Serve the dish with crusty bread for soaking up the sauce.
Pesto Chicken and Radicchio Skewers
Number of Ingredients: Four
Purchased pesto does the heavy flavor lifting in this easy dinner idea. Slather it on skewers of chicken and bitter radicchio, and grill until tender. We like to serve the finished dish with an extra squeeze of lemon and more fresh basil if we've got it on hand.
Pesto Pasta with Charred Radicchio
Number of Ingredients: Five
Here the flavor of basil pesto shines against al dente pasta, bitter greens, and Parmesan cheese. After tossing and transferring to a serving platter, drizzle the dish with plenty of extra-virgin olive oil.
Lemon-Caper Tuna and Noodles with Alfredo
Number of Ingredients: Five
You don't need a long list of ingredients to make a comforting casserole recipe. Here, we're putting a lemony twist on classic tuna noodles. Purchased alfredo sauce and canned tuna go a long way in keeping the prep time down to 20 minutes.
Mississippi Pot Roast
Number of Ingredients: Five
Meet your new favorite pot roast recipe. Each succulent bite is flavored with ranch seasoning, butter, and pepperoncini peppers. As one reviewer raved, "Wow. This was incredible! I've made a lot of pot roast recipes over the years and this has easily become a new favorite! I appreciated that it only required 5 ingredients and came together so easily in the crockpot. The recipe says to add gravy, but I find store-bought gravy salty, so I made my own gravy by adding arrowroot powder to the beef drippings."