The calendar says that the first day of January is the start of a new year. But for me, it has always been September, when I put aside the sandy and slack routines of summer (hot dogs on the grill, takeout pizza on the beach) and stare down the months and school year ahead. What will I make for dinner tomorrow? What even goes in a lunchbox? It’s a time teeming with decisions to make, appointments to schedule and forms to fill; your calendar becomes your single source of truth.
So let us take one thing off your to-do list and help you decide what to cook. Every week, I talk a lot of about fast favorites in my newsletter, Five Weeknight Dishes. (Sign up here!) Now, as is our annual tradition at New York Times Cooking, I’ve handpicked 100 recipes for you to try in the months ahead. All take less than an hour to make, with many ready in less than 35 minutes, and one recipe requiring only 10.
I kept families with young children in mind when I made this list, but plenty of recipes on it are more sophisticated, for those of you who don’t have a passel of chicken nuggets stocked in the freezer. (Or give the kids the nuggets and make yourself spicy green curry steak, served with a very cold beer.) But all are designed to help you get in and out of the kitchen, well fed on the way and on with your night. (Save all the recipes on New York Times Cooking.)
Chicken
Dijon Chicken With Tomatoes and Scallions Dijon mustard and burst tomatoes make this sharp-and-sweet dinner irresistible.
Chicken Pesto Meatballs A genius way to bring body and flavor to chicken meatballs (pan-fry them, instead of baking, to take them to the next level).
Cashew Butter Chicken Korma Luxurious, efficient, delicious.
Set-Pan Garlicky Chicken With Blistered Tomatoes A sunny, simple-to-make dinner to tuck into pita and sprinkle with feta.
Easy Chicken Tacos Happiness is heaping tender shredded meat into tortillas, with a dollop of guacamole, a squeeze of lime or any other touches.
Crispy Chicken With Lime Butter Buttery, citrusy poetry from Eric Kim.
Fragrant Coconut Chicken and Sweet Potatoes Saucy, ginger-spiked and made in a single skillet.
Pad Prik King (Red Curry Chicken and Green Beans) Red-curry paste electrifies this easy stir-fry.
Lemon-Pepper Chicken Breasts Chicken for beginner cooks, or anyone, who loves a quick and very solid recipe (me).
Spicy Vinegar Chicken Over Artichokes Canned artichokes are a sneakily luxurious convenience ingredient.
Miso-Maple Sheet-Pan Chicken With Brussels Sprouts Sweet, salty and ready in under 40 minutes; even brussels sprouts haters might like this one.
Miso-Butter Chicken With Grapefruit An equally delicious miso chicken with a different flavor profile.
Balsamic Chicken Thighs With Burst Tomatoes Use sweet-tart balsamic vinegar to glaze your chicken.
Spiced Chicken and Rice With Cardamom and Cinnamon Saffron, spices and pistachios make this an uncommonly beautiful comfort meal.
Berbere Brown Sugar Chicken Berbere, the smoky spice mix, elevates this saucy skillet chicken dish. (Also use the berbere in the meatballs below.)
Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs With Spicy Corn This recipe is best when fresh sweet corn is in season, but it’s still phenomenal with frozen corn for an any-time-of-year meal.
Sheet-Pan Paprika Chicken With Tomatoes and Parmesan Because we wouldn’t be New York Times Cooking if we didn’t give you one more sheet-pan chicken recipe.
Pan-Seared Chicken With Mujdei Green Beans Mujdei is a sauce for garlic people, put to work here as a coating for the simplest chicken thighs and green beans.
Keema Palak A smart shortcut makes this warmly spiced South Asian staple a little faster to put together after work.
Chicken Cutlets Top these Italian American-style breaded cutlets with an arugula salad and a squeeze of lemon, and call it a cousin of chicken Milanese.
Mojo Chicken With Pineapple A delicious broiler recipe and good for kids if you leave off some of the jalapeño (or, of course, if you’re feeding kids who love heat).
Spicy Skillet Ground Turkey and Snap Peas Yes, this recipe calls for ground turkey, not chicken, but it’s too good not to tell you about — an herby, scalliony dinner brightened with lime.
Pasta & Noodles
Spicy, Creamy Weeknight Bolognese The ultimate long-simmered meat sauce, but blessedly in shortcut form.
Buttery Lemon Pasta With Almonds and Arugula So many good elements here (bright lemons, sliced almonds), and they add up to an even better whole.
Kale and Walnut Pasta A heartier way to do pasta, with extra protein and crunch.
Linguine With Clam Sauce The briny classic, which conjures the seaside but calls for canned clams, so you can make it anytime, anywhere.
Mushroom Scampi Will it scampi? In the case of mushrooms, the answer is yes.
Yaki Udon After you prep your ingredients, you’re only a few stir-fried minutes from a bowl of noodles richly threaded with mushroom, carrots and bok choy.
Espagueti Verde (Creamy Roasted Poblano Pasta) Poblano peppers cook down into a creamy sauce in this enticing meal.
Hoisin Garlic Noodles Hoisin sauce is the hero here; it’s mixed with soy sauce, sesame oil and maple syrup to coat the noodles in the pan.
One-Pot Tortellini with Prosciutto and Peas A silky, salty way to dress up store-bought tortellini.
Creamy Tortellini Soup Try saying “creamy tortellini” out loud a few times just to experience the rolling, musical delight of it.
Citrus-Soy Ramen Rotisserie chicken gives this recipe main-course gravitas, while the combination of lemon and lime make it shine.
Skillet Gnocchi With Miso Butter and Asparagus Miso, butter and sherry vinegar flavor this deeply green one-pan dinner.
Crispy Gnocchi With Sausage and Broccoli This sheet-pan recipe has an especially good ratio of effort to deliciousness.
Cauliflower Alfredo Pasta Cauliflower slips seamlessly into this classic cream sauce.
Spicy Mushroom and Tofu Mazemen This is a vegan take on mazemen, the brothless ramen dish, delectably salty and deep with flavor.
Pasta With Tuna, Capers and Scallions One of my favorite ways to turn a can of tuna into dinner.
Spicy Shrimp Puttanesca Shrimp turns out to be a great foil for the powerful flavors of puttanesca.
Pasta With Spicy Sausages, Tomatoes, Rosemary and Olives Sausage does the heavy lifting in this easy, excellent recipe.
Spicy Sesame Noodles With Chicken and Peanuts Nontraditional, but delicious.
Pork & Beef
Sheet-Pan Sausages, Sweet Potatoes and Balsamic Kale This is exactly what I’ll be eating come November, if not sooner.
Pepper Steak and Celery Stir-Fry With Lemon I really love this recipe, a silky stir-fry streaked with lemon.
Smashed Beef Kebab With Cucumber Yogurt Our most popular recipe of the year so far; the spiced, seared meat contrasts perfectly with the cucumber and yogurt of the sauce.
Berbere Meatballs A delightful convergence of Ethiopian and Italian cooking.
One-Pan Pork Chops With Feta, Snap Peas and Mint Like something you’d find at a restaurant in Brooklyn, but streamlined into a recipe you can make at home.
Skillet Pork Chops and Apples With Miso Caramel This unusual and pretty brilliant recipe received the highest compliment you can get from a Cooking commenter: “This recipe needs no mods.”
Steak With Ginger Butter Sauce A finely tuned recipe from the chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, a Cooking recipe from the back catalog, and as good as it gets.
Beef Fried Rice Use sirloin or skirt steak in this supremely beefy recipe.
Sausage and Barley Soup With Greens I’d take this Italianish sausage barley soup over classic beef barley any day, and the half-pound of baby spinach or kale makes it a full meal.
Honey-Habanero Pork Chops With Carrots An easy recipe featuring a flavor power combo: honey, lime and habanero peppers.
Spicy Green Curry Steak The only way this electric recipe could be easier would be if it grilled the steak for you.
Stir-Fried Cabbage and Pork in Fish Sauce Butter This fast recipe makes magic of a handful of supermarket staples: cabbage, pork, ginger, scallions, fish sauce, butter and lime.
Sheet-Pan Kielbasa With Cabbage and Beans Another pork and cabbage pairing, but entirely different in style.
Cumin Beef and Green Bean Stir-Fry Sriracha and cumin join forces in this stir-fry, which is sort of Hunan, sort of Indo-Chinese and entirely excellent.
Herb-Marinated Pork Chops The recipe comes with a trick that allows the pork to soak up the maximum amount of the vinaigrette’s flavor.
Diner Burgers No one ever hates burgers for dinner, and this method comes from Kenji López-Alt, a master of the form.
Veg
Crispy Halloumi With Tomatoes and White Beans The singular squeak of halloumi is one of my favorite food sounds, not far after crackles, oil sputters and crunch.
Huevos Enfrijolados (Eggs in Spicy Black Beans) Canned chiles in adobo bring instant depth to this take on the classic dish of eggs in a smoky bean sauce.