Dinner Recipes for Stress-Free Meals

This recipe is so simple yet doesn’t skimp on flavor in the slightest. Combine four marinade ingredients, then pour it over the chicken. Bake. Serve. Done! Pair it with brown rice, serve it over a salad, or shove it inside lettuce wraps.

Say hello to your new favorite no-stress Tex-Mex enchilada recipe. It uses shortcuts like leftover chicken and canned enchilada sauce so you can literally throw dinner together in minutes. Serve with a side salad and (lots of) avocados for a complete meal.

You don’t need many ingredients to turn boring chicken breasts into a dish you’ll want to make on a weekly basis. This brothy and super-filling stew can be made quickly with leftover chicken or completely from scratch with a slow cooker.

Looks like takeout but can be made in less than 20 minutes? Yes, please! Simply dredge chicken breasts in flour, brown them in a pan, and then sauté the asparagus and lemon to layer on top.

The secret to getting crunchy, perfectly breaded chicken? Use lemon juice in place of an egg wash to keep the breadcrumbs intact. Lemon juice’s acids will keep the chicken super juicy while it pan-fries, adding a whole new flavor dimension.

Slice the ham almost all the way through to let the maple syrup, Dijon mustard, brown sugar, and clove mixture seep into every nook and cranny. For serving, get creative: Eat it as a main dish, use it in sandwiches, dice it into your scrambled eggs, add it to a stir-fry. The world is your… ham?

Get dinner on the table with minimal prep by adding a new spin to fajitas: Bake them! Smothered in salsa, peppers, and onions, the dish spends most of its time in the oven, giving you time to de-stress after a long day. Serve in a whole-wheat tortilla, on a salad, or with a side of rice.

Ready to upgrade your tacos? This pineapple salsa chicken is so simple it basically cooks itself. Dump the protein, pineapple chunks (and juice), and favorite salsa in the slow cooker and let time do the work.

Roast sweet bell peppers first, then fill with shredded chicken, quinoa, pesto, and mozzarella cheese. Bake again, then serve. If you like a firmer pepper, skip the pre-roasting step and just bake them with the other ingredients.

Five ingredients and one of them is bourbon? Sign us up. This easy pork marinates for a few hours or overnight—it’s easily whisked together in the morning—and then is grilled or baked in less than 20 minutes. And why not enjoy any leftover bourbon while it cooks?