Quick Dishes to Prepare When You Have Less Than an Hour to Cook

Ratatouille is a French vegetable stew. It can be prepared with vegetables you have on hand — like zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, carrots, or potatoes — then add herbs and a can or two of beans for the protein.

Instead of putting the stuffing inside the pork chop, pile it on top! This time-saving method means you can quickly sear the chops on the stovetop rather than bake them stuffed for much longer time in the oven.

Boil up some pasta (or even use leftover), then add a colorful mix of fresh vegetables, herbs, and toss it all together with olive oil and a little vinegar or your favorite dressing.

As long as you cut everything into small chunks, stir-fries cook up quickly. Chicken makes for the classic sweet and sour, but tofu or any protein will also work. Add some vegetables and top it with your favorite sauce — sweet and sour, honey garlic, teriyaki, or maybe even make it primavera.

This is a simple classic. Cut chicken breasts into thin slices, coat them with Parmesan cheese, bread crumbs, garlic, top with a spoonful of tomato sauce, some grated cheese, and then bake. Cooking the chicken this way makes it lower in fat and calories than deep-fried chicken.

There are plenty of chicken cutlet recipes to choose from, and lots of salads that pair well with them, meaning you have many choices with this dish. A cutlet is a chicken breast with the tender removed, sliced horizontally, and pounded into a thin cutlet. As a result, it cooks quickly. Salad suggestions include green apple, arugula, and Romaine lettuce.

A traditional Mexican dish, enchiladas are corn tortillas with a filling inside and a sauce outside. Enchiladas can be filled with chicken, beef, pork, beans, cheese, or other ingredients. They can be topped with red or green sauce, sour cream, onions, and/or cilantro.

You hardly need a recipe for bacon and egg spaghetti — you can fry the bacon and egg while boiling the spaghetti and throw them together at the end. Alternatively, you can whisk the egg with pecorino or Parmesan cheese and stir it in with the hot pasta before adding the cooked bacon to make spaghetti carbonara.

Fish soup can be made with many types of seafood, including shellfish. There are two main categories: clear soups and thick soups. Famous examples in the latter category include New England clam chowder, which has a thick creamy broth, and Manhattan clam chowder, which has a red tomato-based broth.

The name says it all — and any white fish, like sole, flounder, or haddock would be suitable. A simple way to prepare this dish is to combine Parmesan cheese with bread crumbs and garlic and add some seasoning. Dredge the fish fillets in the mixture and bake for 20 minutes.

Another Mexican classic, quesadillas are tortillas filled with cheese — queso is the Spanish for cheese — and other ingredients and cooked on a griddle. Those other ingredients can include avocado, beans, chicken, mushrooms, onions, or whatever you fancy.

This Japanese dish could hardly be simpler or faster. You simply sauté bite-size chicken pieces and coat them in Teriyaki sauce. It goes well with rice and broccoli or other vegetables.

This might sound like a fancy dish but it’s surprisingly easy to make. You simply cook the linguine on its own, blend the tomatoes and seasoning into a thick sauce, cook the shrimp on a skillet, and then add them all together. Voila!

Half the work is already done for you with this dish. You marinate tofu with sesame oil, orange juice, soy sauce, honey, and ginger. Then cook up a bag of frozen stir-fry veggies, add the tofu, and the sauce. It can be served over rice noodles or rice.

You don’t really need a recipe for this simple dish because you can use any spice, herb, or combination of the two. It really just depends on how you like your eggs.

This is a great option when it’s cold outside and you have a big appetite. You can combine beef, onion, carrots, potatoes, red wine, and broth to make a hearty stew. It might take a little longer than some of the other recipes on our list because the beef should be cooked until it’s tender.

This might sound fancy but it’s easy enough to prepare. You simply cut the squash into small cubes, brush with oil, and roast for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, cook the risotto with onions; add white wine, cheese, and butter. Then serve the squash on the risotto with gently fried sage leaves.

Pan pizza is simply pizza baked in a deep-dish pan and that typically has a thick bready crust. There are any number of recipes you can follow, and if you use a ready-made pizza dough, it can be made in under an hour. Some chefs argue in favor of a cast-iron pan.

Shakshuka is popular in the Middle East and North Africa and has become well established in the U.S., particularly as a breakfast dish. The classic version comprises a sauce of tomatoes, red bell peppers, onions, and spices with poached eggs on top.

A frittata is an egg-based dish like a quiche, but without the crust. It is started on the stovetop, and then finished in the oven. Just about anything can be added — cheese, herbs, bacon, sausage, spinach, you name it — and it is delicious hot or cold.

Tostada, which means “toasted” in Spanish, refers to a dish made from toasted or fried tortillas. They can be easily topped with mashed avocado and a poached or fried egg.

The beauty of sheet-pan cooking is that everything cooks together in a single pan. Just pick your protein — chicken, beef, fish, or tofu — add some vegetables, seasoning, and a light coating of olive oil. Then roast until golden brown. You can add vegetables and/or potatoes to roast alongside the protein, just beware of the different cooking times and adjust accordingly.

It would be hard to mess up this simple recipe. Cook the sausages in a little water. Next, in the same skillet, cook the peppers and onions with seasoning, tomato paste, canned tomatoes and chicken stock. Slice the sausages and add them back in, and presto!

This meal can be prepared in a matter of minutes. You can use canned black beans, but you’ll also want some spices and seasoning as they are otherwise bland. Cook up some onions, partially mash the beans, heat up the tacos, and add whatever you’d like to go with them — slaw or cabbage, avocado, salsa….

While true jambalaya — a classic Louisiana dish made with sausage, pork or chicken, seafood, vegetables, and rice — can take a few hours to prepare and cook, there are many time-saving variations, like using ham instead of sausage.

Pierogi are dumplings traditionally made in Central and Eastern Europe. You can buy dumpling wrappers and make your own cheese and potato or meat filling — or you can buy ready-made frozen pierogi and just heat them in butter and fried onion. In either case, serve them with sour cream.

A truly fast food: Boil up your favorite pasta, sauté some garlic in olive oil, then mix the two and toss with Parmesan cheese.

Everyone has their favorite recipe for this childhood classic, but whether you make it from scratch or out of the box, or if you’re six or 60, you can’t go wrong.

To make this simple classic you’ll just need ground beef, ready-made spaghetti sauce, ravioli, and mozzarella. Cook the beef briefly in a skillet, then layer it with the sauce, ravioli, and cheese. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes and you’re good to go.

You can use crescent dough, biscuit dough, or puff pastry for this favorite. Simply roll mini cocktail weiners in small triangles of pastry or dough and bake them with some butter for 10 or 15 minutes. Pigs in a blanket are a classic hors d’oeuvre when you’re entertaining.

This dish is a bit more ambitious than black bean tacos, but it’s still simple enough. You can use many different kinds of fish, including cod and tilapia. You simply cook the fish in a skillet with seasoning for four to five minutes each side, then add it to the tacos with your preferred accompaniments.

One for the grown ups. Simply sauté garlic and onions, pour in the vodka — be careful if you’re cooking on an open flame — and then add tomato purée, followed by heavy cream, followed by butter. Toss the sauce with cooked pasta and serve with Parmesan cheese and red pepper flakes. Cheers!