When I started writing this newsletter six years ago, I pitched it as “recipes for busy people who still want something good to eat.” I wanted to solve the dinner problem, that daily 5 p.m. quandary of what to cook when you’re hungry and tired out from the day. Every week since, I’ve picked five New York Times Cooking recipes to help ferry you to dinner as quickly as possible — and maybe even get you excited about it.
Now, after many years of publishing these recipes with my brilliant colleagues, and writing this newsletter urging you to cook them, I’m thrilled to tell you that we’ve created a cookbook! “Easy Weeknight Dinners: 100 Fast, Flavor-Packed Meals for Busy People Who Still Want Something Good to Eat” comes out on Oct. 8, 2024, and you can preorder it now.
It’s an official NYT Cooking production, featuring the writers whose recipes often grace this newsletter (think Melissa Clark, Eric Kim, Yewande Komolafe, Kenji López-Alt, Genevieve Ko, Ali Slagle, Kay Chun, Hetty Lui McKinnon and more).
People sometimes ask me what my favorite NYT Cooking recipe is — as if I could pick my favorite child! There are too many recipes I love. But the 100 recipes I chose for this cookbook are, yes, among my favorites, rife with delicious ideas and timesaving techniques. They make it easy to cook and exciting to eat, and that’s true whether it’s a Tuesday or a Saturday (because weeknight recipes taste just as good on the weekend).
One of the fun features of the book is a special recipe index we created, with categories like “Minimum Effort for Maximum Magic.” Five of those magical recipes from the book are below — a little bite of what’s to come.
If you love NYT Cooking, I think you’ll love our book. Reach out to me anytime at dearemily@nytimes.com. It’s always good to hear from you.
I’m also making:
Rice and beans, braised broccoli pasta, melted-pepper-ricotta toast.
1. Mayo-Marinated Chicken With Chimichurri
Don’t be deterred by the mayo in the title: It’s what brings the magic to this recipe from Kenji López-Alt, helping the chicken brown and enabling the vinegary, herbaceous marinade to flavor the meat more completely. Kenji calls for chimichurri, which you can make or buy, but you can also use pesto, barbecue sauce, Thai curry paste or anything else you think of. (The finished chicken does not taste like mayo.)
2. Coconut-Miso Salmon Curry
I don’t know anyone who’s made this recipe and failed to love it. It’s quick, easy and gently sublime, and a testament to Kay Chun’s genius for recipe writing.
3. Chile Crisp Fettuccine Alfredo With Spinach
Creamy in texture but a little spiky in flavor, this five-star pasta dish is simple home cooking that tastes like restaurant food and comes at a fraction of the price. Genevieve Ko put it together one night to get dinner on her own table, and the rest is history.
