Our 30 Best 30-Minute Dinners

Quick King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Photo: Christine Ma

This quick and easy dinner compilation highlights our best recipes for busy weeknights. These dishes, ranging from creamy pasta to loaded burrito bowls, have four- and five-star ratings for their deliciousness. Recipes like our Quick King Ranch Chicken Casserole and Rosemary Roasted Salmon with Asparagus & Potatoes will be your new dinner favorites and are on the table in just 30 minutes.

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Quick King Ranch Chicken Casserole

Quick King Ranch Chicken Casserole
Christine Ma

Usually made by layering creamy chicken and tortillas (lasagna-style), this classic Mexican-inspired chicken casserole gets speedier for an easy weeknight dinner when we mix everything together in a skillet, then pop the whole pan under the broiler to make the cheese topping gooey. Serve this healthy chicken casserole recipe with a side salad for a filling meal.

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Rosemary Roasted Salmon with Asparagus & Potatoes

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Yukon Golds are great here because they get crispy on the outside but completely creamy on the inside. A brush stroke or two of balsamic glaze provides a rich color and a sweet finish to the roasted salmon.

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Spaghetti & Spinach with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

Spaghetti & Spinach with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce (tk final title)
Photography / Kelsey Hansen, Styling / Greg Luna

To achieve flavor quickly in this sun-dried tomato pasta recipe, we use the oil from sun-dried tomatoes to create the base of the cream sauce. Meanwhile, the residual heat of the pasta wilts the spinach in record time for a fast weeknight dinner.

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Chicken & Spinach Skillet Pasta with Lemon & Parmesan

Chicken & Spinach Skillet Pasta with Lemon & Parmesan

This one-pan chicken pasta combines lean chicken breast and sautéed spinach for a one-bowl meal that's garlicky, lemony and best served with a little Parm on top. I call it "Mom's Skillet Pasta" and she called it "Devon's Favorite Pasta." Either way it's a quick and easy weeknight dinner we created together and scribbled on a little recipe card more than a decade ago, and it remains in my weekly dinner rotation to this day. It's a simple dinner the whole family will love.

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Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup with Rotisserie Chicken

Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup with Rotisserie Chicken

This creamy rotisserie chicken soup has a delicious chicken pot pie feel to it. We call for rotisserie chicken to streamline your prep time--look for a nice big one with lots of breast meat on it. Pair this comforting and easy soup recipe with a green salad, or, if you're really hungry, a grilled cheese sandwich.

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American Goulash

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American goulash, also known as old-fashioned goulash, is the perfect economical family meal. The pasta cooks right in the sauce, so this satisfying dish can cook in just one pot.

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Chicken Cutlets with Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

Chicken Cutlets with Sundried Tomato Cream Sauce

Though a chicken cutlet may be a chicken breast cut in half, this recipe shows how to make chicken cutlets with double the deliciousness. A jar of sun-dried tomatoes does double duty for this healthy dinner idea. The flavorful oil they're packed in is used to sauté the chicken, and the tomatoes go into the cream sauce.

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One-Pot Garlicky Shrimp & Broccoli

One-Pot Garlicky Shrimp & Broccoli
Photography / Kelsey Hansen, Styling / Greg Luna

Shrimp cooks quickly in this easy, one-pot recipe, making it perfect for busy weeknights. Serve over whole grains or rice.

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Hearty Chickpea & Spinach Stew

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This satisfying stew comes together in a snap. Mashed chickpeas add body to the broth, and tomato paste adds a savory note without piling on the sodium. To simplify the prep, look for chopped fresh onion and shredded carrot or a soup starter mix in the produce section.

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Skillet Lemon Chicken with Spinach

Skillet Lemon Chicken with Spinach
Diana Chistruga

This simple, ultra-quick chicken dinner--packed with spinach and peppers--is delicious on its own or served over brown rice or your favorite pasta.

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White Bean & Veggie Salad

White Bean & Veggie Salad

This meatless main-dish salad combines creamy, satisfying white beans and avocado. Try mixing it up with different seasonal vegetables.

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Chhole (Chickpea Curry)

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Made with convenient canned beans, this quick and healthy Indian recipe is an authentic chickpea curry that you can make in minutes. If you want an additional vegetable, stir in some roasted cauliflower florets. Serve with brown basmati rice or warm naan.

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20-Minute Chicken Cutlets with Creamy Pesto Sauce

20-Minute Chicken Cutlets with Creamy Pesto Sauce

Serve these creamy pesto chicken cutlets over your favorite pasta or zucchini noodles. This easy dinner recipe is sure to become a new family favorite.

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Spinach & Artichoke Dip Pasta

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If you've ever wanted to make a meal out of warm spinach and artichoke dip, this creamy pasta is for you. And here's what's almost as good as the flavor of this comforting dish: the fact that this healthy dinner takes just 20 minutes to prepare.

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Cheesy Ground Beef & Cauliflower Casserole

Cheesy Ground Beef & Cauliflower Casserole
Jason Donnelly

Ground beef and cauliflower combine to create a hearty weeknight casserole that both kids and adults will love. Serve with tortilla chips and sour cream.

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One-Skillet Bourbon Chicken

One-Skillet Bourbon Chicken
Photography / Antonis Achilleos, Styling / Christine Keely, Ali Ramee

Bourbon chicken gets coated in a slightly sweet-spicy sauce for a flavorful dinner that comes together quickly, making it perfect for busy weeknights.

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Vegan Coconut Chickpea Curry

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To make this 20-minute vegan curry even faster, buy precut veggies from the salad bar at the grocery store. To make it a full, satisfying dinner, serve over cooked brown rice. When shopping for simmer sauce, look for one with 400 mg of sodium or less and check the ingredient list for cream or fish sauce if you want to keep this vegan. If you like a spicy kick, add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce at the end.

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Easy Pea & Spinach Carbonara

Easy Pea & Spinach Carbonara

Fresh pasta cooks up faster than dried, making it a must-have for fast weeknight dinners like this luscious yet healthy meal. Eggs are the base of the creamy sauce. They don't get fully cooked, so use pasteurized-in-the-shell eggs if you prefer.

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Chicken & Veggie Fajitas

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Time to clean out the fridge? These versatile skillet chicken fajitas are designed to work with whatever vegetables you happen to have on hand. The key is to slice all the veggies to approximately the same size so they cook evenly.

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One-Pot Tomato Basil Pasta

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This one-pot pasta with tangy tomato-basil sauce is a simple, fast and easy weeknight dinner. All of your ingredients go into one pot, and with a bit of stirring and about 25 minutes of cook time, you'll have a healthy dinner the whole family will enjoy.

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Chipotle Chicken Quinoa Burrito Bowl

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This flavorful burrito bowl features grilled chicken coated in a spicy chipotle glaze. Loading it with vegetables and using quinoa in place of rice adds nutrition for a healthier dinner.

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White Bean Soup with Pasta

Pasta & White Bean Soup
Jacob Fox

We use mirepoix—a combination of onion, celery and carrots—to flavor this white bean soup. Keep a store-bought bag of the mixture in your freezer to ensure you always have some on hand without worrying about it going bad.

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Salmon Rice Bowl

Salmon Rice Bowl
Ali Redmond

Inspired by the viral TikTok trend, this tasty bowl makes for a satisfying lunch or dinner. With a handful of healthy ingredients, like instant brown rice, heart-healthy salmon and lots of crunchy veggies, you'll have a filling and flavorful meal in just 25 minutes. Looking to cut down on carbs? Try swapping in riced cauliflower in place of the brown rice.

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Chopped Power Salad with Chicken

Chopped Power Salad with Chicken
Jason Donnelly

Enjoy this filling and colorful salad for lunch or dinner. The dressing gets made in the same bowl that the salad is tossed in, so the greens absorb every bit of flavor.

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White Bean & Sun-Dried Tomato Gnocchi

White Bean & Sun-Dried Tomato Gnocchi
Jacob Fox

Sun-dried tomatoes are the star of this recipe— providing texture and umami. Combined with the spinach, they make this dish a great source of vitamins C and K.

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Charred Shrimp, Pesto & Quinoa Bowls

Charred Shrimp, Pesto & Quinoa Bowls

These shrimp, pesto and quinoa bowls are delicious, healthy, pretty and take less than 30 minutes to prep. In other words, they're basically the ultimate easy weeknight dinner. Feel free to add additional vegetables and swap the shrimp for chicken, steak, tofu or edamame.

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Black Bean-Quinoa Bowl

Black Bean-Quinoa Bowl

This black bean and quinoa bowl has many of the usual hallmarks of a taco salad, minus the fried bowl. We've loaded it up with pico de gallo, fresh cilantro and avocado plus an easy hummus dressing to drizzle on top.

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Lemon-Garlic Pasta with Salmon

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Wondering what to do with leftover salmon? This is a delicious and easy way to turn it into another weeknight-friendly, quick dinner. Don't forget to reserve some pasta water—its starch thickens the lemon-garlic pasta sauce and makes it silky-smooth.

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Baked Beans with Ground Beef

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Upgrade baked beans from classic side dish to a meaty main meal by adding lean ground beef. The final result, a superfast hearty casserole, is an easy and fast dinner option. Ground turkey or even sausage would work nicely in this dish. Just watch the sodium.

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Ginger Roasted Salmon & Broccoli

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This quick Asian salmon recipe uses the sauce for both glazing the salmon and tossing with the broccoli. Serve over rice noodles or brown rice tossed with sesame oil and scallions.

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