23 Saucy, Cheesy and Satisfying Dinners to Make Tonight

Christopher Testani for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.

Published Nov. 2, 2020Updated Nov. 5, 2024

As the times develop shorter and vacation season approaches, it could be time to replenish your Rolodex of crowd-pleasing recipes that heat hearts and fill bellies. Consider these the edible equal of a weighted blanket or a heat hug.

See extra cozy recipes on NYT Cooking, in addition to cozy vegetarian recipes and simple baking recipes.

Ali Slagle’s stuffed shells will be assembled forward of time, then baked from the fridge an hour earlier than it’s time to eat.

Recipe: Stuffed Shells

Puntas al albañil, or bricklayer-style beef, is a taco filling standard in Mexico made with beef, bacon and generally chorizo in a roasted tomato salsa. In this recipe from Pati Jinich, it tops a tray of tortilla chips for an outstanding and filling pile of nachos.

Recipe: Bricklayer-Style Nachos

With over 23,000(!) scores, Molly O’Neill’s beef stew is one in all our hottest recipes yr after yr. Rain or shine, summer time or winter, readers love the simplicity, adaptability and luxury that it brings to each desk.

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

With rave critiques within the remark part, this 35-minute dinner is consolation in a bowl. “I believed it was good and added a number of drops of Sriracha sauce on the plate,” one commenter stated. “Yum!”

Recipe: Panang Curry

This recipe fuses French onion soup with macaroni and cheese — two consolation meals in a single. Added bonus: Caramelizing two kilos of onions will be therapeutic.

Recipe: French Onion Macaroni and Cheese

“All six of our family, ages 14 to 93, favored them,” one reader wrote, and we like these numbers. Tex-Mex chimichangas are sometimes deep-fried, however on this weeknight recipe, they’re pan-fried or baked within the oven, which implies a lot much less mess with equally crisp and engaging outcomes.

Recipe: Easy Chimichangas

Priya Krishna calls this simple dish, a mash-up of South Indian tomato rice and Spanish rice, “pizza in rice type.” We’ll take it.

Recipe: Tomato Rice With Crispy Cheddar

Genevieve Ko, a deputy editor for NYT Cooking, calls dishes that require a variety of finger-pinching work like dumplings and empanadas “a fidget spinner for nervousness with dough.” These gyoza, which Kiera Wright-Ruiz tailored from the chef Ivan Orkin, are an ideal undertaking.

Recipe: Pan-Seared Gyoza

This Korean American dish from Darun Kwak is made with canned corn, mayonnaise and delicate shredded cheese, and is usually a very simple aspect dish or appetizer.

Recipe: Korean Corn Cheese

When the longing for carbs strikes, whip up this superfast and easy pasta from Dan Pelosi. Angel hair pasta, the quickest cooking pasta, is tossed with olive oil, butter, garlic, herbs and burst cherry tomatoes for a shiny and light-weight dinner.

Recipe: Angel Hair Pasta

Rough day? Bury your troubles in a giant bowl of this soup from Lidey Heuck. Yukon Golds give it a pure creaminess and a contented yellow coloration, bacon and smoked paprika lend taste and a contact of warmth, whereas heavy cream smooths all of it out. Top it as you’d a baked potato — that’s, with gleeful abandon.

Recipe: Potato Soup

Everything cooks collectively in a single blessed vessel on this recipe from Kay Chun. Boneless rooster thighs are browned within the empty pot, then completed off in a heady mixture of rice, scallions, garlic, coconut milk, bell pepper, cashews and scallions. It all comes collectively so effortlessly and simply that you simply’ll really feel very sensible certainly.

Recipe: Sticky Coconut Chicken and Rice

With 5 stars and greater than 3,000 scores, Sam Sifton’s traditional pizza recipe can’t be beat. This is “a home-cooked pizza to beat the band,” he writes, “precisely the type of recipe to begin a profession in residence pizza-making, and to return to many times.”

Recipe: Pizza Margherita

This simple skillet dinner from Ali Slagle comes collectively in 25 minutes with charred inexperienced chiles, pinto beans and store-bought or do-it-yourself salsa verde. Serve with tortillas, tortilla chips, rice, a baked candy potato or fried eggs.

Recipe: Cheesy Green Chile Bean Bake

Mindfully shaping the meatballs for this traditional Southern Italian soup from Lidey Heuck is particularly enjoyable. If it’s been that form of day, substitute frozen meatballs for do-it-yourself. No one will know.

Recipe: Italian Wedding Soup

Plush — what an incredible phrase — child potatoes, kale and white beans mingle in a spicy gochujang broth for a superb vegetarian stew from Eric Kim that’ll make your lips tingle and your stomach heat.

Recipe: Gochujang Potato Stew

Sam Sifton scored this recipe for tater tot casserole, often called “sizzling dish” in some elements, from Molly Yeh. She makes her personal creamed soup, however you should use canned cream of mushroom or cream of rooster soup instead if you happen to’d like.

Recipe: Tater Tot Casserole

A steaming bowl of noodle soup is a no brainer in the case of consolation. In this recipe from Hetty Lui McKinnon, dried kombu, shiitake mushrooms and vegetable inventory mix with sesame paste to create a deeply flavorful vegan broth.

Recipe: Vegan Tantanmen With Pan-Fried Tofu

This Mexican home-cooking staple is finest loved loaded with toppings like avocado, lime, queso fresco or no matter you occur to have readily available. The prospects are limitless — so use no matter evokes the sensation of getting a liked one serve you a meal on the finish of a protracted day.

Recipe: Sopa de Fideo

This specific model of congee from Hetty Lui McKinnon will not be conventional to any area or delicacies, however is a seasonal interpretation, incorporating butternut squash for a warming, naturally candy, earthy glow. To make it further simple, you should use precut cubes of butternut squash from the grocery retailer.

Recipe: Butternut Squash Congee With Chile Oil

When you want a hearty meal, a slab of Melissa Clark’s rooster Parmesan is the reply. This recipe requires boneless rooster breasts, however boneless rooster thighs, pork or turkey cutlets would work fantastically, too.

Recipe: Chicken Parmesan

“There is one thing deeply comforting about this khichdi,” one commenter stated. “It’s simple and comes out completely each time I’ve made it.” The recipe’s creator, Samantha Seneviratne, says to bulk it up, you might add some grated carrot or zucchini with the onion, or wilt child spinach in on the finish. But topped with a drizzle of ghee, some plain yogurt and contemporary cilantro, it’s a warming, homey meal simply as it’s.

Recipe: Instant Pot Khichdi

With a pleasingly crisp exterior and a sticky-sweet glaze, yangnyeom dak, or Korean fried rooster, is the best consolation meals. This model, which was tailored from “Quick & Easy Korean Cooking” by Cecilia Hae-Jin Lee, will be made with boneless rooster thighs or bone-in wings. “Absolutely scrumptious!” one reader stated. “Six stars wouldn’t be sufficient.”

Recipe: Korean Fried Chicken

See extra cozy recipes on NYT Cooking, in addition to cozy vegetarian recipes and simple baking recipes.

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