The perfect solutions for livening up chicken, salmon, or shrimp.
It’s safe to say that Katie is no stranger to no-fuss cooking. Whether she’s whipping up a one-pot pasta, an easy breakfast, or a simple (yet delicious) sandwich, she’s got lots of time-saving recipes in her arsenal. Luckily for us, she recently compiled a list of recommendations for some of her favorite weeknight meals. These recipes all strike that difficult, delicate balance between “cool and exciting” and “not requiring you to spend all day schlepping around town, looking for odd ingredients.” Best of all, these dishes require no more than 35 minutes of active cooking time. (Spoiler alert: You can finish the salmon in 10.) She’s sharing her secret ingredients for an easy yet enticing weeknight meal below.
One of my New Year’s resolutions that I’m committed to keeping this year is to cook at home more. So far, I’ve made some very tasty dishes I wanted to share with you all. Perhaps all those endless hours scrolling and watching recipes on Instagram have paid off. Here are a few that I’ve tried and liked!
Katie’s Favorite Weeknight Meal Recipes
RecipeTin Eats’ Crispy Skin Salmon
Salmon is supposed to be good for you, so I’m always looking for new ways to prepare it. I don’t like the skin unless it’s really, really crispy, so what did I do? I googled “crispy salmon.” This recipe was super easy. I served it with what I call my “kitchen sink salad” (everything in the fridge: peppers, red onion, kale, toasted pepitas, feta cheese, dried cherries, quinoa, roasted chickpeas, and cut-up sweet potatoes — see what I mean?). And it was delicious! The salmon didn’t even need a sauce — just a squeeze of lemon and voila! I highly recommend it!
New York Times Baked Chicken Thighs
Chicken thighs are so yummy — I’ve always been a dark meat girl — and this recipe from Lidey Heuck hit the spot. Just as you can do with salmon, if you leave chicken skin-side up in the fridge for a few hours, it apparently dries out the outer layer and makes it even crispier. (I put the chicken thighs under the broiler for a few minutes before serving to make sure they were extra crispy.) I threw some parboiled Yukon gold potatoes in with the chicken, and my friend Carmela made sautéed cauliflower with turmeric and red onion. Plus, we had a delicious butter leaf salad with pepitas and spring onions. It was a Saturday night feast fit for two queens! (Molner was at a basketball game so it was ladies’ night!)
Sailor Bailey’s Honey Sriracha Shrimp
Chinese food is notoriously greasy and caloric, so when your husband DMs you a healthy shrimp recipe, it’s hard to resist. This honey sriracha shrimp dish was really tasty — but the recipe calls for cornstarch, which we didn’t have. Rather than rush out to pick some up, we just made due and didn’t miss it! (You’re supposed to make a “slurry” with water and cornstarch, which I wanted to do just because I like the word.) I highly recommend this dish. Pro tip: Make sure they completely devein the shrimp at the seafood counter. Even though we asked for it, I still had to devein the suckers on the back side!
