7 Easy Dinner Recipes With 5 Ingredients or Less

Less prep, less assembly, and more time relaxing at the dinner table.

By
Sara Bir
Sara Bir
Sara Bir
Sara is a chef, culinary educator, and author of three cookbooks, The Pocket Pawpaw Cookbook, Tasting Ohio and The Fruit Forager's Companion. The latter won a 2019 IACP Cookbook Award.
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Updated November 10, 2024
Sara Bir
Close Up of Skillet Cacio e Pepe Tortellini With Wilted Greens in a Pot With a Wooden Serving Spoon

Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

If your time or energy level dictates the need for dinners that come together in a few steps using a few ingredients, you've come to the right place. There have never been so many excellent options for time-saving packaged sauces, high-quality frozen seafood, or other similar grocery shelf shortcuts.

My own go-to meals with minimal ingredients are often simple pasta that leans on pantry staples. You'll find a few below, plus meals with shrimp, ground meat, chicken, and more. (Psst: In this definition, oil, salt, pepper, and water are all freebie ingredients that don't count as part of the five.)

  • Taco Turkey Bowls

    Plate of 5-ingredient turkey taco bowl at a table setting with a glass of water, bowl of lime wedges, and a fork on a table napkin

    Simply Recipes / Photo by Fred Hardy II / Food Styling by Ana Kelly / Prop Styling by Shell Royster

    Taco-seasoned ground turkey, pre-cooked rice, and crumbled queso fresco give you a hot meal in less time than it would take to run to your local burrito joint.

  • Creamy Pasta With Zucchini

    5-ingredient lemony zucchini pasta in a bowl garnished with basil

    Simply Recipes / Grace Elkus

    Whipped cottage cheese is the backbone of this creamy but light pasta that's brightened with lemon juice and zest. The dry pasta cooks in the skillet, so there's only one pan to wash up.

  • Jennifer Garner's 5-Ingredient Pasta

    Jennifer Garner Pasta

    Simply Recipes / Wanda Abraham

    This foodie celebrity's pasta is worth checking out. It's a brown butter and sage linguine that her character made on the show The Last Thing He Told Me. Do you need to be familiar with the series to bother with the recipe? Nope. We can vouch that this pasta stands on its own.

  • Skillet Shrimp With Corn and Pancetta

    Plate of creamy skillet shrimp with corn, pancetta, and tomatoes at a table setting with another serving on a plate, a glass of water, utensils and a white and red table napkin on the counter, and a bowl of basil

    Simply Recipes / Photo by Fred Hardy II / Food Styling by Ana Kelly / Prop Styling by Shell Royster

    Corn is hearty enough to make this skillet dinner a one-pan meal, but you could also serve it over couscous.

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  • Easy Pasta Bake

    5-ingredient pasta bake

    Simply Recipes / Sara Haas

    You can't go wrong with pasta, sauce, ground beef, cheese, and cottage cheese with mozzarella on top. This is one of those low-effort, high-payoff recipes that everyone in the family requests again and again.

  • Linguine With Tuna and Capers

    Linguine with tuna and capers on a plate at a table setting with a bowl of parsley, a denim table napkin, salt and pepper shakers, and a glass of water

    Simply Recipes / Photo by Fred Hardy II / Food Styling by Ana Kelly / Prop Styling by Shell Royster

    Briny capers and tuna packed in olive oil offer so much flavor is such small packages.

  • Skillet Cacio e Pepe Tortellini

    Close Up of Skillet Cacio e Pepe Tortellini With Wilted Greens in a Pot With a Wooden Serving Spoon

    Simply Recipes / Ciara Kehoe

    Either cheese or meat tortellini fits the bill in this easy dinner that's flecked with wilted baby greens.

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