20 Easy Dinner Recipes the Whole Family Will Love

Every cook — whether you’ve been at it for decades or just found your feet in the kitchen — needs a reliable repertoire. Not a collection of 500 bookmarked recipes you’ll never make, but a tight group of 20 or so dishes you can genuinely execute with confidence.

This is ours. Twenty recipes that span cuisines, difficulty levels, and every occasion from a Tuesday morning to a Sunday dinner party. Master these and you’ll never be stuck for something to cook.

1. Shakshuka

One pan, five ingredients, 30 minutes. Shakshuka — eggs poached in a richly spiced tomato and pepper sauce — is one of the most satisfying recipes in any cook’s arsenal. It works for breakfast, brunch, or dinner with equal conviction, and it happens to be naturally vegetarian and gluten-free.

2. Fluffy American Pancakes

The humble pancake is one of those recipes where technique makes all the difference. Rest the batter, don’t overmix, keep the pan at the right heat, and you get thick, cloud-soft stacks that are miles ahead of anything from a box. Once you’ve nailed it, you’ll make these every weekend.

3. Scrambled Eggs

Scrambled eggs are simultaneously the easiest and most frequently ruined recipe in existence. Low heat, constant gentle movement, butter, a splash of cream — and you pull them off before they look done. The residual heat does the rest. Master this and you’ll eat well every morning.

4. Chicken Tikka Masala

A rich, aromatic tomato and cream sauce built on proper spices — not a jar. This is the dish that convinced a generation of cooks that Indian food was approachable at home. The marinade does the heavy lifting; the sauce comes together in under 25 minutes.

5. Spaghetti alla Carbonara

Five ingredients. No cream. The entire skill is in tempering the eggs off the heat so they coat the pasta without scrambling. Get it right and you have one of the finest pasta dishes ever invented. Get it wrong and you have cheesy scrambled eggs with spaghetti — still edible, less triumphant.

6. Spaghetti Bolognese

The real bolognese is slow, patient, and nothing like the jarred sauce you’ve had before. It’s a meat ragù that cooks low for at least two hours, deepening into something completely different from where it started. Worth every minute.

7. Beef Tacos

A proper taco seasoning, well-browned mince, good tortillas, and the right toppings. This is the recipe that earns you a permanent spot on the family dinner rotation. Quick, fun to assemble, and endlessly customisable.

8. BBQ Pulled Pork

Start this in the morning. By the time you’re hungry for dinner, the slow cooker will have done something remarkable to a pork shoulder — transforming it into tender, pull-apart meat that’s better than most restaurants. Pile it on buns with coleslaw.

9. Homemade Pizza

Making pizza from scratch — proper dough, proper sauce — is one of those experiences that changes your relationship with takeaway. The dough needs time but very little effort. The result is genuinely better than most delivery pizza.

10. Beef Chili

A proper chili is a balance of heat, depth, and richness. This version takes time but rewards you with something that tastes better the next day — and the day after that. Make a big pot on Sunday and eat well all week.

11. Chicken Pot Pie

Comfort food at its most complete. A golden, flaky pastry lid over a rich, creamy filling of chicken and vegetables. This is the dish you make when someone needs feeding and looking after. It takes effort, but every bit of it is worth it.

12. Smash Burger

Thin beef patties smashed hard onto a screaming-hot cast iron create a crispy, caramelised crust that a regular burger never achieves. Stack them double with American cheese melted between the layers and you’ll never order a standard burger again.

13. Salmon Teriyaki

A four-ingredient glaze — soy, mirin, sake, sugar — reduced until sticky and brushed over salmon. Eight minutes in a pan. The glaze caramelises and the result looks and tastes like something from a restaurant. This is the recipe that makes weeknight fish dinners worth looking forward to.

14. Garlic Butter Shrimp Pasta

Prawns, garlic, butter, a splash of white wine, chilli flakes, lemon zest. Toss with al dente spaghetti and finish with fresh parsley. Twenty minutes. This is the recipe that always impresses and never feels like hard work.

15. Roast Chicken

A whole roast chicken is the king of Sunday cooking. A good rub — butter, herbs, garlic, lemon — and a hot oven. The drippings go into a simple pan sauce. This is foundational cooking. Master it and the leftovers carry you through two or three more meals.

16. Mac and Cheese

Proper stovetop mac and cheese — a béchamel-based cheese sauce built from scratch — bears no resemblance to the blue box variety. Rich, creamy, intensely cheesy. This is the dish children demand and adults secretly love just as much.

17. Beef Lasagna

A project recipe — the kind worth saving for a Sunday when you have time and the result needs to feed a crowd. Layers of rich meat ragù, silky béchamel, and pasta sheets. Better the next day. Freezes beautifully.

18. French Onion Soup

An hour of patient, low-heat caramelisation turns ordinary onions into something deeply sweet and complex. Top with a crusty crouton and melted Gruyère, put it under the grill, and serve immediately. This is one of the most rewarding recipes in French cooking.

19. Nigerian Jollof Rice

Jollof rice — rice cooked in a richly spiced tomato and pepper base — is one of West Africa’s great contributions to world cooking. This version is deeply flavoured, satisfying, and produces that coveted smoky bottom layer. Serve alongside grilled chicken or fish.

20. Chocolate Chip Cookies

No list of essential recipes ends anywhere other than here. The Toll House-style chocolate chip cookie is one of the most perfected recipes in the English-speaking world. Browned butter, cold dough, chunked chocolate, a flick of sea salt. There is no better way to end a meal.

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Where to Start

If you’re new to cooking, start with shakshuka (quick, forgiving, spectacular), then scrambled eggs (technique over ingredients), then spaghetti carbonara (the most impressive 20-minute dinner you’ll ever make).

If you’re already comfortable, roast chicken and bolognese are the ones that will genuinely level you up — patience is the skill they teach.

Browse all 20 recipes above on DishBoard, add the ones that appeal to your meal planner, and build your week around them.