5-Ingredient Dinners: 6 Quick Weeknight Recipes With a Short Shopping List

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Some nights the problem isn’t time at the stove. It’s the shopping list. You’re standing in the store after work, or scrolling a delivery app with one eye on the clock, and every recipe you pull up wants fourteen things you don’t have. That’s exactly when a short ingredient list earns its keep.

Below are six dinners that their creators bill as five-ingredient recipes, picked from food bloggers and test kitchens we trust. Every one of them is a quick weeknight meal, and together they cover salmon, chicken, beef and a meatless pasta, so you can rotate through them without getting bored. As always, we link straight to each creator’s own recipe, which is where you’ll find the full ingredient list, amounts and instructions.

First, What “5 Ingredients” Usually Means

Five-ingredient recipes almost never count the basics. Salt, pepper, cooking oil and water are usually treated as “free,” and garnishes are often listed as optional. Some creators say so openly: Pinch of Yum, for example, notes that its lemon chicken technically uses a few pantry staples beyond the headline five. So read each recipe card before you shop, and think of the number as “five things you probably need to buy,” not five things total.

The Six Recipes at a Glance

Recipe	Creator	Main ingredient	Total time on the recipe card
Honey Garlic Salmon	RecipeTin Eats	Salmon	15 minutes
5 Ingredient Lemon Chicken with Asparagus	Pinch of Yum	Chicken	20 minutes
Hummus Chicken	Well Plated	Chicken	25 minutes
5-Ingredient Chili	Gimme Some Oven	Ground beef	20 minutes
5-Ingredient White Chicken Chili	Damn Delicious	Rotisserie chicken	15 minutes
Easy, 5-Ingredient Capellini	The Kitchn	Pasta (meatless)	Not listed (quick stovetop pasta)

Skillet Suppers

1. Honey Garlic Salmon — RecipeTin Eats

Nagi’s salmon is the kind of recipe that makes a weeknight feel a little special without asking much of you. The fillets cook in one pan while a sweet-savory honey and garlic sauce reduces around them until it turns sticky and glossy. Serve it with rice or whatever green vegetable is already in the fridge.

Get the recipe at RecipeTin Eats →

2. 5 Ingredient Lemon Chicken with Asparagus — Pinch of Yum

Thin pieces of chicken get a light coating and a hit of lemon pepper, then pan-fry until golden. Asparagus and lemon slices go into the same pan, and the lemons caramelize into something you’ll actually want to eat. There’s an optional honey-butter finish if you want to dress it up.

Get the recipe at Pinch of Yum →

One Pan in the Oven

3. Hummus Chicken — Well Plated

This one is almost a trick: a tub of hummus becomes a creamy, seasoned crust for chicken breasts, with warm spices layered on top before it all bakes. It’s a good pick for nights when you’d rather walk away from the stove and set the table. Try it with a flavored hummus for a different result each time.

Get the recipe at Well Plated →

Soup-Pot Nights: Red Chili or White?

Chili is one of the best five-ingredient formats because canned goods do so much of the work. These two take opposite routes, so pick by mood.

4. 5-Ingredient Chili — Gimme Some Oven

Ali’s version is a classic red beef-and-bean chili built for zero chopping: everything after the browned beef comes out of a can or a seasoning packet. It simmers in one pot and tastes like it took much longer than it did. Set out whatever toppings you have and let everyone build their own bowl.

Get the recipe at Gimme Some Oven →

5. 5-Ingredient White Chicken Chili — Damn Delicious

If you have leftover rotisserie chicken, this is where it should go. Chungah’s white chili is cozy and comforting, and it comes together on the stovetop with a handful of pantry staples. Avocado and a spoonful of sour cream on top make it feel complete.

Get the recipe at Damn Delicious →

When Only Pasta Will Do

6. Easy, 5-Ingredient Capellini — The Kitchn

Nicole Rufus’s capellini is the meatless option of the bunch and a true pantry-friendly dinner. Thin pasta gets a bright lemon-and-cheese sauce with a gentle chili heat, and the starchy pasta water turns it creamy without any cream. The card gives short prep and cook ranges rather than a total, but this is very much a quick stovetop pasta.

Get the recipe at The Kitchn →

How to Shop for Five-Ingredient Week

The reason these recipes work is that each one leans on a single “flavor carrier” that does the heavy lifting. If you plan a few of them in the same week, a little strategy keeps the list even shorter:

• Keep the free basics stocked. Oil, salt, pepper and garlic show up across almost every recipe here, so you rarely need to buy them on the night.
• Buy the flavor carrier, not a spice rack. Honey, lemon pepper, a good hummus or a taco seasoning blend each replace several separate ingredients.
• Double up on lemons. The salmon, the lemon chicken and the capellini all lean on bright citrus, so a bag of lemons covers three dinners.
• Let one shortcut feed two meals. A rotisserie chicken can go into the white chili one night and onto a salad the next.

Which One Should You Make Tonight?

• Want something that feels like a treat? Go with the honey garlic salmon.
• Need dinner and a vegetable in one pan? The lemon chicken with asparagus.
• Want to step away from the stove? The oven-baked hummus chicken.
• Feeding a crowd or cooking for leftovers? Either chili.
• Meatless night, or the fridge is almost empty? The capellini.

One last tip: short ingredient lists don’t mean you can skip the details. Follow each creator’s cooking times and doneness cues on their recipe card, especially for the salmon, chicken and ground beef. Then enjoy a dinner that started with a five-item shopping list.