5 Winning Weeknight Chicken Dinners

The “what’s for dinner?” call happens daily, usually around 3pm but as early as 9am. I always am curious what other families make for dinner so I thought I’d share our favorite easy weeknight chicken dinners that we have made again and again. A few of them are from meal-kit delivery service, Plated, which we have used and loved on and off for years.

Creamy Pesto Chicken Pasta

30-60 minutes |It’s the sautéed onions that make this recipe so tasty. And using pre-made pesto makes it so easy. You could make it easier/quicker with a rotisserie chicken, but the sauteed chicken is better. Excellent crowd-friendly party recipe, too. Recipe via Plated

Super Simple BBQ Chicken Tacos

10 -15 minutes | This was an idea from emeals, an app that gives you recipe ideas, add to a meal list, creates a shopping list and sends to your local grocery store for pick-up or Instacart for delivery. Amazing. I love the emeals recipes because they are really simple – oftentimes will call for a rotisserie chicken or frozen vegetables or a bottle of salad dressing… they are all quick and doable.

You’ll need

• rotisserie chicken
• bottle of BBQ sauce
• shredded cheese (I used a Mexican blend)
• tortillas (I like the Mission street tacos!)
• toppings: cabbage, avocado or guacamole, sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, ranch dressing, jalapenos, etc.

How to make them

• Mix the bbq sauce with the cut up chicken and place in the middle of the tortilla.
• Sprinkle with cheese.
• Bake at 350 for 5-10 minutes until the cheese is melted.
• Add your toppings! These stand up taco stands are a fun idea for serving!

Healthy Baked Chicken Nuggets (or Chicken Parmesan)

30 minutes | We’ve made this recipe many times, and our kids love it. Just add tomato sauce & cheese on top of pasta to turn these into a great chicken parmesan. Recipe via Skinnytaste.

Lemon Butter Chicken with Orzo and Peas

40 – 60 minutes | This one is so tangy and the chicken is a little crispy and I love peas. I forget about peas until I come across a recipe like this and think, we should eat more peas! Recipe via Plated.

Sesame Chicken and Noodles

30-60 minutes | I usually make this without the spinach and mushrooms for my kids, and we like broccoli so it’s easy to add. We love the huge pack of Ramen noodles from Costco, and keep them in our pantry. Recipe via Plated

What are your favorites? Link below! or read more easy weeknight dinners

PS – Clean up is never fun… but pretty kitchen cleaning supplies make cleaning moderately more tolerable.