Here’s the first of two dinner chapters, this one with slightly easier fare, including more cooking right out of the freezer (although this time with frozen store-bought chicken breasts, pork chops, steaks, and more, rather than the make-ahead mix of ingredients in freezer bags featured in chapter 4). There are also sheet-pan suppers and broiler meals, as well as a technique to cook skewers in the oven over a baking dish of vegetables so you make a full meal—and so the kebabs don’t turn gray on their undersides against the baking sheet.
But before the recipes themselves, on your next trip to a big box store or just the neighborhood grocery store, consider for a moment the rule for most shortcut cooking: Think small. In general, the bigger something is, the longer it takes to cook and (often) the more complicated the preparation. To that end, baby vegetables cook more quickly than their full-grown counterparts; very small potatoes more quickly than large ones.
The smaller-is-faster rubric really comes into play with proteins. Yes, in this chapter there’s a shortcut way to make a whole turkey and a whole chicken. There’s even a standing rib roast in the next chapter. But beyond these recipes, here’s a handy guide to what’s easier on a weeknight: