Pocket worthyStories to fuel your mind

Your No-Recipe Guide to a Week’s Worth of Meals

From a roasted chicken to bulgogi-style tofu—and a “no rules pizza” poised to take your weekend dinning to the next level.

Amy Maoz

Read when you’ve got time to spare.

For some, following a recipe brings a sense of calm and order. And then there’s the rest of us: Home cooks who struggle to remember if it’s one tablespoon or teaspoon of chili powder, who constantly feel defeated when they’re lacking the hyper-specific ingredients listed in their cookbooks, who forget to put their phone in “recipe mode” and constantly drag oily fingers across their phone screens. For us, there’s the no-recipe recipe. Phew.

This style of cooking has been popularized by grandmothers everywhere, as well as editor Sam Sifton, author of The New York Times Cooking No-Recipe Recipes: A Cookbook, and chef David Chang, who wrote Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying about Recipes (and Love My Microwave): A Cookbook with reporter Priya Krishna. Or maybe you’re familiar with chef Samin Nosrat, who recommends a similarly simple (and especially delicious) philosophy in her cookbook Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. And while the methods, the ingredients, and the level of direction can vary, what these “no-recipe recipes” have in common is that they entrust you, the cook, to let go of the perfectionism that can stymie us (and our meals) in the kitchen.

In our collection below, we’ve gathered some of the internet’s most irresistible guides—or “talk-throughs,” as Eater calls these—to the kind of go-to meals that can get you through even your busiest weeks. Pick your favorites, do a pantry and fridge sweep to see what you’re working with, and then get moving on a delicious, low-pressure, delightfully freewheeling week of meals. Starting with breakfasts...

Image by Ilia Shkliar / Getty Images

How to Make Overnight Oats Without a Recipe

Morning haters: this one’s for you.

Savory French Toast With Cherry Tomatoes and Basil

This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. You know a stash of leftover bread makes the best French toast for breakfast, so it stands to reason that a savory version would be equally satisfying for the crew around your dinner table.

No Recipe Recipe: Roasting Chicken

Just salt, pepper, oil, and a chicken.

Dave Chang’s No Rules Pizza

There’s a time and place to cook by the rules, especially when you have a paying customer, and they’re looking for an exact experience. But this kind of cooking—no rules, trying things out—is fun.

How to Braise Meat without a Recipe (Seriously!)

Real talk: You don't need a recipe to make the braise of your dreams. Not that there's anything wrong with following a recipe—it's just that when you cook from enough of them you'll notice that, by and large, they all follow the same template.

9 Rules for Better Salads

Some people might find this scandalous, but my favorite salads don’t have a dominating base.

Bulgogi-Style Tofu

This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredient list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen.

How to Make Granola Without a Recipe

You don’t need a recipe to make a homemade granola that puts the boxed ones in your pantry to shame. (Hint: Also makes a great last-minute gift.)

How to Make Lasagna Without a Recipe

Onions have layers, ogres have layers, and lasagna has layers. Follow these basic guidelines, and you’ll be stacking lasagna like a pro in no time, all without a recipe.

Start with Frozen Beans

My “green beans and egg thing” is one of those no-recipe recipes that is so brain-numbingly basic, it feels a little like cheating that I’m even writing it up.

How to Make a Comforting Fall Soup—Without a Recipe

As far as we’re concerned, sweater weather actually means fall soup weather. While we love a refreshing chilled gazpacho, once the mercury drops there’s nothing quite like curling up with a hot bowl of homemade soup.

Classic 1-2-3-4 Cake and Variations

Here’s an easy, classic 1-2-3-4 cake recipe with several variations, including bourbon cake, lemon cake, and orange cake.

How to Cook Without a Recipe (With Samin Nosrat) [WATCH]

Following a recipe is easy, but improvising in the kitchen takes confidence—and a well-stocked pantry. Samin Nosrat of the podcast Home Cooking gives her advice for whipping up great meals without a recipe.

A No-Recipe Recipe Manifesto

Trust yourself, follow the prompt and wing it. You don’t need a recipe to create a fantastic dinner.

The Constant Reinvention of No-Recipe Recipes

The earliest cookbooks were light on instruction and heavy on assumed knowledge—a style our recent, prescriptive recipe-obsessed food culture is now looping back to.