Traditional lasagna is a once-a-year project for me. I love it deeply, but it’s rare that I can carve out time for it. When it does happen, it’s in the dead of winter when I have absolutely nothing else to do but spend the entire day in the kitchen.

While it’s impossible to beat the classic version — with a homemade bolognese sauce and, when I can manage it, homemade pasta — I’m all about an easier version that makes lasagna a much more frequent occurrence. This recipe is exactly that. This lasagna is about as low-lift as you can get while still achieving cheesy, crowd-pleasing results. Here’s how to make it.

Why You’ll Love It

• This recipe uses store-bought sauce (make sure you get one you love). There are just three components that make a lasagna great: the pasta, the cheese, and the sauce.
• The lasagna noodles cook right in the sauce. Since the noodles aren’t pre-boiled, they’ll cook from the heat and steam in the oven. It’s important that they’re completely covered in the sauce so they cook evenly.

Key Ingredients in Easy Lasagna

• Ground beef: You’ll need 1 pound of lean ground beef.
• Marinara sauce: Since this recipe starts with a jar of marinara for ease, make sure it’s one that tastes great. My favorite brand is Rao’s, but choose your personal favorite.
• Cheese: Use two types of cheese – shredded low-moisture mozzarella and whole-milk ricotta.
• Regular lasagna noodles: While classic dry lasagna noodles are typically boiled before they’re layered, there’s no real reason why you have to cook them ahead of time — they can actually be layered in with the sauce and cheese as is. And yes, this is just regular lasagna noodles!

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ve lived in the South for most of my life, but baking biscuits wasn’t common in my family’s kitchen. Instead, I’ve learned from others how to make tender and flaky biscuits that would make any Southern grandma proud. I’ve also learned that there’s more than one way to make a biscuit, from simple drop biscuits to cracker-like beaten biscuits (best eaten with a slice of salty country ham). 

My current favorite biscuits, butter-swim biscuits, are baked in a pool of butter. This rustic bread is so easy to make because there’s no cold butter to work in, dough to fold, or rounds to cut. In this recipe, I’ve swapped plain butter for cowboy butter infused with zippy lemon, grainy mustard, fresh chives, and smoky spices, making these cowboy butter-swim biscuits even more delicious than the original.

Why You’ll Love It

• Buttery biscuits, made cowboy-style. Cowboy butter made of melted butter, whole-grain mustard, horseradish, smoked paprika, lemon juice, and other seasonings infuses these biscuits with blue-ribbon flavor.
• They’re so easy to make. If you’ve shied away from making biscuits because they appeared too complicated, give this recipe a try. Stir together the cheesy buttermilk batter, then spread in a baking dish of melted, flavored butter, and bake. It’s that simple.

Key Ingredients in Cowboy Butter-Swim Biscuits

• All-purpose flour: Measure all-purpose flour using the dip and sweep method. Stir the flour to lighten it, then scoop it out with the measuring cup, making sure to overfill it. Use the flat edge of a knife or spatula to scrape off the excess flour and level the top off. 
• Buttermilk: Adds a tangy flavor to the biscuits and reacts with the baking soda to give them a light texture. 
• Unsalted butter: Most biscuits, like our Southern-style biscuits, call for working cold butter directly into the dry ingredients. Butter-swim biscuits are different because the dough is placed in a pool of melted butter, absorbing it as it bakes. 
• Seasonings: Add delicious flavor to the biscuits with whole-grain mustard, fresh lemon juice, prepared horseradish, fresh herbs, and savory spices. 
• Cheese: Toss shredded sharp cheddar cheese into the dry ingredients. Other cheese, like Monterey Jack, pepper Jack, or smoked provolone can be substituted. 

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We’ve all been there: It’s 4 p.m. and you’re staring down a pack of boneless chicken breasts with no idea of what recipe to make. Or maybe you’re in a total dinner rut because it seems like you make the same meals over and over. I could keep going on and on, but you get the point. The next time these scenarios pop up, know that melt-in-your-mouth chicken is the answer — trust me!

This four-ingredient recipe makes the absolute juiciest, most flavorful chicken. And best of all, it comes together in three simple steps with just five minutes of easy upfront prep, so dinner is on the table in under 30 minutes. Pair it with some steamed broccoli, rice pilaf, or roasted green beans, and you’ve got an easy weeknight dinner.

Why You’ll Love It

• The most incredibly juicy chicken. Not only does this prove how flavorful lean chicken breast can be, but every bite is also unbelievably tender and juicy. 
• It couldn’t be easier. With just five minutes of prep, four ingredients, three simple steps, and hands-off cooking, it doesn’t get better than this in the middle of the week.

Key Ingredients in Melt-in-Your-Mouth Chicken

• Chicken: Cut 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts in half to turn them into thinner chicken cutlets. 
• Mayonnaise: Hear me out! This is the secret to keeping lean chicken breast super juicy. The mayo also contributes to the flavor, so it’s worth using a good-quality jar of mayonnaise.
• Parmesan cheese: A generous amount of finely grated Parmesan adds flavor, holds the sauce together on the chicken, and picks up a beautiful brown color under the broiler.

The Kitch’n

Meet our MVP dinners. These are the recipes our readers can’t stop making — the ones that have stood the test of time and earned a permanent place in weeknight dinner rotations. They’re the dishes people come back to again and again, whether for a busy Tuesday night or a special-occasion meal with friends. Each recipe has something that keeps it memorable: comfort, flavor, and a touch of everyday magic.

You’ll find the classics everyone loves, like hearty beef chili, creamy chicken Alfredo pasta, and what many call the most delicious lasagna of all time. We also have newer favorites that have quickly risen to the top: one-pan Tuscan chicken with its creamy sun-dried tomato sauce; cheesy French onion meatballs that turn a favorite soup into a cozy dinner; and a 4-ingredient kielbasa and sauerkraut skillet that’s pure deliciousness in a pan.

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