Five Meals to Learn First
You don't need to learn 50 recipes. Learn one from each building block category and you can already make a dozen different meals.
People think they need a huge recipe collection to cook for themselves. You don't. If you learn one protein, one carb, one starch side, and one or two vegetables, you already have enough building blocks to mix and match into a week's worth of different plates. Here are the five I'd start with — and one of them is literally what my friends call "Will's Chicken."
1. A Simple Chicken Breast
This is the foundation. Take a chicken breast, pound it thin or slice it in half so it's an even thickness, season it with the base five — salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, smoked paprika — drizzle it with olive oil, and cook it in a hot pan or on a griddle. Sear both sides, don't overcook it, and let it rest for a minute before you cut into it. That's it. It's a classic weeknight protein, the macros are excellent, and once you can do this well, you'll never need to buy pre-cooked chicken again. Some people I know literally call this Will's Chicken. It's that simple and it works every time.
2. A Go-To Pasta
Pick your favorite type of pasta and learn to make it with two or three ingredients you enjoy. It can be as simple as penne with ground beef and jarred marinara, or spaghetti with sautéed garlic and olive oil, or rigatoni with roasted vegetables. The specific combination doesn't matter — what matters is that you have one pasta dish you can make without thinking about it. Pasta is cheap, fast, and satisfying, and it's the kind of meal that makes you feel like you can actually cook even when you're just starting out.
3. A Potato Side
Potatoes go with everything and they're hard to mess up. Pick whichever style appeals to you — roasted chunks, crispy wedges, or mashed — and learn that one. Roasted potato chunks are probably the easiest entry point: cut them up, toss with oil and the base five seasoning, spread on a sheet pan, and roast at 425 until they're golden and crispy. Once you can make a solid potato side, you've got a starch that pairs with any protein on this site.
4. One Vegetable You Actually Like
Don't force yourself to learn a vegetable you hate eating. Pick one you genuinely enjoy and learn to cook it well. My go-to is peppers and onions — sliced, tossed with oil and seasoning, cooked on high heat until they get some char. Broccoli is another great one: roast it with oil, salt, pepper, and parmesan until the edges get crispy. Asparagus works the same way. The technique for most vegetables is basically identical — oil, season, high heat — so once you learn one, the others come easy.
5. One More Protein
Once you've got chicken down, add a second protein to your rotation. This could be a simple steak — a sirloin seasoned with the base five and seared in a hot pan is straightforward and impressive. It could be fish if you like it — salmon is forgiving and hard to ruin. It could be ground beef or pork chops. The point is variety. Two proteins, a pasta, a potato, and a vegetable gives you enough combinations to eat differently every night of the week without learning a single new recipe. That's the power of building blocks.
Quick Tips
- ●You don't need 50 recipes. One protein, one carb, one starch, and one vegetable gives you a week of meals.
- ●Chicken breast is the single most useful protein to learn first — cheap, healthy, and endlessly versatile.
- ●Pick a pasta you love and make it your comfort meal. It builds confidence fast.
- ●The technique for most roasted vegetables is the same: oil, season, high heat. Learn one and you've learned them all.
- ●Adding a second protein to your rotation doubles your meal options without doubling the effort.