42 Quick and Easy Fall Dinner Ideas That Are Perfect for Busy Weeknights
Fall is a season of change—with temperatures cooling down, kids going back to school and so many delicious fall flavors back on our tables! If you love pumpkin, spice and everything nice that comes along with autumn, you'll love this list of 42 fall dinner ideas, all of which feature easy recipes to help you get dinner on the table in a flash!
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Best Fall Dinner Ideas
This list of easy fall dinners includes the best seasonal fall foods. Fall is famous for pumpkin of course, but there are so many other ingredients to cook with, like butternut squash, apples, root vegetables and cranberries—and all are highlighted in this list of amazing recipes!
Related: 100+ Winter Soup Recipes to Keep You Warm All Winter Long
Healthy Fall Dinners
Best of all, this collection is full of healthy fall recipes: vegetarian, gluten-free and dairy-free options too! Whatever your nutrition and diet needs are, you'll find the perfect recipe for your next weeknight dinner here. And they're all so easy to make!
Best Fall Dinner Recipe Ideas
Teresa Blackburn
This fall dinner recipe calls for fresh sage, but you can use whatever herbs you have. Rosemary would also be delicious! No fresh herbs in the kitchen? Dried will also work.
Get the recipe: Chicken Breast with Baby Bellas
Related: 31 Best Fall Cakes
Alex Guarnaschelli
All you need is a handful of ingredients (including one unusual one!) and one sheet pan to make these delicious pork chops and Brussels sprouts from Food Network star Alex Guarnaschelli’s book, Cook With Me.
Get the recipe: Alex Guarnaschelli's Sheet Pan Pork Chops
Parade
Cranberry chicken is sure to get you into the fall spirit! With just four ingredients, it's the perfect recipe to have handy for those weeks you haven't been able to grocery shop.
Get the recipe: Cranberry Chicken
America's Test Kitchen
This skillet pasta recipe comes together in less than 30 minutes and has everything you want in a pasta dish, with cheese, spicy sausage and fresh tomatoes and basil.
Get the recipe: Skillet Tortellini With Sausage and Tomatoes
Donna Elick
This chicken and dumplings is a made from scratch, one pot dish that goes from prep to plate in 30 minutes! You won’t believe how great this tastes.
Get the recipe: 30-Minute Chicken and Dumplings
Related: 21 Fall Dinner Party Menu Ideas That Encourage Cozy Entertaining at Home
Grandbaby Cakes
Tender, flavorful juicy on the inside with a sticky and tangy topping, this meatloaf is super easy to make and so dang delicious!
Get the recipe: Best Meatloaf Recipe
Grandbaby Cakes
Giant beef oxtails are slowly simmered for hours in a homemade ‘jerk’ sauce rendering tender, fragrant and delicious pieces of goodness!
Get the recipe: Jamaican Oxtail Recipe
Grandbaby Cakes
This perfectly easy, ready in 30 minutes Mexican taco soup recipe is full of bold vibrant flavors, robust spices and completely made from pantry staples like canned beans and corn!
Get the recipe: Taco Soup Recipe
Grandbaby Cakes
This simple weeknight salmon is deliciously healthy and super easy to throw together!
Get the recipe: Air Fryer Salmon
Grandbaby Cakes
Pinto beans with ham hocks is a true Southern comfort food! Dried pinto beans are soaked, then simmered with meaty ham hocks and flavors galore reaching tender thick perfection!
Get the recipe: Pinto Beans Recipe
Grandbaby Cakes
Cube steak recipes are taken to a new level with this crunchy, crispy, flavorful and tender chicken-fried steak recipe. It's the best country-fried steak on the web!
Get the recipe: Chicken-Fried Steak
Related: 9 Best Cube Steak Dinner Recipes
Grandbaby Cakes
Brown stew chicken is a classic Jamaican stew made with chicken, vegetables and a heavy amount of aromatic spices. The end result is tender chicken, flavorful and rich brown stew gravy and a wonderfully scented kitchen.
Get the recipe: Jamaican Brown Stew Chicken Recipe
Grandbaby Cakes
This country-fried chicken recipe, or "chicken fried chicken," is one of my family’s favorite meals! We almost always have a package of chicken lying around at the end of the week and this is usually what it gets made into.
Get the recipe: Chicken Fried Chicken
Grandbaby Cakes
This Southern baked spaghetti contains several indulgent layers of rich and meaty bolognese sauce, pasta and cheesy creamy filling. It's the best dish to serve at every potluck, game day and celebration you have this fall!
Get the recipe: Baked Spaghetti Recipe
Grandbaby Cakes
Battered chicken breasts, pan-fried to golden-brown perfection, and topped with a buttery lemon sauce. Chicken Francese is an easy, unique Italian-American classic that makes a delicious meal!
Get the recipe: Chicken Francese
Grandbaby Cakes
These delicious Southern salmon croquettes are a quick and easy soul food classic done right! Nice and tender on the inside, full of salmon flavor and aromatics, yet crunchy and delicious on the exterior from an irresistible cornmeal breading.
Get the recipe: Salmon Croquettes
Grandbaby Cakes
Tender and juicy and downright addictive, these Southern fried pork chops are marinated in spicy buttermilk, breaded in a flavorful flour dredge then pan-fried until golden brown creating the ultimate crunch and deliciousness!
Get the recipe: Fried Pork Chops
Grandbaby Cakes
When I’m in a pinch or just unsure of what to serve as a side dish, this recipe is the first thing to come to mind. I always have a bag or two of frozen corn in the freezer and I can find about 15 minutes to pull some cheesy creamy corn together.
Get the recipe: Creamed Corn
Grandbaby Cakes
Lobster mac and cheese is a such decadent meal, but every bite is worth it. From the tender pasta to the thick, creamy cheese sauce, each morsel is more extravagant than the last.
Get the recipe: Lobster Mac and Cheese
Grandbaby Cakes
This New Orleans-style dirty rice recipe is made perfectly with fragrant rice, hearty browned meat, seasoned vegetables and Creole and Cajun spices making it the best you will ever taste!
Get the recipe: Dirty Rice
Related: Best Fall Air Fryer Recipes
Black People's Recipes
This turnip greens recipe is a traditional soul food staple. You can prepare this dish with smoked turkey, ham hocks or whatever you wish.
Get the recipe: Turnip Greens
Black People's Recipes
Jollof rice is probably the most famous West African dish. It’s long-grain rice spiced up with tomatoes, onions, bell pepper, garlic and thyme, then simmered in a delicious chicken broth for a flavor-packed dish guaranteed to soothe your soul.
Get the recipe: Jollof Rice
Chenée Today
This easy instant pot chicken and rice soup is perfect for fall weeknights! So quick to make, with fresh veggies and a splash of lemon, this really is the best Instant Pot chicken and white rice soup!
Get the recipe: Instant Pot Chicken and Rice Soup
This Worthey Life
Need to get dinner on the table in short order? Try our easy Chicken Lo Mein recipe.
Get the recipe: Chicken Lo Mein
We Eat At Last
This Jamaican steamed cabbage is the perfect side dish! It's flavorful, easy to make and can be made ahead, making it perfect for busy weeknight dinners. It's also paleo, whole 30 and keto-friendly.
Get the recipe: Jamaican Steamed Cabbage
My Pretty Brown Eats
Peanut Coconut Curry Shrimp tastes like comfort food in a bowl. Made with peanut and coconut milk, fresh herbs and delicious flavors!
Get the recipe: Peanut Coconut Curry Shrimp
Marsha Eileen
This sausage, potatoes and Brussels sprouts recipe is easy to make and requires very little clean-up! Sausage and vegetables are roasted all on one sheet pan and then topped with a sweet and tangy sauce for the perfect weeknight dinner meal.
Get the recipe: Sheet Pan Sausage, Potatoes & Brussels Sprouts
JoyFoodSunshine
This butternut squash mac and cheese is creamy, cheesy and has butternut squash blended in the sauce for added nutrition and flavor. It’s easy to make in under 30 minutes and you can even save time and energy by using frozen butternut squash (instead of peeling and cutting fresh squash).
Get the recipe: Butternut Squash Mac & Cheese
Good Food Baddie
Potato parsnip and leek soup is a savory blend of hearty root vegetables and delicious leeks! It's a filling soup that is perfect to enjoy on a chilly day.
Get the recipe: Potato Parsnip and Leek Soup
Feasting Not Fasting
This tasty pork tenderloin gets cooked in a cast iron skillet with apples, carrots, potato and onions for a simple, but delicious, one-pot meal. An optional apple brandy sauce can get made in the same pan with the pork drippings and drizzled on top to truly elevate the meal.
Get the recipe: Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Root Vegetables
Big Delicious Life
A simple and comforting one-pot dish that's ready in about 30 minutes!
Get the recipe: One-Pot Casarecce with Broccolini and Italian Sausage
Collards Are The Old Kale
Steakhouse salmon is the most flavorful, pan-seared dish that tastes like you've been cooking it all day! Ready in 15 minutes, it works well with quinoa and a tossed salad.
Get the recipe: Steakhouse Salmon
Stay Snatched
This easy butternut squash chili recipe is made with red or black beans, turkey or ground beef and homemade chili seasoning. Feel free to roast your squash for added flavor! Top the chili with sour cream, avocado or crackers.
Get the recipe: Butternut Squash Chili
The Recipe Well
You need just 10 ingredients to make this acorn squash stuffed with sausage! The squash is perfectly roasted and piled high with a delicious sausage and vegetable filling.
Get the recipe: Sausage-Stuffed Acorn Squash
Homebody Eats
Stuffed butternut squash is filled with only four ingredients, but packed with flavor. The combination of sweet butternut squash, spicy Italian sausage and tangy goat cheese has quickly become one of my favorite, protein-packed fall meals.
Get the recipe: Stuffed Butternut Squash
Related: 32 Fall Recipes That Will Get You Pumped for Sweater Weather
Fab Everyday
This warm and hearty chicken dinner is perfect for the fall. Onions are simmered in apple cider and chicken stock before being baked with chicken thighs, apples and cream.
Get the recipe: Baked Chicken with Apples
Beyond the Chicken Coop
A delicious make-ahead casserole loaded with chunks of chicken, broccoli and creamy rice. Make one for now and freeze one for later!
Get the recipe: Chicken Broccoli and Rice
Bake It With Love
These homemade beef enchiladas are generously seasoned for a rich and bold flavor that your entire family will love!
Get the recipe: Beef Enchiladas
Dishes with Dad
This Instant Pot London Broil is marinated in a savory sauce and pressure cooked to tender, juicy perfection then topped with a delicious mushroom and onion gravy.
Get the recipe: Instant Pot London Broil
The Pasta Project
This walnut sauce pasta recipe from Liguria in Northern Italy is sure to become a regular dish on your menu. It’s creamy, healthy, high in protein, easy to make and so yummy! What more could you want?
Get the recipe: Walnut Sauce Pasta
Feast for a Fraction
Chicken breast with maple-mustard glaze and winter squash are roasted in this easy, healthy sheet pan chicken dinner that's perfect for a family dinner or for meal prep. It also happens to be naturally gluten- and dairy-free.
Get the recipe: Sheet Pan Maple-Mustard Chicken with Roasted Squash
The Aussie Home Cook
This Mushroom Aglio Olio is a quick, easy and budget-friendly dinner. With just six ingredients, it's on the table in 20 minutes.
Get the recipe: Mushroom Aglio Olio
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