”Weeknight” has become a (perhaps even the) central pillar of online recipe content. It’s that broad range of solutions for people cooking out of necessity, amid the far-from-ideal situations most of us face from Monday to Friday. Specifically, it’s due to a shortage of time, ingredients, knowledge, and motivation. The evidence is clear in the data: At Bon Appétit, our weeknight recipes consistently outperform other categories, such as projects, baking, and drinks. However, the question of precisely what qualifies as a weeknight recipe has always been open to debate. It’s a very subjective label, and the criteria have changed over the course of my time here. Internally, we use a set of “rules” for weeknight recipes. The ingredients list shouldn’t be excessively long—ideally a dozen or fewer. You shouldn’t need to visit several grocery stores. The active time should be much less than an hour.
