24 Fun Things to Cook When You're Bored in the Kitchen

Get out of your culinary rut with a bunch of fun and delicious recipes.

Instant pot shrimp boil
Photo:

Julia Gartland

We are all for incorporating tried-and-true, much-loved recipes into our weekly menus. But when you’re cooking day after day, sometimes you need to try something different to keep things fresh and interesting. If you need to get out of a rut and get your culinary groove back, we have a stellar lineup of fun things to cook.

These recipes are guaranteed to breathe new life into your breakfast, lunch, and dinner routines. Many offer chances for the whole family to get involved threading food onto skewers or letting the kids get busy when you set up an assembly line of homemade egg rolls. Whether you’re looking to fill an afternoon or just want to enjoy your time in the kitchen, these recipes will fit the bill.

01 of 24

Giant Meatballs With Ricotta

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Bryan Gardner

These aren’t your average meatballs. Each is approximately the size of a baseball–they’re almost like miniature meatloaves. An unusual ingredient goes into the meat mixture: ricotta! It keeps the meatballs light and fluffy as they bake and simmer in the marinara sauce. 

02 of 24

Bacon, Egg, and Toast Cups

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There’s even more to look forward to when breakfast comes in the form of an adorable, portable cup. Slices of sandwich bread toast in muffin cups to create a hand-held vessel for crispy bacon and baked eggs. All they need is a crack of salt and black pepper, and they’re ready to devour. 

03 of 24

Loaded Potato Bites

loaded potato bites outtakes
Kana Okada

Once the crispy potatoes come out of the oven, set up an assembly line to take care of the toppings. Each person can be responsible for the sour cream, cheddar cheese, bacon bits, and scallions, respectively. 

04 of 24

Fondue for Two

Fondue for Two Station
Justin Walker

Romance aside, there’s something extra special about fondue. This savory dip pairs nutty Gruyere with buttery fontina cheese to create the perfect scoopable texture. Serve it with sourdough croutons, roasted fingerling potatoes, sliced fennel and apples, salami, and breadsticks for dipping. 

05 of 24

Potato Gnocchi

Gnocchi with Tomato Sauce - remove gnocchi from water

Sonia Bozzo

Nothing beats homemade pasta, and if you’re a beginner, gnocchi is a great place to start. The soft, pillowy dumplings are made with mashed potato, flour, and eggs. If you have a gnocchi roller, you can easily create those unmistakable ridges, but a regular old fork will do nicely, too. 

06 of 24

Sheet-Pan Pizza

Sausage and mushroom pizza

Lennart Weibull

Pizza is fun to make in any situation, whether wood-fired, grilled, or oven-baked. This sheet-pan variation is not only fun, but it’s also super easy. Little hands will enjoy stretching the dough to the edges of the pan and scattering the sausage on top. 

07 of 24

Beans-and-Greens Stuffed Peppers

beans-and-greens-stuffed peppers with cheese
Johnny Miller

From hollowing out the peppers to create edible vessels to deciding which filling you want to use, the old-school dish of stuffed peppers is always an enjoyable recipe to make. The plant-powered mixture that’s spooned into these sweet peppers is made with hearty Swiss chard, canned white beans, Parmigiano-Reggiano, and melty fontina cheese. 

08 of 24

Yogurt-Marinated Lamb and Chicken Skewers

Grilled lamb and chicken skewers

Bryan Gardner

Kebabs are a fun and family-friendly way to get dinner on the table, whether made with chicken and lamb or with a medley of your favorite vegetables. Get the whole family involved—kids will enjoy (carefully) threading the chunks of meat, onions, and tomatoes onto the skewers. The coriander and sweet paprika-spiced yogurt help keep the meat tender. 

If you’re using wooden skewers, soak them in water for at least 20 minutes before threading and grilling. Unlike metal skewers, they tend to burn easily–soaking beforehand helps combat the flames.

09 of 24

Skillet Chili Nachos

skillet chili nachos
Justin Walker

Who doesn’t love a plate of nachos? Whip up a pot of our Easy Beef Chili, then set out to pick your toppings. Cheese is a must (use good melting cheeses like cheddar and Monterey Jack), but feel free to play around with the other components. You can add canned beans, corn kernels, and fresh toppings like sliced chiles, cilantro, and avocado. 

10 of 24

Mozzarella Sticks

homemade mozzarella sticks on round platter

Bryan Gardner

We don’t know what’s more fun—assembling these mozzarella sticks or breaking into the gooey centers after they’re fried. Be sure to warm up some marinara sauce to serve alongside for dipping. 

11 of 24

Instant Pot Shrimp Boil

Instant Pot Shrimp Boil
Julia Gartland

Enjoying peel-and-eat shrimp is a whole experience. If serving a shrimp boil sounds like a lot, know that the Instant Pot does a lot of the heavy lifting, leaving you to enjoy the perfectly cooked shrimp, sausage, potatoes, and corn (and the flavorful broth they cook in). 

12 of 24

Savory Crepe Rollups

asparagus prosciutto salmon rollups
Lennart Weibull

Cooking crepes is a fun activity on its own, but adding fillings to create these bite-sized swirls is even better. Spread each crepe with some lemony cream cheese and top with slices of prosciutto and spears of blanched asparagus before rolling them up like a burrito. For an even more elegant variation, add sliced scallions to the cream cheese and replace the prosciutto and asparagus with smoked salmon. 

13 of 24

Ground Chicken Tacos

ground chicken tacos on white plate
Julia Gartland

These chicken tacos are simple enough for a weeknight dinner and you can count on extra fun if you make your own taco shells. Simply brush corn tortillas with neutral vegetable oil, drape them over the grates in your oven, and bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit until they’re crunchy, 5 to 10 minutes. 

14 of 24

Beer-Battered Fish

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Fish sticks at home? Yes, please! The beer-infused batter creates a crisp, light-as-air coating on the pieces of white fish, and it can also be used for other foods like chicken tenders and onion rings. 

15 of 24

Grilled Spatchcocked Chicken

Grilled Spatchcock Chicken with Dijon and Rosemary

Put your culinary skills to the test with this recipe for spatchcocked chicken. It’s easier than it sounds—just use kitchen shears to remove the backbone and flatten the bird. It makes grilling a whole chicken a breeze as the chicken cooks quicker and more evenly. 

16 of 24

Pull-Apart Sliders

Pull-Apart Sliders
The Morrisons

We love any food that comes in miniature form. To make these pull-apart sliders, assemble bite-size burger patties and slices of American cheese on a slab of Hawaiian sweet rolls. Since it’s all baked together, the sliders are ready to pull apart individually. 

17 of 24

Scrambled-Egg and Sausage Pocket Pastries

scrambled egg sausage pocket
Ngoc Minh Ngo

These breakfast pastries are a blast from the past—with a savory twist. A combination of breakfast sausage, scrambled eggs, and sharp cheddar cheese is baked between layers of peppery whole wheat flour pastry dough. Perhaps the funnest part is creating a decorative crimped edge with the tines of a fork. 

18 of 24

Pork Egg Rolls

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We happen to find the process of rolling and assembling these egg rolls to be quite meditative and hope you will too. Start by making the flavorful ground pork, cabbage, and carrot filling, then roll it up in egg roll wrappers, and bake or fry. 

19 of 24

Grilled Whole Fish

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Romulo Yanes

If you’re looking to switch up your seafood routine, why not try cooking a whole fish? It’s a fun new way to enjoy delicate white fish like branzino or trout. Depending on what you’re craving, you can fill the fish cavities with a combination of lemon and dill or lime, basil, and serrano chiles. 

20 of 24

Garlic Knots

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These might seem like a twisted tangle of pizza dough, but once you get the hang of it, making garlic knots is a blast. Brush the dough with olive oil and garlic and bake them at a high heat, just like you would with pizza. 

21 of 24

Chicken Cordon-Bleu Roll-Ups

Chicken Cordon-Bleu Roll-Ups
David Malosh

If you want to wow dinner party guests and have fun in the kitchen at the same time, give this recipe a try. There’s a lot to enjoy, from pounding out the chicken breasts to breading the roll-ups in a buttery cornflake mixture. 

22 of 24

Movie-Theater-Style Popcorn

movie theater popcorn and cocktail

Ryan Liebe

Homemade popcorn is vastly better than any microwavable version. Use a combination of vegetable and butter when popping on the stovetop—the oil will help keep the butter from burning. All this recipe needs is a sprinkle of salt to make it movie theater-worthy. 

23 of 24

Robiola Cheese Filled Ravioli

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David M. Russell

If you have an afternoon to spare, break out the pasta machine. Roll out the pasta dough as thin as possible, then fill it with a Robiola cheese filling. If you can’t find Robiola cheese you can still make these, opt for another mild soft cheese, such as Brie. You won’t go back to store-bought pasta after this. 

24 of 24

Chicken Schnitzel With Dill and Sesame

Chicken Schnitzel with Dill and Sesame
David Malosh

There are a lot of ways to get involved when it comes to cooking this dish. First, the chicken breasts need to be pounded thin. From there, set up a breading station and put people to work dredging the cutlets in flour, egg, and panko. 

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