Dinner Tonight: Jack's your new guide to tastier weeknights

Jack Bishop Author, editor, and avid home cook

Dear home cook,

The Dinner Tonight newsletter has a new look—and a new author. I'm thrilled to be your new guide to weeknight cooking.

Over the years, I’ve written extensively about landmark ATK recipes that define my holiday and weekend cooking. Cinnamon buns for Christmas morning, mashed potato casserole at Thanksgiving dinner, and grilled paella for summer parties. But most home cooking takes place on a weeknight when time and attention are short and bellies are grumbling.

To provide more inspiration to the weeknight cook in the new year, we’re expanding the Dinner Tonight newsletter. My goal is to take you inside my home kitchen and give you a glimpse of how I cook on a daily basis. You will still receive great recipes from Cook’s Country, but I will also be featuring favorites from Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen.

I will be sending you two Dinner Tonight newsletters a week. On Sundays, I will offer up five weeknight recipes with a focus on complete meals that can be prepared in less than an hour (often far less) and don’t leave your kitchen a disaster zone. On Thursdays, I will write about one supersimple 30-minute recipe, provide two alternates (because options are always welcome), and tell you about interesting things I’m watching, reading, or listening to. I will also suggest a weekend recipe for when time isn’t at such a premium.

To give you a taste of things to come, can we start by talking about tilapia? Pick up your jaw. This is serious. Tilapia is now the third most popular fish (after salmon and tuna) in the United States, and it’s certainly the most affordable option: I paid just $7.99/lb at my pricey local fish market last week. This sometimes-maligned fish cooks in five minutes and is less likely to fall apart than other white fish. If you’re still not sold, read Steve Dunn’s great article Why You Should Try Tilapia.

If you are now “tilapia curious,” might I recommend Seared Tilapia with Olive Vinaigrette and Warm Chickpea Salad, developed by weeknight cooking wizard Jessica Rudolph, who has so ably authored the Dinner Tonight newsletter for the past few years. In this one-dish dinner, tilapia is a blank canvas for a vibrant olive vinaigrette, made with one cup of Castelvetrano olives. If you shop at Costco, look for ridiculously large jars of these meaty Italian olives, already pitted. (Don’t worry—you will use them up in no time.) To keep things easy, I make the vinaigrette before preparing the warm salad and cooking the fish.

Seared Tilapia with Olive Vinaigrette and Warm Chickpea Salad

Want something even simpler? How about this classic Cook’s Country pasta dish with shrimp, pepperoncini, and basil? This 30-minute recipe relies on pantry staples (I always keep shrimp in the freezer) plus basil (you can use cilantro or parsley in a pinch). The pepperoncini get top billing—and using some of their brine is absolutely brilliant—but a whopping ¼ cup of capers are just as important. Best of all, you cook the shrimp and garlic in the same pot used for boiling the pasta.

Orecchiette with Shrimp, Pepperoncini, and Basil

Let me end with my all-time favorite weeknight chicken recipe: Thai-Style Chicken with Basil. There are six Thai chiles in this dish (you can use fewer, I won’t judge), so the heat component is plenty loud. But the salty, sweet, and umami-packed ingredients are blasting just as forcefully, which keeps the chiles from overpowering the dish. The sugar is absolutely key here, and make sure to pass extra vinegar at the table—the balance of sweet-and-sour is pitch-perfect. Serve with plenty of rice and a simple veggie. I like something fairly plain that requires almost no attention, like roasted broccoli.

Thai-Style Chicken with Basil

I will be back this Sunday with the first installment of the all-new Dinner Tonight newsletter.

I’m excited to cook together in 2025,

Jack Bishop

P.S. Want to see what I’m cooking at home? Check out @jackbishopofficial on Instagram.