What Should I Cook Tonight? A 5-Question Way to Decide in 2 Minutes

The fastest way to decide what to cook tonight is to stop scrolling recipes and answer five quick questions instead: (1) What is the one thing you most want to use up? (2) How much time do you actually have? (3) How hungry are you? (4) How much energy do you have to cook? (5) What is one flavour you are craving right now? Answer those out loud and a single meal usually falls out the other end in about two minutes.

It works because the problem was never a shortage of recipes. It was decision fatigue. A 50-recipe list makes that worse, not better. Five small answers shrink the whole night down to one obvious move, whether that turns out to be breakfast-for-dinner, a fast lunch, or a proper sit-down plate. Here is each question, how to answer it, and what it unlocks.

Question 1: What is the one thing you most want to use up?

Open the fridge and name the single ingredient that is closest to going off, or the one you keep meaning to cook. Half a pack of chicken thighs. A bag of spinach wilting at the edges. Three eggs and yesterday's rice. You are not taking inventory of everything you own. You are picking one anchor.

What it unlocks: your protein or your base. Everything else gets built around it. This is the exact move Pann runs on. You tell it the one thing you have got, by typing it or snapping a photo of that single item, and it builds the meal around that anchor.

Question 2: How much time do you actually have?

Be honest about the clock, not the fantasy version of tonight. Sort it into three rough buckets and the cooking method picks itself before you have even chosen a dish.

1. Under 15 minutes: one pan, eggs, a tin of beans, anything you can fry or boil. No oven preheat.
2. 15 to 30 minutes: a tray bake, a stir-fry, pasta with a real sauce, a grain bowl.
3. An open evening: braises, roasts, anything that rewards waiting and basting.

What it unlocks: the method. Knowing you have 25 minutes already rules out 90 percent of the internet for you.

Question 3: How hungry are you?

Picking at something, or could you eat the table? This sets the portion and whether you need a real carb or just a plate of something.

What it unlocks: size. A craving for toast at 9pm is a completely different meal from a ravenous post-gym dinner. This is also where a quiet goal can sit in the background, nudging portions up or down with no counting and no numbers on the screen.

Question 4: How much energy do you have to cook?

This is not the same as time. You might have 40 free minutes and zero willpower. On a low-energy night, fewer steps wins every time, even if the result is humbler. Forcing a complicated dish when you are wiped is how you end up ordering in at 8:30.

What it unlocks: complexity. High energy, chop and layer flavours. Low energy, one pot, three ingredients, done and dusted.

Question 5: What is one flavour you are craving?

Name one direction: something fresh and sharp, something rich and cheesy, something spicy, something brothy and warm. Do not skip this question. It is the whole difference between food you tolerate and food you actually want to eat.

What it unlocks: the seasoning and the final dish. Garlic and chilli pull you toward a stir-fry. Lemon and herbs point at a tray bake. Soy and ginger steer you into a noodle bowl. Same anchor ingredient, three different dinners.

A worked example: five answers, one meal

Say tonight your answers are: (1) half a pack of chicken thighs, (2) about 25 minutes, (3) properly hungry after a long day, (4) medium energy, (5) craving something garlicky and a bit spicy. That points straight at one-pan garlic-chilli chicken thighs with rice.

1. Get the rice going first: 1 cup rice to 1.5 cups water, lid on, gentle simmer 12 minutes, then rest off the heat with the lid on.
2. Pat the thighs dry and season with salt. Sear skin-side down in a hot dry pan for 6 to 7 minutes, until the skin is deep gold and releases on its own.
3. Flip, then add sliced garlic and a pinch of chilli flakes to the rendered fat. Cook 5 to 6 more minutes.
4. Check doneness: thighs are ready at 74C / 165F in the thickest part, or when the juices run clear with no pink at the bone.
5. Spoon the garlic-chilli fat over the rested rice. Done in about 25 minutes, matching every answer you gave.

Notice you never opened a recipe site. The five answers built the meal, the method, the portion and the seasoning between them.

Ten no-think meals for when even five questions feels like too much

Some nights you do not want a framework, you want a default. Keep a shortlist of meals that work for breakfast, lunch, dinner or a snack, and pick one off the top.

• Eggs two ways: fried over toast, or a quick omelette with whatever cheese is open.
• Tinned tomatoes, garlic and pasta: a real sauce in the time the pasta boils.
• Quesadilla: tortilla, cheese, any leftover protein, 4 minutes in a dry pan.
• Fried rice from last night's rice, one egg, a splash of soy, a handful of frozen peas.
• Loaded toast: beans, or avocado, or garlicky mushrooms, treated like a proper plate.
• Stir-fry of one veg plus one protein with a sauce of soy, honey and garlic.
• Brothy noodles: stock, noodles, an egg and some greens, ready in about 10 minutes.
• Big crunchy salad with a tin of chickpeas or tuna, good any time of day.
• Microwave baked potato (8 to 10 minutes), then loaded with cheese and beans.
• A snack-plate dinner: cheese, crackers, fruit, olives, a boiled egg. Fully allowed.