These easy 3 ingredient dinner recipes will make it easy for you to make cheap and delicious meals your family will love without spending a lot of time in the kitchen!
Easy 3 Ingredient Dinner Recipes – Delicious Meals Fast!
This post is dedicated to my friend and neighbor Katie. She came over and we were talking and she said “I need some super easy 3 ingredient or less recipes for dinner“.
As I was telling her about a couple of these recipes she had no idea these recipes could be made, and so easily too! She grew up with a mom who never cooked so she never learned how to cook. She was telling me how she would like to learn now.
If you are new to cooking at home try some of these recipes to get you started and get a good cookbook to help you along the way. Even if you are an old pro try some for those days when you just need something quick and easy!
Easy Creamy Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
4 boneless chicken breasts
1 can cream soup (cream of chicken, cream of mushroom or cream of celery)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 275°.
- Arrange the chicken breasts in a 9×13 inch baking pan.
- Pour the soup over the chicken.
- Cover with foil.
- Bake for 1½ to 2 hours until the chicken is cooked through.
- Serve over rice and or cooked vegetables.
Notes
You can also make this easy dinner recipe in the crockpot. Just dump everything in and cook for 4-6 hours on low.
3 Ingredient Salsa Chicken Recipe
This easy 3 ingredient salsa chicken recipe is a super easy and delicious crockpot recipe perfect for families. Just 2 minutes’ prep and then toss it in the crockpot!
Ingredients
6 chicken breasts, boneless, skinless OR 6-8 chicken pieces
2 cups salsa
1 cup shredded cheese (Cheddar or Mexican Blend)
Instructions
- Place the chicken in a crockpot.
- Pour the salsa on top.
- Cook for 1 1/2 – 2 hours on high.
- Place cheese on top and let it melt during the last 10-15 minutes.
3 Ingredient Sweet Pork Chops Or Ribs
This easy 3 ingredient sweet pork chops recipe makes tangy and delicious pork chops your family will love! It’s also great as a tangy ribs recipe for fall off the bone ribs! Just 5 minutes prep time and the crockpot does the rest!
Ingredients
4 pork chops (They can still be frozen.) OR 2-3 lbs. pork ribs
12 oz. bottle chili sauce
1 cup grape jelly
Instructions
- Grease a crockpot with oil or cooking spray.
- Place the pork chops in the crockpot.
- In a bowl, mix the chili sauce and grape jelly.
- Pour the mixture on the pork chops.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours (8 hours if frozen).
These pork chops or ribs will fall of the bone! Super Yummy!
3 Ingredient Ritz Chicken Recipe
This 3 ingredient Ritz chicken is a super easy baked chicken recipe you can make with less than 5 minutes’ work! Crispy and oh, so delicious! Your family will love it!
Ingredients
1 lb. chicken (boneless skinless), cut into strips
1/2 bottle of ranch dressing
1 sleeve of Ritz Crackers, crushed (generic is fine)
salt and pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°.
- Place the ranch dressing and the Ritz crackers in separate bowls.
- Grease a 9×13 inch pan.
- Salt and pepper the chicken.
- Dip the chicken in the ranch dressing and then dip in the crackers.
- Place in the pan and bake for 25-35 minutes.
3 Ingredient Creamy Chicken Tacos
This easy 3 ingredient creamy chicken tacos recipe makes creamy and delicious chicken tacos, perfect for families! Just dump everything into the crockpot in the morning and dinner will be waiting!
Ingredients
1 can Rotel tomatoes OR 1 cup salsa
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 bar( 4 oz.) cream cheese
Instructions
- Place the chicken into a greased crockpot.
- Pour the Rotel or salsa over the top
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- 30 minutes before serving, place the cream cheese on top. There is no need to stir. The heat will melt it.
- Continue cooking for 30 more minutes.
- When ready to serve, stir and break up the chicken.
- Serve with tortillas.
3 Ingredient Chicken Cacciatore Recipe
This easy 3 ingredient Chicken Cacciatore recipe makes a delicious Italian style chicken dinner your family will love! With just 5 minutes prep time, it’s a perfect meal for busy families!
Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts or 4–8 chicken pieces
1 bottle spaghetti sauce
2–3 cups vegetables like zucchini, mushrooms and onions
Instructions
- Grease the crockpot.
- Add the chicken.
- Pour spaghetti sauce over the top.
- Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
- One hour before serving, add vegetables and continue cooking.
- Serve over pasta.
3 Ingredient Beef Tacos Recipe
This easy 3 ingredient beef tacos recipe makes tasty classic style ground beef tacos that every family loves! Just dump everything into the crockpot in the morning and at dinner time, serve on taco shells with your favorite taco toppings!
Ingredients
1 lb. ground beef
1 pkg. taco seasoning (or homemade taco seasoning)
1 can Rotel tomatoes and green chilis
Instructions
- Place everything into a greased crockpot.
- Cook 5-7 hours on low. Stir every few hours to break up the beef. (You can do this beforehand if you will be gone all day).
- Serve on taco shells.
- If desired, garnish with taco toppings like lettuce, cheese and tomatoes.
3 Ingredient Barbecue Meatballs
This easy 3 ingredient barbecue meatballs makes an easy and delicious crockpot meal! It’s quick and easy for you and the kids and family will love it!
Ingredients
25 frozen fully cooked meatballs (half of a 32 oz. bag)
1 cup grape jelly
1 cup barbecue sauce
Instructions
- Pour the sauces into a crockpot.
- Stir until combined.
- Add the meatballs.
- Stir until they are coated with the sauce.
- Cook on high for 3 hours.
- Serve over rice.
Notes
You might also like to make our BEST Homemade Barbecue Meatballs Recipe, which is one of our readers’ most favorite easy recipes. It has more than 3 ingredients but is super easy and oh, so delicious!
3 Ingredient Sausage Biscuits and Gravy
This easy 3 ingredient sausage biscuits and gravy is a tasty crockpot recipe that is quick and easy to make. Biscuits and gravy are not just for breakfast – It makes a great dinner, too!
Ingredients
1 lb. breakfast sausage
2 cans refrigerator biscuits (20 biscuits)
2 cans cream of mushroom soup
Instructions
- Brown the sausage in a frying pan.
- Drain.
- Place 1 can of biscuits in the bottom of a greased slow cooker.
- Top with half of the browned sausage
- Pour 1 can of cream of mushroom soup over the top.
- Repeat with the remaining sausage and soup.
- Cook 4 hours on low.
Notes
You might also like our regular homemade Biscuits And Gravy Recipe. It is also pretty quick and easy to make, but has a much richer, homemade flavor.
3 Ingredient Dr. Pepper Pulled Pork
This easy 3 ingredient dr. pepper pulled pork recipe is a simple way to make tender pulled pork in the crockpot. With just 5 minutes of preparation time, it’s a quick and easy meal your family will love!
Ingredients
1 can Dr. Pepper
1 packet onion soup mix (or homemade onion soup)
1 (2-3 lb.) pork roast
Instructions
- Grease crockpot.
- Place the pork roast into the crockpot.
- Sprinkle pork with onion soup mix.
- Pour the Dr. Pepper over the pork until it is almost covered in the crockpot.
- Cook on high for 4-5 hours.
- Drain juice and shred.
- Serve on buns with barbecue sauce, if desired.
Ranch Chicken and Potatoes Recipe
Ingredients
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 large potatoes, cubed
2 cups ranch dressing
paprika (optional)
Instructions
- Place the chicken into a crockpot.
- Add potatoes
- Cover in ranch dressing and sprinkle with paprika, if desired.
- Cook 4-5 hours on low. If you like firm potatoes, cook for less time and if you like soft potatoes, cook longer.
For lots more easy and delicious dinner recipes, check out our Dining On A Dime cookbooks!
Click here to get our Dining On A Dime Cookbooks 25% Off NOW! They’re filled with tasty recipes and tips to make your life easier!
For the creamy chicken recipe – do you add any water to the can of cream of soup when you make recipe in the crock pot?
No you don’t need too.
Hi Jill: don’t know if you can get this where you are, but sometimes I used cream of onion soup. it comes out pretty tasty.
Hi Donna yes I can get this. As a matter of fact I am the one who usually deals with all of these questions and they come straight to me. Using the onion soup on this I imagine would taste really good too so thanks for the idea.
These recipies are so easy and they look scrumptious, I will be trying all of them–Thank you so much
For the ranch chicken recipe, is it the dry packet of ranch dressing mix or the liquid ranch dressing in a bottle?
Dry
The pork chop or ribs recipe calls for 12 bottle chili. Twelve??? You mean 1/2 as in one half, I hope or this is made for people used to eating food not made on this planet because I would be ejected from the planet by eating this food. LOL
Thanks for the heads up Denis. It is suppose to be 12 oz. bottle.
Whats the best type of potato to use? every time ive done something similar to this in the past, my potatoes never cook all the way through :(
I don’t think it makes any difference what kind you use. You may need to just cook it a little longer because crock pots cook at so many different temperatures that yours may just not be hot enough so needs longer cooking. Be sure to cube the potatoes too and if all of these fail then nuke the potatoes for a minute or two before putting them in the crock pot.
For the Ritz chicken if you don’t like Ranch dressing what other dressing would you recommend?
You could mix some mayo with parmesan cheese.
For the biscuits and gravy, do I need to bake the biscuits before adding to the crockpot?
I don’t like ranch either and wonder if you could substitute another dressing?
You could use another creamy type of dressing although you wouldn’t have the same flavor because of the spices that are used in the ranch dressing
Creamy Italian would work!
Ceasar dressing would be good… maybe the kind with bacon in?
I would suggest creamy Ceasar.
I was thinking about this because I don’t care for ranch either.
I might try it with Bleu cheese.
For the beef taco- is there a skillet version for that?
Yes all you need to do is fry the ground beef, drain and add rest (drain tomatoes and chilies). You might simmer for about 5-10 mins in the frying pan or while you are getting other things for the meal ready. I never use a crock pot for this.
Would the same skillet version apply for the chicken tacos?
Yes. A crock pot is nothing more that a pan that you just cook on low with. You can make the same things in the oven or on the stove as in a crock pot. I don’t even own a crock pot now. The low temp on a crock pot is the same as something cooked at 250 in the oven in a pan, the high temp is the same as 350 degrees in the oven. In a skillet just turn it down to very low or simmer.
thanks Jill for making it simple….love these wonderful recipes can’t wait to try..
Jill,
Thank you so much for doing the temperature conversion! I have pinched nerves in my back and the crock pot is relegated to collecting dust for now. The recipes sound simple and wonderful.
Best,
Deborah
Hi, for the 3 ingredient ranch chicken and potatoes it says 2 cups ranch so I’m guessing it is the regular ranch and not the dry mix?
Yes it is the regular.
Thank you for helping my family with your website. Told my husband and he told me to follow your grocery list for the planned meals! Oh, I tried your meatloaf, it was outstanding. And was complemented! Credit goes to y’all.
Thank so much Melissa and tell your husband thank you too. :) :)
These recipes look great do you have nutrition facts on them we are trying to eat low carb so I was just wondering ,do you have any ideas how I can use some or all your recipes while I am doing low carb and I have a friend that has diabetes can you help.
No Cheri I am afraid we don’t have nutrition facts on our recipes. We have thousands of them there is no way time wise to do that and most of ours are old family recipes. We also so at this point in time have no less than about 50 different special diets that people are all on so to try to adapt all the recipes for each diet would take months plus diets tend to change every 10 yrs or so but we have had many many people who have special diets that use our book and such because they say that the recipes are so simple and easy that it is easy to adapt them to their special recipes.
Cheri you can place the recipe into Lose it and it will give you the calorie plus information.
Great recipes, now that we are doing the social distancing thing. I run into the store, grab stuff, and leave as soon as possible.
On the sweet pork chops it calls for a 12 oz bottle of chili sauce? Bottle? So hot sauce? But says sweet not spicy! So, Hotdog sauce? Please tell me what you have used.
Yes a bottle of chili sauce. It’s usually near the ketchup in a grocery store. Hot sauce is different. It’s usually made from vinegar, chiles and oil. Chili sauce is made from tomato sauce, vinegar, sugar, and seasonings. There’s not much spice to it. The sweetness comes from the grape jelly.
This has totally helped me save money and time in the kitchen. We now have super delicious that cost a fraction of what we spent before. Thanks for the yummy recipes.
You are welcome Joan and so glad these worked out for you
I have to tell you all that you are a real blessing! I gave myself a huge Christmas gift by purchasing all 3 books! I also totally love when you share your biblical knowledge. I know Papa is smiling down on all of you, and your fruit is showing! Keep up the good work!
Oh thank you so much Marie for that sweet comment. Hope you are enjoying the books and they are helping.
I forwarded this to my daughter to help get my grandson to start cooking for the family. I have a freezer full of chicken, and I’m thinking if adding some of the ingredients to my stockpile.
I just love all of your recipes. I got all of your ebooks and 2 cookbooks. Plan on getting the other cookbook to add to my collection. It’s all I use for my cooking and meal ideas.
Do you have any ideas for breakfast ideas?
Hello, I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your cook books. My family spent on average $ 400 a week on groceries. Since we discovered your inspiring channel and got the cookbooks , we now spend less than $400 a month just following your advice. Thank you very very much.
Thank you so much for letting use know that the cookbooks are working for you. It helps others too because sometimes aren’t sure if the book will really help them and you comment can make a difference. Keep up the good work – sounds like you are on a roll
I had shoulder surgery earlier this week that was much more involved than expected, and I can’t do much for 3 weeks. My husband is working 18 hour days right now, so our oldest 2 sons (13 and 11) are on cooking duty. They’ve been using the Dining on a Dime cookbooks (1&2) to make meals. Without these books/ this site, we’d be living on PB&J, noodles, and cereal. 😂 We’d survive, but recuperating is much easier with good food! Thanks for all you do!
Oh Elizabeth so sorry to hear about your surgery. That is rough to have a family and not be able to function. Tell those boys of yours they get a million gold stars for helping mom and sounds like they are doing a great job. I had to laugh at the diet you mentioned if you didn’t have the cookbook (PB&J, noodles and cereal) it sounds like a typical boy menus. LOL I have said for years one of the biggest surprises I always get is how many young men seem to enjoy using our cookbook – always tickled to hear that. Take care of yourself and get well soon,
Just curious, how would you adapt the recipes to an Instant Pot?
Laura you would need to check the instructions that came with your Instant Pot and adapt them to let’s say how long they suggest to cook chicken and then use that time in these recipes or if you have some recipes of your own you can use the time from those.
This is great recipe thank you for sharing this amazing food!
You are so welcome Jenny.
Went through all the recipes, they sound really tasty. Liked the savings tips too. The cereal bags sound like a great idea. I think they would also make a perfect companion to rubbing butter on the crust of bread loaves that are freshly baked. These won*t fall apart. Thanks for the ideas!!
The biscuits and gravy recipe says 2 refrigerated canned biscuits but you use 1 for the bottom of crackpot and no mention of the second. Should it be 2 layers of biscuits, sausage soup layers?
Robin on step #6 where is says repeat it means to repeat with 2nd can of biscuits, then the sausage and soup on top of that. Hope that helps.