19 Cozy Winter Dinners to Warm You Up

When the weather outside is frightful, cook something delightful.

When cooler temperatures hit, sometimes all you want is something hot and comforting to eat. We’ve rounded up a dozen of our favorite sweater weather dishes, including beef stew, cheese enchiladas, niku udon and Jamaican curry chicken, for when you need a low-lift meal to warm you from top to toe.

1. Miso-Parmesan Noodle Soup for One

Tasty recipes that make a single serving are a rarity, making this reader-favorite soup from Ali Slagle a real gem. In just 25 minutes, water, miso paste and Parmesan come together to form a savory broth, which is then packed with sweet leeks, kale and peas. If you have a friend, or if you want to make your future self happy, double it, and add more or less water based on your preferred level of soupiness.

Recipe: Miso-Parmesan Noodle Soup for One

2. Creamy Tomato Spaghetti With Preserved Lemon

If you’re running out of things to make with that jar of preserved lemons sitting in your fridge, consider this pantry-friendly spaghetti from Nargisse Benkabbou. Half a minced preserved lemon adds zing to this otherwise tomatoey and creamy dish that’s ready in just 25 minutes.

Recipe: Creamy Tomato Spaghetti With Preserved Lemon

3. Creamy Orzo, Butter Beans and Greens

Homemade bean broth, from soaked beans, is the star of this vegetarian dinner from Justine Doiron. The crispy kale on top provides a textural contrast to the creamy bean-orzo mixture, and the dish is finished with plenty of Parmesan. If you’re in a rush, used canned beans to reduce the cooking time by 75 percent.

Recipe: Creamy Orzo, Butter Beans and Greens

4. Haleem (Spiced Beef, Lentil and Barley Stew)

This festive Indian and Pakistani dish, streamlined by Zainab Shah for the Instant Pot, features ultratender beef in a stew spiced with cumin, garam masala and peppercorns. It’s perfect if you need to use up any dal, barley or both. If you have a few extra hours to simmer, you can follow her instructions to make this on the stovetop rather than in the Instant Pot.

Recipe: Haleem (Spiced Beef, Lentil and Barley Stew)

5. Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken

Inspired by French escargot butter, this set-it-and-forget-it recipe from Sarah DiGregorio gives you a high payoff for very little work. As one commenter put it, “Take a few ingredients. Cook for a while. Do other stuff. Come back. Eat.” The garlicky, herby sauce is delightful soaked into crunchy croutons or sopped up with bread.

Recipe: Slow Cooker Garlic Butter Chicken

6. Cheese Enchiladas

Ground cumin and ground red chile powder from dried chiles (not the chili powder blend you typically use to make a big pot of chili) are the secret to the layered earthiness of these delightfully gooey cheese enchiladas from Bryan Washington.

Recipe: Cheese Enchiladas

7. Sheet-Pan Chicken Tikka Thighs

In this easy-breezy sheet-pan version of chicken tikka from Zainab Shah, boneless chicken thighs are marinated in ginger, garlic and a mix of fragrant South Asian spices like red chile powder, cumin and garam masala, then broiled on a sheet pan with bell peppers and onions.

Recipe: Sheet-Pan Chicken Tikka Thighs

8. Turkey Chili

Hard to believe that the decade that gave us Hammer pants and oversize flannel also gave us this much-loved recipe from Pierre Franey, author of the “60 Minute Gourmet” column. First published in 1992, this 30-minute chili is a big reader favorite — scroll through the comments for clever tips and additions for making it your own.

Recipe: Turkey Chili

9. Slow-Cooker Jalapeño Pulled Pork

Ali Slagle’s four-ingredient recipe for sticky, sweet and spicy pulled pork was inspired by carnitas, barbecue pulled pork and Vietnamese caramel pork. Letting the roast simmer for hours in a mixture of pickled jalapeño brine and fish sauce yields a fall-apart tangle of meat that’s wildly good on soft rolls or over piles of rice.

Recipe: Slow-Cooker Jalapeño Pulled Pork

10. One-Pot Creamy Chicken and Noodles

This dish from Clare de Boer is a delicious compromise between quotidian and project cooking: It involves moving back and forth between your oven and stovetop, but it’s made all in one pot. The result? Crispy skin, tender meat and creamy egg noodles infused with garlicky chicken flavor.

Recipe: One-Pot Creamy Chicken and Noodles

11. Baked Spanakopita Pasta With Greens and Feta

A sunnier twist on the typical tomato- and meat-based baked pasta, this one from Ali Slagle is just as belly-filling and comforting, but light and bright with feta, spinach, herbs and scallions.

Recipe: Baked Spanakopita Pasta With Greens and Feta

12. Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)

From J. Kenji López-Alt, here's a soup for those of you who think soup isn’t filling enough: Thinly shaved beef is cooked with onions in a sweet-savory dashi broth, then served over chewy udon noodles. See? You’re full already.

Recipe: Niku Udon (Japanese Beef Noodle Soup)

13. Cabbage Parm

You’ve had chicken parm, eggplant parm, cauliflower parm and zucchini parm, but Hetty McKinnon’s cabbage variation might become your new favorite (and is quite possibly the easiest to make). Roasted cabbage — silken and sweet with charred edges — becomes the base for the parm treatment, while chunky croutons replace the shower of breadcrumbs.

Recipe: Cabbage Parm

14. Baked Barley Risotto With Mushrooms and Carrots

Making risotto is always a soothing culinary meditation, but when you’d rather sit on the couch, this baked barley and mushroom version from Kay Chun is a lovely hands-off alternative. Be sure to salt as you go — barley absorbs a lot of salt — and don’t be stingy with the Parmesan.

Recipe: Baked Barley Risotto With Mushrooms and Carrots

15. Sausage With Peppers and Onions

“A simple and soul-warming winter dish. Always a winner,” wrote one happy reader about this colorful and riffable dish from David Tanis. Serve it over creamy polenta or generously buttered noodles.

Recipe: Sausage With Peppers and Onions

16. Lentil Tomato Soup

Everything you love about tomato soup, but made heartier and a smidge fancier by adding a can of lentils and a swirl of browned butter. Carolina Gelen’s smart trick of adding heavy cream to the butter browning process brings even more complexity.

Recipe: Lentil Tomato Soup

17. Jamaican Curry Chicken and Potatoes

This not-too-spicy one-pot dish from Millie Peartree gets plenty of heat from a combination of mild Jamaican curry powder and a single Scotch bonnet that’s punctured to gently release flavor into the stew. Slurp it by itself or over rice to soak up all of the tongue-tingling sauce.

Recipe: Jamaican Curry Chicken and Potatoes

18. Zibdiyit Gambari (Spicy Shrimp and Tomato Stew)

This zippy dish is made by mashing together garlic, dill and fresh jalapeños — the recipe calls for a mortar and pestle, but you can use a knife or a food processor — then cooking them in tomato sauce seasoned with cumin, caraway and allspice. Finally, raw shrimp are added for a few minutes at the tail-end of cooking for this vibrant change-of-pace stew that was adapted from Yasmin Khan’s “Zaitoun: Recipes From the Palestinian Kitchen.”

Recipe: Zibdiyit Gambari (Spicy Shrimp and Tomato Stew)

19. Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

Last, but certainly not least, is Molly O’Neill’s 30-year old beef stew recipe, which readers clamor for every year when the leaves begin to change from green to gold. Deeply comforting and endlessly adaptable, it’s a perfect end to frosty days spent with your cheeks flushed and dusted with snowflakes.

Recipe: Old-Fashioned Beef Stew

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