12 Essential Kitchen Tools For Easy Weeknight Dinners

An Immersion Blender

Breville Control Grip Immersion Blender

While sauces and creamy soup recipes might be your first choice to prep with an immersion blender, there are more uses than you might think. Salad dressings and dips — and even nut milk or jams and jellies, when you have a bit more time — can be made with ease thanks to this powerful model from Breville. And the best part is you don’t have to dirty multiple appliances and dishes.

“The immersion blender is not just another gadget in my kitchen; it’s a multifaceted tool that has become indispensable in my daily cooking,” says Mattenga’s Pizzeria co-owner Chef Hengam Stanfield. “Its strength lies in its versatility — from emulsifying dressings directly in the jar to pureeing soups in the pot.”

Standout features include a rubberized base to prevent damage to your cookware, a textured grip that feels comfortable while in use, and fifteen speed settings that allow you to switch between fast and slow blending as needed. The shallow head helps minimize suction and prevents food from getting stuck, but the wand is also dishwasher safe for a fast cleanup.

A Dutch Oven

Staub Round Cocotte

One-pot cooking is the hero of weeknight dinners. You can get a solid sear on meat, prep a big batch of soup, or make a loaf of sourdough in this classic cast iron Dutch oven by Staub. Available in multiple colorful exterior glazes, it also serves as a beautiful statement piece on your stovetop when not in use. Inside, the black matte interior is resistant to chipping, rust or cracking, and requires no pre-seasoning like other cast iron tools.

Flip over the lid to reveal the bumps on the interior, which allow evaporated moisture to go back into your food without escaping and keep it from drying out. Even though this is on the pricier side, it’s an investment piece that will withstand the test of time when properly used and taken care of.

A Vegetable Chopper

Fullstar Vegetable Chopper

Gone are the days of watery eyes while chopping onions and orange hands from dicing up carrots. Add this Fullstar vegetable chopper into your kitchen for faster food prep, which saves you time and energy and offers consistent cuts that allow for quick and even cooking.

There’s a non-skid base on the bottom that assures maximum leverage when you press down to chop, and added safety features like a blade lock and finger guard offer additional peace of mind when using a new tool. The four interchangeable blades — a small and large dicing blade, a ribbon blade, and a spiral blade — can be swapped in and out as needed into the chopper lid. Plus, the 1.2-liter collection tray can hold a substantial amount of veggies so you don’t have to constantly empty it out into another container.

Once you’re all done, use the provided cleaning brushes and tools to get rid of any food remnants, or throw it onto your dishwasher’s top rack for faster cleaning.

A Cast Iron Skillet

Lodge Cast Iron Skillet

From one-pan recipes to delicious cornbread, a solid cast iron skillet can do it all, and this 10.25-inch option from Lodge is truly the best of the best. Chef Will Brady of The Sipp on South Lamar in Mississippi appreciates that “you can achieve the same flavors and char of a grill in far less time.” Plus, he says the possibilities are (almost) endless of what you can cook in it, “from meat and fish to vegetables, and even bread.” 

The price is affordable, especially for a pan that is so versatile and can last a lifetime when properly cared for. It comes pre-seasoned, so you can get started with cooking right away, and cleaning it is easier than you might think. Any leftover liquid or oil can be safely poured from the spout, and stuck-on debris can be removed with a pan scraper. Just don’t forget to dry it out completely if you’re using dish soap and warm water!

Nonstick Cookware

Made In 7-Piece The Non Stick Set

A good nonstick cookware set not only makes for easy cooking but also even easier clean-up, which is a must for busy weeknights. With so many cookware sets on the market, it can be hard to decipher the differences and decide on the right one for you. This 7-piece set by Made In comes equipped with a 10-inch frying pan, 4-quart saucepan with lid, 4-quart sauté pan with lid, and 8-quart stock pot with lid, offering an option for nearly every dish in your cooking repertoire.

The graphite exterior is made of a 5-ply stainless steel construction and has two layers of industrial nonstick coating on the inside, and each piece is dishwasher safe. Plus, they’re made without PFOAs and are 100% non-toxic. Keep in mind that these are on the heavier side compared to some other cookware options, but they’re well worth it once you see how they perform.

A Chef’s Knife

Material 8-Inch Knife

While a vegetable chopper can help cut time on meal prep, you can’t always get by without a good chef’s knife. Meat, veggies, fish, you name it — this 8-inch chef’s knife by Material can cut through it. Beautifully designed and thoughtfully constructed, this will be your new go-to for any chopping before dinner hour.

Available in black or a cool neutral tone, the handle is made of a composite material that’s easily gripped yet firm, giving it a sleek look and keeping the knife well-balanced. The blade has a narrow tip at the edge and is made from high-carbon Japanese stainless steel. The result? A sharp, high-quality knife that stands up well against whatever ingredients you’ve got in front of you for dinner.

An Air Fryer

Instant Pot Vortex Plus 6-Quart Air Fryer

Although you may not love the idea of adding another appliance to your roster of kitchen tools, this Instant Vortex might just change your mind. If you aren’t familiar with air fryers, they’re essentially countertop convection ovens that cook even faster (and more evenly) than a traditional oven. 

Diana Manalang of NYC’s Little Chef Little Cafe appreciates that air fryers “pre-heat quickly and effectively, making preparing smaller meals and reheating food easy,” perfect for weeknight meals on the fly.

A 6-quart capacity is just the right size for whipping up a quick dinner for the family. It isn’t too big or too small, and it has the power to offer crispy results. This one doesn’t have many smart functions, but the presets offered are still user-friendly, even for a beginner.

A Vegetable Peeler

Oxo Good Grips Pro Y-Peeler

It may not seem like much compared to some multi-tasking appliances or larger tools, but a reliable vegetable peeler can make a major difference in your journey to dinner. This Y-peeler by Oxo works just as well on smaller delicate veggies as it does large ones with thick skin like butternut squash, and it has a built-in potato eyer to save your week-old taters.

The handle is contoured and comfortable, and it can be detached from the blade and placed in the dishwasher for cleaning. Although Oxo products are known for being a durable choice thanks to their solid construction and materials, a replacement blade can be ordered if needed should anything happen to it.

A Baking Mat

Silpat Silicone Baking Mat

No more tearing aluminum foil or scrubbing burnt bits off of your sheet pans. Instead, throw down a silicone baking mat from Silpat to cut down on your cleanup time after dinner. 

“Beyond their obvious use for baking cookies or roasting vegetables, they serve as a non-stick surface for kneading dough, a reusable parchment for freezing individual portions of food, and even a heat-resistant mat for crafting,” Stanfield says. “Their ability to withstand a range of temperatures and tasks not only simplifies cooking and baking but also proves to be sustainable.”

Made from a blend of food-grade silicone reinforced with fiberglass, these half-sheet mats — made for a 13 x 18 in. pan — will distribute heat across the baking surface for even cooking. These can be easily washed by hand or thrown into the dishwasher for a quick clean.

A Rice Cooker

Aroma Housewares 8-Cup Rice Cooker

If you haven’t been able to nail the perfect stovetop rice, it’s time to level up and purchase a rice cooker. Affordably priced and easy to use, this model from Aroma Housewares can get your rice cooking while you focus on the main course and other sides.

The stainless steel exterior looks clean and has simple buttons on the display panel that are easy to understand and use. If you’re cutting it close and need to get dinner on the table ASAP, use the delay start time feature to get things going while you’re away and return home to perfectly fluffy rice. Didn’t have time to set it and forget it? The “quick rice” function is also ideal when you’re short on time.

An Instant Pot

Instant Pot Duo Plus 8-Quart Multi-Use Pressure Cooker

Set and forget one of our favorite Instant Pot recipes in this sleek electric pressure cooker. Beginners and pros alike will find it easy to cook exactly what you want with minimal effort thanks to a straightforward control panel with a variety of preset buttons. While it might be on the larger side for singles, Manalang recommends using it to whip up a big batch of your favorite meat and getting creative with it on weeknights for your meals. 

“Because it makes larger batches of food, I’m set with leftovers throughout the week. I recently used it to prep five pounds of pulled pork at once, and then I separated it into portions and froze for easy use later. I made sandwiches, quesadillas, topped salads with it — it was all ready to go,” says Manalang.

Perfectly sized with an 8-quart capacity, don’t overlook that you can even bake a cake in there or get yogurt ready for a week of breakfast parfaits.