New here and CANT cook..Help with easy meals?

Hi, I cant cook. haha..clueless to cooking

Im looking for some beginer lever recipes or ideas..

anything with chicken breast included would be great

just need help getting started

thanks so much

What sort of tools do you have to cook with?  Do you have an oven or a crock pot?

What kind of foods do you like besides chicken?

Easiest chicken recipe that I know of is to put chicken parts in a crockpot, add a can of diet coke, an onion, a green pepper, 1/2 cup of rice, bbq sauce.

Cook until rice is done.

If you really have *no* cooking experience, make sure you read entire recipes before starting, and ask when things seem unclear (google, or other people around you). I have a friend who started w/zero cooking experience who would get herself into trouble in ways I couldn't imagine. Given the recipe above, she honest-to-god would have thrown the onion and bell pepper in whole!

That aside: allrecipes.com is one of my favorite recipe sites (although there are tons of other good ones, too). It's well organized, there are pictures and nutritional information, and lots of the recipes have detailed reviews from several people. Following recipes is a good way to learn how to cook, and once you get more comfortable with the techniques and common ingredients, you'll be more comfortable branching out, substituting, making your own recipes etc.

You may have a few (or even many) failures or meals that don't turn out quite as you'd hoped at first - that's okay. Certain things in cooking do take practice. As you gain experience you'll learn when to turn the heat up or down, for instance, or whether a certain recipe needs more garlic, or stuff like that. Just start with simple recipes for things you like, and build from there.

Equipment - do yourself a favor and have at least one decent knife, a couple of cutting boards, a pot large enough to boil pasta (say, 1 quart at least), a largeish pan and a smallish pan, and one oven-proof dish. If you've got these and a conventional oven/stove, you're on your way. There are a number of small appliances that I use all the time and would be unhappy without - a toaster oven, crock pot and food processor come to mind - but you'll figure that out as you discover what you like to cook.

Easy chicken dishes - although boneless, skinless breasts are the most expensive way to buy chicken, they're easy and healthy. I prefer to pound them  with a mallet before cooking them (cover with plastic wrap, or place in a large ziploc, then go to town with something flat, heavy and washable!), but that's not necessary. You can boil them, bake them, broil (it's a passable substitute for the grill) or pan-fry. If you're just looking for chicken to throw into things, I'd suggest either boiling them whole for 15-20 minutes then shredding the meat, or chopping them into 1-inch pieces while raw, and cooking in a pan (either non-stick or with oil/non-stick spray) for 10-15 minutes. In either case, cut into a thick part of the meat to check that it's thoroughly cooked. Prepared either way, this chicken will be fairly flavorless, but you can do lots of things with it: put in a tortilla with salsa and cheese, fold in half, and quickly fry in a pan for a quesadila, or add it to rinsed, canned beans and cooked rice and eat as is or make into a burrito, mix it with some mayo or yogurt and diced veggies for chicken salad, throw it on top of some lettuce and top with your choice of dressing...you get the idea.

Also easy - marinate the whole breasts in the fridge (30 minutes to overnight) in your favorite non-creamy salad dressing, then place into a greased baking dish and bake for 20-25 minutes, serve over rice.

Good luck - there really are a lot of resources out there for cooking, and all sorts of explanations for techniques that are unclear.

I always suggest to people that they learn how to make a simple tomato sauce as a good starting point.    It can be stirred into pasta for a simple supper dish or used as the base for lots of other easy dishes such as Bolognese Sauce, Chilli Con Carne or Chicken Cacciatore

There are lots of books with titles like 'Cooking for Beginners'... how about checking at your local library?

And I'd highly recommend looking at schools and colleges locally and seeing if any of them run evening courses in cookery .... many are just getting started at this time of year.  

Not sure what you have but if you have a stove and a skillet along with a few pots (even one would suffice!) you can make a lot of things! Not good with directions but I will try my best! :)

Easy stir-fry: broccoli slaw (shredded broccoli, purple cabbage and carrots), onions, green peppers along with 1 tbsp of maple syrup whisked into 1 tbsp of soy sauce. Saute onions and green peppers for a bit first then add broccoli slaw and the soy sauce/maple syrup mix into the skillet. This can be made with chicken, shrimp, beef, pork, etc! Up until last week, I used brown sugar in place of maple syrup. But maple syrup gives it the "teriyaki" flavor I like. Instant COOKED rice can be thrown in at the same time as broccoli slaw.

Easy pizza/ tomato pasta sauce: 28oz canned whole tomatoes or diced tomatoes, 14 oz tomato paste- put in large sauce pan. You can add: fresh or ground garlic, chopped onions (1/2 cup), 2 cups of spinach, 1 cup of grated/minced carrots, italian seasoning (oregano, basil, thyme, etc), crushed red pepper (if you like it spicy.) Heat on medium until it starts to boil, crush the tomatoes (DO NOT WEAR YOUR FAVORITE SHIRT AT THIS TIME) until it gets to the consistency you like then heat on low for about 30 minutes or so.

You can also make easy chili now that fall is coming up- 28oz can diced tomatoes, 15oz chili style beans, chopped onions, green peppers, jalapenos (if you like it spicy), chili powder, minced garlic or garlic powder- put all in huge pot and simmer for 30 minutes or so and you are done! Makes about 6 servings. You can add chicken to this. Fantastic with a bit of cheese and sour cream on top. :)

That is all I can think of right now. Look up recipes with whatever ingredient you want to use (allrecipes.com is one of my favorites) and follow instructions. If you need any more help, feel free to pm me. Good luck!

I don't eat chicken, but here is my favorite easy recipe:

Black bean burritos (about 3 servings): Chop up an onion and sautee it in 1 tbsp olive oil until it becomes soft. Add 1 can of black beans (drained), 1/2 cup of frozen or canned corn, and Mexican-style chili powder to taste. Cover the pan and wait for everything to get hot. Serve wrapped in a whole wheat tortilla with shredded cheese and your favorite salsa. You can add shredded lettuce, sauteed spinach, guacamole, chicken, or whatever if you want to get fancy. Tip: if the torillas are stiff, you can microwave them under a damp paper towel for 15 seconds or so to soften them up. I lived on this through college!

When I first learned how to cook meals for myself I found the easiest things for me to start with were egg white omelettes and stir-frys. Because with each of those meals you can have so much variety so that even though the cooking technique is the same, you won't get bored with the taste.

For the omelettes I throw in slices of lean lunch meats, onions, green peppers, fat free cheese etc. I just spray the pan with Pam Spray, crack a few eggs and pour just the egg whites into the pan, and then I cook it on medium heat while throwing my additions in and then i flip the omelette when it's set.

And with the stir-frys you can either use a wok or a large pan/skillet and spray it with Pam or olive oil and throw in veggies like green beans, broccoli, squash, onions, spinach etc and then for protein you can throw in some shrimp, canned tuna, or diced chicken breast and cook it all together while adding different spices or tomato sauces.

Just try experimenting, you may not end up with masterpieces in the beginning but you have to start somewhere :)