These Fast Foil Packet Recipes Make Dinner a Breeze

Sure, ideally, you'd always have an hour or more to cook a well-balanced dinner for your family—served on the back porch, in perfect weather, and everyone would clean their plates. But more often than we'd like there are a million things going on, and it's hard to find time even to toss a sheet pan dinner into the oven.

Those nights are when you want to lean on something super easy but hopefully, still well-balanced. That's where foil packet dinners come into play! There’s absolutely no other cooking method out there that’s as fast, fun, mess-free, and downright delicious as foil packets. You can wrap up individually portioned meals ahead of time, keep them marinating in the fridge, and when you're ready, you only need to fire up the oven or grill and let it cook. The meal is that much more enjoyable knowing there are no dirty dishes to clean up. And if everyone in the family needs to eat at different times, no problem! Each packet can be cooked separately.

Since foil packet recipes make dinner so much easier (we're talking sometimes just 15 to 20 minutes of cooking time), we rounded up some of the best appetizers, sides, and entrees that you can make on repeat all summer long. Think everything from barbecue chicken foil packets to savory shrimp foil packets. And for the ultimate childhood camping nostalgia, cook foil packet hamburgers in the backyard with your little ones (it’s a fun summer activity). Stock up on aluminum foil, stat, because you’re going to want to taste test every single one of these easy foil packet dinner recipes for yourself.