This has become a staple for us (and for my mother-in-law whenever she comes to visit!) -- with a 1yr old and two busy work schedules, we don't have much time to do the complicated, layered recipes that we usually love. But these recipes are really pretty doable in the 30min window they promise, and I've learned good shortcut techniques for other recipes too! What's nice is that they don't sacrifice on taste even as they come up with creative ways to cut down on the cooking time -- my daughter LOVES the skillet lasagna (and she's a picky eater!), and the mini-meatloaves are incredibly tasty! I probably have almost 50 cookbooks that I've bought and loved over the years, but this is the one we turn to 95% of the times these days.

I never really time myself when I cook but this book is great. You don't have to follow it word for word. The recipes are delicious and precise. I am now cooking roasted chicken breast and pan seared salmon for dinner... can't wait to try more. Great time saving methods.

I'm not a cook. I pretty much want the quickest and fastest method to achieve a reasonable result when I'm cooking for myself. When I bought the book, I hoped to have 30 minute meals. But some of the recipes call for preparations (such as actually cooking the meat before) and then slapping it all together in 30 mins for the actualy 'eating' time.

This isnt' a bad idea. But I had purchased this with the belief that I could do everything in the book in 30mins for a meal.

Other than that, it is a decent book and I found a few recipes I wouldn't mind trying out.

Don't buy this book if you avoid using a microwave oven. You can adapt your cooking, of course, but then it's no longer a 30-minute cookbook. Other than that, it has a lot of great time saving tips.

A very excellent cookbook! We already had the New Best Recipe cookbook, so we were familiar with Cook's Illustrated and their great recipes. To have those kinds of recipes that can be made in 30 minutes or so is great!

This book has a remarkable number of really good recipes and a few duds. The collection is varied and covers traditional American to Thai. The biggest downside is that they don't suggest side dishes for their main courses. However, the real value is that they explain how to do things the right way, and why things work. Highly recommended for anyone who is not a serious chef, and doesn't want to spend hours preparing every meal.

My husband and I try to make dinner at least five nights per week, but we both work and usually aren't home until 7:00 or 8:00 in the evening. I bought this book hoping that it might help us make tastier meals within our time constraints and it has. We've made approximately ten of the recipes so far -- half were fantastic and the others were still good. "The Best 30-Minute Recipe" has added a few new favorites to our weekly menus and we're eating earlier because the recipes are easier and take less time to prepare. A bonus: the kitchen is usually less of a chore to clean after we make one of these recipes because they've pared down the steps and ingredients to the essentials. I've already given four copies as gifts.

I received this book as a shower present, and we're hooked on it. While I don't mind cooking from more elaborate recipes on the weekend, that's simply not practical during the week. These recipes are quick, although I often do all of the prep up front, which pushes me slightly past the 30-minute mark. (I've done plenty of multi-tasking at work; it's not imperative in the kitchen!) We've made several of the skillet pasta dishes and been very happy with them.

There's a good mix of fresh and pantry ingredients, so you never feel that you have to buy a long list of crazy things to pull off the dish. I like the instructional style in all of the ATK cookbooks, and this one is similarly helpful. Also, you can take the existing recipes and create your own variations.

My only problem to date has been getting the pork w/maple syrup glaze to cook to the proper temperature. I'm going to give that a second try, however, because the sauce was very tasty.

ALthough I miss the pretty conventional pictures you get in most cookbooks, these really are SUBERB recipes. I made the classic brownies first-I always thought MINE were the best until I tried the brownie one from this book. Also tried Chicken Picatta recipe-so delicious. Great explanations of why certain ingredients are picked for each recipe, and thousands of helpful hints. A great gift for cooks and brides-to-be!

I work more than full time and am raising two teenaged boys and I feel like I have found another member of my life's "team"! Having spent many a Sunday culling through cookbooks and landing on the same old standbys, I now find I can lean on any recipe in this book and trust that it will take me 30 minutes (or less), that it will be hearty, healthy, and wonderful. My 15-year-old son cooked the the crunchy cod and now calls it his "specialty," and now he's sold on cooking at least once a week. (This is good.) I never buy cookbooks for other people--it's kind of like buying them art--but this one I've bought and given away several times...highly recommend it.

I own a number of Cook's Illustrated cookbooks, and this is my favorite. I've tried many of the recipes and my family as a whole so far has loved all of them! I've made the stir frys, glazed chicken recipes, baked manicotti (my son's favorite),skillet lasagna, chili mac, sausage and peppers, cold sesame noodles and more. Except for tuna noodle casserole all the recipes were winners. The explanations of how they came up with the recipes where very helpful as well. They do cook in 30 minutes sometimes quicker. This is my favorite cookbook!

This is a great cookbook for people who want quick, but tasty, recipes. The dishes are ambitious and varied, but the Cooks Illustrated staff never fails to pull off a great recipes, often for something that could take much longer to cook. And, again, I have to praise the cookbook for its variety: Maux Choux is a new favorite, Pork vindaloo is inspired, and many of the skillet pasta dishes are great.

Which gets to my complaint. Pasta dishes are some of the easiest to cook and can provide a complete meal. But the pasta recipes in this book are too limited. I easily could offer up 15+ additional recipes for pasta that would take 30 minutes to cook. Instead, the pasta recipes here tend to be, frankly, somewhat boring. Luckily, there are lots of other great recipes to save this book, and Jack Bishop (a Cooks Illustrated editor) has a veggie pasta book (Pasta e Verdura) that is a killer pasta cookbook.

So get this book for lots of quick and tasty non-pasta recipes. And grab the Bishop book for great pasta.

This is my first "America's Test Kitchen" book. I've been a subscriber to both of their cooking magazine for years. This book has many, many great receipes. My only complaint is the lack of pictures. There are some color pictures in the center of the book but a few more would have been nice. Other than that I HIGHLY recommend it

I own several cookbooks that claim to offer good food fast. All have fallen far short of the mark. I like to cook meals that are healthy and delicious, but I've gone back to work and don't have much time now. Also, I can't depend on Slow Cooker/Make Ahead recipes because our family schedule changes too quickly. The Best 30 Minute Recipe is a great solution to my dilemma. So far, the meals have taken a little over 30 minutes to prepare, but I know when I make them a second time, it will go much faster. Everything I've cooked has been delicious and easy to prepare. This one is definitely a keeper!

As all the books in the Test Kitchen Series, this book offers excellent recipes, practical and rapid ways to prepare them and a useful series of utensil and technique tips that are all tries and tested. Highly recommended.

I have only tried three recipes so far, but I can tell you they all have been absolutely delicious and they are really only 30 minutes (if not less)! I highly recommend this!

I bought this book and "The Best Light Recipe" for my husband, who's been a long-time fan of all things Cook's Illustrated-related. I became curious and got instantly hooked. These guys are geniuses! They really know how to communicate effectively to help make cooking fun, because their recipes are so dependable. The instructions are quite different from what I've seen elsewhere (such as MSL's Everyday Food, Real Simple, etc.). Yet these instructions have turned out dishes that are just absolutely wonderful and so much more flavorful and thoughtful than any I've done in the past following other cookbooks!

I'm also a big fan of baking, and I highly recommend "Baking Illustrated" as well. Try the "raspberry almond coffee cake": it's quite yummy!

I have too many cookbooks and lately this one has been the one I keep turning to for truly successful recipes time and time again. I'm never afraid of what it will taste like or turn out like because they have all been fabulous. My friend's sister recommended it to her and then she did to me and we have the best time going "Have you tried this one yet??" I agree with another poster though-it's definately a book I would give as a gift!

When I am planning out dinners for the week, this is my favorite cookbook to use. In the short time I have had this book I have made 5 different recipes and all have been pretty easy and turned out great. Unlike the other reviewers, they do take me longer than 30 minutes to make, although I think it'll be faster when I make something the second time. Our favorites so far are the Chicken Teriyaki, Sweet & Sour Stir Fry, and Steak Salad. I highly recommend it.

I too am a Cook's Illustrated fanatic. Some of the comments seem to say that CI just takes the same recipes and shuffles them around in various cook books without much thought. I believed this too until I started doing some comparisons. For example, the recipe for skillet lasagna is now different than a previous version. Whether for the better or not, we'll see. I do believe that they go back to the individual recipes to make sure they work within the premise of the cookbook, here meals in 30-minutes. I can just see Kimball with his stopwatch timing them all.

I agree with the reviewer who was frustrated with the amount of repackaging that Cooks does--although it is probably necessary for their business model, given that they accept no advertising. I have always been willing to pay their prices because of the quality of their recipes and of their techniques, and this book was no exception. What drove me over the edge was that, having ordered it from Cooks directly, I inadvertently got signed up for their "Automatic Preview Privilege," which meant that cookbooks just started showing up at my house. It tooks MONTHS to get them to stop. So, while I will keep buying their books and their magazine, I won't be doing it through them--will stick with Amazon, B&N, or my local bookstore.

Both my family and I love this book. It is by far my "go-to" cookbook. I have tried 4 recipes and we all love them. I appreciate the ease, speed, and the fact that I normally have the ingredients on hand. My family just loves the meals I turn out. I think this is a must-have on anyone's shelf, but particularly for the new cook. It encourages rather than discourages people to cook more at home.

I'm a fan of the Cook's Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen line of publications in general.

Although these recipes sometimes take more than 30 minutes, they're really not all that far off. I'm a huge fan of the kung pao shrimp with ramen (which I make with chicken instead). The 30 minute meatball recipe is pretty good, too.

This book must be pretty good - we've already got burn marks on the cover from use.

This is my eighth book in my Cook's Illustrated (CI) collection and I have really enjoyed it. While it is true that many of CI's cookbooks are packed with repeat and/or repackaged recipes as other reviewers have pointed out, this book stands out from the pack in that it offers techniques in streamlining recipes so that you can get a delicious meal on the table in 30 minutes or less. And yes, every recipe I have tried has lived up to that promise (unlike other famed 30 minute cookbooks!). For people familiar with CI, this is quite a change in pace. My only real complaint with other CI books has been that the recipes can be involved and time consuming and leave your kitchen looking like a disaster area when you're finished. The good people at America's Test Kitchen didn't seem to be aware with how much kitchen equipment they had you dirtying with their recipes! This hardly made CI recipes very appealing on those weekdays when you needed a fast and easy meal on the table. This book changes all that! I can finally have delicious CI recipes even on high-stress, fast-paced days!

It is clear that CI had two very distinct goals when they put this book together...(1)every meal truly must take the average home cook 30 minutes or less to prepare, and (2)every meal must taste great. While this may sound like a given, most other 30 minute/quick meal books do not always deliver on those counts. Not only do they usually take the average cook WAY longer to prepare (do they even take prep time into consideration when they are putting together the recipes?) but even more importantly, all too often the shortcuts they take compromise the overall quality of the dishes, leaving them flat and unexciting. This is not so with CI's 30 Minute Recipe. They truly have found ways to shave time and effort off of so many of their recipes without compromising the overall flavor. How exciting to be able to deliver delicious meals even on the most stressed days! I do also love the "Got Extra Time" feature that some of the recipes come with, which gives you the option of making the meals even better if you have a few extra minutes (like using long grain rice instead of instant or adding a few other components to enhance the overall flavor) but the recipes as written are still perfectly delicious on their own. It's just nice to have that option on days that you have a little extra time to put into the recipes.

While the techniques are different than other CI cookbooks, you can still count on all the features that you come to expect from America's Test Kitchen...the product and equipment ratings, illustrations of techniques, quick tips, and detailed explanations as to how they arrived at their recipes can all be found in this book as well. Even the most seasoned CI veteran can still feel comfortable with this book--the techniques may be different but the governing principles of CI are still front and center!

In short, I love this cookbook! While I'm an avid cook and very often enjoy spending extra time in the kitchen putting together delicious and in-depth meals for my family and friends, even I need a quick, low-maintenance meal from time to time. Thanks to CI, I now have techniques to streamline my cooking processes while still delivering fabulous meals!

This is a great cookbook. Every recipe that I have made tasted great and really took under 30 minute.

This is a great cookbook. Every recipe that I have made tasted great and really took under 30 minute.

I love all my cookbooks from the Cook's Illustrated line. This one is great, too! The recipes truly are doable in under 30 minutes. And when they say 30 minutes, they mean thirty minutes from start to finish- NOT 30 minutes of prep time and another hour of cooking!

My family loves the teriyaki recipes! I've never had better teriyaki- fast, light and fresh. We also have made some of the braised chicken dishes and they were very good.

This book is in a similar format to many of their others: there is a discussion of ingredients and methods leading up to the recipe and then usually several variations on the actual recipe itself. I like this because it allows for some flexibility if you don;t have certain ingredients on hand. This cookbook gives tips for how to prepare the recipes in the most efficient manner (for example, it says "While meat is browning, chop the onions"). I usually find that when I've cooked a recipe several times, I'm much faster at it becase I figure out what steps to do in what order- these 'quick tips' help me get there sooner.

The resulting food is fab! This cookbok isn't just for rushed weeknight dinners, the recipes are good enough to warrant including in your regular repetoire of things to prepare for guests and special occasions. Quick doesn't have to mean lower quality, the folk from Cook's Illustrated have proven that here with this book!

This cookbook is totally amazing, I recommend it to anyone who loves a good home-cooked meal, but not all the time and effort that takes to make one. I don't have to spend hours in the kitchen after I come home from work to make a great meal. Just 30-45 min is all it takes! It is the best cookbook I have ever bought, the recipes are simple and delicious, and it also has great tips on cooking gadgets, how-to's, and other handy advice. Love it!

I turn to this cookbook several times a week for quick, but tasty recipes for my busy family. The recipes are easy and really are under 30 minutes, but they don't lack taste! I have found ways to lighten them up since many call for fattening ingredients, but this book stays on my kitchen counter and it is a menu-planning staple for me! I highly recommend it for anyone who likes to cook delicious meals but doesn't have hours to spend in the kitchen.

Plenty of cookbooks promise quick recipes, then either add time or skimp on flavor. Not so in The Best 30-Minute Recipe: each and every recipe here has been tested time and again - some 300 of them - and paired with overall time-saving techniques busy cooks will appreciate. The 'got extra time?' sidebars offer ideas for embellishments such as sauces which may be made when there's need for a little more zip, while recipes blend quick techniques (such as microwaving long-grain rice) with adaptations which retain flavor while speeding prep time. It also includes shopping hints as a way of speeding things all the way around. Any general-interest public library, especially those catering to busy professionals, will find it a popular lend.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

I gave up on cooking many years ago. In the past, I would spend hours in the kitchen to make one dish that would turn out so so. I was so frustrated that my husband took over the cooking in our home. He can make up his own recipes and the dishes would turn out delicious. I do not have that skill. I have been looking for that one cookbook that had easy to prepare recipes that were fast and delicious. This is that cookbook. So far, I have made 3 meals since Christmas and they have all been easy to make and delicious. The recipes have been so good that I am actually looking forward to my next time cooking. I appreciate the written discussion with the recipes to explain some of the ingredient choices and hints to help with the recipe. With me not being an experienced cook, I need all the help I can get. I have been very pleased with this cookbook.

If this is your first cookbook from the ATK/Cook's Illustrated crew, I can almost guarantee you will be very happy with it. It's a very thorough and accessible approach to some cracking good recipes. The prose style is entertaining and informative and helps a less experienced cook get some insight into the tastes and textures that make a "good" recipe.

But if you want to learn more or get further into the style, you may find that you get less geniunely new material with each subsequent purchase. While any one of their books is very much worth having, they tend to endlessly repackage and reissue their recipes in various formats. That's a little problematic for someone who is a fan of the ATK approach, but also is in no way a collector of cook books. If a cook book has 3 or 4 recipes that I haven't seen before and genuinely want to try, I'll be satisfied, and each new ATK issue just barely satisfies that criterion. But the relatively high cost of acquiring these new recipes along with the 5th iteration of, say, mashed potatoes, Chicken Parmesan and skillet tamale pie, may irritate and exasperate some buyers.

One reviewer called these folks "A cottage industry gone amok". That has some truth to it, but it may be a little harsh. A more sympathetic reframing might be that they are simply trying to package their recipes in convenient ways so as to meet the demands of a particular segment of the cookbook market: "Best Recipe" vs "America's Test Kitchen companion series" vs "Cook's Illustrated compilation". And "Quick Meals" vs "Light Meals" vs "Vegetables" and "Soups and Stews". But at some point, the typical cook will probably decide that he or she is being rather cynically exploited by some shrewd entrepeneurs determined to squeeze every possible cent out of about 250 really good recipes, supplemented with some helpful product reviews. I haven't reached that point yet, but I may soon.

So in summary: excellent cookbook, but docked a star for my purposes because I am paying "all new recipe" prices for a "30% new material" format.

If you're tired of the same old quick dinners, this book is for you! I have been very impressed with the variety of cuisine in this book, and so far, I have been able to make them all in around 30 minutes. I have used AMT's "The New Best Recipe" for several years and the recipes always turn out as promised. This book has the same trustworthy recipes, but without the 2-3 hour cooking time! The recipes taste great and are easy to make as long as you plan out your shopping list ahead of time as some of the recipes use unusual ingredients. I gave this book to my sister and she loves it too.

I love the "Best Recipe" series from the Cooks Illustrated authors. Each recipe has been thoroughly tested and refined so that everyone who can follow directions can mimic their excellent results. The 30-minute recipes are a collection of recipes that I have cooked (they really do take only 30 minutes and are delicious) and plan on cooking in the future. The ingredients are those that are found in well stocked grocery stores and while I find that I often only use a few recipes from most of my cookbooks, I want to cook most of these recipes in this book.

The best part of this cookbook and the rest in the series are the directions and the explanations. They take the time to explain why some choices about ingredients or techniques were made and not others. They take the time to give directions on how to perform cooking tasks; these explanations are very well written and the simple diagrams, when necessary, are effective. I especially like their reviews of products and cooking items. The carefully describe WHY they prefer one item over another in different circumstances. Reading this book makes me feel like I am in a master cooking class and gives me the confidence and the knowledge to try my own ideas in the kitchen.

A large number of great recipes and great cooking lessons. A great deal for the price!

I love this book-so far my family has liked everything we tried. A couple of recipes needed a few minutes longer than the 30 minutes I'd planned, though. I'll be giving copies of this as a gift-

If you have only one cookbook, make it this one! The folks at cooks illustrated have outdone themselves here. We absolutely love this cookbook and yes, the recipes do only take 30 minutes. It's wonderful to have a cookbook full of recipes that you know won't take all day and that you know you will love.

I have yet to find a weak recipe in this cookbook and have used it nightly for several weeks. The recipes are straightforward to follow, use fresh ingredients, and yield excellent results. Highly recommended for any busy person who loves really good food.

Have tried four recipes and all have been very quick and easy to make and have been delicious. Have given the book as gifts and plan to give more. An outstanding book in a wonderful series of books. Never a disappointment with Cook's Illustrated books. Highly recommend to beginner or experienced cooks.