Title says it all.
For me it would be fried chicken. (Or anything that is deep fried and battered)
Generally, it’s not just the effort required from me, but how comparable in quality and price store-bought options are. In some respects I actually like things that are a pain to cook - for example, my favorite part of Thanksgiving is that I literally spend half the day cooking. For me, that’s an enjoyable change of pace. Eating it is a secondary consideration. My wife is the same way with cookies - she’ll bake 100 cookies just because she wants to, then we give 90 of them to friends, neighbors and co-workers because we can’t possibly eat them all.
Anyway, lasagna is right up at the top of my list of things I don’t usually cook. It’s kind of a pain to put together, with all the different layers and ingredients, and it’s hard to do in small quantities. If I do make it myself, I end up freezing and reheating most of it. But I can buy a frozen lasagna in any serving size I like, and there isn’t that much of a difference in quality.
By the way, you can get a very respectable fried chicken doing nothing but seasoning it, coating it in flour and frying it up in a pan. No battering or deep frying required. It won’t be like KFC extra-crispy, but people will still ask for seconds.
Meatballs/Meatloaf
They are kind of a pain in the ass but I love them. When I do take the time to make them I’ll make a load of them and freeze a bunch. My big thing is that they pretty much take a special trip to the grocery store, and if I’m not doing it early on a weekend I might as well plan for a different dinner that I eat while I’m making them, because they will never be done on time.
Ravioli and Chateaubriand. I’ve made both a number of times, but in general, I’d rather have someone else do it and enjoy the fruits of their labors.
I made **spanakopita **(small spinach pies) three years ago for New Year’s Eve. People, including me, tore them up. They were SO good.
But man, what a pain in the ass to make.
Maybe this year I’ll do it again.
mmm
Chicken Adobo.
MMmmmmmm.
ETA: Also lumpia.
I have a recipe for Prinzregententorte that is delicious. But it takes, literally, 2 days to make it, as you have to keep dousing the cake layers with apricot liqueur, then letting them sit and soak it up.
I also love sauerbraten, but it, too, has a long prep time - it usually takes a good two days to properly marinate it.
Was ist mit den Deutschen? Alles dauert ewig zu kochen!
I am by nature a lazy cook. There a many things that are too much trouble to bother with. Fried chicken is super cheap at the grocery store and tastes fine. I also let my mother make the lasagna. I do a skillet version that takes 30 minutes and doesn’t require layering when I want the flavors. Chicken fried steak, chicken Kiev, true bbq ribs, basically anything that involves me standing around fussing over something.
I am a good cook, though. Give me a 30 minute recipe and I’ll knock your socks off. I could make those fussy things, but I prefer to save them for dinner parties or ordering from a restaurant.
That said, home made deep fried pork won tons are very worth the trouble. Especially since I live in the land of Sysco Chinese.
Good old fashioned Sunday gravy, with braciole, meatballs and sausage. Can’t remember the last time I made that but goddamn I love it.
Fried chix redux. What a mess. But it’s always so so so much better than store bought…
Tamales. They are insanely labor intensive…but great to eat. It’s not quite as bad as it used to be, as you can find pre-made masa in some places. Even with the pre-made kind, though, it’s something that takes a lot of manual labor. We (a bunch of friends, family and co-workers) generally have a tamale making party about once a year and make to bunch at once, then divide them up. You can, thankfully, freeze them and then cook them (steam them really) throughout the year. We just made about 200 dozen a month ago…got to have them for New Years, after all. 
Shrimp and cheese grits. I make a version with bacon, chives, and mushrooms that is awesome, but it’s a pain to cook. Unfortunately, these heathens in CA don’t properly appreciate grits, so it’s hard to find on menus around here.
Beef Stew… I thinks its the cutting prep and then the browning of the chunks of meat and getting the stock right-- too much work, but I love a good stew.
Beef Wellington: a LOT of work, and if not done right, ruins the meat.
Baked Mac & Cheese. Fortunately the Kraft stuff brings back fond Proustian memories, so it’s fine.
Tacos. Dice up the onions, tomatoes. Wash and shred the lettuce. Grate the cheese. Bake the shells. Cook and simmer the meat. Assemble 3 or 4 tacos. Eat in probably 3 minutes. Done. Way too long for such short enjoyment time.
Mole sauce. We have never made it, but we’ve eaten it in restaurants, mostly in the form of enchiladas mole, and it’s delicious. But when the people in the restaurant tell you it’s a PITA to make, you have to figure it’s a total PITA to make.
I like making lumpia, because I’m good at it. Those wrappers can be a royal pain in the ass, but after making probably 20,000 of the things over the past 30 years or more, it’s pretty simple.
My candidate is perushke: raised dough that you roll out into wrappers for a ground meat filling, then raise again, then deep fry. It’s an all day process, but damn they are good.
Chicken croquettes. If I want them, I have to make them, because I haven’t seen them on a menu for 30 years.
Chicken Chillaquilles. Man, it is so delicious, but it’s so much work.
I’ve never seen it in a restaurant.
My family has a recipe for these chocolaty sort of cake-cookie things called gobs, and I absolutely love them. When anyone in the family makes them (usually over Christmas), I’ll be making frequent trips to the cookie tray over the course of the evening. But I’ve made them myself once, and never again. They’re too messy, too complicated, too much work.