I often try to make a lot of christmas dessert from scratch, because it’s for family. And they are good, but they take so long to make the baby jesus starts to cry.
The christmas pudding takes two days. Meh, buy it next time.
The mincemeat pie? Yep, I sourced all the ingredients, diced them, cooked them, baked them, etc. It was really damn good. But not 10x better than a frozen one from the store.
My pumpkin pie, made from scratch from an actual pumpkin, is worth it though.
Another slow German item is Springerle. Takes three days to make cookies.
Agreed on the labor time vs eating for tacos. But, by that metric, Thanksgiving is probably king of the heap. Planning and prepping for days, hours of cooking, hoping it all comes together at the same time, and it’s all gobbled down in about twenty minutes.
I don’t brown the meat. I can go from getting home from the store to having everything in the pot in 20 minutes or less.
Cut the meat, put it in the pot with broth/beer and get it turned on (I use precut ‘chop suey’ meat)
Peel/cut carrots, put them in the pot.
Cut onions, put them in the pot.
Cut red potatoes, put them in the pot (red potatoes because I don’t have to peel them)
Dump a can of diced (Rotel for me) tomatoes in the pot.
Add spices (salt, thyme, sage, whatever floats my boat that day).
Top off liquid if need be.
Get the heat just right so it just simmers with the lid on and ignore it for the next few hours.
It’s a very basic recipe but it’s very good (partially because of the stout or brown beer), but I worked it out like this because I can make it so fast. I can get it started before the frozen part of my groceries even start melting.
No browning*, no sauteing, no adding stuff later. It’s one of my easy one pot meals.
*There’s no reason why you can’t brown the meat first though. Just use the same pot and when the meat is browned dump the liquid in to make it stop browning. I think one of the big tricks here is to get precut meat. Cutting the meat yourself is, IMO, what really slows down the operation.
98% of the dishes. 
How do you make yours? I ask, because that’s one of my go-to quick and easy meals: put on the grits first, and the whole meal is on the table in 40 minutes (including the biscuits.) I live in the Southeast US, and shrimp and grits are available at many local restaurants, but I never order it, because it is so easy to make well at home for 1/3 the price.
I too like the very occasional box of Kraft, but the baked version is at least 4 times as good for twice the effort. Alton Brown has a really good stovetop version that splits the difference, though. I do homemade stovetop about half the year, when it’s just too hot to run the oven.
My favorite dish that I only make once a year is pecan tassies. (A sweet cream cheese crust with a pecan filling.) So so good, but so tedious to make!
And when I make lasagna, I always make two big pans - one for dinner and one for the freezer. The kitchen usually looks ransacked at the end of the process, so I might as well get an extra meal out of the mess.
Yeah spanakopita is a pain to make but it’s yummy . I use to make this for my family and friends but I haven’t make it in years . The dough is a pain to work with. I did buy it already made at a store but they no longer carry it.
Potstickers. It’s been a while since I spent a whole Saturday afternoon making the filling from finely minced shrimp, cabbage, green onions, carrot, ginger, garlic…and sometimes make a pork version. (ground chicken was too blah). I’d use commercial wrappers kept under a damp paper towel, and crimp each little dumpling shut with a pierogie crimper. Then dust with cornstarch and lay out on a cookie sheet on parchment, freeze so they were NOT touching, and when frozen gently package them to be steamed/fried later. So delicious, cheap to make, but labor intensive.
Chicken paprikash. I hate making all those dumplings.
Paella and risotto, for many of the same reasons.
For those of you who wrote “fried chicken,” Google “America’s Test Kitchen,” “easy,” and “fried chicken.” It’s fried in just a couple of cups of oil for a few minutes, and then baked in the oven.
You’ll thank me later.
I need to find an easy recipe for chile rellenos, because I’ll never make them again unless I find an easier way than deep-frying them.
Some cookies we used to make at Christmas. I don’t know what they’re called, but you have to mix the flour literally by hand (seriously) because it’s too thick to use any tools past a certain point. You then divide the dough into portions that you take turns rolling out with a rolling pin as flat as you can, divide it up into 16 pieces radially, and roll up the wedges like a crescent roll. Oh, and paint it with whipped egg-whites. And add cinnamon and sugar. And chopped nuts. All three both before and after you roll them up. They end up tasting very good, but they are 5 times as much work as basic Oatmeal or Chocolate Chip cookies. Back in the day when there was nothing better to do it was good family fun on a late fall weekend afternoon. But now, no way.
Seafood paella with Spanish chorizo takes two days for me to make, so I only do it at Christmas. Risotto is fairly easy, but takes practice to time it right for the rest of the meal.
I may be a born and bred Yankee, but even I know that good Southern fried chicken is PAN-FRIED, not deep-fried. I make mine in only a quarter-inch of hot grease (spread over a 12-inch skillet), although the classic recipes call for a half-inch. You just have to keep turning the drumsticks and breast pieces after every five minutes to get each side golden and cooked through.
It makes a bit of spattery mess, but nothing you can’t remedy in less than five minutes with a damp sponge.
My Greek mother-in-law used to make the little triangle spanakopita (also tiropita, which are just filled with cheese) as cocktail appetizers. But you know you can make it in a baking pan, right? And cut it and serve it in squares?
It’s STILL a bit of a pain, because separating the sheets of phyllo pastry and brushing them with melted butter is a two-person job.
I think the last time I made moussaka is going to be the last time I make that one. I love it so much, but such a mess-making, time-consuming PITA. Fortunately I’m only 15-20 miles from Greektown so I’ll just have to make a quarterly pilgrimage to get my fix.
Stuffed cabbage.
Fortunately Costco has a ready-made version that’s just as good as Mama’s.
Can’t say I’ve tried it yet, but I have friends that are fond of Picán.
Have you ever tried Individual Beef Wellingtons? Same concept but with filet mignon steaks. I think it’s even better because you can brown the steaks on both sides, and if you know someone likes theirs a bit more done, you can give them a few more minutes in the skillet before proceeding to next steps.
My grandmother’s sauerbraten soaked for a week or two. It was fuzzy and purple and disgusting, but so tender you could cut it with a fork, with the flavor of the marinade penetrating the entire roast. Ginger snap thickened gravy and grated potato pancakes with red cabbage on the side… ach, such a meal! Way too much work, but…maybe for a birthday again someday…
Fried chicken is the most laborious thing that I’ll cook regularly. Store bought is edible, but t ain’t even close to the real thing. Hell, I still can’t match my mother’s, and yet it’s worth every messy minute of clean up. I’m of the same mind when it comes to chicken fried steak.
Really, the only thing I love that I think is too much of a pain in the ass to make without a long think beforehand is BBQ Brisket. For the good stuff, it’s either tend a smoker for 14+ hours, or wait in a long line at one of two joints in my metro area. Passable brisket can be had at a lot of barbecue places, but again, it’s not the same as the good stuff.
I don’t make pizza. I don’t even understand how to make good pizza.