Not necessarily your favorite meal, but your favorite that you are capable of creating for yourself. This one is mine. I made it the other night, and meditated on the fact that if I had enough of it, I would eat it until I did myself an injury.
It’s real quick and easy too.
That looks scrumptious!
Panko crumbed fish, or seasoned chicken thighs cooked in the air fryer, twice a week. I live alone, so it’s easy and convenient.
I’ll change my answer depending on the day. One of my favorites is what I made last night: spinach-feta turnovers in puff pastry.
I’m not schmancy enough to make my own puff pastry, so I just use Pepperidge Farm. The filling is onions sauteed in oil and butter along with lots of oregano, thyme, black pepper, salt, and garlic, to which I add some lemon juice, thawed and squeezed spinach, crumbled feta, and an egg. Nothing’s measured, everything’s to taste, and it’s tangy and fresh and savory and delicious. Just had three turnovers for lunch.
Just fried chicken strips.
My tastes change over time. Most recently I’d go with shrimp and sausage gumbo. It’s labor intensive, stirring a dark roux for 20-30 minutes, dicing a ton of onion, celery, and peppers, slicing and browning little slices of sausage. And then the ingredients are combined and simmered for a while before I start to consume way too much of it. I go mainly toward Cajun style instead of Creole, no okra in my gumbo, but shrimp is more common in Creole gumbo and I like shrimp.
The season as well.
I really enjoy the process of making Andalusian Gazpacho. I usually only make it once or twice a summer when tomatoes are peaking.
I also love making Gobi Manchurian. I’ve perfected a batter that covers the cauliflower and cooks nicely in my air fryer. I create the sauce, then let that simmer while I batter and cook the cauliflower.
My gourmet meal is my Eggplant Parmigiana. It’s so good that I’ve stopped ordering it in restaurants because it is disappointing in comparison.
My favorite meal that I cook is the experiment that turns out well. I had fish and chips from a fast food restaurant that was really good except for the horrendous cole slaw, so I experimented with making my own cole slaw and it turned out awesome (the golden raisins were a nice touch). The other night I used what was handy and ended up making a stovetop red cabbage soufflé that turned out much better than I expected. I seem to be making fewer and fewer bad mistakes in my dotage.
That’s a long list, but one that comes to mind right away is carne adovada. I like the process of reconstituting dried roasted peppers, and Kenji’s recipe is really good. I also like making seafood paella, but it’s been a couple of years for that one.
It’s hard to pick one, but in the summer I enjoy making Thai basil chicken or pork (with ground meat, typically, though I’ll do chunks of chicken ever once in awhile.) Either that or a big Mediterranean spread with Adana kebab, pita, an assortment of mezze (like hummus or baba ganoush, olives, beet dip, etc.), salad (Jerusalem salad, celery root-walnut salad), etc.
Coconut turmeric chicken soup.
I make it all the time. Something about the turmeric sauce over the rice…mmm.
Oh yeah, I would tear that up! It’d be good with couscous too.
I make it with frozen chicken in the instant pot! Very easy to adapt.
Tough choice.
Jerk Chicken may be one. Let’s call that the “Summer choice”, since I tend to grill and BBQ more often in Summer. I’ve told the story a few times here about a Jerk Chicken restaurant I used to frequent until the owner died and the place closed down. That chicken, and the rice and beans and other sides, were about the best things I ever ate, and I’ve been trying to replicate the recipes ever since. I’ve gotten close but still not as good as my (fading now, since the place is 4 years gone) memories.
The “Winter choice” (since it takes 4 hours to properly cook down and reduce the coconut milk, which lends itself better to a Winter weekend day) would be Spicy Beef Rendang. Had it in an Indonesian restaurant and my wife said “you gotta figure out how to make this at home”. This recipe comes really close. I also add soy sauce for umami, and crushed almonds since the restaurant version had almonds:
That recipe sounds great, and I have almost all of the ingredients. Will make this soon!
I mean that’s a hard choice to make, as others say, really, the best meal you can cook is the one you want the most at the time! Whether it be matzoh ball soup from a box all the way up to the time I spent 36+ hours making an elaborate multi-course dim sum extravaganza!
To make it easier on everyone, I suggest our honorable OP @Dung_Beetle put some limits on it, such as “favorite meal that you cook at least once a week / month / biannually” or something similar. IE something you really LIKE, something you can cook yourself, and something you’re willing to do with some degree of frequency.
And that leaves out favorite meals you cook but DON’T because the materials are too expensive.
With that out of the way, and staying with the OP’s intent of something that you would “eat it until I did myself an injury” it would probably be orange glazed duck breast in a skillet. High heat sear, into the oven to finish to a medium rare verging on medium, from scratch orange sauce with orange juice, zest, brown sugar and a bit of white wine, served with rosemary garlic mashed potatoes (golden and russet mix).
But I only do it 3-4 times a year due to cost.
Still, if I could afford it, I’d gorge on duck breast until I was sick. I guess, technically, now that beef is so pricey, it might be cheaper than duck often, but I only buy beef on steep sales.
One that would qualify by my earlier suggestion of at least once a month would be maki sushi made with scallions and smoked salmon, along with roasted red bell pepper marinated in soy nigiri. I buy cheap smoked salmon trim which is more or less reasonable for the quantities needed, scallions/green onions are cheap, as is sushi rice by volume. And the roasted red bell peppers, while not as amazing in any way as sushi grade tuna (to me), cost very little on sale, and are still amazing.
Nah, I like to find out what you guys like to eat, what your skill level is, how flexible your budget is, what kind of equipment you’re using…all kinds of stuff. I’m taking notes. 
Your thread, your rules of course. No snark intended!
I often pick up good tips from these threads, including adding aleppo peppers and ground sumac berries to a number of my dishes. And I even like people who disagree with me, including some who cannot enjoy the pleasure of a wide selection of capsicums!
-shakes head in sadness-
Crock pot lasagna. It takes about 20 minutes to set up, then you leave the slow cooker on “high” for three hours.
I don’t make it often because the recipe makes a lot and it’s only me most of the time, but homemade Cioppino with homemade Ciabatta bread. But there are few things more satisfying than a hearty bowl of steaming seafood and Cioppino stew with a gorgeous loaf of homemade Italian-style bread to sop up all those fabulous juices.
I may have to host a dinner soon. 
I’m kind of an accomplished home cook. I’d probably be a good contender on the old Alton Brown show Cutthroat Kitchen because I can deal with shit, like missing ingredients, being on a campground, having shitty equipment, etc.
So my favorite meal is stupidly mundane: thick spaghetti noodles with browned Italian sausage added to some (any) reasonable jarred tomato-based pasta sauce – national brand, store brand, whatever; it doesn’t matter. Fresh, grated Costco-purchased Parmigiano Reggiano on top. Yeah, the Kraft Parmesan won’t cut it. I’m complicated, okay?
I think that that’s comfort food. Other than the premium cheese, it’s kind of what I grew up with once I convinced my mom not to buy the spaghetti kits with noodles and a can of sauce included.
Given that I don’t really give much of a shit about “perfect presentation,” though, I love everything that I make. I’m a damned good cook. I’d love to improve my Asian repertoire, though. And I have limited experience with the foods I’ve not tried but want to. But there’s nothing I make that sucks. Other than Kraft Dinner, because, well, shit, my kids love it for some reason.