Our Sunday dinner recipe ideas include takeout food to cook at home tonight – from KFC (Korean fried chicken) and homemade burgers to beer battered fish and chips – because who doesn’t prefer healthy fast food you can make in your own kitchen over greasy junk food takeaway? Fast food cooked at home might take a little longer to prepare but it’s not only healthier, it’s more affordable, and it’s much more satisfying to tuck into.
If you’re contemplating getting takeaway food for dinner tonight, consider our takeout recipes instead. We’ve got recipes for everything from KFC (Korean fried chicken) and homemade burgers (from chicken schnitzel burgers to char siu pork burgers) to beer battered fish and chips, hand cut potato fries and spicy potato wedges, and homemade Sriracha sauce.
A lot of these recipes have been developed by Terence and I in places we’ve lived around the world because our takeaway favourites were often so disappointing abroad. Bewilderingly, it’s impossible to find a great Australian meat pie in Cambodia, our adopted home, and yet Cambodian bakers in Australia keeping winning best meat pie awards. So Terence made his own meat pies and sausage rolls.
Fried chicken, hamburgers and fries were nearly always made at home when I was a kid growing up in the western suburbs of Sydney, Australia. They were fantastic, so there was never a desire to go to a McDonalds. The exception was a summer road trip or beach holiday, when my parents would buy meat pies or fish and chips from a local takeaway.
The only North American fast food franchises my family ever took us to as kids was a Pizza Hut on the occasional school night when mum and dad, who both worked, were too tired to cook, or KFC, called Kentucky Fried Chicken back then, which was a Sunday country drive treat with my Australian grandparents.
They’d buy a barrel of chicken, big tubs of coleslaw and mash and gravy, which came with lots of small fluffy white buns, which we’d tuck into while watching the planes take off and land at Richmond aerodrome, a passion for my pop, who’d served in the Australian air force during World War Two.
My parents owned a beachside French restaurant on the Central Coast north of Sydney when I was a child and would later run a fast food joint-cum-corner shop when I was in my teens, so I was spoilt by healthy home-cooked fast food. That will always be my preference and my husband Terence’s homemade burgers are the best.
Now before I tell you all about our best Sunday night dinner ideas for takeout favourites to cook in tonight, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-supported. If you’ve cooked and enjoyed our recipes, please consider supporting Grantourismo by buying a handcrafted KROK, the best mortar and pestle ever; or buying something on Amazon, such as these cookbooks for culinary travellers or classic cookbooks for serious cooks. Now let me tell you all about these Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeout dishes to cook in tonight.
Sunday Dinner Recipe Ideas for Takeout Food to Cook at Home Tonight
Our Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeaway food to cook in tonight.
KFC Recipe for Crispy Fried Chicken in a Spicy Sauce
This recipe for KFC (Korean fried chicken) will make you crispy fried chicken that’s brushed in a special spicy Korean fried chicken sauce. The chicken skin soaks the sauce right up so you’ve got fried chicken with a super flavourful skin. While no longer crunchy, it’s incredibly delicious. And it tastes even better re-heated the next day. It’s one of our best Korean recipes.
If you enjoy this, try our Japanese fried chicken recipe, which, while not spicy, is super-crunchy. If you’re a fried chicken lover, check out our collection of best fried chicken recipes. Fried chicken is fab for a family meal or if you’re feeding a crowd, as you can fry up a big batch in no time. It’s also fantastic hot or cold, and you can serve it with a big bowl of potato salad, a basket or soft bread rolls, and garlic mayo.
Korean Fried Chicken Recipe for Crispy Fried Chicken in a Spicy Sauce
Beer Battered Fish and Chips Recipe
This beer battered fish and chips recipe makes the perfect fish and chips for the classic takeaway that is an iconic Sunday night dish for British, Australians and New Zealanders. It’s another of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeaway dishes you can cook at home tonight.
The use of beer instead of water for the batter mixture for this beer battered fish and chips recipe is not just to add extra flavour to the batter, it serves a couple of purposes. Alcohol burns faster than water, so the crust of the batter firms faster, protecting the fish from being heavy with oil. The foam of the beer, formed mainly from carbon dioxide, also keeps the batter light as it cooks.
Best Beer Battered Fish and Chips Recipe for Perfect Fish and Chips
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo
This chicken schnitzel burger recipe is one of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeout food to cook at home tonight. Terence’s recipe will make you our crunchy chicken schnitzel with panko breadcrumbs, parmesan and lemon zest, spread with creamy pickle mayo and topped with bacon, cabbage and tomato between soft burger buns.
The chicken schnitzel is crispy on the outside and moist and flavourful to bite into. Served with our amazing hand-cut spicy potato wedges (recipe below), it’s great Australian pub food on a plate (just not for the same crazy prices) and home-cooked fast food at its finest.
As an alternative to fries, I also recommend sides of my warm potato salad with anchovies, capers, chives and celery leaves and our homemade dill pickles.
Chicken Schnitzel Burger Recipe with Creamy Pickle Mayo and Bacon, Cabbage and Tomato
Char Siu Pork Burger Recipe with Asian Slaw
Our char siu pork burger recipe with Asian slaw is another one of top recipes in this weekend’s compilation of Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeaway food to cook in this evening. If your idea of fast food is healthy home-cooked fast food and you’re a fan of home-made burgers, you’re going to love this.
It’s like the best bacon burger you’ve ever tried with an Asian twist. Using skinless pork belly strips marinated in the classic Chinese char siu sauce, it’s a flavour-packed burger. As usual, we like to use homemade char siu marinade, but if you’re time-poor feel free to use a store bought char siu sauce.
It has a little kick from Sriracha mayonnaise – and once again, you could use the American-Vietnamese Huy Fong brand of Sriracha, with the famous rooster on the bottle, or make your own homemade Sriracha.
Char Siu Pork Burger Recipe with Asian Slaw, Crunchy Cucumber and Sriracha Mayo
Corn Fritter Breakfast Burger Recipe
Our corn fritter breakfast burger recipe with fried egg and Thai sweet chilli sauce makes an incredibly delicious vegetarian breakfast burger that’s so filling and packed with so much flavour and crunch that we guarantee you that it will satisfy for Sunday dinner.
With a Southeast Asian twist on the classic breakfast burger, it’s so good you won’t miss the burger patty and bacon (and the grease that comes with it), making it one of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeout food to cook at home tonight.
If you made our Thai corn fritters recipe and you have a batch of our homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce in the fridge, then you’re all set to go. If you don’t, the recipe is below.
Corn Fritter Breakfast Burger Recipe with Fried Egg and Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce
Chicken Katsu Burger Recipe
This chicken katsu burger recipe places a crunchy tender chicken cutlet, prepared using the classic Japanese katsu method of panko-breaded and deep-fried chicken, between spicy Asian slaw, tangy Japanese-style barbecue sauce, and soft burger buns.
It’s another of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeout food to cook at home tonight. Serve with hand-cut fries (recipe below) and you’re in chicken katsu burger heaven. We love these burgers so much we eat them as often as we do Japanese pork tonkatsu!
Chicken Katsu Burger Recipe for Crunchy Tender Chicken Cutlets with Spicy Slaw
Southern Fried Chicken Recipe
One of our best fried chicken recipes, our Southern fried chicken recipe is an Aussie take on classic fried spicy Nashville style chicken. Australian chef Morgan McGlone learnt to perfect this during his time in the USA’s South, home to some of the world’s best fried chicken. It’s easily another of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeaway dishes you can cook in tonight.
We make a big batch of this Southern fried chicken and use it in everything from chicken burgers to chicken fried rice. The secret is boneless skin-on chicken thighs that are coated in seasoned flour that forms a ‘glue’ on the chicken and then the pieces are deep fried to get the crispiest skin you’ll ever taste.
Southern Fried Chicken Recipe for Belles Hot Chicken Spicy Nashville Style Chicken
Hand Cut Potato Chips Recipe
Our hand cut potato chips recipe is another of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeaway favourites you can cook at home tonight. It makes perfect crispy fries for your fish and chips or moules frites or whatever else you like to serve with fries.
Our mouthwatering potato chips are crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. There are a couple of ways to achieve this, but ultimately you need to fry the chips twice. Fortunately, our method doesn’t mean hours in the kitchen and these are better and healthier than any frozen chips you’ll ever eat.
Hand Cut Potato Chips Recipe for Crispy Fries for Your Fish and Chips
Spicy Potato Wedges Recipe
This spicy potato wedges recipe takes the classic Australian café, pub and bar snack of potato wedges with sweet chilli sauce and sour cream and gives it a spicy Asian twist. These skin-on potato wedges can be fried or baked, but we’ve gone for the oven-baked route for a healthy fast food recipe, making it another of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeaway dishes you can cook at home tonight.
Don’t worry, this spicy potato wedges recipe will still make you potato wedges that are crispy on the outside and fluffy within. Served with the classic Aussie combo of sweet chilli sauce and sour cream, these spicy wedges make a filling snack or a fantastic side for burgers.
Spicy Potato Wedges Recipe With Sweet Chilli Sauce and Sour Cream
Homemade Sriracha Sauce Recipe
This authentic homemade Sriracha sauce recipe makes the real deal – the Thai hot sauce that tastes just like it does in its place of origin, the coastal city of Sri Racha, Thailand. This spicy sauce is far simpler to make than you might imagine and you can tailor it to suit your own taste!
With so few ingredients, it’s the quality of the chillies that make this authentic homemade Sriracha sauce recipe so special. Using Thai chillies from Thailand or a similar variety – but not the chillies in the world-famous American ‘rooster’ hot sauce – is your key to an authentic Thai Sriracha sauce. This is another of our best Sunday dinner recipe ideas for takeout food to cook at home tonight.
This Sriracha Sauce Recipe Makes the Best Homemade Thai Sriracha Sauce You’ll Taste
Homemade Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce Recipe
Once you make this easy Thai sweet chilli sauce recipe the first time, you’ll remember why that bottle of sweet chilli sauce you bought a couple of years ago is still in the fridge. To be fair, it’s probably still edible because of all the preservatives and thickeners that are added to commercial sauces. But if it tastes like most Thai sweet chilli sauce brands it’s probably sickly sweet.
This homemade Thai sweet chilli sauce is so perfectly balanced and super easy to make that you might never buy a supermarket sweet chilli sauce again. Most commercial sauces use potassium sorbate to prevent mould occurring but this homemade chilli sauce will keep very well for at least a month or two in your fridge, as long as you always dipping clean utensils into the jar, so as not to contaminate the sauce.
Homemade Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce Recipe for the Best Sweet Chilli Sauce You’ll Taste
Best Aussie Meat Pie and Sausage Roll Recipes Inspired by Southeast Asian Dishes
Our best meat pie and sausage roll recipes are inspired by Southeast Asian dishes. They make incredibly delicious twists on Australia’s iconic meat pies and sausage rolls and the dishes of our adopted home, Southeast Asia, particularly Cambodia, and Vietnam and Thailand where we’ve lived since 2011.
They include everything from a curried chicken pie based on the classic Cambodian chicken curry to sausage rolls with eggplant and pork inspired by the traditional char-grilled eggplant and minced pork. We’ve also got recipes for meat pies and sausage rolls inspired by Thai and Vietnamese dishes.
Many of Terence’s recipes for sausage rolls and meat pies was an outcome of staying at home in Siem Reap during the pandemic and getting homesick for Australia and Australian food, everything from cafe fare (avocado on toast!) and pub grub (the chicken parma!) to takeaway favourites (from beer battered fish and chips to burgers and hand-cut fries) to inventive contemporary Australian cuisine. We were missing it all.
Best Aussie Meat Pie and Sausage Roll Recipes Inspired by Southeast Asian Dishes
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make any of our Sunday dinner recipe ideas as we love to hear how our recipes turn out for you.
