AS THE PANDEMIC drags on, so does the seemingly unending marathon of home cooking. But if we’re still madly searching online at 5 p.m. for another way to make sheet-pan chicken, and ending each week with a crisper drawer of wilting produce and a fridge full of miscellaneous leftovers, can we really say we know how to cook? Two upcoming cookbooks aim to address just this sort of question.

In “Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave): A Cookbook” (Oct. 26, Clarkson Potter), chef...

AS THE PANDEMIC drags on, so does the seemingly unending marathon of home cooking. But if we’re still madly searching online at 5 p.m. for another way to make sheet-pan chicken, and ending each week with a crisper drawer of wilting produce and a fridge full of miscellaneous leftovers, can we really say we know how to cook? Two upcoming cookbooks aim to address just this sort of question.

In “Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave): A Cookbook” (Oct. 26, Clarkson Potter), chef and restaurateur David Chang boldly asserts that it’s not cooking that’s the problem—it’s the very notion of recipes. Mr. Chang, who co-wrote the book with food writer Priya Krishna, freely admits that, until relatively recently, he didn’t cook at home at all. His approach to food was formed by his culinary school training, and, later, the discipline of restaurant cooking. Mr. Chang believes this rigid, prescriptive approach has spread to home cooks as well: “We’ve created generations of people who rely on recipes and can’t actually cook a dish without one.”

But these days Mr. Chang is cooking at home for his family most of the time, and his mission is “to create something as delicious as possible, in the least amount of time possible, while making as little mess as possible.” And he wants other home cooks to free themselves from recipes and rules, too. “It’s like Google Maps: We’re terrible at navigating now because we just blindly follow whatever our phones tell us.” As Mr. Chang and Ms. Krishna point out, “In a lot of communities, especially among people of color, cooking without recipes is a mind-set.”

FLASH IN THE PANTRY Find the recipe for Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs With Farro, Shallots, and Bay from ‘Ready, Set, Cook’ below.

Photo: David Malosh

A cornerstone of Mr. Chang’s recipe-free approach is a make-ahead strategy he calls “sandbagging”: cooking a large batch of an ingredient (say, a slab of brisket) into a range of off-the-cuff meals, from pho-like soup to a sukiyaki-esque noodle dish to a barbecue-ish brisket sandwich. Specifics on ingredient amounts and cooking times are kept to a minimum, but there’s plenty of insight and encouragement to take their place.

Going recipe-free can mean more freedom to tinker with technique: Mr. Chang makes cacio e pepe pasta with a blender sauce that avoids the dreaded clumpy pecorino typically left clinging to the pot. Cooking big cuts of meat to tenderness takes time, but Mr. Chang speeds things up by dispensing with the old-school Eurocentric technique of searing and slow-simmering in favor of a vigorous boil; quickly adds umami to dal with fish sauce; and even zaps boneless, skinless chicken thighs in the microwave.

Ms. Krishna, who comes to this volume an established cookbook author herself, will sometimes heartily cosign these moves, but she occasionally questions them, too, driving home the point that in any kitchen nothing is sacred, everything is personal, and you don’t need to please anyone but yourself (and possibly the people you live with).

Though “Cooking at Home” is filled with guidelines for dishes with, as Mr. Chang puts it, “deep Korean and Japanese influences,” he aims to free readers from an obligation to cook “authentic” food at home: “What’s also important, in your home kitchen, out of the public sphere, is to just cook what you think tastes good and what you can get on the table in a way that makes sense with the rest of your life.” Keep cooking without recipes, he asserts, and eventually you’ll hone your own instincts.

For writer Dawn Perry, cooking what tastes good comes naturally. As a former food director at Real Simple magazine who also put in time in the test kitchens at Martha Stewart (full disclosure: we were briefly colleagues there) and Bon Appétit, she’s developed countless recipes for home cooks. Unlike Mr. Chang, she has no qualms about recipes’ usefulness as a way to help people learn—as long as they’re wielded wisely. In “Ready, Set, Cook: How To Make Good Food with What’s On Hand (No Fancy Skills, Fancy Equipment, or Fancy Budget Required)” (Nov. 2, Simon and Schuster) Ms. Perry shares her own brand of “sandbagging,” building a well-stocked pantry that makes everyday cooking easier for your future self.

“Pantry cooking isn’t just a hook for this book—it’s how I cook in real life. It’s how all talented home cooks get food on the table day in and day out,” Ms. Perry writes. Make a batch of her Garlic-Shallot Crunch, for example, and you have a savory topping for noodles, curries and salads; the leftover flavored oil can be used to make a richly flavored, multipurpose dressing.

Ms. Perry’s take on pantry cooking goes far beyond the pantry. She makes a strong case for roasting a couple sheet pans’ worth of vegetables every week, ready to add to tacos and grains, or serve as a side dish. Her Oven-Baked Meatballs are simple to scale up and freeze, ready to bolster brothy soups and pastas, or get sandwiched in a hoagie roll. A stash of All-Purpose Streusel makes weeknight fruit crumble a realistic plan rather than a wistful dream.

Ingredient lists are kept blissfully short. Ms. Perry’s recipe for Pan-Roasted Chicken Thighs With Farro, Shallots, and Bay calls for just one non-pantry ingredient: the chicken itself. No shallots? Red onions are fine. Out of homemade stock? Use water. After all, you’re not running a restaurant. It’s just dinner at home.

“Cooking at Home: Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying About Recipes (And Love My Microwave): A Cookbook,” by David Chang and Priya Krishna, will be published Oct. 26 by Clarkson Potter.

Brilliant Things David Chang Does with a Microwave

”In a lot of Mexican recipes, you toast [dried chiles] on a hot pan to start; I like to microwave them in oil and then blitz them into a paste for using in meats, sauces, and stews.”

“Wash [1 pound small potatoes with the skin on, and toss them in salt while they are still wet. Place...in a container with a lid, cover, and microwave them for 5 to 15 minutes total depending on size and quantity, giving them a shake partway through, until they’re cooked through. Serve with mayo.”

“Just microwave fish with a splash of Shaoxing wine, top it with julienned ginger and scallions, and maybe a little soy sauce, and call it dinner.”

“Ready, Set, Cook: How To Make Good Food with What’s On Hand (No Fancy Skills, Fancy Equipment, or Fancy Budget Required),” by Dawn Perry, will be published Nov. 2 by Simon and Schuster.

Brilliant Things Dawn Perry Does With a Tray of Freezer Pesto

“Make Green Rice (or other grains): Cook rice according to package directions. Remove from heat, add 1 cube pesto for each cup of rice, and let steam, covered, 5 minutes. Toss to combine.”

“Add a cube to mostly vegetable soups, brothy beans, or steamed clams.”

“Shake-n-Bake: Thaw a cube and slather onto chicken breasts or thighs. Scatter with bread crumbs and bake until crumbs are golden and chicken is cooked through.”

“Green Eggs and: Thaw a cube and stir a spoonful into scrambled eggs.”

“Dip: Thaw and swirl into yogurt as an easy dip for chips or crudités.”

To explore and search through all our recipes, check out the new WSJ Recipes page.