Cell-free biology is increasingly utilized for engineering biological systems, incorporating novel functionality, and circumventing many of the complications associated with cells. The central dogma describes the information flow in biology consisting of transcription and translation steps to decode genetic information. Aminoacyl tRNA synthetases (AARSs) and tRNAs are key components involved in translation and thus protein synthesis. This review provides information on AARSs and tRNA biochemistry, their role in the translation process, summarizes progress in cell-free engineering of tRNAs and AARSs, and discusses prospects and challenges lying ahead in cell-free engineering.