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Moving into an apartment without a dishwasher has made me realize the value of minimizing the number of dishes I use. Anything that can be cooked in a single pot or pan is a game-changer, but there's more to one-pan cooking than just tossing everything into a baking dish.
Fortunately, Cook’s Country’s One-Pan Wonders (available for pre-order now, releasing December 27th) offers an amazing collection of complete meals that can be prepared using just one skillet, baking sheet, casserole dish, roasting pan, or Dutch oven. In addition to recipes, the book also shares useful tips on how to craft one-pan meals that let the individual flavors of each ingredient truly shine.
There are so many great insights in there, but two tips really stood out to me as especially useful:
“Enhance” Your Flavors: Adding herbs and spices to your dishes is essential, but to unlock their full potential, you need to do more than just sprinkle them in. Cook’s Country suggests warming the spices in a bit of oil, butter, or rendered fat before mixing them into your meal. (You can do this on the stovetop or in the microwave.)
Cook in Phases: Cooking everything in the same pan doesn’t mean everything should be added all at once. Fish and potatoes have very different cooking times, so be sure to add the more delicate ingredients later to avoid overcooking the fish and leaving the potatoes underdone.
Once you've mastered the art of preparing a large pot of deliciousness, the possibilities for meals are endless. Here are a few of my go-to recipes to help you get started.
Simple, Effortless Breakfast
Mytour Image
Shrimp and Grits
One of the standout recipes from
To start, Cook’s Country combines grits, chicken broth, milk, scallion whites, and garlic in a prepared casserole dish, covers it, and bakes at 350℉ for about an hour until the grits are tender. Then, seasoned shrimp are skewered onto 12-inch sticks, alternating heads and tails, so that each skewer has 6 to 8 shrimp. Once the shrimp are skewered, remove the grits from the oven, stir in the cheese (adding it too early would make it greasy and clumpy), and place the skewers across the casserole dish, allowing the shrimp to hover over the cheesy grits. Bake for another 10 minutes until the shrimp are opaque.
Breakfast Pizza
Pizza is one of the ultimate one-pan meals, and there's no reason why breakfast can't share the same doughy delight. In my opinion, any pizza can transform into a breakfast pizza simply by cracking an egg on top, and there are several ways to do it. You can create a super-crispy version using a tortilla and a cast-iron skillet, or you can go the traditional route with dough and a sheet pan.
For the tortilla pizza, heat a little oil in your skillet until it starts to shimmer, then wipe it with a paper towel. Add a flour tortilla to the skillet and top with your favorite ingredients. For breakfast pizza, I like to add some ricotta or cottage cheese, crumbled bacon or sausage, cheddar cheese, and a whole egg cracked right on top. (If you're using breakfast meat, keep everything in one pan by cooking the bacon or sausage in the cast-iron skillet, using the rendered fat in place of oil.) Place the skillet under the broiler until the crust is crispy and the egg is cooked, about three to five minutes.
For a traditional dough version, bake bacon in a sheet pan until crispy, then set it aside and drain off the bacon fat. After the pan has cooled slightly, brush some of the bacon fat back onto the pan and press your pizza dough (whether store-bought or homemade) to cover the entire surface. Bake the dough at 400℉ for about five minutes, then add your favorite breakfast pizza toppings, finishing with several whole eggs. Return the pan to the oven and bake until the cheese has melted and the eggs are set.
Delicious Tacos and Fajitas
Tacos and fajitas both have many components, but that doesn’t mean they can’t all cook together harmoniously in one pan.
Fajitas
For a one-pan fajita feast, combine one pound of sliced chicken with three bell peppers (aim for one of each color), an onion, and a generous mix of spices like cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, and chili flakes (check out this recipe from Laughing Spatula for the precise measurements). Toss everything together with a quarter cup of olive oil and bake in a 400°F oven for about 30 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the veggies are nicely browned. Serve with classic fajita sides like limes, cheese, sour cream, and fresh cilantro.
Tacos
Tacos are even more straightforward and can be made with nearly any protein. Quick-searing options like flank steak or thinly-pounded chicken breasts are especially great. For veggies, Cook’s Country uses frozen corn, though fresh works just as well, and any vegetable that’s delicious when slightly undercooked (such as onions or bell peppers) makes a perfect addition. Heat oil in a skillet until it starts to smoke, sear your meat on high heat, and cook it through. Then, tent the meat with foil and set it aside while preparing the veggies.
Lower the heat to medium and add a bit more oil if the skillet looks dry, making sure to leave all the tasty browned bits from the meat behind. Add your vegetables and sauté until tender, yet still with some color. Remove the vegetables from the pan, and heat up a few tortillas in the last bit of oil. Wrap the warmed tortillas in a clean dish towel, slice the protein thin, and assemble everything into delicious tacos.
Complete Dinners That Are Real Winners
There's something deeply satisfying about a meal that pairs a perfectly cooked protein with a few hearty, complementary vegetables and starches. However, not all 'side' dishes need to be prepared separately from the main course.
Chicken With Mushrooms and Kale
The video above shows how to create this rustic, comforting chicken dish, which gets its quick cooking time from a technique called spatchcocking (or butterflying). By removing the chicken’s backbone and flattening it, you ensure it cooks faster and more evenly. Tasting Table coats the chicken inside and out with a flavorful mix of porcini powder, cayenne, and salt and pepper. Then, it’s placed on a bed of sliced lemons and fresh herbs, surrounded by over six cups of various mushrooms, garlic, and fresno chilis, and roasted at 475℉ for half an hour. Afterward, a quarter cup of kale, tossed in olive oil, is added to the mix, and the whole dish returns to the oven for another five minutes.
Meat and Potatoes
A complete steak dinner might seem impossible to prepare on just a sheet pan, but this recipe from Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen proves otherwise. It shows you how to cook steak, potatoes, and a vegetable all at once, utilizing a single sheet pan and a wire rack. The trick, as with many one-pan meals, is to cook in stages.
For the full instructions, check out the link above, but here’s a quick rundown: marinate two flank steaks in a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, and pepper. Seal it in a plastic bag and let it sit for about an hour. While the meat marinates, halve some small potatoes, toss them with olive oil, and roast them at 450℉ until the edges start to crisp. Add chopped broccoli, drizzle it with more olive oil, and place a wire rack over the vegetables. Lay the steaks on top and return the pan to the oven. Cook until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 125℉ on an instant-read thermometer (around 30 minutes).
Lotsa Pastas
For a great one-pot pasta, you needn’t look further than the iconic recipe from Martha Stewart. Let the queen herself guide you through the steps, but all you need is dried spaghetti, sliced onions, halved cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, and simple seasonings like salt, pepper, and red chili flakes. Toss everything into a deep sauté pan, simmer until the tomatoes burst and the pasta cooks. Finish with freshly grated Parmesan and enjoy.
If you're craving a heartier one-pot pasta, try America’s Test Kitchen’s Hands-Off Spaghetti and Meatballs, which uses a casserole dish instead of a pot or pan. Break 12 ounces of spaghetti in half, place it in the casserole, and toss it with a jar of pasta sauce and two cups of water. Then, combine 1 pound of 90% lean ground beef, ¾ cup panko breadcrumbs, ⅓ cup basil pesto, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper, and roll into 1-inch meatballs. Scatter them over the pasta, cover with foil, and bake at 475℉ for 30 minutes. Afterward, remove the foil and bake for an additional 5 minutes to thicken the sauce. Serve with fresh basil.
One-Pot Pies
Sure, a ‘pot pie’ may not be the most unexpected one-pot dish, but it’s a time-honored favorite that deserves mention. While there’s nothing wrong with a traditional pastry crust, I prefer a biscuit-topped version, like this one from Community Table. Follow their recipe to the letter, but once you've nailed the basics, feel free to try different veggie combinations. To create a hearty base for your pie, cook one pound of chicken (cut into bite-sized pieces) with three tablespoons of butter in an oven-safe skillet until browned. Whisk in ¼ cup of flour and cook until golden, then slowly add in three cups of chicken stock, simmering until you have a rich, gravy-like sauce. Add your chosen vegetables—maybe even a bit of Parmesan—and top it off with biscuits (store-bought or homemade). Bake the entire dish at 375℉ until the biscuits are golden and the filling is piping hot.
Once you’ve enjoyed your filling one-pot dinner, it’s time to tackle the cleanup. Thankfully, your smart decision to cook using just one pot or pan makes this task much less overwhelming than usual. The dish-washer will not only thank you for cooking, but for making their job a whole lot easier as well.
Illustration by Sam Woolley. Photos by Joy, Jeffrey Hsu, and Jeffrey W.
