Five Amazing Dishes You Never Knew Existed in One Pan
Moving to an apartment without a dishwasher taught me how important it is to use as little dishes as possible. Anything I can cook in one pot is very appreciated, but cooking in one pan is more than pouring everything into a baking dish.
Luckily, Cook’s Country’s One-Pan Wonders (available for pre-order, coming December 27) is a terrific collection of whole foods that can be cooked in a single pan, baking sheet, casserole, roaster, or Dutch oven. In addition to recipes, the book has some wise words about how to cook food in one pan, which will allow you to show the special taste of different ingredients.
There are many good things in there, but two tips I remember as really useful:
- Blossom Your Flavors: Seasoning food with herbs and spices is easy, but to really spice up these tasty additions, you need to do a little more than sprinkle them. Cook’s Country recommends warming spices in a little butter, butter, or ghee before adding them to food. (This can be done on the stove top or in the microwave.
- Cook in stages: just because you cook everything in the same dish doesn’t mean everyone has to come to the party at the same time. Fish and potatoes cook at very different speeds, so add tender, easy-to-digest ingredients later to avoid overcooked fillets and undercooked ham.
Once you figure out how to cook a big, old awesome casserole, you have little or no cooking restrictions. Here are a few of my favorites to help you get started.
Light, fresh breakfast
I usually think of breakfast as a collection of individual ingredients such as poached eggs, fried bacon, and toast, but there are many morning meals that can be combined in one bowl.
Shrimp and grits
Among the winners of the One-Pan Wonders competition was a recipe for Spicy Shrimp Kebabs with Cheese Grits. It’s no surprise that cereals can be cooked in one dish, but the shrimp somehow threw me up. Simply letting the shrimp simmer in a puddle of grits and cheese, and the key to making perfectly cooked shrimp without dampness is the clever use of skewers.
To start, Cook’s Country combines cereals, chicken broth, milk, green onion protein and garlic in a prepared baking dish, then covers and bakes at 350 ℉ until the cereal is tender (about an hour). The seasoned veined shrimp are then strung on 12-inch skewers, alternating heads and tails until there are six to eight shrimp on each skewer. After all the shrimp are skewered, remove the grits from the oven, stir in the cheese (adding it earlier will result in a greasy, lumpy mess), and line the skewers along the baking dish so the shrimp hang over their cheesy destiny. … Return to the oven for another 10 minutes or so, until the shrimp are cloudy.
Pizza for breakfast
Pizza is one of the best dishes you can make in a single skillet, and there is no reason why dinner should be so much fun. In my humble opinion, any pizza can be a breakfast pizza if you crack an egg on it, and there are several ways to do this. You can quickly make a super crunchy flatbread in a cast iron skillet, or use a traditional batter and baking sheet.
For a tortilla pizza, heat a little oil in a skillet until it starts to shimmer, then pat it dry with a paper towel. Place the flour tortilla there and add the filling. For breakfast pizza, I like some ricotta or cottage cheese, some crumbled bacon or sausage, cheddar cheese, and a whole egg cracked right on top. (If you add meat to breakfast, keep it all in the same skillet by cooking the bacon or sausage in cast iron and using the resulting ghee instead of butter.) Place it all under the broiler until crispy. and the egg will harden, about three to five minutes.
If using traditional dough, bake some bacon on a baking sheet until crisp, set it aside, and drain the fat from the bacon. Once the pan has cooled slightly, brush a little bacon to coat it, then squeeze the pizza dough (purchased or homemade) into the pan to cover the sheet. Bake the dough at 400 ℉ for about five minutes, then add your favorite pizza topping to breakfast, topping your masterpiece with a few whole eggs. Put the whole thing back in the oven and bake until the cheese is melted and the eggs are set.
Delicious tacos and fajitas
Both tacos and fajitas are made up of many ingredients, but this does not mean that these ingredients cannot be cooked in one pan in harmony.
Fajitas
To make dobro fajita-i out of an entire skillet, combine one pound of chopped chicken with three bell peppers (get one of each color), onions, and a whole bunch of delicious spices like cumin and chili. pepper, garlic powder, and chili flakes (see this recipe from Laughing Spatula for accurate measurements). Mix all this together with a quarter cup of olive oil and cook in a 400-degree oven for half an hour or so, until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are browned. Serve with your favorite fajita accessories like lime, cheese, sour cream and fresh cilantro.
Taco
Tacos are even simpler and can be made with just about any protein, but something that can be quick-fried, such as a flank steak or finely chopped chicken breasts, works especially well. In terms of vegetables, Cook’s Country uses frozen corn in its recipe, but any vegetable that tastes good, is slightly undercooked, such as onions and bell peppers, will work fresh. Add a little oil to the skillet and heat until it starts to smoke . Sear the meat over high heat and broil, then cover with foil and set aside while you cook the vegetables.
Reduce heat to medium and add a little more oil; if the pan starts to look dry, be sure to leave all those tasty, meaty brown pieces in there. Add selected vegetables and saute until tender but color. Remove them from the pan and reheat a few tortillas using the last drop of oil. Wrap the heated tortillas in a clean kitchen towel, cut the protein into thin thin slices, and assemble into delicious tacos.
Complete dinners are real winners
There is something extremely comforting about a meal of well-cooked protein and a few healthy vegetables and starches, but not all side dishes need to be cooked on the side.
Chicken with mushrooms and cabbage
The video above may show you how to prepare this rustic and warm chicken dinner, but this dish owes its quick cooking time to a small process known as matchcooking (or butterfly). By removing the poultry’s spine and flattening it, you get a chicken that cooks faster and more evenly. The tasting table covers them inside and out with a delicious mixture of porcini powder, cayenne pepper, salt and pepper, then places it on a cushion of sliced lemons and fresh herbs, and then surrounds it with over six cups of assorted mushrooms, garlic and fresno chili. before putting it in the oven for half an hour at 475 ℉. Then a quarter cup of cabbage (drenched in olive oil) is added to the mixture, and the whole thing is put in the oven again for another five minutes.
Meat and potatoes
A full steak dinner might seem like a no-brainer on one baking sheet, but this recipe from Bobbi’s Kozy Kitchen shows you how to cook steak, potatoes, and something green using a single-sheet baking sheet and wire rack. As with many of these one-pan miracles, the key lies in the step-by-step cooking.
Click the link above for more detailed instructions, but first you’ll want to marinate a couple of steaks on the sides with a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper. Put it all in a resealable plastic bag and let it sit for an hour or so. While the meat is marinating, cut a tiny potato in half, drizzle with a little olive oil and place in the oven at 450 ℉ until the edges begin to brown. Add the chopped broccoli, drizzled with a little olive oil, place the wire rack over the vegetables and place the steaks on the wire rack. Return the mold to the oven and cook until the internal temperature of the meat is 125 ℉ on an instant thermometer (about 30 minutes).
Lot of pasta
As for pasta cooked per pot, you really don’t need to go further than the aforementioned iconic recipe from Martha Stewart . Let Queen Martha walk you through the process, but all you need is dried spaghetti, chopped onions, halved cherry tomatoes, garlic, basil, some olive oil, and basic seasonings like salt, pepper, and red chili flakes. Place in a straight-sided saucepan and simmer until the tomatoes burst and the pasta is done. Sprinkle freshly grated Parmesan on top and enjoy.
If you want to make your one-dish pasta more meaty, try America’s Test Kitchen’s hands-free spaghetti and meatballs , which use a baking dish rather than a saucepan or skillet. Simply break 30 ounces of dried spaghetti noodles in half, place in a baking dish, and mix with a can of your favorite pasta sauce and two glasses of water. Then combine 1 lb. 90% lean ground beef, cup panko breadcrumbs, cup prepared basil pesto, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and roll into 1/2-inch meatballs.Place the meatballs over the spaghetti, cover tightly foil and bake for half an hour at 475 ℉. Remove the foil and cook for another five minutes or so, until the sauce thickens. Serve with fresh basil.
Pot pies
So, okay, “pot pie” is probably not all that surprising in terms of “things that can be cooked in one pot,” but it’s a classic worth mentioning. There’s nothing wrong with the classic crusty dough, but I’m a big fan of the biscuit version like this one from Community Table . You can follow their recipe exactly, but once you get the hang of the basics, you can experiment with different combinations of vegetables. For a delicious tart base, simply cook one pound of chicken (cut into small pieces) with three tablespoons of butter in an oven-safe skillet until brown. Add ¼ cup flour and cook until golden brown, then gradually add three cups of chicken stock and cook until you get a nice gravy-like sauce. Add vegetables of your choice – maybe a couple ounces of Parmesan – and sprinkle with cookies (store bought or homemade). Put the whole thing in the oven at 375 ℉ until the cookie is golden brown and the filling is hot and bubbly.
After you’ve finished eating your very hearty meal from one pan, it’s time to get out. Fortunately, thanks to your very wise decision to choose something that can be cooked in a single pot or pan, this task is much less difficult than usual, and the person in charge of the dishes will not only thank you for cooking, but also for that. that you cooked them. life is much easier.