One dish meals can vary a lot in preparation time, number of
ingredients and complexity of the recipe. Some one dish meals can be quite
complex and gourmet. So this list includes both simple recipes and a few more
complex one dish meals.
I'd like to clone Rachel Ray and install her in my kitchen, but, well, that hasn't worked out yet. So, here are today's top ten picks for the one dish meals. (Note: These are not complete recipes with measured ingredients, cooking times, etc. Rather they are suggestions to get you thinking about which recipe to look for. You may already have your Grandmother's favorite recipe in a box in the kitchen, or you may be like me, surrounded by cookbooks, but finding what I want on the ever-so-helpful Internet!)
Meal #1: Chili
One great thing about chili
is how easy it is to cook up an enormous batch. Since all the ingredients just
go in one pot, you can easily cook up a lot more than you need for one meal.
The rest can serve as leftovers for the rest of the week.
If you’re in a rush
and want something yummy and satisfying quickly, chicken noodle soup does the
trick. Cooking the whole meal takes about 20 to 30 minutes.
If you’re really in a
hurry, this meal can be prepared without much fanfare. Just throw the noodles
in chicken broth, along with some vegetables, and simmer.
If you have a bit more
time, you can fry some of the ingredients going in your soup before throwing
them in the pot to boil.
If you want to get
more complex, you can cook up some Chinese Noodle Soup or Vietnamese Pho Noodle
Soup instead as well. These take more time to prepare, as both have ingredients
whose flavor needs to be gradually released into the soup.
Meal #3: Cream of Celery Soup with
Bacon
You might not think
that bacon, celery and cream soup would go well together. Surprisingly, they
do. The contrast between the bacon’s salty texture and the celery’s clean
texture creates a very nice blend of sensations.
Preparing cream of
celery soup with bacon is a bit different than how you’d cook other soups. You
start by frying the bacon on the bottom of the pot itself. The bacon will
release fats that’ll help flavor the cream soup.
After the bacon is
done cooking, you throw in the rest of the ingredients (onion, garlic, celery,
etc.) Finally, you add the cream soup and then add the bacon back on top once
the soup is finished.
Best of all, most of
the cooking for this meal doesn’t need much attendance. After the bacon is
fried and the soup is in the pot, you can spend your prep time reading a book,
catching up on work or doing leftover dishes.
Recipe Recommendation:
http://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-cream-of-celery-soup-wi-70990
Meal #4: Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables
This dish uses the
flavors of root vegetables to flavor the chicken, as well as the grease from
the chicken to flavor the vegetables. This dish offers a fragrant symphony of
incredible flavors. It’s also quite an easy dish to prepare.
Cooking this dish is
no more difficult than slicing up all your vegetables, placing it on the bottom
of an oven-friendly dish and then placing the seasoned chicken on top.
The actual vegetables
you choose depends on your tastes and what you have in your fridge. Try to get
a mix of contrasting flavors. For example, beets for sweetness, onions for
tanginess, potatoes for starch and so on. These flavors when combined with the
chicken’s richness will bring out and incredible taste and aroma.
Meal #5: Chicken in White Wine
This meal was first
popularized by cooking roosters in red wine. Chefs found that this particular
way of preparing a rooster resulted in ever so tender meat. Today, instead of
using red wine we use white wine and instead of using roosters we use chicken.
But the effect is the same: A tender, juice and flavorful dish.
To cook this dish,
you’ll need a Dutch oven, which is basically a very large pot. You cook the in
the pot first to add flavor to the grease. Then you cook the chicken for 5
minutes on each side to brown the chicken, again in the pot. Then you remove
the chicken, lower the heat and cook the rest of the ingredients.
This dish is a
relatively complex and time consuming dish to prepare. Cook it on a day when
you have a bit of time to spare. The cacophony of flavors will absolutely make
it worth your while.
Meal #6: Sausage, Pepper and Onion
This recipe falls
under the “medium” difficulty and time-spent category. The dish is quite
filling and once you’ve made it a couple times becomes quite easy to make. You
can use different kinds of sausage meats, like garlic sausages or cheese
sausages to change up the flavor of the dish. For an unconventional meal, you
can even go for chicken sausages or Italian sausages.
To make this meal,
you’ll need a high sided skillet or Dutch oven. You cook the sausages first in
water and olive oil, then add the peppers, onions and other ingredients. The
recipe comes with chili peppers and parsley, which you can of course replace
according to your personal flavor preferences.
Meal #7: Chicken Parmesan
Chicken Parmesan (one of my all-time favs) is a
baked chicken dish with yummy pasta sauce on the outside and soft tender
chicken on the inside, topped with cheese. If you’re handy with the oven, it’s
quite a simple dish to prepare.
You start by seasoning
the chicken on the outside. You coat each piece of chicken with eggs, flour,
salt and pepper then fry it up to make it and nice crispy. Then you pour the pasta
sauce in your baking tray, place the chicken on top and add cheese and other
dressings.
Put it in the oven and
wait for the cheese to melt. That’s all there is to it!
Meal #8: Lasagna
An old standby
standard in one dish meals, lasagna can be as elaborate or simple as you want.
You can make it vegetarian and add all kinds of vegetables like colored peppers,
mushrooms, carrots and more. Or simply go meaty and cheesy.
You can save time by
using a premade sauce or cooking your sauce in batches and freezing them for
when you need. In addition, most recipes don’t require that you precook the
noodles because the sauce cooks the noodles during baking.
Meal #9: Taco Pie
This is a truly fast
and easy one dish meal. If you’re feeling lazy or in a hurry, this dish serves
as both a delicious meal and a time saver.
Preparation is simple:
First, you fry the ground beef in a skillet with your taco seasoning. If you
want to add additional vegetables like onions or tomatoes, just throw them in
the pan as well. You can use a premade pie crust and add your taco ingredients,
top with cheese and you’re ready to bake. Drizzle with salsa, sour cream and
guacamole when it comes out of the oven.
Meal #10: One Pot Chicken with Mango
and Couscous
This meal is both
sweet and extremely delicious. It’s also very healthy, as both couscous and
mangoes are full of all kinds of high quality vitamins and minerals. To top it
off, it’s quite easy to make.
Start by cooking your
onions and your chicken. Add in the tomatoes, then the mangoes. Make sure to get
all the juice from the mango in the pot. As you cook the mangoes, more juice
will come out and seep into the couscous and chicken.
Then add chicken broth
and bring it to a boil. Add the couscous, wait 10 minutes and your meal is
ready!
Recipe Recommendation:
http://greenlitebites.com/2009/06/22/one-pot-chicken-with-mango-and-couscous/
These are ten
fantastic one-dish meals you can cook up whenever you’re pressed for time or
just don’t want to put that much work into preparing a multi-course meal.
What are your go-to recipes for meals in a hurry?


Love these wonderful one pot meals! There are lots of cloudy..gloomy fall days that just call for this kind of cooking..lol
ReplyDeleteBlessings,
Gert
Hi Gert! You are so right. These are comfort foods to a lot of folks, so maybe we should keep this list handy for just such a day!
DeleteHugs, GraceinAZ (Pat)
Oh I DO love me some one pot meals!
ReplyDeleteKeetha - I do too..lazy cook that I am! LOL
DeleteHugs, GraceinAZ (Pat)
Hi Grace. Yummmm! I am reading your blog on one pot meals at the wrong time...I haven't eaten...lol Anyway, I copied most of these recipes & put them in my recipe file in order to have them when I need them. They all sound so good. Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteMarje - Glad you liked the recipes/ideas. Chili is always my favorite cold weather quick meal!
DeleteHugs, GraceinAZ (Pat)
So much yummy in one place!!! Homemade chicken noodle soup is one of my favorite things. xo
ReplyDelete