One-Pot Dinners

Cafe Society
1

I have gotten into (to the point of obsession) one-pot dinners lately.

It’s a great way to cook for a family.

So far I’ve gotten arroz con pollo down. I’m good at it. I’ve got a few variations down. I’m making my own achiote oil. And here’s a great flavor-booster – fry up some salt pork fatback in the pan before you start, then set aside the fried-up pork bits. Then proceed as usual, but throw the pork back in when you add the water (or even better, chicken broth).

And every one-pot dinner I’ve come up with has been rice-based. Either yellow rice, like the above-mentioned arroz con pollo, or red rice, which I’ve been doing with either andouille sausage or shrimp for the protein, the heart of the meal.

But I’m looking to expand my repertoire. Any suggestions much appreciated!

2

spaghetti.

3

This time of year a couple nights every week I make some sort of Italian Ratatouille. Onions, garlic, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, etc. simmered a while, then some sort of pasta added in at the end.

4

So spaghetti, as the poster above you said. :grin:

But you give more detail, and that’s on the list for experimentation.

5

2 pots at least. One pot for the sauce and one for the pasta. Sometimes a frying pan for the meat or a pot to parboil the sausage.

6

Mock Stroganoff:

Brown two pounds ground beef in large pot.
Add four cans (Campbells) beef consume
Add two cans cream of mushroom soup
Add 12 ounce bag of egg noodles
Add 1 to 2 cups water (enough to cook the noodles)

Let simmer till noodles are tender
Add 16 oz tub of sour cream.

For spices I use Cajun seasoning, salt, and LOTS of fresh ground black pepper.

7

A great one pot dinner is spatchcocked chicken on a bed of root vegetables, garlic and potatoes, and bouquet of woodsy herbs from the garden. Add a little stock to the bottom of the pan for a ready sauce when the roasting is done.

8

That sounds perfect. So what’s the routine? How do you not overcook the vegetables while still adequately cooking the chicken? Cook the chicken first (at least brown it – that’s how I do arroz con pollo), then add it back, simmer the vegetables, etc. in the broth for a while?

9

Any and almost every kind of stew. Brown the meat in the pot, brown the aromatics in the pot, add veggies and liquid and Robert’s your mother’s brother.

10

Yes, absolutely. And, come fall and winter, I’ll be doing stews too. But on weekdays, looking to keep the prep and cooking time under an hour.

11

I’m afraid that if you’re looking for the root vegetables to not be overcooked, this is not the dish for you. They’re going to be overcooked. I just line them around the edges so that they at least get browned. I use an oven temp of 450F set to convect to reduce steaming. The bird is cooked skin side up but is much thinner for being split open so it doesn’t take quite so long to cook as a whole roasted bird would.

12

Smaller chunks of protein is the answer there. They cook faster, so getting the vegetables done becomes the major issue.

13

OK, got it. That makes more sense. I didn’t grasp at first this wasn’t a stovetop dinner, it was an oven dinner.

It does sound good, and I’ll try it.

14

One of my favorites that my wife makes is:

It’s ridiculously delicious.

I’m trying to eat less meat and she’s a vegetarian so we don’t find that this one pot meal is missing anything. But if you wanted to pre-cook some cut up chicken pieces and then dump them back in during the cooking process, I don’t see how that could be a bad thing.

15

Barley soup with chunks of lamb, carrot, celery, mushrooms, and onion. Barley swells a lot when it’s cooked, so use plenty of broth (a 6/1 ratio).

I once made this with goose meat and bones left over from Christmas. It was delicious. Goat and mutton can be substituted for lamb too.

16

New England clam chowder.

17

Cauliflower and chickpea curry. Real easy and tasty, and, if summer heat is a concern, not a calorie bomb that will put you through sweaty discomfort afterward. Many recipes online accessible by Googling those words in different order. Some or maybe most call for coconut milk which I swap for unsweetened Greek yogurt.

And if you laugh in the face of sweaty discomfort, chili always hits the spot.

Really, beans are a one-pot staple.

18

Lamb chops. Those nice thick loin chops, not the skinny little ones.

They go on a baking tray with quartered onions and small halved potatoes. Sometimes I add a couple of sausages too, Salt and olive oil, drizzled over and into the oven at 180C until done,

Quick, easy and yummy.

19

Actually, my gf has been buying already cooked pasta in a bag. When the Ratatouille is ready, just dump in the pasta.

20

Jambalaya