One-Pot
15 recipes found

Zucchini Butter Pasta
Make a dent in your glut of summer zucchini with this weeknight-friendly pasta. Grating the zucchini, a technique embraced by Julia Child, allows it to become so tender that it melts into the buttery, cheesy sauce. Cooking the zucchini with vegetable stock over low heat highlights the fruit’s sweetness and prevents it from caramelizing, giving the sauce a creamy rather than charred finish. Once the butter and Parmesan are added, give the mixture a good stir to encourage the zucchini to melt into the liquid. As always with zucchini, its mellow earthy flavor lays dormant until it is seasoned, so be generous with salt, pepper and lemon juice.

One-Pot Roasted Garlic Pasta
While roasting garlic can typically take close to an hour, this creamy pasta captures those sweet, nutty, mellow flavors in just 35 minutes, no roasting required. To replicate the toastiness, the process starts by gently frying the cloves in olive oil until they develop a golden-brown exterior. Because garlic can burn easily, you’ll want to keep the sizzle slow and steady and ensure the cloves are in near-constant motion. Simmering the fried garlic in water delivers two things: the characteristic roasted garlic tenderness and a flavorful stock, which becomes your base for the fragrant pasta sauce. A splash of cream and a drizzle of garlic-infused olive oil are incorporated into the starch-heavy pasta water for an irresistibly silky sauce from just a handful of ingredients.

Honey Lemon Chicken Meatballs
Sweet and sour meatballs, caramelized lemon slices and a sticky honey sauce come together in this irresistible one-pan dinner. The meatballs are tender, juicy and extra-lemony thanks to freshly grated lemon zest and bread crumbs soaked in lemon juice. For caramelized lemon slices that melt in your mouth, don’t use a large lemon with a very porous peel. Instead, aim for a smaller fruit with a thin skin; it should feel juicy when you give it a gentle squeeze. Serve this meal with freshly cooked rice and a glass of crisp white wine. Watch Carolina Gelen make this dish in this video.

Coconut-Cilantro Chicken and Rice
The hero of chicken and rice is usually chicken — but in this recipe, it’s the rice. This creamy, almost risotto-like rice cooks in a bright, herby spinach and coconut broth, forming a vibrant bed for the warmly spiced chicken. As the chicken roasts, the rendered fat releases into the rice, adding rich flavor. The frozen peas are added at the very end to preserve their color and add a bit of freshness to balance the flavors. Feel free to adjust the amount of lime juice you stir in at the end, and garnish with as much sliced chile and torn cilantro as you like.

Dijon Chicken With Tomatoes and Scallions
A one-pot dish that guards all the delicious flavors it creates as it cooks — the crispy browned bits of seared chicken, simmering soft scallions and burst tomatoes — and transforms them into a sauce with the addition of white wine and mustard. The tomatoes pop and deflate as they soften, adding their juices to the liquid, which helps gently braise the chicken. Tip in pickled jalapeños and a bit of brine to add punch. Serve this with crusty bread or spoon it onto rice or polenta. A green salad or steamed broccoli complete the meal.

Chakalaka (South African Vegetable Relish)
Chakalaka is an easy way to make the best of seasonal ingredients. A versatile dish, forgiving in all the right ways, this quick South African staple is hearty on its own, yet it can accompany almost anything, and can last for 10 days in the fridge. But all that generosity comes with some constraint: Balancing flavors here is a discovery, as you figure out how to adjust ingredients to your preference. Typically served with grilled meats or fish, it can be an easy way to have vegetables with every meal. Serve on toast, alongside a jammy egg, over pita with hummus or enjoy spoonfuls in a bowl by itself.

Burst Cherry Tomato Orzotto
Peak-season cherry tomatoes and fragrant basil join forces in this light and summery one-pot orzotto. Cherry tomatoes are first cooked down with aromatics until they burst and their juices thicken. This concentrated tomato mixture fortifies the broth, imparting its flavor to the orzo. Stirring every minute or so releases the pasta’s starch, while a pat of butter makes this dish silky and that much more reminiscent of a saucy risotto. The orzotto is only as good as the tomatoes you use, so be sure to use the best ones you can get your hands on. Topping each serving with a handful of arugula is a wonderful way to incorporate more greens and add a bit of fresh, peppery zing.

Spicy Vinegar Chicken Over Artichokes
There’s something undeniably comforting about the combination of chicken and artichokes. Bone-in, skin-on drumsticks and thighs are seared until the skin is deeply golden, then gently braised with onions and garlic, plus a splash of white wine vinegar for brightness. The addition of green olives adds a briny punch, while canned artichokes — an underrated pantry staple — make this a complete meal. Unlike fresh artichokes, which require trimming and peeling, canned artichokes are ready to use and soak up the flavorful pan juices beautifully.

Chicken Arroz Rojo
This colorful and satisfying one-pot dish is a variation on classic arroz rojo and makes it a complete meal by adding juicy chicken thighs. Caramelized tomato paste and fresh tomato give the rice its signature reddish hue; the dish is studded with sweet golden corn and black beans for pops of vibrant color, flavor and texture. Tossing cubed boneless, skinless chicken pieces with fragrant oregano and cumin before cooking adds another dimension of flavor. Leftovers are wonderful tucked and rolled in flour tortillas for tasty burritos the next day; you can add scrambled eggs for a breakfast version.

One-Pot Chicken Arroz Rojo
This colorful and satisfying one-pot dish is a variation on classic arroz rojo and makes it a complete meal by adding juicy chicken thighs. Caramelized tomato paste and fresh tomato give the rice its signature reddish hue; the dish is studded with sweet golden corn and black beans for pops of vibrant color, flavor and texture. Tossing cubed boneless, skinless chicken pieces with fragrant oregano and cumin before cooking adds another dimension of flavor. Leftovers are wonderful tucked and rolled in flour tortillas for tasty burritos the next day; you can add scrambled eggs for a breakfast version.

Cumin Beef and Green Bean Stir-Fry
Borrowing from both Hunan and Indo-Chinese cuisine, this speedy stir-fry features a generous amount of crushed cumin seeds for their aroma and earthy flavor. While ketchup is commonly used in Indo-Chinese cooking to provide tangy sweetness, sriracha does double duty, delivering a spicy kick without needing to reach for the chile powder. Green beans are ideal here for their mild sweetness and crunchy texture, but any quick-cooking vegetable will work in their place.

Keema Palak (Ground Chicken and Spinach Curry)
This comforting ground-chicken dish is layered with typical Desi spices: cumin, chile powder and garam masala. Finished with tender baby spinach, it has all the makings of a satisfying one-pot meal. In most keema (or ground-meat) curries from the Indian subcontinent, onions and meat are sautéed separately in two steps, but this recipe calls for cooking them together, along with ginger and garlic, a shortcut that saves time without sacrificing flavor. Spices and tomatoes follow, and a hefty amount of quick-cooking baby spinach is added toward the end, adding a mild earthiness that balances the bold spices. A splash of lemon juice adds freshness and brings everything together. Serve it with rice or roti for an easy, flavorful meal that comes together in 30 minutes.

Skillet Orzo With Chorizo and Dates
This smoky, sweet one-pan orzo uses a hands-off approach that takes cues from paella, allowing the orzo to simmer, untouched, so that a golden crust (called socarrat) forms underneath. It’s not quite as crispy as what you’ll get from traditional rice-based paella, but it still makes for some nice textural contrast. Just be sure to use a well-seasoned cast-iron or nonstick skillet to prevent the orzo from sticking. Cured Spanish chorizo lends smoke and spice, dates provide pops of chewy sweetness, and a shower of goat cheese crumbles brings creamy tang.

Lemony Peas and Dumplings
With no kneading or fussy shaping required, these easy, spoon-formed dumplings make the perfect dinner in a pinch. More like German spaetzle and Hungarian galuska than Italian gnocchi, these dumplings are made with a thick, pancake-like batter that comes together in minutes, ready to scoop and plop into boiling water. A fresh nod to chicken and dumplings, these lemon-scented dumplings develop an irresistibly chewy texture as they simmer. Thanks to the residual heat from the water, the frozen peas thaw in a couple of minutes, before getting dressed in the buttery lemon sauce. To ensure a silky-smooth sauce, gradually stir the fridge-cold butter in the lemon juice, two tablespoons at a time. Highlight the sweetness of the peas and the brightness of the lemon juice and zest with a generous sprinkle of salt to finish.
Galinhada Mineira (Brazilian Chicken and Rice From Minas Gerais)
A deeply comforting, one-pot meal of chicken and rice, this recipe from Minas Gerais is chock full of peas, carrots, and plenty of garlic and onion.