One Pot Recipes

One pot recipes are simply recipes put together, created and cooked in one pot. It makes for a smaller mess in the kitchen and less work for the chef. One pot dinner recipes should include a meat or protein, one or more vegetables and a starch such as rice or potatoes.

One Pot Dishes

In a busy household, one pot recipes save time, money and require little effort. A one-pot dish refers to anything made with just one fairly large dish, skillet or pot. Interestingly, while most soups consist of throwing everything in a pot and simmering, people do not count them as one-pot meals. One-pot meals tend to refer to dishes that you may find as an entrée in a restaurant, such as risotto or a chicken potpie.

Most soups can be made in one pot but these are not considered "one pot meals." We've included one soup recipe because we just love it for the one pot aspect. Here are some recipes to help you get started in one pot meals. Don't forget to share your own favorite recipes below.

Why Use One Pot

It may seem a strange idea to cook only using one pot recipes since so many dishes require separate parts. For example, making macaroni and cheese needs a pot to boil the pasta and one for the cheese sauce, as well as a baking dish for the oven. Others, such as the contents for a roast dinner, save time by having numerous pots on the stove at once. However, one pot dishes have the following advantages:

• Better tasting food - A meal that requires different pots, such as a full roast dinner, means that the flavors only meet in your mouth. In a one-pot dish, the ingredients have more time to infuse with each other, so your food comes out tasting richer.

• Thicker sauces - The old housewives’ trick of using water from boiled pasta or rice to thicken sauces comes into its own in one-pot cooking. By cooking the pasta or rice in with the rest of the ingredients, the starch released automatically thickens the sauce in the pot.

• Focused recipes - Sometimes it is hard to find inspiration in your cooking and many families find themselves eating the same items week after week. The challenge of only using a single pot can focus your search for new recipes.

• Less washing - It may sound like a simple reason, but cooking with one pot only requires you to clean one pot, which is great if you live a busy life or have a small kitchen.

One Pot Dinner Recipes

Jambalya
Roast Chicken
Fajitas
Beef Stew
Easy Chicken Casserole
Chicken Pot Pie
Minestrone
Tin Foil Dinners
Sloppy Joes
Roast Beef
Fried Potatoes and onions
Spaghetti Eggs
Chalupas


The addition of cooking rice or noodles on the side makes these two not a typical one pot meal but it is very close and both make for an easy dinner.

Kung Pao Chicken
Stroganoff


Cooking with one pot recipes tends to be associated with students and bachelors too lazy to make full meals. However, more and more families turn to one pot cooking, as it saves energy by using less gas or electricity. You can get into one pot cooking with your largest pot, but most people soon find that a crock pot or even a pressure cooker is worth its weight in gold as you can prepare your one pot dish hours in advance.

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