Easy One-Pot Meals, Part I
One of my favorite things to do on a Sunday is start cooking dinner just after lunch. It becomes a creative experience requiring my attention only a few minutes an hour, and fills the house with amazing aromas. The best part is I can cook (and sometimes even serve) the entire meal in one pot, and not overflow my dishwasher.
This series was inspired by the dinner I made yesterday to celebrate St. Patrick's Day: Corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes.
The most important part of a one-pot dinner is the pot. Since I was cooking a Sunday night family dinner for four adults and three kids which needed to be boiled for 2-4 hours, I used a 20-quart stockpot with a clear glass lid. If you're not cooking for a small army, and you want meal prep that's as fool-proof as possible, get something like this extra-thick commercial-grade steel stock pot which has an outer shell that's twice as thick as most pots. (You have to get this sucker red hot to burn anything.)
Here's the recipe for my meal. Though it took over 2-1/2 hours to cook, it took less than 30 minutes of my attention. So I got to do all my other Sunday chores and visit with company while it cooked. And the beauty of boiled beef is that the window for "doneness" is about 20 minutes. This means there's no penalty if you're not totally diligent about checking on it.
Ingredients:
2 2-pound packages of corned beef brisket (packed in brine)
2 small green cabbages
1 2-pound bag of baby Yukon gold potatoes
Here's how easy it was to prepare:
- Add briskets and brine to pot. Fill pot with water until it covers meat and then place on stove.
- Bring to a boil then cover. Turn heat down to simmer.
- After 2 hours, add the potatoes.
- After 15 more minutes, quarter the cabbages and add them to the pot.
- After 15 more minutes, if the cabbage is beginning to look transparent, remove it from the pot. Also, stick a fork in the meat and the largest of the potatoes. Whatever the fork pierces easily, remove from the pot.
- Every 3-5 minutes, check whatever isn't completely finished cooking. Remove when done. Serve. I actually did move the meal to a serving dish (the enormous stock pot wouldn't look very nice on the table).
Mmmm, boiled meat and cabbage. Tastes way better than it sounds. I've heard horror stories about the smell of boiled cabbage, but the yummy smell of corned beef brine was the predominant aroma in our house. My 6-year-old picky-eater said, "What's that yummy smell?" And when it came to the table, all the fatty parts that my little ones usually object to had been boiled away. There were no complaints. All seven of us were full, and there were leftovers for this week's lunch. Please send in your favorite easy one-pot meals, and be sure to include what makes them so easy and fool-proof. I'll post the best ones here. --Martha Snodgrass
Tyrone Slothrop on March 17, 2009 at 04:35 PM
One of my favorites is pozole, a Mexican pork stew. Put a fresh pork shoulder in your crock pot and leave it there all day until the meat falls off the bone. Put in one of those cellophane envelopes (5-6 tbsp.?) of chili powder, a little garlic powder, two cans of hominy, and lots of salt. Both the pork and the hominy demand salt. Let the ingredients get used to each other for about a half an hour. Serve with tortillas, flour or corn, heated in the microwave. You have by now put all of ten minutes into the preparation of this meal, and it is filling and delicious. And cheap.
Denny on March 17, 2009 at 04:51 PM
I like braised short ribs, which I do in one pot... er, dutch oven. I get four lovely slabs of short ribs (you can use beef shanks) and flour them and brown them in the dutch oven on top of the stove. Add a half bottle of red wine and put the covered dutch oven in the oven at about 300 degrees. I usually cook for about six hours. At various times, add potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, shallots, turnips or any other vegetable you like. Add them so that they are cooked to your liking at the end. For instance, I add the carrots and celery only about an hour before the dish is done, since I like them to be a little crunchy. But the turnips go in much earlier.
You can serve as is, but you can also use a little flour or corn starch to turn the liquid in the pot (after removing the meat and veggies) into gravy.
Dave on March 17, 2009 at 06:05 PM
Put enough chicken to feed everyone in a slow cooker.
Cover with a 50:50 mix of chicken stock and white wine from a box.
Add a couple of garlic cloves.
Add about 15 inches of rosemary stem per pound (about 80 cm per kg) of chicken. Don't bother chopping up the leaves; just leave them on the stem.
Add one halved onion per pound of chicken.
Add enough potatoes for everyone. I like to use red potatoes about 2 inches (5 cm) diameter and leave them whole. Larger potatoes can be cut into chunks about that size.
Salt to taste.
Cook on low about 8-10 hours. Yeah, that is about right for the last person leaving the house in the morning to start and the first person coming home to turn off.
Making gravy from the liquid is optional, but, if you do, strain out the rosemary leaves.
peter on March 17, 2009 at 06:43 PM
We have 10 kids, and this is our dish we have been making about once a week for about 2 years. Feeds 12 for 2 meals. 10 minutes to prepare. Not the best-looking dish, but we aren't epicures.
3 chickens quartered,
1 large cabbage
2 packs mushrooms
1 pound stringbeans
duck sauce
Cut up veggies and put into large roasting pot. Cover with chicken pieces. Pour duck sauce over, or your own concoction.
Bake at 350 for 3 hours. You can uncover for last 1/2 hour if you want to crisp the chicken.
Serve with steamed rice. We have a rice cooker.
We keep on the skin, and end up with a oily gravy, but the kids inhale it.
mpw280 on March 17, 2009 at 07:20 PM
For your pozole, I have grilled the pork meat to give it a roasted flavor and then I add mole to the mix. It really boosts the flavor and gives it a lot of depth.
Does anyone else add pickling spices to the brine for simmering the corned beef? I felt the package with the corned beef wasn't robust enough so I add a Tbs of pickling spice. I also steam the cabbage in a separate pot with cloves, nutmeg and corriander in the brine water from the corned beef.
mpw
Steve on March 17, 2009 at 07:58 PM
A couple boxes of rice dinner, (something like Rice-a-Roni)....chicken flavor.
Package of chicken breasts, or thighs, (thighs have more flavor) 1 or 2 pounds.
1 can cream of mushroom soup
Pour both boxes of rice into deep baking dish, mix in one of the flavor packets.
Mix soup with 2 1/2 times the amount of water called for, and mix into rice, (reserve 1/4 of soup mixture)
Arrange chicken pieces on top of rice, pour the remaining soup mixture over the top
Sprinkle contents of second flavor packet over chicken
Bake for 90 minutes at 325-350 degrees, (higher temp, crispier chicken).
you can replace the chicken with browned hamburger patties, pork chops, or cubed steak...and try different flavored rice. My kids love it, and I generally have to double this recipe to keep everyone fed. Add a veggie of your choice, something that can be steamed in the mw, and total prep time rarely exceeds 15 minutes.
edh on March 17, 2009 at 10:08 PM
Boiled Beef?
Jane: I'm boiling a roast. How hot and wet do you like it?
Lt. Frank Drebin (Police Squad): Very hot, and awfully wet.
aldomeir on March 18, 2009 at 03:35 AM
My favorite crock pot recipe:
2-2 1/2 lbs of stewing beef (FROZEN)
1 (10 oz) package Frozen Mixed Vegetables
1 package Instant Onion Soup Mix
2 packages Instant Gravy Mix
1 12 oz. can of beer
Place all items in the crockpot, cover and place on LOW for 10-12 hours.
Add 1 can of sliced or diced potatoes (drained) about 1/2 hour before serving. (Optional)
Montgomery Emerson on March 20, 2009 at 02:45 AM
Great Easy Chili recipe...When I want something quick/easy and filling.
If you make extra, it is even better as leftovers the next day or freeze in small containers, and reheat in microwave.
Ingredients:
1. 1 pack of Hamburger
2. 1 can Chili Beans
3. 1 can Black Beans
4. 1 can Diced tomatoes
5. 1/2 jar of Salsa
6. Chili Powder
7. garlic powder
8. Salt/Pepper
9. Onion
* Boil a pound of lean hamburger in a large pot. Drain when done
* On medium heat, let meat brown and begin to add ingredients
* Add Water or Broth to mixture until desired consistency
* Heat thoroughly and add red pepper or seasoned salt to taste
Serve with flour tortilla’s