Hate Cleaning Up After Dinner? Make A Cast Iron Skillet Recipe!

Hate Cleaning Up After Dinner? These One-Pan Meals Will Make It Way Easier

By Markey Battle

Love to cook but hate to clean? I understand completely. The clean up is half the reason I don’t feel like cooking every day. And it seems like the more kitchenware I use, the harder everything is to clean up.

So let’s look for some insanely yummy and super easy recipes that require just one pan! We recommend having a cast iron skillet on hand if you don’t already.

Poached Salmon in Coconut Lime Sauce

Thanks to RecipeTin Eats for this recipe!

Ingredients:

– 4 salmon fillets
– Salt and pepper
– 2 tbsp oil
– 2 garlic cloves
– 2 tsp ginger
– 1 lemongrass
– 1 tbsp brown sugar
– 1 tsp chili garlic paste
– 400g/14oz coconut milk
– 1 tbsp fish sauce (or soy sauce)
– 2 tsp lime zest
– Lime juice
– Fresh coriander/ cilantro leaves
– finely sliced large red chilis
– Steamed jasmine rice

Directions

Sprinkle both sides of the salmon with salt and pepper.
Heat 1 tbsp oil in a non-stick pan or well-seasoned skillet on medium high heat. Add salmon skin side up and sear for 1 ½ minutes. Turn salmon on the other side for 1 minute and remove.
Turn heat down to medium low. Heat remaining 1 tbsp oil and add garlic, ginger, and lemongrass. Cook for 1 minute.
Add sugar and cook for 20 seconds, then stir in chili paste.
Add coconut milk and stir.
Stir in fish sauce and increase heat to medium. Simmer for 2 minutes.
Place salmon into the sauce and lower heat. Simmer for 4 minutes or until just cooked.
Remove salmon and stir in lime zest and juice for taste. Adjust salt to taste with fish sauce.
Serve salmon over noodles or rice. Spoon over sauce and garnish with coriander or chili.

Skillet Chicken Pot Pie

Thanks to Delish for this recipe!

Ingredients

– 1 tbsp olive oil
– 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts cut into 1” chunks
– Kosher salt
– Freshly ground black pepper
– ½ onion chopped
– 2 medium carrots peeled and chopped
– 2 tsp fresh thyme
– 3 tbsp flour
– 1 ½ cup frozen peas
– 2 cups chicken broth
– 2 tbsp heavy cream
– 1 can refrigerated biscuit dough
– 1 egg lightly beaten

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350°. In a large skillet heat oil on medium heat. Add chicken, salt, and pepper. Cook until golden on all sides (6 to 8 minutes) and remove from skillet.
Add onions, carrots, celery, and thyme. Cook until soft (4-5 minutes). Sprinkle flour over vegetables and cook for 2-3 minutes more. Add chicken broth and simmer (8-10 minutes) until slightly thickened. Turn off heat and stir in cream, peas, and chicken.
Remove biscuits from the can and slice in half horizontally. Arrange in an overlapping ring on the outer circle of the skillet. Brush with egg wash and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden.

Balsamic Glazed Chicken

Thanks to Delish for this recipe!

Ingredients

– ½ cup balsamic vinegar
– 2 tbsp honey
– 1 ½ tbsp whole grain mustard
– 3 cloves minced garlic
– Kosher salt
– Freshly ground black pepper
– 4 bone-in skin-on chicken thighs
– 2 cups baby red potatoes, halved
– 3 tbsp sprigs fresh rosemary
– 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°. In a large bowl combine balsamic vinegar, honey, mustard, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Which until combined. Add chicken thighs and toss until fully coated. Allow to sit in the fridge for 20-60 minutes.
In a medium bowl add potatoes and 1 tbsp chopped rosemary. Season with salt and pepper. Add 1 tbsp oil and toss until combined.
Heat the remaining tbsp of oil in a large ovenproof skillet. Add chicken and sear skin side down for 2 minutes on each side. Add potatoes in between the thighs. Top with rosemary sprigs.
Transfer to the oven and bake until potatoes are tender and chicken is cooked through (about 20 minutes).

Chili Garlic Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli

Thanks to Kitchn for this recipe!

Ingredients

– 1 pound of broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
– 1 tbsp vegetable oil
– 3 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
– 1 tbsp grated or minced fresh ginger
– 1 tbsp sambal or Asian chili-garlic sauce
– 2 tsp Asian sesame oil
– 1 pound uncooked peeled and deveined medium shrimp
– Salt
– Black pepper
– Cooked white or brown rice
– ¼ cup of thinly sliced scallions

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400°.
Place the broccoli in a skillet and drizzle with oil, toss to evenly coat. Spear into an even layer and roast for 10 minutes.
Whisk tamari or soy sauce, ginger, chili-garlic sauce, and sesame oil together in a small bowl and set aside. Season the shrimp with salt and pepper.
Add the shrimp and the soy sauce mixture to the pan, toss with the broccoli. Roast again until the shrimp are opaque and tender (about 6 to 8 minutes). Serve with rice and scallions.

Lasagna

Thanks to House of Yumm for this recipe!

Ingredients

– 1 pound of ground Italian sausage
– 2 cans of tomato sauce
– 1 can of diced tomato
– ½ yellow onion, diced
– 3 garlic cloves, minced
– ½ tsp dried basil
– ½ tsp salt
– ¼ tsp black pepper
– ¾ pound of lasagna noodles (broken)
– 1 cup of mozzarella cheese (shredded)

Directions

Add the ground sausage to a large skillet and cook over medium heat while stirring. Add diced onion after sausage is pretty cooked.
When the onion is translucent and soft and the sausage is cooked through, add minced garlic. Cook for 30 seconds.
Add tomato sauce and diced tomato to the skillet. Stir to combine. Then add seasonings and stir. Break the lasagna noodles over the skillet and add to the sauce. Press the noodles down over the sauce. Cover pan and allow to simmer for 15-20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
Add mozzarella cheese and serve with the option of topping the dish with more cheese.

Our Suggested Pans

If you’re in the market for a new pan, we’ve got you covered.

I love this Le Creuset Iron Skillet Frying Pan from Williams Sonoma. It’s extremely durable and comes in different colors so you can match the cooking sets you might already have. It’s also dishwasher safe and requires little oil, so you don’t have to worry about a messy clean up.

This Lodge Pre-Seasoned Cast Iron Skillet is a bestseller on Amazon. The pan is straight-forward and pre-seasoned making it super easy to use for almost all your cooking needs! This is tried and true and everyone who uses it loves it.