your best one pot dishes please

[wildpoppy]

I am finding cooking for the family a bit much at the moment with lots of other stuff going on at work and home. Anyone suggest heir best one pot dishes please - ideally something with meat and veg in it that can be bunged in casserole dish and put in oven and come out cooked - ideally no pre casserole dish browning or frying over or other stuff. Don't mind if it has a carb in it or needs carb as a side. Hugely appreciated...

Forgot to add- it's nice with some baby plum or cherry tomatoes chucked in too.

My dses call this Runny Chicken - but it is much nicer than the name suggests!

I put chicken legs, peeled and cubed butternut squash, halved new potatoes, lots of garlic cloves and some thyme in a roasting dish, add some cider, cover with foil and roast until the veg and chicken are cooked - take off the foil towards the end. Just before serving, pour the juices from the roasting dish into a saucepan, put on the heat, and stir in some creme fraiche (I use half fat - it works fine and tastes no different to me), and pour this over the meal when it is served.

One of my favourite easy ones is vegetarian:

Saute an onion, garlic and a chopped pepper (any colour) along with some courgette and aubergines in a deep frying pan. If you don't have aubergines, just add more of the other veg. Add a pinch of cumin and some paprika (preferably smoked) and one tin chopped tomatoes, plus 1/2 tin of water. Allow to simmer until it's got the consistency of pasta sauce. Make a well in the sauce and crack an egg in (one per person) then put a lid on the pan and cook over a med/low heat until the eggs are cooked. Scatter over a handful of chopped parsley or coriander if you've got them and serve with crusty bread and some cheese (feta is nice).

Some lovely ideas here! thanks.x

Not quite one pot but super quick!

This is ds's favourite; he's a pasta junkie so I always cook double and then zap in the microwave for a minute to warm up.

As he doesn't like lots of the food the rest of the family do this is easy enough to do when we are having something else.

Into the dish he eats the pasta from, add a couple of spoons of pesto, a squirt of garlic purée (or finely chopped garlic to taste), a splash of lemon juice and pour on double cream - maybe equivalent to four or five tablespoons. I usually just pour for 3 seconds and it's enough. Then mix together and zap in the microwave until bubbling - for my mw it's about 40-60 seconds.

Take out and stir the pasta through and it's ready - all should take less than 4 minutes.

Ds likes it with chopped olives on, I often stir ham, left over veg or chopped other veg into mine (I like it with chopped cherry plum tomatoes and raw chicory or spinach - the heat of the sauce is enough to soften them and keep the fresh tasting but accept that lots of people might not like it!)

It's very flexible - more an approach than a recipe . You can replace the cream with cream cheese or ricotta, mascapone etc. You can add whatever flavours you like or have to hand. If I'm making for me I might add a splash of wine or sherry for a different kick!

Things like tomato purée or sweet chilli sauce or gentleman's relish etc can all be used as instead of the pesto.

You don't even need pasta - you can use the sauce stirred through rice (leftover of the quick microwave rice) for a cheats risotto or use with a jacket potato, mash, couscous etc if you have them.

But, thinking ahead and having extra potato/pasta/rice etc is the key to a speedy supper like this the next day!

Hunters chicken:
frozen fried onions (defrosted) skinless chicken thigh or breast, tin tomatoes, tin black olives, minced garlic (or puree or however easiest) large glass of of white wine, tin canelloni beans, dried rosemary, pancetta or smoked bacon.
Either on the stove, casserole, slow cooker. Need minimum 40 mins for the chicken to cook.
Delish with rice or crusty bread.

Simple fish pie with fennel

White fish goes really well with fennel, which has a lovely mild flavour when cooked. Buy your favourite fish. I like seabass or haddock or whatever is fresh that day.

Ingredients
Seabass, haddock or other fish of choice gutted and filleted for you
2 red onions
1 head of fennel
3-4 garlic cloves
4-5 potatoes
200g butter, melted
Freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method
Peel onions and cut into rings.
Finely chop garlic and fennel.
Put onions, garlic and fennel into a baking dish and drizzle with one third of the melted butter, mix it all about to make sure it's coated well. Put in oven for 15mins until it all caramelises.
Meanwhile, peel potatoes, slice into round discs and parboil for 4 mins
Add potatoes to the oven and drizzle with another third of the melted butter
Add fish on top and drizzle with remaining butter
Squeeze lemon juice and black pepper over the top
Bake in oven for 15mins

Serve with spinach or spring greens

I love my slow cooker - all of the above recipes would work well. I don't bother frying the onions for flavour first - just bung all the one-pot ingredients in. 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours on fast - and the smell is divine!

wow loads of lovely recipes!

Hi all,

We are going to sweep this over to Food/Recipes shortly. OP, please do get in touch if you have any problems with this.

As you were!

DaPanJi (Uyghur "big plate" chicken), serves 6

1 chicken cut into serve sized pieces
3 potatoes (Peel potatoes, slice into 0.5 cm thick slices)
3 red chillies, chopped
2 chopped tomatoes
2 chopped carrots
1 chopped green pepper
1 tbsp Sichuan pepper
1 tbsp ground cumin
10 dried chillis
2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp ginger powder
1 tsp white pepper
1 piece fresh ginger 2.5 cm sliced
3 spring onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 star anise
3 Tbsp Shaoxing rice wine
2 Tbsp Light Soy Sauce
1 tbsp Dark Soy Sauce
1 tbsp brown sugar
150ml chicken stock

Shove it all in a pan, bring to the boil then let it simmer on a low heat for one hour. Usually served over egg noodles, but you can just eat it in bowls on its own.