One pot chicken/fish dishes that can be prepared ahead

[Dahlia444]

I've moved to a good system some nights of having pre prepped dinners in the fridge that I can get my teens to put in the oven when DH and I are on our way home, so dinner is ready for us all to eat. Works brilliantly with beef and lamb dishes (lasagne, shepherds pie etc) but I've struggled to find anything that works for chicken or fish. Literally one pot - carbs and veg all in ideally. We'd been trying to cut down on red meat but that has stalled a bit with current system.

In an even more ideal world there would be some element of batch preparation. I do have a slow cooker which I use for chicken casseroles (e.g. tomato sauce or white wine sauce) and they're fine on the first eating, but reheated they're pretty poor - the chicken texture particularly.

Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

A thing we have is chicken traybake meals.

Buy a leg/couple of thighs etc per person, season with garlic, herbs, paprika etc. then add in chopped raw vegetables like onion, pepper, courgette, mushrooms and add small or middle size potatoes chopped in half. Bit of oil, cover with foil and shove them in an hour before. Last 25 mins, no foil for colour.

We also do a salmon dish which has salmon fillets wrapped in baking paper in a dish, surrounded by potatoes. In the baking paper we put garlic, pesto and cream cheese on the salmon or soy sauce, chilli, ginger and coriander. Bake in a big tray!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/traybake-dinner-recipes/amp

This is the sort of thing.

We love these books for traybakes. Recommend the quick roasting tin for your problem.

www.rukmini-iyer.com/

Sorry, not sure if you are asking specifically for things that need to be cooked in a slow cooker but if you are just looking for meals you can prepare ahead and reheat then fish pie and fish tagine can both be made ahead. Have you tried cooking a whole chicken with potatoes and vegetables in the slow cooker?

Try taming twins site. There is a great recipe for chicken satay,absolutely delicious. It 4h in a slow cooker on high. If that too late for u to wait it could be dine day b4 and just warmed I.don't know how to do the link- sorry😨

I agree re chicken in the slow cooker. It is delicious.

I'd agree with tray bakes, and chicken in the slow cooker.

But I'd also suggest involving your teens with the pre-prep and move onto to them doing more than just putting the pre-prepped food into the oven.

If they are old enough to be home alone and putting things in the oven then they should be old enough to doing some of the prep. Good life skills for them amd will expand the food yu can eat on those nights outside the one-pot items.

I'm not suggesting they need to do it every evening, but if you share turns they can cook one night, you pre-prep for the next night etc.

Nigella chicken and chorizo traybake would work well for this.

I was going to suggest nigellas chicken and chorizo traybake, it's lush

Yes I was going to suggest the same as absolutehush

Twice a week I get an oven tray that can go from fridge shelf to oven shelf in one easy movement! I put the oven alarm on to remind whichever teen is home to make the switch!

I play around with these recipes:

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/chicken-traybake-recipes

www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk/recipes/salmon-tray-bake/

You can switch the vegetables from Mediterranean in summer, to root vegetable in winter. Whichever you do though, prep an extra tray of just vegetables for use the next day (soup or pasta sauce) and then you are even more ahead of the game and you have maximised the use of the oven! Good luck!

Chicken mince or chunks I've done before in a leek/bacon/cream/mustard type sauce with mash on top and that was good and froze and reheated ok

Have a look at the batch lady. A lot of her recipes are great for this.

Bored of lunch on instagram has lots of chicken based slow cooker recipes that include carbs all in one pot. Delicious!

I also love the chicken Arrabiatta stew with Parmesan dumplings from bbc good food. It’s all one pot but you do have to add the dumplings later. It’s delicious!

I add mixed beans to it.

pinch of nom does a great one with chicken thighs and orzo.

This book is a game changer, all simple one dish meals. www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjZ7Zmdt_76AhWIgVwKHcqFArAQFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.co.uk%2FRoasting-Tin-Simple-Dish-Dinners%2Fdp%2F1910931519&usg=AOvVaw1zL7ZQunqPy2PjRnKwz6TW

Loads of ideas here thanks everyone

I was looking on pinch of nom this afternoon and spotted the orzo one. I'll give it a try

Good ideas. This sounds easy and is very much the sort of 'made up' recipe I'm confident to invent. I know where I am with putting mash on top and how it keeps and how long to reheat. Other carb types I'm less confident on.

This is really nice but does need to be checked on and some ingredients added later on, but it’s quite simple and not too tricky. www.waitrose.com/home/recipes/recipe_directory/t/thai_style_salmon_and_rice_with_red_curry_sauce.html

I'm with you re teens cooking. They are pretty capable and will cook regularly in holidays definitely and sometimes during school weeks too. Could do more!

www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sticky-chinese-chicken-traybake

This is really tasty and can be prepped ahead of time. I just do some rice and veg alongside it.

Thanks for this - I'd been meaning to find a satay recipe as we now keep peanut butter in the house. Someone decided they like it so it now counts as a 'store cupboard item'- if something isn't already in the house it seldom gets made.

This is exactly the sort of thing thank you. Not sure how ive missed that before. Maybe I always search 'one pot' instead of tray bake.

Agreed!

Chicken curry is delicious pre prepped it takes on the flavours too. So just one of those curry’s paste jars. We used to have parkas but lidls are actually just as good,in a bowl,yoghurt,then add your chicken thighs and mix.this can then marinade in the fridge for the day.
jar of reggie reggie sauce. Pour over chicken drumsticks in a dish in the fridge.
chciken thighs,sliced leeks,onion,garlic,carrots, herbs and in a dish, then all the kids need to do is make up a jug of stock( if you like it a little thicker make a cornflour mix with a dash of cold milk and add in) you can add mini pasta to this or rice to cook all in one but that often needs someone to keep an eye on it to add more stock whilst cooking so if you really want a out in and leave have the rice or pasta separate and the chicken can just bring in the oven
roadt chciken of course
pork fillets with a honey and mustar put over sauce jar with carrots and spring onions
salmon fillets in a dish with peppers and a chilli sauce mairinade