One-Pan Wonders: Fuss-Free Meals for Your Sheet Pan, Dutch Oven, Skillet, Roasting Pan, Casserole, and Slow Cooker

by America's Test Kitchen

One-Pan Wonders: Fuss-Free Meals for Your Sheet Pan, Dutch Oven, Skillet, Roasting Pan, Casserole, and Slow Cooker

In One-Pan Wonders, you will discover over 140 meticulously tested recipes that deliver fresh, fuss-free meals from a single vessel. These recipes been tailored to highlight each vessel's strengths, from imparting a deep, flavorful sear on chicken breasts to roasting a turkey breast above bread stuffing to turning out supremely tender slow-cooked beef. And each recipe is engineered to ensure every component of the meals turns out perfectly cooked and ready to eat at the same time. The result? An authoritative resource for preparing simple yet satisfying meals seven days a week.

     When you think about cooking dinner, multiple pots and pans and a lot of multitasking (and cleanup) are probably quick to come to mind. Even a simple meal of chicken and a vegetable can require use of one pan for the chicken and another for the side dish. With this in mind, we set out to streamline dinner with a fresh, modern collection of recipes make the most of your Dutch oven, sheet pan, skillet, roasting pan, casserole dish, and slow cooker to deliver dinner using just one pot (no cheating!) and a minimum of hands-on time. These recipes simplify meal prep, but that doesn't mean we've sacrificed flavor. From Skillet Spanikopita to Sheet Pan Beef Fajitas to Indian-Style Vegetable Curry, we narrowed our ingredient lists to focus on delivering bold, fresh taste in every dish. Each recipe was tested (and re-tested) with the home cook in mind, and only the most flavorful meals made it onto these pages.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction, Food and Drink, Culinary, Foodie

335 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 27, 2016

About the author

America's Test Kitchen, based in a brand new state-of-the-art 60,000 sq. ft. facility with over 15,000 sq. ft. of test kitchens and studio space, in Boston's Seaport District, is dedicated to finding the very best recipes for home cooks. Over 50 full-time (admittedly obsessive) test cooks spend their days testing recipes 30, 40, up to 100 times, tweaking every variable until they understand how and why recipes work. They also test cookware and supermarket ingredients so viewers can bypass marketing hype and buy the best quality products. As the home of Cook's Illustrated and Cook's Country magazines, and publisher of more than one dozen cookbooks each year, America's Test Kitchen has earned the respect of the publishing industry, the culinary world, and millions of home cooks. America's Test Kitchen the television show launched in 2001, and the company added a second television program, Cook's Country, in 2008.

Discover, learn, and expand your cooking repertoire with Julia Collin Davison, Bridget Lancaster, Jack Bishop, Dan Souza, Lisa McManus, Tucker Shaw, Bryan Roof, and our fabulous team of test cooks!

Learn more at https://www.americastestkitchen.com/.

Reviews

[PorshaJo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to cook. It's my favorite thing. But I soooooo *detest* doing dishes. So this cookbook was perfect. I liked the fact that it covered multiple cooking vessels. Got a dutch oven for a gift and looking for more recipes for it. And not to mention the slow cooker! Really, be honest....how often do you use a slow cooker. Once a year if I'm lucky for me. So this is a win for me. Granted, I'm vegan, but my husband is not. So many recipes I can adapt for myself or just make for him.

And let me tell you about the food porn! Every single recipe has a gorgeous photo. A keeper for sure.

[genoa · Rating 2 out of 5]

The recipes are fine, but they are not really one pan. Many of the recipes require you to cook part of the meal in the pan, remove the food (and magically keep it warm for the next half an hour or more), clean the pan, and cook the second part of the meal in the same pan. So, it does not make any sense if you have more than one pan, or else you would cook the two at the same time and have proper fresh and timely prepared meal at the end. I was expecting something more where all the food at least ends up cooking in the same pan together, otherwise there is no point of using the one pan.

[Cris Morales · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Six Tenets of One-Pan Cooking (lol!)

1. Keep the Ingredient List Short but Flavorful
2. Bring Your Flavors to Life
3. Team Up with Your Microwave
4. Cook in Stages
5. Create Two Cooking Environments in One Vessel
6. Finish with a Flourish

Este libro es muchísimo más practico que Jamie's 15 Minute Meals. Es más accesible. Cada receta tiene una lista de ingredientes bastante comunes y como 5 pasos. Siento que las de Jamie son para ocasiones especiales y las de este son algo más cotidianas.

Aunque fue un buen libro, lo que ando buscando es un libro con weekly meal preps, como para cocinar un montón una vez por semana, guardarlo en tuppers y ya tener eso listo. Como esto:

[Yvonne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photos and ideas are very inspirational, but the execution is lacking. In order to get the recipes to literally only use one pan they use the microwave and a bowl. This leads to bland dishes, with very little appeal. We tried 3 recipes and only 1 of them was flavorful and I would fix again. If I got the book I would saute the veggies in a little oil or butter to add flavor. I wish they had given cook times for this as an alternative.

The other part that is disappointing is the prep time for the recipe doesn't include the time to prepare the ingredients in the ingredient list. So, plan on an additional 30 min+ for any recipe that calls for chopped veggies. Serving sizes are also extra large. A serving size for 4 actually means 4 football players or 4 with leftovers for the rest of the week. So, cook with caution.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

A physicians mom group cooked through this from start to finish. Though there were some great recipes (pork tenderloin with couscous) a lot were too convoluted to fulfill the "one Pan Wonders" categories and would have been easier to make using a couple of pans.

[Irene · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not like cooking. At all.

However, I’m motivated to cook meals at home because I know fresh foods prepared in my kitchen are much healthier for me and my husband. I already have a few recipes where I toss all the ingredients into a Pyrex dish and then into the oven. Any cookbook that offers me the possibility of expanding that repertoire of easy-to-prepare dinner meals catches my attention.

The short introduction explains how the “set it and forget it” expectation sets a high bar. The chefs at America’s Test Kitchen see the task of cooking an entire meal in one cooking vessel as a challenge because they want to make the process easy without sacrificing taste.

From skimming the recipes, most require multiple cooking steps, but the total times are really reasonable. Many are 75 minutes or 90 minutes. While I’d love to have recipes that require dumping ingredients into one pot and letting it simmer, I know that process isn’t necessarily easier. I’ve made many meals with a slow cooker that require extensive prep work before you can “set it and forget it”.

The book features recipes with the label “Weeknight Friendly” distinguished by an orange rectangle that’s easy to see in both the table of contents and on individual recipe pages as you flip through the book. These 62 “Weeknight Friendly” recipes take an hour or less to prepare. Most of the Weeknight Friendly recipes that caught my eye had a total time of 45 minutes, which suits me just fine.

The book features six different one-pan cooking vessels. When I was marking recipes, I paid more attention to those that include fish or shellfish, and those that are vegetarian. While my husband and I are not vegetarians, we’re mindful of how much chicken, beef, and pork we consume.

Here’s my breakdown of the recipes:

•The skillet - 37 total recipes - 11 of which use fish or just vegetables
•The sheet pan - 24 total recipes - 6 of which use fish or just veggies
•The Dutch oven - 33 total recipes - 7 of which use fish or just veggies
•The casserole dish - 19 total recipes - 8 of which use fish or just veggies
•The roasting pan - 12 total recipes - none of which use fish or just veggies
•The slow cooker  - 15 total recipes - 4 of which use fish or just veggies

For me, there’s a nice variety of one-pan cooking options. The only item I don’t own is a Dutch oven. If the other recipes taste as yummy as they look in the pictures, maybe I’ll splurge and buy a Dutch oven.

[BookBec · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this hot on the heels of Martha Stewart Living's One Pot, which made for good comparisons ... and One-Pan Wonders was not the winner. Overall, things tasted good enough, but this cookbook won't be joining my shelves.

I tried three recipes: The slow cooker chickpeas were tasty (especially with yogurt, says the dairy-eater at my house) but why, oh why would I cook my onions and bell peppers in the microwave? I just used a skillet. The turkey meatballs were tasty but took a while to prepare, and the proportion of rice to meatballs was way off (too much rice, even when I made an extra portion of meatballs). And the cod with red curry sauce had lots of extra liquid and would've had far too much rice again, except I was wiser and bought extra fish to make 6 servings, not their recommended 4.

And only the chickpeas had enough veggies in the dish to actually count as a "meal" -- the meatballs and cod were basically rice and protein with some veggie highlights, so extra meal prep was involved to make sure there were vegetables on the table with dinner.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

I purchased this book before I left my job at Sur la Table in March 2017. Great book! Colorful, easy to read recipes with photographs. I tried the Modern beef pot pie. I adjusted the recipe for what I could find or what would fit in my 12-inch cast iron skillet (1.5 lbs lean beef from Safeway, 3 carrots, 8 oz mushrooms, 1/2 onion). I also added marjoram and only used a 1/2 baguette and thickened it with 5 T tapioca starch instead of 3 T flour. I coated the bread with oil and sea salt and garlic powder before broiling instead of cheese. My husband loved it! It's his new favorite recipe. I also made the meatloaf and he liked that but not as well (the meat needs more seasoning, not chives).

[Rose Ann · Rating 2 out of 5]

The sub-title SAYS "fuss-free" but seriously? These recipes entail a little more fuss than you'd think. I did get some ideas from it, though not enough to make me want to actually make any of these dishes. I's recommend getting this from your library, rather than buying it.

[Wdmoor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a sucker for cookbooks...my shelves are packed with them. So I really appreciate a cookbook with good, thoughtful recipes. This book will up your cooking skills while pleasing friends and family.

[Arwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Suggested to me by Shelia of the Delibreate Readers. We've tried one recipe so far and I have a couple of others marked to try soon.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Clearly written instructions, some recipes designated "weeknight friendly".

[Miss Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Plrnty of pictures and an explanation for what works in particular for that version of the recipe.

Favourites:

Simple Pot Roast with Root Vegetables
Mac and Cheese
French-Style Pork Stew
Spicy Pork Tinga and Rice
Deviled Pork Chops with Scalloped Potatoes
Reuben Strata
Hands-Off Spaghetti and Meatballs
Pasta Frittata with Sausage and Hot Peppers
Honey Mustard-Glazed Chicken with Roasted Sweet Potato Salad
Spanish Chicken and Saffron Stew
Teriyaki Chicken Thighs with Sesame Vegetables
Cashew Pork with Snow Peas, Carrots, and Ginger

[Katrina Zartman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn't read every single word in the book. I haven't even tried one single recipe. However, if you are looking for inspiration, this book is full of ideas.
Chili Rice and Peanuts
Beef and Kimchi
Napa Cabbage with carrot, pear, and cilantro
Sheet Pan steak with sweet potatoes and scallions
Quinoa Vegetable Stew topped with queso fresco, fresh avocado, and cilantro
Chorizo and Poblano Enchiladas
Sweet and Tangy pulled chicken with Carolina-style coleslaw
Smothered steak with cheesey horseradish smashed red potatoes

[Karen Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed how you had a choice of which cooking method you preferred. I chose the roasting pan and loved the recipe I made, "Roasted pork chops and vegetables with parsley vinaigrette". I would double the vinaigrette recipe and the rub for the pork chops. It didn't seem to be enough of the rub or vinaigrette. I will be making this recipe again. Very easy especially if you have a lot going on!

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

ATK doesn't disappoint. They produce so many thoughtfully categorized & quality cookbooks that I think their subscription just may be worth it. I haven't bit the bullet yet, but I can check out their cookbooks again and again and think their online database is tantamount to a Netflix subscription at this point.

[Aasinathena · Rating 5 out of 5]

You have drop the idea of dunking all ingredients into a big pan/slow cooker and after a given time like "viola: your food is ready to eat " ! Whoever creates any recipe,its made of different types of ingredients and they need different times to cook. So stop blaming and admit you still love real one an cooking.
Hats off to another great book by ATK ! I'm a life long fan !

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not many meatless dishes, but all reasonably easy recipes in around 60-90min for those who do eat meat!

[Leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lot of delightful looking dishes.

[Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think I might have to purchase this book and cook every now and then.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

many duplicates from earlier books

[LMTZ · Rating 3 out of 5]

A few recipes I might try.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great for making ahead

[Laurla2]

-they did cheat in a couple recipes, using the microwave to cook or parcook things before adding to the 'one pan'.
-lots of potatoes in these recipes, especially the sheet pan section.
-some of the skillet recipes went into the oven after cooking on the stove so you need an oven proof skillet.
-recipes i found interesting:
-skillet: baked shrimp and orzo with feta and tomatoes, parmesan chicken with warm arugula raddicion and fennel salad, chicken sausage with braised red cabbage and potatoes, korean beef and kimchi stir-fry, sesame pork cutlets with wilted napa cabbage salad
-sheet pan: roasted chicken with root vegetables, honey mustard glazed chicken with roasted sweet potato salad, roasted pork chops and vegetables with parsley vinaigrette
-dutch oven: baked ziti with spinach and sausage, smothered pork chops with broccoli, pasta with sausage, kale, and white beans, lemony linguine with shirmp and spinach
-casserole dish: deviled pork chops with scalloped potatoes, beef taco bake, reuben strata, bacon cheeseburger pasta
-slow cooker: lemony chicken and rice with spinach and feta

[Brianon Sheffield · Rating 4 out of 5]

some of these recipes look way too convoluted to really be a "wonder." some of the recipes look easy and delicious though! I love America's Test Kitchen books!