Hero Dinners: Complete One-Pan Meals That Save the Day – NPR Best Book: 100 Simple Recipes with Fresh Ingredients

by Marge Perry, David Bonom

A one-stop resource for amazingly delicious complete meals made in just a single skillet or sheet pan, created by the food-world favorite husband-and-wife team who develop recipes for all the major magazines.

Even if you love to cook, the last thing you want to do at the end of a long day is wash a sink full of pots and pans. Hero Dinners gives you the superpower to make delicious, well-balanced meals using fresh, wholesome ingredients—all in just one sheetpan or skillet. The wizardry behind these complete meals is in super smart, innovative— and simple!—techniques that ensure you won’t end up with muddled flavors and textures. With these inventive recipes, you’ll maximize the impact of each and every ingredient and flavor. And every recipe truly makes a complete meal, including protein and a vegetable or grain—and usually both.

In clear, easy-to-follow instructions, cooking experts Marge Perry and David Bonom show you how to magically elevate commonplace ingredients into delicious meals you’ll make again and again. Sometimes the “magic” lies in respecting the inherently good flavors of the ingredients, as in bronzino roasted with orange slices, drizzled with a simple caper vinaigrette and accompanied by crisp roast potato slices layered with tomato and fennel. Other times, savvy use of interesting condiments, such as Moroccan harissa paste or pomegranate molasses, lend robust flavor with very little work.

Hero Dinners includes 100 one-pan meals you can feel good about eating and feeding to your family, including:


Ancho Chili Chicken Pot Pie with Cornbread Biscuit Topping
Peruvian Chicken with Purple Potatoes, Brussels Sprouts and Aji Verde Sauce
Salmon with Ginger Tomato Jalapeno Sauce and Zucchini Couscous
Sheetpan Ooey Gooey Mac and Cheese
Southern Style Smothered Pork Chops with Collard Greens and Grits
Rigatoni with Meat Sauce
Lemon Chicken with Orzo and Artichokes
Sheetpan Pizza with Soft Eggs, Asparagus, and Peas
Gochujang Skirt Steak with Scallion Polenta and Broccoli
Apricot Honey Glazed Spareribs with Smash-Roasted Potatoes
Skillet Lasagna with Caramelized Onions and Spinach
A mouthwatering color photo accompanies every recipe, and the book is peppered with dozens of incredibly useful tip boxes to help cooks shave time or calories; learn about ingredients and substitutions; and get even more efficient in the kitchen. Hero Dinners is your powerful everyday mealtime solution: armed with the recipes in this book, you truly do make Hero Dinners.

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Nonfiction

288 pages, Hardcover

First published April 2, 2019

Reviews

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The goal of this cookbook is to provide recipes that 1) cook in one skillet or sheet pan, 2) include one protein and at least one vegetable and/or starch, 3) are made from minimally processed ingredients, 4) don't require obscure ingredients, and 5) create a dinner that is satisfying and delicious. It does an excellent job of doing all of those things in a high quality, beautiful full-color hardback book. Every recipe has a color photo and oftentimes it's a full page photo.

This isn't a perfect cookbook for all though. A few recipes are not exactly groundbreaking (meatloaf, beef and vegetable stew) and don't mistake "cook in one skillet/sheet pan" for a time-saving technique. Even though you are cooking the whole meal in one skillet or sheet pan, there may be so many steps that the total time spent prepping and cooking feels long (over an hour). None of the recipes include nutrition facts, prep time estimates, or total cook time estimates. There are lists at the end for recipes that take "30 minutes or less" and "45 minutes or less"; 50 of the 100 recipes are listed in one of those two lists, so half the book takes over 45 minutes and it's hard to identify which recipes take that long.

There's no denying that the recipes are delicious and well-written. I'm just not sure it is worth the price tag. The lack of prep and cook time estimates is a deal-breaker for me. I recommend checking it out from a library before purchasing for yourself.

[Brian Rogers · Rating 5 out of 5]

This jumped into my hands at the library and it was a good find. There are easily a dozen skillet recipes I'd like to try out of it (and one we already have - the skillet rigatoni was worth the minimal effort).

I did get a lot of laughs at how broadly they applied their one pan mandate (recipes where 80% of the work is done without heat in other vessels, and the bacon or pork is cooked as normal in the skillet) and the lengths they would go to maintain it (microwave pre-cooked bag rice and single layer in aluminum foil green beans in the over rather than, um, making rice and sauteing green beans), but for all the humor value there's considerable good in this one.

Editing to add: it's been 8 months since I first got this book and by god I have never seen a hit with family/must repeat ratio like this. We've made 14 whole meals out of this from the poultry and fish sections: three of them are now multiple repeat family staples, nine are absolutely making this again, one was "we have a better way to make this one" and only one failure - not that the shrimp panzanella was bad, but most of the family isn't up for that level of texture variation and panzanella by design does not keep so it's not worth it. We are now protein shopping to be able to try the meat section and everyone's looking forward it it. This book has earned its 5th star and then some.

[Janet Martin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love this book--recipes are truly easy and unlike another viewer, I didn't find the prep to be all that time consuming. Just about all of the ingredients are either in my pantry or my local supermarket, so no need to order on line or waste time tracking down esoteric items. I really appreciate that these recipes use very limited equipment, making this the perfect book to load on my tablet and take on vacation--along with the half size sheet pan that fits in our little camper stove and my trusty cast iron skillet.

For home use, I'm definitely going to spring for a more upscale skillet, but the old cast iron one has done just fine. Recipes that worked really well for our lifestyle included an easy and delicious vegetarian skillet lasagna and a sheet pan chicken/sweet potato/onion/apple dinner that took about 5 minutes of prep and 35 min in the oven. Some of the bonuses are some terrific sauces that can expand into other recipes, like a cranberry red wine sauce we used on pork instead of duck. I also tried one of the multi-step seafood sheet pan meals, and by adding different foods to the pan at different times, everything came out perfect in about 30 minutes total time.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great cookbook. It’s a little adventurous for everyday, but these recipes would wow at any dinner party. Every dish is made in one pan; the directions are very clear and there are photos for every recipe. These are easy recipes with sophisticated flavors. The fish chapter was a highlight for me; there are also a lot of poultry recipes.

This is a great, well written resource. There’s no nutritional information.

[Deanna ✰ ☾ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Obviously I haven't tried every single recipe in this book, but I have tried several. The meals are good; they're not mouthwateringly good, but they get the job done. I wish that cooking and prep time was included for each recipe, because that might have changed my decision on what to cook some days, but there are lots of pictures and easy-to-follow instructions.

[Mary Louise Sanchez · Rating 4 out of 5]

An attractive and well-laid out format for a cookbook that shows you how to prepare sheet pan recipes that chefs prepare for their own families especially after a full day of cooking on the job.

I cooked some of the recipes and added them to my go-to meals.

[Noreen Fish · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice selection of one-pot/pan dinners for easy week-night meals.

[Denise Prewett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great concept that I need to implement. So much easier!

[Beka · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of great one-pan/pot variations, but nothing that I wanted to keep.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shaksuka, sausage with gemelli pasta, and braised lamb shanks have all been winners.

[Kaitlyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this cookbook. I found quite a few recipes that I am definitely going to try.

I'd really like to own this book!

[Amber Tousignant · Rating 1 out of 5]

ive tired two recipes so far and both had next to no flavor. im really disappointed and am unsure if I should keep trying recipes. I see why it was in the discount bin at the store