One-Pan Dinners: 12 Recipes With 5 Ingredients or Less

Cooking dinner is rarely the hard part. The hard part is the pile of pans, bowls, and chopping boards waiting in the sink afterwards. One-pan dinners solve that. Everything cooks in a single pan or tray, so there is one thing to wash and the meal more or less makes itself while you sit down.

The whole skill of one-pan cooking is timing the order things go in, so nothing is raw and nothing is burnt. Start with what takes longest, add the quicker things later, and let the flavours build in the same fat. Keep it to five ingredients or fewer and there is barely anything to think about. Salt, pepper, and oil do not count toward the five.

The One Rule That Makes One-Pan Work

A one-pan dinner lives or dies on whether everything finishes at the same time. Get the order right and the rest looks after itself.

1. Use the biggest pan or tray you own. Crowding is the number one mistake: packed-in food steams and goes grey instead of browning.
2. Start the slowest ingredient first, usually the meat or the hardest vegetable, and give it a head start alone.
3. Add things in order of how long they take, quick veg and garlic going in near the end so they do not burn.
4. Let food sit and brown before you stir. Colour is flavour, and constant stirring stops anything from catching that golden crust.
5. Taste and season in layers as you go, so the seasoning is built in rather than sprinkled on at the table.

1. Sausage, Peppers, and Onion

A whole dinner from one pan and a handful of things. The sausage fat cooks the vegetables, so every bite tastes of the same savoury base. Five ingredients: sausages, peppers, onion, oil, and a roll or some bread to mop up.

1. Heat a little oil in a wide pan over medium-high and brown the sausages all over for about 5 minutes, then move them to one side.
2. Tip sliced peppers and onion into the same pan and let them sit and colour before stirring, soaking up the sausage fat.
3. Once the vegetables are soft and golden at the edges, nestle the sausages back in among them.
4. Cover and cook gently for 8 to 10 more minutes, until the sausages are cooked through with no pink inside.
5. Pile into a roll or onto bread, spooning the soft peppers and pan juices over the top.

2. Sheet-Pan Salmon and Greens

Fresh, fast, and barely any effort. The oven does everything while you set the table. Five ingredients: salmon, broccoli or green beans, lemon, oil, and garlic.

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Toss the greens with oil, sliced garlic, salt, and pepper on a tray.
2. Roast the greens alone for 8 minutes first, since they take longer than the fish.
3. Push them to the sides, lay the salmon fillets in the middle, and top each with a squeeze of lemon and a drizzle of oil.
4. Roast for 10 to 12 more minutes, until the salmon flakes easily and looks just opaque in the middle.
5. Serve straight from the tray with the roasted lemon squeezed over everything.

3. Crispy Gnocchi and Tomatoes

No boiling required. Gnocchi crisps beautifully straight in a hot pan, and burst tomatoes make their own quick sauce. Five ingredients: gnocchi, cherry tomatoes, garlic, oil, and cheese.

1. Heat oil in a wide pan over medium-high and tip in the gnocchi straight from the packet, no boiling.
2. Fry for 6 to 8 minutes, turning now and then, until the gnocchi is golden and crisp on the outside.
3. Add a handful of cherry tomatoes and a sliced clove of garlic, and cook until the tomatoes burst and soften.
4. Press a few tomatoes with your spoon so they release their juice and make a light sauce.
5. Take off the heat, scatter over grated cheese, and let it melt into the warm pan before serving.

9 More One-Pan Dinners

• Chicken thighs roasted over potatoes, the fat dripping down to crisp them.
• Egg and tomato skillet, eggs cracked into a quick fried tomato base and cooked till just set.
• Fried rice in one wok, day-old rice with frozen veg, egg, and soy.
• Halloumi, courgette, and cherry tomatoes roasted together until charred at the edges.
• White beans simmered with garlic, greens, and stock into a brothy one-pot stew.
• Pork chops seared then finished with sliced apple and onion softened in the same pan.
• Smoked sausage, cabbage, and potato all browned together in one skillet.
• Shakshuka: eggs poached in a spiced tomato and pepper sauce, scooped up with bread.
• Chickpeas crisped in oil with spinach and lemon for a fast, filling bowl.