There’s a particular kind of relief that comes from cooking dinner in one pan. No sauce pot bubbling over here, no second dish crusting over there, just one skillet doing all the work while you sit down and actually eat. It’s the kind of cooking that makes sense when the evenings get darker earlier and you want something warm without spending your whole night at the stove.
This week’s recipe roundups from Kitchn and Bon Appétit lean hard into that idea: pork chops, sausages and even a whole chicken pot pie, all built in a single pan from start to finish. Here’s how the method works, three versions worth trying, and what to do with the bag of pears sitting in your fruit bowl.
The method behind almost every good skillet dinner
Once you notice it, you’ll see this same three-step pattern everywhere. First, you sear your protein hard in a hot pan and pull it out. Second, you use that same pan, with all its browned bits, to build a flavour base: onions, garlic, maybe celery and carrot. Third, you add liquid, scrape up everything stuck to the bottom, and let the protein finish cooking back in that liquid until it thickens into a gravy or braise.
That’s genuinely the whole trick. Once you’ve done it with onions and sherry, you can do it with cider and lentils, or with stock and peas. Same bones, different outfit.
Three dinners to try this week
Kitchn’s new French Onion Pork Chops is a good place to start if you already know and love French onion soup. Juicy pork chops are smothered in a rich caramelized onion gravy, topped with nutty Gruyère, and broiled until golden-brown. It comes together in one skillet, with the pork chops, onions, and gravy all cooking in the same pan before a quick trip under the broiler to melt and brown the cheese.
A few details make the difference. Choose chops that are about 1-inch thick so they develop a deeply browned crust without overcooking. The dry sherry deglazes the skillet and gives the gravy the distinctive nutty, slightly sweet flavor of classic French onion soup, while beef broth, bouillon paste, and Worcestershire sauce create a rich, deeply savory gravy in a relatively short amount of time. Gruyère melts beautifully and browns under the broiler for the signature cheesy finish. No Gruyère in the fridge? A sharp cheddar will still melt and brown just fine.
Bon Appétit’s cider-braised sausage and lentils works the same way but trades the broiler finish for a long, lazy simmer. You start by browning sausages in a high-sided skillet until deeply coloured, then build the lentils in the same pan with chopped onion, celery and carrot, a splash of cider vinegar, and the sausages nestled back on top to finish. The pan does the rest: cover the pan, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook until the lentils are tender and most of the liquid is absorbed but the mixture is still saucy, which takes about 30 to 35 minutes. It’s a good one for using up whatever dry lentils are already in your cupboard, and it stretches a pack of sausages across more plates than you’d think.
For something closer to a Sunday roast without the Sunday effort, Kitchn’s dutch oven version of chicken pot pie strips the dish right back. It’s a weeknight-friendly chicken pot pie recipe that comes together in just one pot and is topped with flaky cheddar and thyme biscuits. The secret to weeknight pot pie is to reach for shortcuts, calling for a bag of frozen carrots and peas, along with a few cups of shredded chicken you can get from a rotisserie chicken. Quick and easy drop biscuits take the place of fussy pie crust that needs to be chilled and rolled. This recipe contains gluten (flour, biscuits) and dairy (butter, milk); swap in a gluten-free flour blend for the biscuits if that’s a concern.
If you do want to go the from-scratch pie crust route one weekend, three chefs recently told Kitchn the advice holds no matter which protein you pick. Chuckwagon cook Kent Rollins favours chicken thighs over chicken breast because they have the most flavor and are cheaper than chicken breast. Chef Tony Reed’s tip for brightening any filling is simple: a touch of acid is always a good idea, since lemon juice, white wine, or even Dijon mustard can make the whole dish taste brighter without coming off as acidic. And if you are rolling your own dough, keep the butter cold. Keep the butter cold and don’t overwork the dough, because you want visible pieces of butter left in the dough, and as those pieces melt in the oven, they create steam and give you flaky layers.
| Dish | What’s in the pan | Time, start to finish | Easy budget swap |
|---|---|---|---|
| French onion skillet pork chops | Pork chops, caramelized onions, sherry, beef broth, Gruyère | About 60 minutes | Use cheddar instead of Gruyère, or chicken thighs instead of chops |
| Cider-braised sausage and lentils | Smoked sausage, onion, celery, carrot, cider vinegar, lentils | About 40 minutes | Any smoked sausage works, and dried lentils are cheaper than canned |
| Dutch oven chicken pot pie | Rotisserie chicken, frozen peas and carrots, broth, drop biscuits | Under 30 minutes | Use the cheapest rotisserie chicken in the shop, or leftover roast chicken |
Keeping it cheap
None of this needs specialist equipment. A big, oven-safe frying pan or a secondhand cast iron skillet from a charity shop will do everything here, and cast iron only gets better with use. If you’re buying a pan new, a plain stainless or nonstick skillet with an oven-safe handle covers all three dinners above.
Lentils are one of the best things to keep stocked for exactly this kind of cooking. They’re cheap dry, they don’t go off quickly, and they bulk out a small amount of sausage or chicken into a meal that comfortably feeds friends. If you’re cooking for one, these recipes all reheat well, so there’s no reason not to make the full batch and eat the rest across the week.
Finish with the fruit everyone forgets about
Pears are quietly having their best stretch of the year right now, and Kitchn has been making the case that they deserve more credit than apples get every autumn. A not-so-traditional fall pie, pears are a seriously underrated and underutilized fall fruit, finally getting the spotlight they deserve.
If you’ve got the afternoon for it, the full Pear Pie is built to impress a table. It serves 8 to 12, takes about 40 minutes to prep and 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes to bake, with a perfectly flaky, buttery crust contrasting the tender, gently spiced pear filling. Just-ripe Bosc and Bartlett pears hold their shape exceptionally well when baked, staying tender without turning mushy. The bake happens in two stages: start it hot, then ease off the heat, since baking at 400ºF until the top is a deep golden-brown, then reducing the temperature to 350ºF, helps the crust set properly. It contains gluten and dairy (the crust and any butter in the filling).
Short on time or confidence with pastry? The Pear Galette is the same flavours with none of the fuss of crimping a crust. It serves 8, with 35 to 40 minutes of prep and 35 to 40 minutes in the oven. Thin slices of sweet pears are tossed with a sprinkle of cinnamon, ginger, and brown sugar, then wrapped in a buttery, flaky pie crust. As Kitchn puts it, it’s everything there is to love about a fall fruit pie, but way easier to make. Same allergens apply here: gluten and dairy in the crust.
Pick the pie if you’re hosting a proper sit-down dinner and want something that looks like you tried. Pick the galette on a weeknight when you just want something warm with a spoon of yoghurt or cream on top.