OWNChickenChicken Recipesweeknight dinner

6 Incredibly Delicious One-Pot Chicken Dinners To Try

Easy weeknight, or weekend, meals everyone will love.
Lynn Andriani
The I-Haven't-Gone-Food-Shopping-In-A-Week Dinner
© Alexandra Grablewski
Keep a package of chicken thighs in your freezer, a lemon in your fridge and some basics in the pantry, and this practically effortless supper will always be an option. Each of the ingredients in this dish (there are also olives and capers), along with the citrus juice, helps make the chicken tender and mingles with the meat's juices to create a delicious sauce.

Get the recipe: Chicken with Olives and Capers
A Winning French Dish With A Twist
ACP Magazines Limited
The ingredients in a rustic cassoulet vary, but chicken isn't all that common. Yet it's surprisingly perfect: The mild flavor doesn't overpower the sausage, white beans and herbs, but instead adds body and extra oomph without a ton of additional prep work (or cost!).

Get the recipe: Chicken, Sausage and Bean Cassoulet
An Asian Dish Where Every Bite Is Fabulous
John Kernick
Chicken legs and thighs are terrific in stir-fries, since the dark meat tends to soak up the delicious sauce (here, it's chili-soy-garlic) so well. This recipe also has a fantastic contrast of textures, from tender chicken to crunchy peanuts to celery, which seems to fall somewhere in the perfect middle.

Get the recipe: Chicken Stir-Fry with Celery and Peanuts
A Way To Play Tetris While Making Dinner
Kathy Strahs
An 8x8 brownie pan is surprisingly ideal for cooking chicken drumsticks, since their elongated shape allows you to arrange them in a zigzag pattern that can accommodate plenty, while still leaving room for the skin to brown and crisp. Underneath the meat lie chopped carrots, turnips and red potatoes; the vegetables absorb the meat's flavor, as well as the honey-balsamic dressing that gives this dish a deliciously sweet undertone.

Get the recipe: Honey-Glazed Chicken with Root Vegetables
The Roast With A Bit Of Spice
Gentl & Hyers
Don't be scared off by the list of ingredients in this dish -- the only things that require chopping are scallions. Once you've done that, just put everything -- including chicken pieces and pork chorizo or chicken sausage -- in a roasting pan and slide it into the oven. An hour or so later, you'll have succulent chicken and sausage, tender vegetables and a pan sauce that gets a little kick from the sausage's spices and is terrific with crusty bread.

Get the recipe: Roast Chicken with Green Beans and Artichokes
A Throw-It-All-In-One-Pan Favorite
Alison Gootee/Studio D
Even if you've got a go-to roast chicken, this recipe is a great reminder that the addition of one new ingredient can bring a brand new flavor to a familiar dish. In this case, you toss a few basics—carrots, potatoes, onion, lemon—with olive oil, salt, pepper and thyme; roast until golden, then nestle chicken-breast halves in the pan. When they're cooked, you boil the pan drippings and -- here's the twist -- stir in a bit of paprika. The resulting sauce is smoky, with a touch of pleasant sweetness.

Get the recipe: Pan-Roasted Paprika Chicken

Before You Go

3-Ingredient Pasta Dinners Anyone Can Make
The Anytime Pomodoro(01 of05)
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This bright and colorful sauce is delicious with fresh, or canned, plum tomatoes; the one thing we insist upon is making it with fresh basil, since its peppery-sweet, vibrant taste just doesn't come through if you use the dried version of the herb. The other element here is garlic; don't skimp on it, since when you cook it in olive oil it mellows and loses any of its harshness.

Get the recipe: Quick Pomodoro Sauce (credit:Thinkstock/jenniferknowles1)
A Light And Citrusy Meal That'll Fill You Up(02 of05)
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Lemon juice and zest, thinly sliced pancetta and pitted black olives give this spaghetti dish a lovely balance of tart and salty flavors. Any black olive will work, though we find that the fruity taste of kalamata and Gaeta olives nicely complements the flavors of the lemon and ham.

Get the recipe: Spaghetti with Lemon, Olives and Pancetta (credit:Thinkstock/al62)
Creamed Spinach, Reinvented With Carbs(03 of05)
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A bag of fresh spinach has infinite possibilities -- omelet, salad, quiche, side dish -- yet one we don't often think of is tossing it with hot pasta. Its heat (fettuccine is particularly good with this sauce) quickly wilts the nutritious green and the pasta takes beautifully to rich, smooth cream and a smattering of grated Parmesan.

Get the recipe: Creamy Spinach Fettuccine (credit:Thinkstock/alisafarov)
The Fast Track To A Dish That Tastes Like It's Been Cooking For Hours(04 of05)
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Sausage is a flavor bomb on its own; use it to build a pasta dish and you won't need to do much to end up with a perfectly salted, savory meal. Remove the meat from the casing and crumble it into the pan, cook it until it browns then add parboiled broccoli florets (you can also use cauliflower or broccoli rabe). It's great tossed with orecchiette, shells, or any other pasta shaped like a cup that can scoop up bits of meat and vegetable.

Get the recipe: Orecchiette with Sausage and Broccoli (credit:Thinkstock/marcomayer)
A Use For Sage That Anyone Will Love(05 of05)
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Sage is known for how well it pairs with meat, yet it shines in this vegetarian dish thanks to one very supportive partner: butter. It doesn't take long to make a silky, herbaceous sauce out of the two; and while rich, cheese-filled ravioli is the obvious choice for pasta, any medium-size cut pasta, such as mezze rigatoni, orecchiette or gnocchi are great, too.

Get the recipe: Pasta with Sage-Butter Sauce (credit:Thinkstock/Oliver Hoffmann)
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