20 Skillet Recipes for a Delicious Dinner in a Flash
In a hurry? Skillet cooking is your supper savior. Rather than calling for delivery, whip up one of these easy skillet recipes for dinner tonight. Stovetop meals, such as these stir-fries, frittatas, and seared meats, make cleanup a breeze, and get dinner on the table quicker than delivery can arrive at your door.
Buffalo Chicken Burgers
Spicy, saucy, and far better than drive-through, these chicken burgers only require a single skillet. Have your favorite toppings prepped for when this easy chicken skillet recipe is ready, and everyone can create their own burger. With a buffalo sauce coating and blue cheese topping, each sandwich features everything you love most about hot wings—no bones about it!
Upside-Down Pizza Casserole
This easy pizza skillet casserole recipe is made with lean ground beef, Italian turkey sausage, lots of cheese, and Italian bread cubes. (Translation: It tastes just like a supreme slice from your favorite pizza parlor.) Since you don't have to wait for any dough to cook, pizza becomes a rapid skillet recipe. Try it with your favorite pizza toppings!
Pork and Red Cabbage Skillet
Pound pork cutlets until nice and thin, then stick with skillet cooking, and they can be ready to serve in less than 10 minutes. Take a bit more time to stir together the wilted cabbage and pickled onion side and dinner is done in less time than it takes to watch a sitcom. That makes this easy skillet recipe a tough one to beat.
Skillet Taco Pie
This delicious stovetop Mexican skillet recipe is what your next taco night needs. Use your choice of ground turkey or ground beef and sprinkle with broken taco shells, tomatoes, cheese, and store-bought or homemade salsa. Extra-hot, if you please!
Steak with Spicy Balsamic Glaze
Light on ingredients, fat, and cleanup (but not flavor!), this steak dinner is easy enough for a Tuesday family dinner and fancy enough for guests. Plus, since it calls for skillet cooking rather than grilling, you can serve this juicy steak dinner any day of the year. Serve your skillet-cooked steak with an easy balsamic glaze poured on top, and it'll look like it was plated at a restaurant.
Tortellini with Broccolini
Boil the pasta and broccolini in a deep skillet, drain, and sauté the al dente tortellini and veggies with tomatoes, basil, and a light balsamic dressing. This simple pasta skillet tastes like a caprese salad in entrée form.
Soy-Glazed Flank Steak with Blistered Green Beans
Skillet cooking goes spicy! This steak stir-fry recipe is spiked with Asian chili paste. Here's how to cut down on cleanup: Sauté the beans in a wok or skillet; once they blister, reserve them on the side. Then sear the steak in the same pan for a super easy skillet dinner with hardly any dishes to clean.
Tomato-Basil Cavatelli Skillet
Why didn't we think of this years ago? To make a complete pasta dinner in one pan, cook dry noodles in a simple homemade tomato sauce, then top with cheese and allow the piping-hot pasta to melt the mozzarella. It's like a simpler twist on a skillet lasagna recipe (no layering involved).
Lemon-Thyme Roasted Chicken with Fingerlings
With just 255 calories per serving and zero gluten, this is one of the lightest meat-and-potatoes meals you can cook in one pan. To keep things simple, use the same seasoning elements (garlic, thyme, lemon) to flavor the potatoes and the chicken. You can't ask for much more from a chicken skillet dinner than quick, easy, and tasty!
Beef Sirloin Tips with Smoky Pepper Sauce
Beef seasoned with smoked paprika offers rich, savory flavors that are offset by roasted bell peppers and fresh parsley. The best news about this easy skillet recipe besides the tasty results? You only need six ingredients to get it on the table.
Chicken Dijonnaise
A sophisticated sauce of whipping cream, white wine, and mustard tops golden breaded chicken in this recipe with fewer than 300 calories. A sprinkle of fresh thyme adds an elegant finish to this chicken skillet dinner. To satisfy heartier appetites, serve over rice, pasta, roasted potatoes, or mashed spuds.
Pan-Roasted Chicken with Brussels Sprouts and Apples
Take your chicken skillet dinners beyond just chicken breasts. This five-ingredient fix starts with chicken thighs for a moist and hearty (yet still healthy) protein option. The maple thyme topping adds fall flavors to each bite.
Skillet Lasagna
We've reinvented your favorite comfort food dish for the weeknight by way of this skillet lasagna recipe. Cooked in a single pan and loaded with cheese, this Italian-seasoned supper is sure to be a family favorite. After cooking, freeze single servings to reheat and enjoy later when you don't have cooking time to spare.
Lemon Butter Chicken Breasts
You'll get simple flavor and perfect browning when you dredge chicken in flour, season with lemon pepper, and add to a skillet of hot butter. Bright citrus flavor from a squeeze of lemon perks up the pan sauce drizzled on top of this chicken dinner. While this easy chicken recipe cooks, toss together a simple salad to serve on the side.
Curried Pork and Rice
This 30-minute meal features pork tenderloin and wild rice, and it has a surprise ingredient: apples. They're not a common curry ingredient, but they add a slight sweet-tartness to each bite (just think of how tasty apple-glazed pork chops are if you're unsure). After cooking the quick skillet recipe, sprinkle each bowl with fresh cilantro.
Herbed Chicken, Orzo, and Zucchini
Chicken breasts are simply seasoned with dried basil, pepper, and salt before being pan-fried to a golden brown. Served with a side of dill-spiked orzo and zucchini, this flavorful chicken skillet dinner is ready to eat in just 20 minutes. For extra zest and freshness, serve with a squirt of lemon juice and additional dill.
Skillet Vegetables on Cheese Toast
A tangy layer of goat cheese topped with mushrooms, garlic, onion, and crisp-tender carrots makes an unbeatable meatless sandwich. To make this a one-pan plan, crisp up the bread in the toaster rather than under the broiler, then spread with cheese. It's the perfect recipe to save for a meatless Monday meal!
Pineapple-Chicken Meatball Stir-Fry
Stir-fry recipes are among the speediest suppers around. Start with one pan, toss in the ingredients, and heat until warm. Begin with store-bought meatballs and leftover rice from last night, and you can have this easy, healthy skillet dinner on the table in 15 minutes!
Chicken with Apple-Vegetable Slaw Stir-Fry
We're bending the rules a bit with this one because you need a bowl to stir together the sauce. But otherwise, this skillet dinner (loaded with chicken, vegetables, apples, and more) comes together in a single wok. To make a more complete meal, serve over white rice.
Creamy Tuna-Noodle Toss
This alternative to a tuna casserole is not only easier to make but also practically guilt-free. Lemon juice, onion, and garlic give this creamy dish loads of flavor, while al dente green peas offer a pleasant amount of crunch. Regular tuna casserole just might get replaced by this one-skillet meal.
Skillet vs. Sheet-Pan vs. One-Pot
Skillet recipes aren’t the only ones ready to make your cleanup a breeze. While a one-sheet can help you roast protein and veggies in the oven at the same time—like these healthy sheet-pan dinners or even a sheet-pan lasagna—a one-pot will simply simmer and infuse comforting, hearty, creamy flavors that the whole family can enjoy on a busy weeknight, like a yummy one-pot pasta or well-rounded one-dish meal, both done in minutes. Unsure of these three methods? Don’t worry—whatever route you’re going for, all of them are designed to give you easy, tasty meals without all the fuss.