Easy skillet meal ideas (and why you should be making them more often)

Whether it is a busy week night or a fun Saturday evening, skillet meals are an easy one-dish meal to serve your family. Read this post to learn how to make easy skillet meal ideas (and why you should be making them more often).

After you get home from a busy day out, the last thing you want to figure out is “what will I make for supper?!” It seems to scream at us from all directions and before you know it, your head hurts!

Preparing skillet meals is super easy and requires very little time. If you’re looking for some easy dinner ideas then you have come to the right place! I’m sharing some basic easy one pot skillet meals that require very little prep or cooking time and are very delicious! 

So why should you be making skillet meals more often?

Keep on reading!

Some things to understand about skillet meals: 

• Most of the time they are made with leftovers (like extra rice that you prepared from a meal the day before).
• They are composed of a starch, meat and a veggie or two
• Plenty of seasonings and some optional Bragg’s liquid aminos finalizes the touch before serving

A one-pot meal on the stove top means cutting down on the number of dishes to wash afterwards! So much better for busy nights! The meal can even be transferred to a slow cooker (crockpot) to have ready to go later in the day if you really want to prep ahead.

I hope these easy skillet meal ideas will give you some inspiration and restfulness (less anxiety) when it comes to preparing dinner for your family.

Just take some leftover rice out of the fridge and pull the meal off some cooked chicken thighs from the night before, and before you know it you’ll have a delicious complete meal to serve your family.

A one dish meal can be fun, delicious and super practical. If you are new to cooking from scratch at home, you may be feeling overwhelmed and unsure where to start or even how to start.

Hopefully in this post you will find some helpful ideas and tips to get you started in your cooking journey for your whole family.

An important reminder: You don’t need to prepare a three course meal for your family’s dinner; they will be very appreciative of a simple, delicious and nourishing meal that is a one-pot dish. (Sides like salad, rolls and applesauce are always great to serve with skillet meals).

Skillet meals are cheap and budget friendly because they do not require special cuts of meat, pork chops, tenderloins, etc

What to use to cook easy skillet meal dinners

Most of the time I use a cast-iron pan or skillet. A large stock pot could also work depending on the meal you are making. (Skillet lasagna would not work well in a stock pot). If I am making a smaller size batch I either use a smaller skillet or just make it in a 8×8″ pan in the oven. (Bake covered).

Tips and tricks for cooking one-dish skillet meals

Most of the time skillet meals should not be cooked on high heat, rather a lower heat setting will help the already cooked foods to warm up together. You also don’t want anything to burn!

Always make sure the skillet it preheated before adding anything into it. Set it on a low temperate burner for at least 5 minutes.

Then add a little fat, like butter, bacon grease or coconut oil. If you are adding things like uncooked potatoes, onions or peppers, you can add them first to the skillet to sauté a little.

Then add the rest of the base ingredients; the starch, meats etc. You can either cook this another 5 minutes or so before adding the additions or you can add them right away with the base ingredients.

It mostly depends on if everything has been precooked ahead of time or not. (For example: If the potatoes are still cooking, then don’t add the cooked leftover vegetables yet, or they will turn to mush. )

Allow everything to heat and cook together, most of the time this takes about 20 minutes. Some meals like the skillet lasagna cook better in the oven rather then the stove top. Otherwise, on the stove top, since the lasagna noodles are not cooked and the cream filling is raw, this would not cook very well without burning the bottom and the inside being underdone.

Complete the meal by seasoning well. Salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder and onion flakes are all very good. Bragg’s liquid aminos or Worcestershire sauce are good in a small amount on rice dishes.

Meal planning:

Use meal plans if at all possible. Meal planning saves you time and brain energy and everyone could benefit from more mental space and energy, right? 

Give yourself a break and less stress by sitting down at the beginning of the week and jotting down your favorite dinner recipes or meals.

Did you know that meal planning saves you money when you’re grocery shopping? That’s right. Statistics show that meal planner spend less on groceries a year then those who are last minute. Plus you won’t be eating out as often or grabbing a pizza or subway on your way home. 

There are two componenets to skillet meals:

1. The base
2. The additions

• The base is the starch and meat (for example rice and ground sausage).
• The additions are things like onions, peppers, peas and corn.

Prepping food ahead of time. I like to make enough potatoes, rice, chicken breast and so on so I have leftovers available for these recipes. There are two points and reasons to making one-skillet meals: 1- they take less time because you use leftovers 2- less dishes

Base ideas to start with:

• Starch: white rice, brown rice, any type of pasta you like, diced potatoes, diced sweet potatoes
• Meats: diced or shredded chicken or turkey, ground meats, diced ham, chopped bacon

The additions:

• peas, corn, peppers, green beans, onion, 
• Seasonings and Sauces: creamy sauce, soy sauce, liquid aminos, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, garlic and onion powders

Delicious optional toppings: Cheeses

Easy skillet meal ideas:

Rice and ground beef dish – 

• Base: cooked rice (white or brown)  and ground beef or venision 
• Additions: peas, corn, asparagus (some chopped bell pepper would be delicious as well) 
• plenty of seasonings 

Potato hash –  

• Base: diced potatoes and diced ham​
• Additions: peas
• seasonings

Rice and chicken dish – 

• Base: cooked rice (white or brown) and  cooked chicken cut up or shredded
• Additions: diced bell peppers, onions,
• plenty of seasonings, red pepper flakes

Beef Stew-

• Base: diced potatoes and meat chunks (canned venison is great or Italian turkey sausage!)
• Additions: diced carrots, peas and onions
• plenty of seasonings

Rice and beans dish –

• Base: cooked rice (white or brown), cooked pinto or black beans, optional ground beef or venison
• Additions: diced bell peppers, diced onions, minced garlic
• plenty of seasonings
• Toppings:
• sour cream
• shredded cheese
• trotilla chips

Pasta and chicken dish – 

• Base: cooked pasta of choice and cooked chicken cut up or shredded
• Additions: optional corn or peas if desired 
• alfredo sauce (I use homemade)

Skillet lasagna – 

• Base: lasagna noodles and cooked ground beef or meat of choice
• Additions: spaghetti sauce, cream filling mixture (cottage cheese, parmesan cheese and egg)
• Topping: shredded mozzarella cheese  

Taco night- (Serve on tortillas)

• Base: rice, ground beef or venison, black or pinto beans
• Additions: diced onion and pepper
• taco seasonings
• Toppings: shredded cheese, sour cream, salsa, cilantro, tortilla chips

Sides to serve with easy skillet meals:

• salads
• extra vegetables
• deviled eggs
• applesauce
• tapioca salads
• breads
• muffins

Check out my meal planners!

Weekly 3 meal daily menu planner

Homesteaders weekly 3 page bundle meal planner

Recipe binder pages 5 page bundle

Recipe links:

Sourdough chicken pot pie in the crockpot

Low carb creamy cabbage

Gluten free shrimp alfredo

Hopefully some of these recipe ideas will become a new weeknight favorite for you and your family. Go grab your own cast-iron skillet and try one of these new recipe ideas for your dinner tonight or any other night of the week! 

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A little about me!

Hi! I’m Rebecca, wife and mother and I love homemaking and cooking on a daily basis.

Baking healthy desserts and cooking nutritious filled foods is a passion that I have and that is reflected in the recipes I post here!

Read more about me here.

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