One-Pot Meals

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Italian classics, check out the videos.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Italian classics, check out the videos.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Italian classics, check out the videos.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Italian classics, check out the videos.

This recipe is part of the Epicurious Online Cooking School, in partnership with the Culinary Institute of America. To watch it being made, and to learn how to make other Italian classics, check out the videos.

A close relative of Brunswick Stew, Burgoo was traditionally made with small, wild game such as squirrel or rabbit. This recipe adapted from B. Smith makes about 1 gallon, an amount that can easily be made on the stovetop in an 8-quart Dutch oven or soup pot. There are two parts to the recipe: first, making the flavorful meat broth, and then cooking the meat and vegetables together. Burgoo freezes well and tastes even better if it's refrigerated a few days before serving. Lawrenceburg is home to the Anderson County Burgoo Festival, held every September.

"If gumbo is the national stew of Cajun country, burgoo is the stew of Kentucky," Ronni Lundy asserts in her book Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken. Because the stew is made in many different ways with a variety of ingredients, the "Burgoo Song" by Robert Myles claims, "You can toss in almost anything that ever walked or flew." Many early recipes for burgoo include squirrel in addition to chicken, beef, and pork. In Kentucky, Anderson County, which hosts its Burgoo Festival every September, is known as the burgoo capital of the world. Arenzville, Illinois, makes a similar claim. But the French lay claim to the basic concept of burgoo, and it's conceivable that the word burgoo arose somehow from the French ragout (pronounced ra-goo), also a term describing a stew. Burgoo makers agree • Burgoo should be made in stages: cook the meat first, and then add the vegetables.
• No less than 4—6 hours should be devoted to making burgoo. Some recipes call for a 24-hour cooking period.
• Burgoo should contain more than one meat.
• Burgoo should be prepared outdoors over an open fire.

"There is no point in cooking country ham and burgoo to serve just six," Charles Patteson advises the Derby Day host in Charles Patteson's Kentucky Cooking (1988). "Start with the mandatory mint juleps," he continues. "Burgoo, which is midway between a hearty soup and a stew, succeeds the juleps in the guests' cups as a first course." I hadn't known that. Nor had I known that it's traditional for burgoo to be scooped into silver mint julep cups at the annual Kentucky Colonels' Barbecue the day after the Derby. In Kentucky's Best (1998), Linda Allison-Lewis writes that burgoo must "simmer for twenty-four hours prior to being served," then confides that burgoo chefs used to listen for the splatter of the "mysterious ingredient"—the ingredient that fused all flavors—being added "sometime in the dark of night." Legend has it that that ingredient was a black snake that fell out of a tree into the first batch of burgoo. Historians doubt that but most do agree that burgoo was created during the Civil War by Gus Jaubert, a French chef serving Confederate general John Hunt Morgan. At war's end, Jaubert settled in Lexington, Kentucky, began making burgoo on a massive scale, and soon gained fame as "the burgoo king." On his death, according to Ronni Lundi, author of Shuck Beans, Stack Cakes, and Honest Fried Chicken (1991), Lexington cook J. T. Looney "inherited both Jaubert's pot and his title." While traveling about the Bluegrass State some years ago to research my Grass Roots Cookbook, I ate burgoo every chance I got. I also learned more about this Kentucky classic. Jaubert's original recipe apparently contained blackbirds. Unable to say "blackbird stew" not only because French was his first language but also because he had a hairlip, Jaubert pronounced it "burgoo." Or so I was told. Elsewhere I learned that those early burgoos contained mostly squirrels plus whatever vegetables came to hand. I daresay that there are hundreds of different recipes for Kentucky burgoo today. This downsized version of the burgoo served for years at the Pete Light Springs Restaurant in Cadiz, Kentucky, was given to me by Lois Watkins, whom I profiled in my book. "This burgoo is the best in the world," she said as she handed me the scribbled recipe. I won't quarrel with that.

Save time by purchasing sliced stemmed shiitake mushrooms and wasabi paste in a tube. If the paste isn't available, mix 2 teaspoons wasabi powder with 1 tablespoon water.

A little bit of bacon and a handful of raisins add a smoky sweetness that balances the slightly bitter flavor of the little cabbages.

Todd and I both love stuffed shells, so I’m always thinking of fun new fillings to try. This one is a real home run. The first time I made it I used leftover dark meat from our Thanksgiving turkey and chopped it fine, but we liked it so much that I’ve adapted the recipe for ground raw turkey. Now we can have it any night of the year! We like it with the slightly spicy arrabbiata sauce, because turkey can be a bit on the bland side (especially if you can only get ground white-meat turkey), but if you want to use your favorite jarred marinara sauce instead, it’s still a great dish.

For milder chili, reduce the green chiles by half. You can also replace the canned beans with 4 cups cooked dried beans (page 202); replace half the chicken broth with bean cooking liquid.

The fiber in lentils helps to lower cholesterol and regulate blood sugar. French green lentils cook more quickly and retain a firmer texture than the more common brown ones.

This “white” stew borrows a nonbrowning method commonly used in making blanquette de veau, one of the canons of French cuisine. In that dish, a stew of veal, onions, and mushrooms is blanketed in a creamy sauce. The meat is never browned (hence the term “white stew”); the stock is thickened with a roux and, traditionally, a secondary thickener called a liaison, made with egg and cream, making it exceptionally rich. This recipe, however, opts for springtime produce over the usual vegetables and makes the liaison optional (you can omit the egg and just stir in the cream, without tempering). To make a classic blanquette de veau, see the variation that follows.

Like many favorite comfort-food dishes, pot roast was born of frugality. Here was a dish based on inexpensive cuts of meat and basic root vegetables, cooked together in the same pot, that could be stretched to make meals for days to come. Many fans of pot roast think it tastes even better the next day, so it’s also a good make-ahead option for a big gathering. This particular recipe calls for less liquid than other, more typical braises; here, the water will reach only about 1 inch up the sides of the roast, instead of halfway. With less liquid in the pot, you’ll need to watch it more carefully, and turn the roast more frequently, but you probably won’t need to reduce the sauce in the end or add much thickener (only a tablespoon or so of flour). A common frustration of many new cooks—and even some experienced ones—is that their pot roast turns out stringy or dry. It could be that the meat is too lean, causing it to dry out quickly; this is why it’s important to buy a cut with fat marbled throughout the flesh. A loose-fitting lid might also be the culprit, because the cooking liquid will have evaporated. The cooking liquid should remain at a constant, gentle simmer, rather than a rapid boil—lower heat melts the collagen into gelatin more effectively. It might seem counterintuitive, but a dry or stringy pot roast could also result from undercooking, not overcooking, the meat. In fact, one of the beauties of braising is that it occurs at such a low temperature that it’s fairly difficult (and takes quite a long time) for the meat to overcook.

This recipe employs many classic techniques of braising. To finish the sauce, the liquid is first reduced (a common thickening method) and then a secondary thickener called a beurre manié, a mixture of flour and butter, is added. Beurre manié can be added to most any sauce that seems to need a bit more body. And since the flavor of pork pairs well with apples, hard cider is used to braise the meat. For variation, the standard French mirepoix of onion, carrot, and celery is replaced with parsnip, celery root, and leek. If you don’t have a pot with a tight-fitting lid, cover your pot with aluminum foil lined with parchment paper and then the lid (you can even use the lid from another, similar-size pot or pan). Check 30 minutes after placing the pot in the oven to make sure that the liquid is gently simmering; if not, raise the temperature by 25 degrees, return the liquid to a boil on top of stove, and return the pot to the oven to finish cooking. (If vigorously boiling, decrease temperature by 25 degrees.)

Vegetable stock is an essential ingredient in many vegetarian soups, but it also provides incomparable flavor to many well-loved vegetable (but not necessarily meat-free) soups such as this one. Minestrone has become so familiar in the American kitchen that it might be easy to forget its Italian origins. But the name—minestre is the word for soup, while the suffix (-one) indicates bigness—hints at its universal appeal as a simple pantry-based soup that is also hearty and substantial. The foundation of flavor, called a soffritto, is a common element in soup-making: a trio of celery, carrots, and onion is sautéed first, then stock and more vegetables are added and slowly simmered to coax out their flavors. Beans are what distinguish minestrone from other vegetable soups; the type varies by region, as does the addition (if any) of pasta or rice (this version has neither). The beans are also what give the soup such heft, making it a good option for a meatless one-pot dish (if you leave out the prosciutto) that can stand as the centerpiece of any casual dinner. The beans need to soak overnight in the refrigerator, so plan accordingly. Then they need to boil for at least a half hour, so use that time to prepare the rest of the ingredients for the soffritto and soup.

Filled with tangy feta and a handful of sweet tiny tomatoes, red bell peppers take on a Mediterranean twist. You can also try other varieties of small tomatoes such as grape, currant, or even yellow pear in the filling.