One Pot Dinner Ideas — Less Washing Up, Maximum Flavour

When ingredients cook separately, each component develops its own flavour in isolation. When everything cooks together, flavours cross-pollinate — the meat releases fat and gelatin into the liquid, the liquid in turn seasons the vegetables and grains cooking within it, and everything benefits. This is why a one-pot chicken and rice dish tastes more integrated and satisfying than chicken served alongside separately steamed rice.

The practical benefit is equally compelling: one pot to wash. For weeknight cooking especially, reducing the cleanup burden makes it easier to cook properly rather than reaching for something quick and processed. The recipes here range from genuinely fast one-pot meals (under 45 minutes) to slow braises that reward a couple of hours of patience.

Not all one-pot dishes are slow and involved. Several in this collection come together in 30 to 45 minutes while still producing the deep, integrated flavour that makes the method worthwhile. Chana masala, arroz con pollo, and nourishing soups all fit this tier — one pot, real flavour, manageable on a weeknight.

Chana masala is one of the most reliable quick one-pot meals in this collection. Everything goes into a single pan — aromatics, tomatoes, spices, chickpeas — and the result is ready in about 30 minutes. The sauce develops genuine complexity from the combination of whole and ground spices, and the chickpeas absorb the flavours beautifully as they simmer. Serve over rice for a complete meal from two pots (pan and rice pot) or cook the rice separately while the curry simmers.

Great for: a fast weeknight dinner from one pan, budget cooking, a vegetarian main with real flavour.

A properly made vegetable soup is one of the most satisfying one-pot meals available — and one of the cheapest. The key is building the base properly: browning the aromatics in oil before adding any liquid, seasoning at every stage, and using a good stock rather than water. This nourishing version uses kale, courgette, carrot, and celery in a flavourful broth that's ready in 35 minutes.

Great for: a quick, warming dinner, batch cooking for the week, a meal that costs under £5 for four people.

Arroz con pollo is the perfect quick one-pot rice dinner. The chicken, sofrito base, saffron-seasoned liquid, and rice all cook together in a single pan — the rice absorbs the chicken juices and the spiced cooking liquid as it cooks, producing something far more flavourful than chicken with plain rice on the side. Everything is ready in 40 to 45 minutes.

Great for: a complete weeknight dinner from one pan, meal prepping in bulk, a dish that genuinely improves when reheated the next day.

Some one-pot dishes require longer cooking — an hour to three hours — but most of that time is passive. You build the dish in the first 20 minutes, put it in the oven or on a low heat, and then do something else. The reward for the patience is genuinely outstanding food: tender, flavour-saturated meat in rich, reduced sauce.

Coq au vin, rogan josh, and cassoulet all belong to this category. They're weekend cooking for when you have time and want something genuinely special. They also all improve the next day, making them ideal for cooking ahead.

Coq au vin — chicken braised in red wine with mushrooms, lardons, and pearl onions — is one of the great French one-pot dishes. The wine reduces over a slow braise into a deeply rich, glossy sauce that coats every piece of chicken. It takes about two hours but most of that is the oven doing the work. Serve with crusty bread to mop up the sauce.

Great for: a special weekend dinner, cooking something genuinely impressive without spending all day in the kitchen, a dish that reheats beautifully.

Rogan josh is a slow-braised Kashmiri lamb curry built on whole spices, yoghurt, and Kashmiri chilies. The long, low cook time — about 1.5 to 2 hours — is what produces the fall-apart tender lamb and the deeply concentrated sauce. This is a weekend curry that rewards patience and tastes even better on day two.

Great for: a richly flavoured weekend curry, cooking ahead because it improves overnight, a proper celebration meal for guests who love Indian food.

Clam chowder is a creamy, potato-based one-pot soup that comes together in about 35 to 40 minutes. The technique — sweating the aromatics in the clam liquor before adding cream and potatoes — builds a deeply savoury base that makes the finished soup taste far more involved than its ingredients suggest. Use fresh clams where possible, or tinned clams for a faster weeknight version.

Great for: a warming, satisfying dinner from a single pot, a dish that feels celebratory despite being genuinely easy.

Chicken biryani is technically a two-stage dish — the rice and chicken are partially cooked separately before being layered and steamed together — but it all comes to completion in a single sealed pot (dum). The result is one of the most fragrant and impressive rice dishes in the world, with the rice absorbing every bit of flavour from the spiced chicken and saffron milk beneath it.

Great for: a weekend project that produces genuinely outstanding food, impressing guests with something that feels special and demanding significant skill (even when it doesn't).

Cassoulet is the ultimate slow one-pot dish — a rich Languedoc stew of white beans, various meats (typically duck confit, pork sausage, and pork belly), and a golden breadcrumb crust that's gratinéed at the end. It takes 3 to 4 hours but produces something genuinely extraordinary: creamy beans infused with every flavour from the meats they've slow-cooked with. This is cooking for a day when you have time and want to make something memorable.

Great for: a proper weekend cooking project, feeding a group something they've probably never had at home, a dish that justifies its reputation as one of the great French regional dishes.