In One and Done, senior test kitchen editor Jesse Szewczyk uses one pan—like a Dutch oven, sheet pan, or cast-iron skillet—to make meals you’ll come back to again and again.
Search the internet for easy weeknight recipes and you’ll likely stumble across the term dump dinner—a rather unfortunate name for a meal that comes together by simply dumping all of the ingredients into one cooking vessel and letting it go. This recipe borrows that same time-saving mentality of throwing everything into a skillet at once, while using a handful of hardworking ingredients to ensure a flavorful result. Garlic, ginger, soy sauce, butter, and sesame oil form the base of a bold poaching liquid, topped with tomatoes and skinless salmon fillets. (Feel free to use a flaky white fish, such as cod, if you’d prefer.) The cold pan gets transferred to the stovetop, brought to a simmer, and partially covered with a lid. As it cooks, the tomatoes burst, creating a comforting, umami-rich broth that’s perfect for serving over steamed rice or alongside crusty bread. It’s a hands-off dinner that comes together in less than 30 minutes—and shows that poaching fish is not only a gentle cooking technique, but it can yield a truly spectacular result as well.