24 One-Dish Recipes To Make the Most Out of Your Cast Iron Skillet (2024)

Stovetop

Chicken dinners, super sweet desserts, and cozy entrees all made in a single pan.

The Serious Eats Team

At Serious Eats, we’re a team of self-proclaimed food nerds who are ever-curious about the “why” behind cooking. The staff has worked in restaurants, test kitchens, bakeries, and other notable publications, bringing extensive culinary and editorial expertise to the table.

Learn about Serious Eats'Editorial Process

Updated February 22, 2024

How to Season and Maintain a Cast Iron Pan

Cast iron shines when it comes to high-heat cooking, like searing steaks or charring vegetables, but it goes beyond that—you can use cast iron to sauté, bake bread, or even or make a table-worthy dessert.

Here are 24 recipes that put it to good use, so get that heavy, beautiful pan out of the cupboard and get cooking.

One-Pan Chicken, Sausage, and Brussels Sprouts
When cooking on a busy weeknight, you want to end up with as few dishes to wash as possible, so a cast iron skillet is a must for easy one-pan dishes. In this recipe, we cook chicken thighs, Italian sausage, Brussels sprouts, and shallots together in one skillet, and pump up the flavor by rubbing the chicken with a savory paste of mustard, honey, and rosemary.
Get the recipe for One-Pan Chicken, Sausage, and Brussels Sprouts
Creamy Garlic Chicken Spanakopita Skillet
This one-skillet dish builds on the Greek appetizer spanakopita to create a full meal. After putting together the filling—a mixture of spinach, chicken, and creamy garlic-feta sauce—we top it with crumpled sheets of store-bought phyllo dough and bake the pie for about 20 minutes, or until it's golden brown. It's a dish that hits the same notes as spanakopita, but in a heartier, easy-to-make package.
Get the recipe for Creamy Garlic Chicken Spanakopita Skillet
Sweet and Savory Corn Casserole
Corn casserole is made differently in different parts of the country, but we're not here to pick sides, and this isn't a definitive recipe—it's just the way we like it. We start with onion, red bell pepper, and fresh sage, sautéed in butter and flavored with paprika and cayenne, then add corn kernels, cornmeal, eggs, and all the dairy—milk, heavy cream, and plenty of cheese. If you're making this well out of corn season, you'll be happy to know that out-of-season fresh corn actually bakes up quite nicely, though frozen kernels work, too.
Get the recipe for Sweet and Savory Corn Casserole
See Also
Cinnamon Roll Recipe 21 co*cktail Recipes to Make in 2022 Affogato: You're Welcome (Plus a Simple Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Recipe!) - And Here We Are Linguine With Shrimp and Lemon-Pistachio Bread Crumbs Recipe
Butter-Basted, Pan-Seared Thick-Cut Steaks
5:38
How to Butter-Baste a Steak
Cast iron is slower to heat up than steel, but once it gets hot, it stays hot. That's ideal for cooking a steak, which requires super-high heat to form a crust on the exterior without overcooking the center. Another trick to perfectly searing steaks? Despite what others might tell you, flipping your steaks more often actually helps them brown faster and cook more evenly.
Get the recipe for Butter-Basted, Pan-Seared Thick-Cut Steaks
Continue to 5 of 24 below.
Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
If I learned anything about food growing up down south, it's that acast iron skilletcan work wonders for any recipe—even chocolate chip cookies. Slap chocolate chip cookie dough in a cast iron skillet, and it'll bake up crunchy around the edges, but soft and fudgy in the middle, like some outrageous brownie/cookie hybrid.
Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie
Perfect Pan-Seared Pork Chops
Though cast iron is just as good for searing pork chops as it is for steak, our approach here is a bit different. Most people cook their pork longer than they cook their beef, so we recommend using the reverse-sear technique—cooking the chops slowly in the oven before finishing them in a hot skillet.
Get the recipe for Perfect Pan-Seared Pork Chops
Spanish-Style Blistered Padrón Peppers (Pimientos de Padrón)
This ultra-simple tapa is made just by charring green Padrón peppers in a blisteringly hot cast iron skillet. Beyond olive oil, all the added flavor these peppers need comes from a little coarse sea salt sprinkled on before serving.
Get the recipe for Spanish-Style Blistered Padrón Peppers (Pimientos de Padrón)
Korean Corn Cheese
For my recipe for corn cheese, I wanted to make it more savory, balancing the sweetness of the fresh, in-season sweet corn with butter, salt, some savory funk fromdoenjang, and a little bit of heat from Chinese mustard, which serves to emphasize the corn and cheese flavors. And while I love fresh summer corn, I wanted to stay true to the origins of the dish, so I developed the recipe so it would work with frozen corn and drained, unsalted canned corn as well.
Korean Corn Cheese
Continue to 9 of 24 below.
The Best Potato Hash
What you choose to put in a hash is entirely up to you, but this master post offers several different versions. To make it a full meal, bake a couple of eggs right in the skillet with the hash.
Get All Our Potato Hash Recipes
Easy No-Knead Olive-Rosemary Focaccia With Pistachios
We often love the idea of bread-making, but sometimes we're too lazy for all that kneading and stretching. This focaccia is perfect because the highly hydrated dough doesn't need either—give the ingredients a quick mix, allow the dough plenty of time to rest and rise, and it will spread itself out in a greased skillet. A topping of sliced olives, rosemary, and pistachios makes it feel especially fancy, so no one will guess that it took just 15 minutes of actual work.
Get the recipe for Easy No-Knead Olive-Rosemary Focaccia With Pistachios
Hummingbird Skillet Cake
Hummingbird cake is a classic Southern dessert. It has a similar look and feel tocarrot cake, down to the light and tangy cream cheese frosting, but pineapple and banana take the place of the carrots, for a tropical twist. It's almost always served as a stately layer cake, but a cast iron skillet dresses it down into a more casual affair, one that's easy to transport and perfect for potlucks and picnics alike.
See Also
Apple Pie Overnight Oats Recipe - Foodess
Hummingbird Skillet Cake
Foolproof Pan Pizza
9:58
How to Make a Pan Pizza
That no-knead, no-stretch dough technique doesn't work just for focaccia—it also produces an incredibly easy pan pizza, of the kind you may have grown up loving at the Hut. The thick, puffy crust can stand up to lots of toppings, so feel free to load this up with whatever you'd like beyond the sauce and cheese—pepperoni, fresh vegetables, pickled vegetables, the works.
Get the recipe for Foolproof Pan Pizza
Continue to 13 of 24 below.
Easy Pull-Apart Pepperoni Garlic Knots
These moist, buttery pull-apart garlic knots, loaded with pepperoni, parmesan, garlic, and herbs, are a surefire way to impress anyone. They're also a breeze to make: With so many flavorful toppings at work, it's absolutely fine to use a store-bought pizza dough, which we would otherwise find a little bland.
Get the recipe for Easy Pull-Apart Pepperoni Garlic Knots
Quick and Easy Skillet Tamale Pie With Brown Butter Cornbread Crust
While our updated version of tamale pie is worth the effort, there's a lot to love about a more classic take. This one relies on good ol' ground beef chuck, flavored with ancho chili powder, cayenne, cumin, and coriander. Frozen corn and canned black beans and tomatoes keep the amount of prep work to a minimum.
Get the recipe for Quick and Easy Skillet Tamale Pie With Brown Butter Cornbread Crust
French Onion Strata (Savory Bread Pudding)
Perfect for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, this savory bread pudding combines the flavors of French onion soup—caramelized onions, Gruyère cheese, crusty bread—in a creamy one-pan dish. Oven-dried bread soaks up the eggy mixture better than staled, and a quick method of caramelizing onions saves time while still getting the onions nicely browned.
Get the recipe for French Onion Strata (Savory Bread Pudding)
Grill-Baked Smoked Ancho Chile Skillet Brownie
As much as the gill itself does incredible things to a brownie, I'm just as taken by the magic of using a cast iron skillet in this recipe, which is my cookware of choice when baking on the grill. A cast-iron skillet on a hot outdoor grill can work wonders on a brownie batter: It creates a brownie with the best of all worlds, crispy, lightly chewy edges, and a rich, fudgy center.
Grill-Baked Smoked Ancho Chile Skillet Brownie
Continue to 17 of 24 below.
Baked Eggs With Creamy Greens, Mushrooms, and Cheese
Kale, chard, and baby spinach combine with mushrooms, garlic, leeks, Dijon mustard, and spices to form the base for a baked-egg dish that's a bit like an omelette turned inside out. We combine the leeks, mushrooms, and blanched greens with butter, half and half, and milk in a cast iron pan. After cracking half a dozen eggs on top of the rich and creamy mixture, we transfer it all to the oven to bake until the egg whites are just set and the yolks still runny.
Get the recipe for Baked Eggs With Creamy Greens, Mushrooms, and Cheese
Yeast-Raised Angel Biscuits
Like traditional biscuits, these angel biscuits are buttery and tender, but their flavor and texture are closer to those of Parker House rolls—yeasty and light. The dough is shaped and arranged in a cast iron pan, then left to proof overnight in the refrigerator, making the biscuits an easy prepare-ahead option for breakfast or brunch. When baked until golden brown, they're perfect for stuffing with slices of country ham or spreading with butter and jelly.
Get the recipe for Yeast-Raised Angel Biscuits
Crispy Pork Shoulder Hash With Charred Asparagus and Serrano Chili
If you found yourself making a slow-roasted pork shoulder recently, you can turn your leftovers into a hash that’s good for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Though this recipe calls for asparagus and serrano chili, you can use whatever you have on hand—that’s the beauty of a dish designed to use up scraps like this one. By cooking all the ingredients separately before combining them, we can ensure that everything stays crisp, avoiding a soggy mess. A hash this good will have you saying goodbye to leftovers fatigue.
Get the recipe for Crispy Pork Shoulder Hash With Charred Asparagus and Serrano Chili
Crispy Cheese- and Kimchi-Topped Skillet Rice
The magic of a cast iron skillet makes this crispy, cheesy skillet rice possible. Though the recipe was created to use up leftover rice, you can also use freshly cooked rice without altering it at all. The dish incorporates basic staples you likely already have on hand—soy sauce, rice vinegar, gochujang, and kimchi—with various types of cheeses, giving you a gooey, funky option for your next midnight snack.
Get the recipe for Crispy Cheese- and Kimchi-Topped Skillet Rice
Continue to 21 of 24 below.
Pumpkin Skillet Coffee Cake With Streusel Topping
It's not apumpkin cake. It's not a pumpkin muffin. It's not a pumpkin blondie. It's just a pumpkin...thing, and while I'm okay with that, calling it a "coffee cake" is the least confusing option available, because that at least helps convey its heartiness and density, if not its alluring richness and chew.
Another winning feature is its size, as the 10-inch cast iron skillet format yields the perfect amount for sharing with friends and family over brunch or afternoon tea.
Pumpkin Skillet Coffee Cake With Streusel Topping
Easy Skillet Cassoulet
A simple weeknight cassoulet, loaded with sausage, beans, and onion, can be accomplished in about 30 minutes, especially with the help of a sturdy cast iron pan that can go from stovetop to oven to table.
Easy Skillet Cassoulet
Korean-Style Fire Chicken (Buldak) With Cheese
It's a simple dish of chicken (dak) thighs, slathered in a spicy gochujang-spiked glaze and topped off with a layer of gooey, melted cheese. The fire (bul) of buldak starts with its sauce, which uses a number ofKorean pantry staplesto build layers of nuanced heat. This heat is tempered by sweet and savory ingredients, as well as fresh aromatics, to make a sticky, spicy glaze that acts as a marinade as well as a sauce.
Korean-Style Fire Chicken (Buldak) With Cheese
Lemony Broiled Potatoes With Halloumi Cheese
This Greek-style gratin combines thinly sliced potatoes, lemon juice and zest, olive oil, and a layer of halloumi cheese. Everything gets broiled to a golden-brown.
Lemony Broiled Potatoes With Halloumi Cheese