20 Skillet Dinners You Can Make in 20 Minutes or Less
These quick, one-pan dinners come together so fast, you'll hardly believe it. And since these tasty mains can be made in just one skillet, you'll be able to tidy up after dinner in just a few minutes. From a spicy chicken dinner to a cozy vegan curry, these dishes have something to offer everyone. Recipes like our One-Skillet Bourbon Chicken and Skillet Ravioli Lasagna will soon be favorites at your dinner table.
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One-Skillet Bourbon Chicken
Coating the chicken in cornstarch might seem like an extra step, but the reward is twofold: it gives the chicken a crispy exterior and also thickens the sauce. Legend has it that bourbon chicken was originally named after Bourbon Street in New Orleans; it can often be found on menus at Chinese American restaurants.
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Skillet Ravioli Lasagna
This easy inside-out ravioli lasagna is the ultimate weeknight comfort food--no layering or mixing bowls required. Feel free to swap in ground turkey for the beef. Look for fresh mozzarella balls (also called "pearls") in the specialty cheese section of your grocery store.
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Skillet Buffalo Chicken
If you like Buffalo wings, you'll love this quick skillet Buffalo chicken recipe. Chicken cutlets are sautéed, then smothered in a creamy-spicy sauce. A side-salad garnish of carrots, celery and blue cheese pulls it all together.
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Skillet Pork Chops with Peas, Carrots & Pearl Onions
This superfast one-dish dinner is full of classic flavor and is such a crowd pleaser that you'll want to work it into your regular weeknight dinner rotation. We call for bone-in pork chops to maximize flavor, but boneless pork chops are a fine substitution. To round out this meal a little more, serve with rice or mashed potatoes.
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20-Minute Creamy Tomato Salmon Skillet
Salmon fillets cook quickly and are coated with a delicious creamy sauce made with tomatoes, zucchini and Italian seasoning. This easy salmon dinner is sure to become a new weeknight favorite the whole family will love. The best news: you can get this meal on the table in 20 minutes flat.
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Black Bean Fajita Skillet
You can often find presliced and ready-to-cook fresh vegetables in your grocer's produce section. Use these to your advantage to cut down on dinnertime prep. Here, presliced fajita vegetables are sautéed with canned black beans and Southwest seasoning for a quick and easy Tex Mex-inspired meal. Plus, this recipe requires just three ingredients, not including basics like salt, pepper and oil. You can easily take your bowl up a notch by adding some cheese, sour cream or another tasty topping.
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20-Minute Creamy Italian Chicken Skillet
Chicken cutlets cook quickly and are highlighted with a creamy sauce made with tomatoes, zucchini and Italian seasoning. This recipe is sure to become a new weeknight favorite the whole family will love. Serve it with whole-wheat pasta or rice to make it a meal.
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Chicken Sausage & Spinach Skillet Pasta with Lemon & Parmesan
This one-pan pasta combines tasty chicken sausage and sautéed spinach for a one-bowl meal that's garlicky, lemony and best served with a little Parm on top. It's a quick and easy weeknight dinner everyone is sure to love. This recipe is a variation on our Chicken & Spinach Skillet Pasta with Lemon & Parmesan, which is a super-popular recipe developed by Devon O'Brien.
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Creamy Chipotle Skillet Chicken Thighs
Smoky chipotle is the star of this one-skillet chicken thigh recipe. Great for weeknight dinners, this can be on the table in under 30 minutes. Serve with tortillas or over rice or low-carb cauliflower rice with a simple cabbage slaw.
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One-Pan Chicken with Basil-Anchovy Butter & Shishito Peppers
Don't skip the anchovies in this healthy chicken thigh recipe. Their fishiness blends in, adding salty, umami flavor, so that even skeptics of the salty little fish won't protest. And this healthy skillet dinner is cooked in one pan and takes just 20 minutes to prep--in case you need more selling points for this recipe.
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Scallops & Cherry Tomatoes with Caper-Butter Sauce
These pan-seared scallops come together in just 20 minutes for a delicious, easy dinner. You'll want some whole-wheat angel hair pasta or polenta to sop up all the rich, briny sauce.
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Vegan Coconut Chickpea Curry
To make this 20-minute vegan curry even faster, buy precut veggies from the salad bar at the grocery store. To make it a full, satisfying dinner, serve over cooked brown rice. When shopping for simmer sauce, look for one with 400 mg of sodium or less and check the ingredient list for cream or fish sauce if you want to keep this vegan. If you like a spicy kick, add a few dashes of your favorite hot sauce at the end.
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Lemony Chicken and Green Beans
Lightly breaded chicken and green beans are flavored with a scrumptious lemon-caper sauce in this quick 20-minute main dish recipe.
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One-Pot Greek Pasta
A little bit of Sunday meal prep goes a long way in this one-dish Mediterranean pasta recipe. The pasta is cooked ahead of time and stored in the fridge to use for meals all week, but any leftover cooked pasta you have on hand will do. Chicken sausage with feta is especially good in this recipe.
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Mozzarella, Basil & Zucchini Frittata
This vegetable-studded frittata recipe is one of the quickest meals you can make. Make it for breakfast, or serve for lunch or dinner with a tossed salad and a slice of olive oil-drizzled crusty baguette.
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Chicken Cutlets with Creamy Spinach & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce
Serve these saucy, ultra-quick chicken cutlets over your favorite pasta. This easy dinner recipe is sure to become a new weeknight favorite.
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White Bean-Sage Cauliflower Gnocchi
Turn lower-carb cauliflower gnocchi into a complete and satisfying meal with this riff on classic brown butter and sage gnocchi. We added beans to amp up the fiber and protein for a fast and healthy dinner.
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Lemon-Garlic Pasta with Salmon
Wondering what to do with leftover salmon? This is a delicious and easy way to turn it into another weeknight-friendly, quick dinner. Don't forget to reserve some pasta water--its starch thickens the lemon-garlic pasta sauce and makes it silky-smooth.
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20-Minute Balsamic Mushroom & Spinach Pasta
This 20-minute veggie pasta dish is super savory, thanks to meaty mushrooms, while the natural sweetness from the balsamic vinegar, basil and pistachios brighten up this quick, healthy vegetarian dinner.
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Spinach-Artichoke-Sausage Cauliflower Gnocchi
Hearty and piquant, this quick cauliflower gnocchi dinner incorporates several healthy convenience ingredients, including turkey sausage and tender artichoke hearts, so dinner is on your table fast.