Hero Dinners: Complete One-Pan Meals That Save The Day

In this inspired if somewhat misleading cookbook, husband-and-wife team Perry and Bonom present 100 “hero dinners,” or meals that “practically cook themselves” on a single skillet or a sheet pan. Readers may not be dirtying extra pots or pans for these meals, but they will need a stack of bowls and plates. Smothered pork chops with collards and black pepper grits, for example, require a dredging plate, an ovenproof serving dish, a bowl for cooked vegetables, and a plate for cooked chops before the meal is ready to serve. Sheet pan dinners tend to require additional bowls for seasoning: sweet chili-glazed salmon with sugar snap peas and rice, for example, requires two separate bowls for the sauce and for seasoning the sugar snap peas before all ingredients are roasted. Even so, Perry and Bonom offer spot-on flavor combinations inspired by several cuisines, including Ethiopian berbere chicken stew and Spanish chuck-eye steak with almond-parsley rice. The recipes are certainly flavorful, but the prep required to create these dishes makes this book better suited for weekend cooking than quick weeknight meals. Agent: Sharon Bowers, Miller Bowers Griffin. (Apr.)