It goes without saying that recipes are our bread and butter. But sometimes you just need to make dinner with what you have on hand—and you don’t always need a recipe to do it. Culinary producer Nicole McLaughlin, who cooks daily without a recipe, shared her favorite “dinner formulas” for busy weeknights in a recent video. Read on to find her tried-and-true methods.
The One-Pot Method
“If you have followed me for any length of time, you know that this is my absolute favorite way to cook,” Nicole says of one-pot cooking. “This is how you get dinner on the table in a short amount of time.”
Cream of Anything Casserole
All you need to make a “cream of anything” soup is fat, flavorings, flour, and liquid—no cans required. Once you have your soup, you’ll have endless casserole options.
Sheet Pan Dinners
Sheet pan dinners are easy to throw together on a dime and make cleanup a breeze. What’s not to love? This foolproof method is almost impossible to mess up.
Pan Roasting and Sauce
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“I learned this method when I worked in a restaurant and it is the best way to get maximum flavor using the most basic of ingredients,” according to Nicole. Caramelizing and deglazing a piece of meat results in a built-in sauce with tons of flavor.
One-Pot Pasta Dinners
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One-pot pasta dinners are as easy as it gets. Just throw everything in a pot and cook—there’s no need to get out a separate pot for boiling.