These 12 Weeknight Summer Skillet Dinners Are No Sweat

Chicken with bulgar in a skillet, garnished with lemon and chives, with pale yellow plates on the side — Serious Eats / Two Bits

Aside from my air-fryer, the one piece of equipment that probably gets the most use in my kitchen these days is my skillet. I don't have a dishwasher and I hate doing dishes, particularly on a weeknight, so one-skillet dinners are my jam. With so much fresh peak-season produce available, it's shockingly easy to pull meals together in my hand-dandy skillet without ever feeling like I'm sacrificing anything for the sake of convenience.

It's all about thoughtfully building flavor, and nowhere is this more evident than in the following 12 summertime skillet dinner recipes. They include juicy pan-fried pork chops, chicken breasts, seared steaks, spicy saucy shrimp, tender salmon and swordfish, and even a speedy spin on a Greek classic. Rest assured, you won't be putting away your skillet anytime soon!

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Eggs in Purgatory

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

This super-easy Southern Italian dish is perfect for those nights when you just want "breakfast for dinner." Serve it with plenty of crusty bread to sop up every last bit of spicy tomato sauce and luxuriously runny poached eggs. You can even make the tomato sauce ahead and refrigerate it for up to three days or freeze it for up to three months.

One-Skillet Eggs in Purgatory
Shrimp With Cilantro Sauce

Serious Eats / Larisa Niedle

This dish of snappy, plump shrimp bathed in a spicy green chutney takes minimal hands-on prep and comes together quickly in one pan with the help of a high-powered blender to process fresh cilantro, chiles, garlic, lime juice, and salt into a smooth paste. Serve the shrimp with leftover rice (or microwave-steam a fresh batch ) or with flatbread on the side to soak up the spicy sauce.

Shrimp With Cilantro Sauce
Cà Chua Nhồi Thịt (Vietnamese Pork-Stuffed Tomatoes)

Serious Eats/ Vy Tran

This classic Vietnamese stuffed vegetable dish is like a savory, tangy, sweet love note to summer, when tomatoes are at their peak. The filling is made with ground pork, wood ear mushroom, scallions, and finely chopped shallots and garlic. For a deeper flavor, the stuffed tomatoes are seared meat-side down to create a more flavorful crust, then gently simmered in a quick tomato sauce flavored with fish sauce.

Cà Chua Nhồi Thịt (Vietnamese Pork-Stuffed Tomatoes)
Chicken With Warm Bulgur Pilaf and Tomatoes

Serious Eats / Two Bits

This six-ingredient weeknight skillet dinner of tender chicken breasts and warm bulgur pilaf studded with blistered tomatoes, fragrant scallions, briny olives, and creamy feta cheese comes together in under 20 minutes. Starting the chicken breasts in a cold pan keeps the meat juicy, while flipping them every couple of minutes ensures even cooking and browning. The residual pan fond, in turn, builds flavor in the pilaf.

Chicken With Warm Bulgur Pilaf and Tomatoes

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Strawberry Pork Chops With Spinach Salad

Serious Eats/ Maureen Celestine

Summer strawberries provide an unexpected yet utterly delightful counterpoint for juicy seared thick-cut pork chops and wilted spinach salad in this satisfying weeknight supper, which comes together in just 30 minutes. As the cooked pork chops rest, chopped strawberries and shallots are sautéed in the skillet and deglazed with a splash of balsamic. Some of the still-warm, savory-sweet-tangy berry sauce then serves as the vinaigrette base for the salad.

Strawberry Pork Chops With Spinach Salad
Agghiotta di Pesce Spada (Sicilian Braised Swordfish With Tomatoes and Olives)

[Image: Vicky Wasik].
Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

For our take on this Sicilian dish of swordfish braised in a sweet and tangy tomato sauce and olives, we opt for thick-cut steaks to avoid drying out the fish. Dredging them in flour and pan-frying them mostly on one side also lets the fish brown and develop more flavor without overcooking. Sautéed onions and fresh tomatoes provide the fruity notes, while a little red wine vinegar adds acidity, and capers and olives offer pops of brininess.

Agghiotta di Pesce Spada (Sicilian Braised Swordfish With Tomatoes and Olives)
Broiled Tandoori-Style Chicken With Almonds and Couscous

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

For this easy one-skillet riff on traditional clay-oven tandoori, chunks of dark-meat chicken are marinated in a mixture of yogurt and spices, then broiled with the marinade until browned and tender. The residual cooking liquid is then used to steam couscous, adding an extra dose of flavor. Dates and almonds round out the dish.

Broiled Tandoori-Style Chicken With Almonds and Couscous
Broiled Clams With Tomatoes, Butter, and Tarragon

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

While it probably takes longer to purge sand from the clams than to prep and cook them, the blast of intense heat from the broiler more than makes up for the time by turning a few simple fresh ingredients into a spectacular one-skillet meal in minutes. Be sure to have plenty of crusty bread on hand to soak up all that buttery, tomatoey, tarragon-infused clam liquor.

Broiled Clams With Tomatoes, Butter, and Tarragon

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One-Skillet Salmon With Curried Leeks and Yogurt-Herb Sauce

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Nothing is sacrificed for the sake of convenience in this strategically executed one-skillet meal. First, sear the salmon, then sauté the leeks and place the salmon on top of the leeks and finish in the oven. And while the salmon's in the oven, whip up a creamy yogurt dressing with minced cucumber, garlic, and herbs.

One-Skillet Salmon With Curried Leeks and Yogurt-Herb Sauce
Pan-Seared Flank Steak With Peaches and Dandelion Greens

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Ready in about 20 minutes, this deliciously satisfying supper is loaded with bold, fresh flavors from the caramelized peaches, bitter dandelion greens, lemon juice, and Calabrian chiles. The steak gets a hard sear, then are set aside to rest while the peaches and dandelion are cooked in the same pan, turning the fond and pan drippings into a spicy, tart, and sweet sauce that perfectly complements the juicy steak.

Pan-Seared Flank Steak With Peaches and Dandelion Greens
Creamy Garlic-Chicken Spanakopita Skillet

Serious Eats / Morgan Eisenberg

What do you get when you cross chicken pot pie with spanakopita? This clever spin on the Greek classic does away with the mess and fuss of building sheets of phyllo dough to layer with filling. Instead, start with wilted and drained spinach, chicken pieces browned in butter, and a rich roux-based sauce made with the pan drippings, adding feta, dill, and scallions. Don't worry if the phyllo sheets crack or split—they get scrunched up to cover the filling, and bake up beautifully golden and crisp.

Creamy Garlic-Chicken Spanakopita Skillet
Vietnamese-Style Chicken Meatballs With Ginger and Mint

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

Who doesn't love a meal that's quick, easy, and inexpensive to throw together? To make these flavor-packed meatballs, sweat the aromatics to remove excess water and concentrate the flavors before mixing them into the ground chicken to form the meatballs. Pan-fry the meatballs in two stages—first on medium to cook the chicken through, later on high to caramelize the exterior. Then, all that's left to do is set out some lettuce leaves and your favorite condiments and pickles, and dinner is served.

Vietnamese-Style Chicken Meatballs With Ginger and Mint