It’s October! You know what that means…it’s one-pot recipe time! Chilis, pasta, soup, stews, you name it! This dish was made with seared bone-in chicken thighs, then a sauce made from the leftover bits, grape tomatoes that were simmered to appear burst, and zucchini, boiled with spaghetti in the same pot.
I love one-pot recipes. It’s convenient, easy to make, and simple. One-pot recipes are great for a busy week and you need to make dinner fast, or if you have last-minute guests and need to make something. This is so flavorful and creamy, that you don’t even need to put any more sauce on it. This starts with a Dutch oven and some skin-on chicken thighs, seared to perfection and baked to temperature. You know those browned bits and fat leftover when you sear chicken or beef? You don’t want to throw that out! Make a sauce out of it, or in this case, get some veggies and pick up those bits.
One Pot Wonders
- It’s convenient and easy! Less dishes are always better, right? Right! Anything can be a one pot dish. Mac and cheese, pasta, rice, even casseroles! You can go complex, flavorful, simple, easy, etc. All it requires is one pot/Dutch oven/slow cooker and all of the ingredients you want to use.
- There’s tons of inspiration for one pot recipes! Whether its a cookbook, an online recipe (such as this great one right at the bottom of this post) or just from looking in your pantry and fridge, there’s thousands, maybe millions of one pot recipes out there. With proteins ranging from lean to hearty, noodles to rice, or even liquids that you can use such as milk, cream, broth, even premade soups or liquid cheese! (yes, such as premade nacho cheese). Just type “one pot recipes” on your search engine, and watch the results roll in!
- When cooking one pot dishes, you can use a 3-quart deep skillet or you can use any pot or Dutch oven that has a wide bottom and a lid. Make sure to use a burner on your stovetop that is similar in size to the bottom of your pot or skillet to ensure even heating.
One Pot Pasta Cooking Facts
- Stir every few minutes to keep the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pot.
- Make sure the pasta is simmering the whole time. If the liquid is not simmering, the pasta will not cook. In order to keep this simmering, it’ll depend on the temperature which will depend on the stovetop you have and how high the heat is. Electric stoves are picky when it comes to this, but if you know your stove, this won’t be at issue.
- Use heavy cookware, such as a Dutch oven. Skillets and pots that are thin on the bottom don’t heat evenly and aren’t great at giving good results with one pot pastas. Some areas of the pot will be simmering, while other areas are not.
- Keep the lid in place at all times when not stirring. This holds in the steam and helps the pasta cook more evenly.
- Watch the pasta. One pot pastas are kind of like a new job. You have to observe and adjust as you go. If the liquid is almost all absorbed before the pasta is tender, add a little more water. If the pasta is almost tender, but there is still a lot of liquid, allow it to simmer without a lid for the last couple of minutes.
Want the recipe? Click print below! Let me know how it came out for you by tagging me on Instagram (@missravenskitchen) and using #missravenskitchen! Let me know if I need to tweak anything.
One-Pot Burst Tomato and Zucchini Spaghetti with Chicken Thighs
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 6 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs
- 2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 shallot, finely diced
- 1 medium zucchini, cut in half then into oblique slices
- 1 (10 oz) nature sweet twilight grape tomatoes (1*), cut lengthwise in half
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- Salt and ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tbsp fresh chopped basil
- 3/4 cup dry white wine
- 5 cups chicken broth (*2)
- 1 1/2 lb spaghetti
- Fresh chopped parsley, to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375.
- In a Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and butter on medium-high heat. Season chicken thighs with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Place the chicken thighs skin side down into the dutch oven to sear the skin, then flip once the skin is golden brown, 5 minutes per side. Remove from the dutch oven and place onto a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until internal temp is 160F. Let it rest, covered.
- In the meantime, in the dutch oven on medium heat, add the shallots and cook for 1 minute, then add the zucchini, tomatoes, garlic, and season with salt and pepper, being sure to scrape up the brown bits. Stir often and cook, covered for 15 minutes or until the tomatoes appear to be burst and the zucchini is soft. Add the basil and stir.
- Add the white wine. Simmer to cook the alcohol out and so the wine reduces. Add the chicken broth and spaghetti, then increase to medium-high and allow to simmer until the spaghetti is cooked and liquid is reduced significantly about 10 minutes. Be sure to stir often so the spaghetti does not stick and to ensure it is fully in the liquid to cook through.
- During the last 2 minutes of cooking, add the chicken thighs on top of the pasta and the juices that accumulated with it, then cover and allow to cook until the internal temperature of the thighs reaches 165F.
- Serve immediately, and garnish with fresh parsley.
Notes:
(*1) You can use regular grape tomatoes, I just chose these because they’re more robust in flavor.
(*2) If the liquid is almost all absorbed before the pasta is tender, add a little more broth. If the pasta is almost tender, but there is still a lot of liquid, allow it to simmer without a lid for the last couple of minutes.
Nutrition Facts
Calories
307.02Fat (grams)
8.46Sat. Fat (grams)
2.61Carbs (grams)
39.52Fiber (grams)
2.23Net carbs
37.29Sugar (grams)
3.66Protein (grams)
13.36Sodium (milligrams)
832.98Cholesterol (grams)
36.97
Miss Raven's Kitchen 
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