---
title: 'Easy & Affordable One-Pot Meals'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=YAA9ccDJjJg'
video_id: 'YAA9ccDJjJg'
date: 2026-06-28
duration_sec: 1004
---

# Easy & Affordable One-Pot Meals

> Source: [Easy & Affordable One-Pot Meals](https://youtube.com/watch?v=YAA9ccDJjJg)

## Summary



## Transcript

Easy onepot meals that don't suck that
you actually want to make that you'll
actually enjoy.
[Music]
Starting off breakfast with a potato and
sausage skillet. And at the heart of it
are Yukon Golds. Don't use a russet. If
you're going to use something different
than Yukon Golds, use like a fingerling
or something. But also don't use a
fingerling because they're like three or
four times the price of Yukon Golds and
it's not worth it. Start by cutting your
potatoes up into small little pieces. It
doesn't really matter how big they are,
but just keep in mind that the bigger
that you cut them, the longer they're
going to take to cook. You really just
want them all the same size so that way
they cook evenly.
And once you have all those cut up, you
just want to go ahead and rinse them
under some cool water a few times cuz as
you can see, that water is still really
starchy and we want to get rid of as
much of that as possible.
And once that water's running clear, go
ahead and strain them and then dry them
off.
The drier you can get the surface, the
better series you'll end up on each and
every potato. And we're just going to
move that back into the bowl.
Then we're just going to hit that with a
little bit of olive oil, some garlic
powder, a little smoked paprika. Oh, too
much smoked paprika. That's fine. It'll
taste the same. It won't, but it'll be
okay. And a little bit of oregano, and
then don't forget to salt. And they're
potatoes, so don't be afraid to salt
heavy because potatoes suck in the salt
and black pepper. And then just give
those a good toss until they're all nice
and evenly coated. And by all means, if
you just want to use a rub or a spice
mix, like do that. Like that's fine. I
use that stuff all the time. I just
today I decided not to. If you do it
yourself, you're just going to have a
little bit more control. But if you have
a spice blend that you really like, just
use that. It'll work.
Your potato should look evenly seasoned.
Now, we're going to cut up half of a
very large yellow onion. You could also
just do like one yellow onion if it was
a reasonable size yellow onion, but mine
was large, uncomfortably large. Then,
we're just going to roughly dice this by
cutting along the grains and then
cutting against the grains like this.
Then, we also have a red bell pepper
that I can't seem to rip the top off of.
Oh, there we go. Yank that bad boy out.
By all means, don't use a red one. Use
whatever color bell pepper you want.
Also, there's a trash can over there. I
don't want you to think I'm just like
dumping it out on the floor like a
madman. That would be ridiculous.
I'm going to pick those up now. And make
sure you cut out most of that inside
membrane. You don't really want that.
And then we're just going to roughly
chop it the same way we did the onion.
And again, it doesn't have to be
perfect. Just roughly the same size. So
that way it all cooks in roughly the
same amount of time. And last but not
least, our pulsa kasa.
Once you have them into cut in little
discs, you can leave them like this. I
prefer to cut them in half because I
think that that way you get a little bit
more. It's a little bit more bite-s
size. It's not so large. In every bite
of a breakfast skillet, you want to make
sure that you're getting even
distribution of everything.
And now for our one pot. I'm using cast
iron enamel. You can use cast iron. You
could use stainless. Don't use
non-stick, but you could use anything
you want. We're going to start by
bringing that up to a medium high heat.
And then while that's heating up, go
ahead and add in your sausage so that
way it slowly renders out all that fat
and you don't have to use anything
excess. Make sure they're nice and
spread so that way there's even coverage
all around. After a few minutes at high
heat and it really starts to sizzle, go
ahead and start moving it around and
make sure you get all the sides nice and
charred up. And after a few minutes and
once you've got that nice char built up,
go ahead and put them back in the bowl
once they came. And now depending on how
fatty of a meat that you just cooked,
you may need to add a little more oil.
So I'm just going to add in a little bit
more oil to make sure that my potatoes
don't stick and they get a nice crust.
All right, now we're just going to push
those all in. Spread them out nice and
even. And then bring your heat down to
medium to let them cook through. Want
your potatoes about 3/4 of the way
through. Make sure you scrape all those
flavor bits off the bottom.
Mine's looking a little dry, so I'm
going to add in a little bit more olive
oil. And then with our onions and
peppers. You might be thinking, man, it
took a really long time to cook your
potatoes. It's true. Potatoes take a
really long time on the stove. So if you
wanted to, you also have the option to
just put the whole thing in the oven,
especially if you're using cast iron.
That works fine. I just like to do that
because in the oven gets the house hot,
then I'm hot and it's not great. I don't
have air conditioning. Make sure those
are nicely mixed and broken up. You
don't want these to cook down too much
because you still want a little bit of
crunch from them since your potatoes
going to be soft and your meat's going
to be soft. And once those have started
to get just a little bit limp, go ahead
and took a bite and check for salt. In
my case, I need a little more salt. And
now that our potatoes are basically
cooked through and our onions and
peppers are almost right where we want
them, sausage. Get that nice and mixed
up. Then we're just going to reduce our
heat down a little bit. Get it nice and
evenly spread. Grate over top a nice
thin layer of melty cheese. Feel free to
use whatever you want. I'm using odo
vera, but really you can just use
whatever you want as long as it's nice
and melty. Now we'll just crack on some
eggs. Carefully placing them around.
Hit those with a little bit of salt. And
then we're just going to cover it and
let it cook just until the whites are
set. And then I totally forgot, but you
may also want to slice up some green
onions to garnish the top.
You don't have to, but the option's
there. And if you're having trouble with
your eggs setting and taking too long,
just pour a little bit of water down the
side just to add a little bit extra
steam.
And after about 4 minutes, your egg
should be nice and set. Oo, cheese
melty. And then garnish the top with
some of those green onions that you
totally remembered to cut up in the
beginning. The breakfast skillet.
[Music]
Next up for lunch, soy glazed chicken
and rice. It's not teriyak chicken. It's
sort of like teriyak chicken, but it's
not. You're going to start off with some
bone in skin on chicken thighs. If
you're really against bone in, skin on,
that's fine. You don't have to use bone
in skin on, but all this skin is flavor.
And that bone right there, it's also
flavor. You don't have to eat the bone,
though, obviously. And even though we're
going bone in, skin on, we're going to
still trim off some of these extra
little bits that we don't necessarily
want to be munching on. Like this little
extra piece of skin, which is totally
edible and you can use and cook with,
but it's just a small little piece that
I don't want to deal with today. Like
this piece right here. We don't want we
don't want that. That's a lot of skin.
It's a lot of fat.
You want them to be nice and uniform and
the skin to go edge to edge. Nothing
more, nothing less. Now, for our
marinade, you can definitely just do it
straight in the bowl, but we're using
sugar, so it's going to be hard to get
it all together and equally mixed up if
we're doing it with the chicken. So,
instead, we're using a different bowl.
Starting off with a good amount of soy,
about 1/4 cup, a few tablespoons of
brown sugar, a splash of mirin, some
grated ginger, and two to four cloves of
grated garlic, depending on how much you
like life. And of course, a bit of salt
and white pepper this time. And be very
gentle with white pepper because it goes
a long way. Then we're just going to mix
this all up until it's nice and evenly
combined. And if you stick your pinky
out, it scientifically works better. And
then once that sugar's mostly dissolved
in there, go ahead and pour that over
your chicken, making sure every single
piece is completely coated. And then
ideally, you would let this marinate in
your fridge overnight, but I'm just
going to give it about an hour. All
right. Now, after a full episode of Love
Island,
>> I have a secret to tell you,
>> Mommy.
>> Deep sauté pan on your stove completely
cold. Now, go ahead and place your
chicken thighs skin side down in your
pan. spread out evenly. Now, you're
going to slowly turn your heat up. I
mean, real slow.
>> Take your time. Work it up to low. Bring
it up to medium. Bring it up to medium
high. You want to give it time for the
fat and the skin to render out. That's
going to be our lubricant on our pan.
Obviously, we didn't put any oil in. So,
if it doesn't render out properly, then
everything's going to stick and
everything's going to be sad. And as
it's starting to heat up, don't be
afraid to move your chicken around so
that way you have even browning on all
sides. Cuz if not, you'll end up with
this. And also, if you're one of those
people who are like, I'm not going to
take it slow. I'm just going to do this
really fast cuz I'm that person. Don't
do it because remember there's fresh
garlic in here. Fresh garlic burns and
gets real gross. So don't do it. After
about 10 minutes on low, you're going to
move it to medium and that's when you're
really going to start to hear that
sizzle.
Then once your chicken is nice and
charred and a little bit sticky, just
like that, go ahead and flip them all
over and let them cook a little bit more
on this side. And don't worry about
cooking them all the way through because
we're actually going to remove them and
then put them back on top of the rice
while that cooks and that'll help steam
and bring them up to temp. And if you
notice that you're smelling char pretty
quickly, turn your heat down a little
bit. odds are you're too high and you're
burning your soy and your garlic and you
don't want that. Remember, this one is a
game of patience. Finally, after about
10 minutes on this side, you're going to
go ahead and just remove them and then
kill your heat. Now, this next part is
dependent on whether or not you actually
burned your garlic. It happens. It's
okay. It's not the end of the world, but
if you did, you're going to want to
rinse out your pan. You're going to want
to get it all cleaned out so that way
you don't have a burnt garlic rice. That
would suck. In my case, I didn't burn
it. So, I'm good to just plow on through
the next step, which is rice. Starting
with two American cups of rice because
there's a difference. If you're using
the rice cooker cups, those are
different. A rice cooker cup is actually
equivalent to like 3/4 American cup.
It's very different and it can mess you
up. So these are two American cups. And
then similar to the potatoes, you're
just going to want to give it a few
rinses to get all the excess starch off
of them. As you can see, that water is
gross and really, really starchy. So
just rinse it. After three or four
rinses and it's mostly clear, you can go
ahead and add it to your pot, making
sure you scrape down the edges because
you don't want to waste any. That would
just be a bummer. And then to that,
you're going to add 2 and 1/4 cup of
clean water. Now, I'm just going to give
that a little mix just to get it all
even and get some of that flavor off the
bottom mixed into the top.
You want your rice mostly even because
if you have a peak in a low spot, then
your rice won't cook evenly. Then, we're
just going to gently place our chicken
back on top, making sure not to disturb
our rice. Well, you're going to disturb
it a little bit. So, just just do your
best to not disturb it more than
necessary. Just like that. Nice and
even. Then, we're just going to offset a
lid and then bring it up to a boil. And
while we wait for this to boil, it feels
like a great time to tell you about my
recent medical diagnosis. found out that
I have plantar fasciitis and I got to
wear these real supportive slippers. So,
if you or someone you know has plantar
fasciitis and have some suggestions as
to not have hurt feet all day, please
tell me, please. And now, once your rice
has started to boil, well, not your
rice, your water. You're going to go
ahead and cover it and reduce your heat
down to low and let this cook untouched
for 15 minutes. No touch. And now that
you've patiently waited that 15 minutes,
you can go ahead and peek under the lid
a little bit. See if there's any water
remaining. In my case, there is. So, I'm
going to go ahead and cover it back up
and let it continue cooking until that
water is completely gone. And the way to
get around all of this babysitting if
you don't want to deal with it is just
buy a rice cooker cuz if you own a rice
cooker, then you could technically
speaking just do this in a rice cooker.
Granted, searing your chicken inside the
rice cooker is not as feasible due to
size constrictions. But, but it can be
done. But I also know the rice cookers
are expensive, so you don't have to have
one. You can just do it in a pan pot.
Well, a tall pan. It's been about
another 6 minutes. We're going to go
ahead and check it. Oh, yeah. Beautiful.
There's no more liquid. The rice is
cooked, but now we need to wait one more
time. Go ahead and kill your heat, cover
it, and just let it sit for another 10
minutes. And if you don't, I'll be very
disappointed in you. But you will. It's
like, there's no no need to worry. And
what kind of meal would it be if I
didn't forget till the very last minute
to cut up some green onions? Are you
happy now that I'm looking at these? Is
that what you wanted? Is that what you
wanted me to do? You wanted me to look
while I was cutting? And now, after
patiently waiting all this time, we can
finally reveal our masterpiece.
Looks pretty good. Cow, that lid is very
hot. Let's try a little bit of that.
It's good. Our chicken perfectly cooked.
Technically speaking, a little bit
overcooked, but that's okay because the
way we cooked it, it should retain a ton
of its moisture. And then we'll top it
off with our green onions. And there you
go. Soy glazed chicken.
[Music]
And finally, to finish it off, a creamy
tomato pasta with shrimp.
with shrimp. Which shrimp? Which shrimp?
It's going to be a good time. Starting
with about a half pound of shrimp.
Peeled and de vained. Mine are neither
peeled nor de vained. So, I'm just going
to have to do that first. You could
arguably leave them on if you want. I
know a lot of people like to do that. In
my experience, if you're going to be
eating them in a pasta, just peel them
and de vain them first. It's not worth
the effort. And by effort, I mean the
effort when you're in the middle of
eating. And for seasoning, we're going
to go super simple here. A little bit of
olive oil, a little garlic powder, a
little cayenne pepper. If you don't like
spicy, don't use cayenne pepper. Use
smoked paprika instead. Same color, not
as spicy. A nice pinch of salt and a few
cranks of pepper. And give that a good
toss just to make sure everything's nice
and coated. And we'll set that to the
side. Now, we're just going to roughly
crush and chop some garlic.
Doesn't have to be big, doesn't have to
be small. You want it rough and you want
it even. It's all that matters. Then
we're going to finally mince half a
shallot. You can also just do one
shallot if it's tiny.
We're just going to carefully slice down
the belly, making sure to watch our
fingertips. Then we're just going to go
lengthwise next to it lengthwise again
and just keep going all the way down.
Then square it up and thinly slice to
get nice tiny dice
like that. And don't stress if you can't
go fast. Take it slow. Now you're just
going to fill your pot with water. I'm
using a sauier because it's a little bit
wider and not as tall. If you have one,
great. If not, you can just use a
regular pot. It's fine. Either way,
bring that up to a boil. And then once
your water starts to boil, add in a
hefty pinch of salt. Add in a second
hefty pinch of salt. Let me give that a
quick stir just to make sure it's all
dissolved. And then add in your pasta,
which if you're looking for good pasta,
look for something with two ingredients:
flour and water. That's it.
And then cook according to your package
directions because they're going to be
different for everybody. Mine 9 minutes.
And now that my timer's up, there's two
ways you can check your pasta. There's a
way that everybody knows, right? You can
you can throw your piece of pasta at the
wall and see if it sticks. That's
boring. What you should do is just eat
it.
It's just a much more effective way to
know if your pasta is done. Mine's done.
I need to remove it now. I'm just going
to go ahead and remove it from the
water. Now you can dump the water.
And really quickly before we move on to
the shrimp, go ahead and toss your pasta
with just the lightest amount of olive
oil. Like seriously, super light. You
just don't want it to stick to itself,
but you also don't want so much that the
sauce doesn't stick to it. Now bring
your pot back up to about mediumigh
heat. Drizzle a little bit of olive oil
and then drop in your shrimp. Want to
make sure they're all evenly spread out
so there's nice and even coverage. And
then just let them sit. Cook on that
first side. Once they've started to curl
a little bit, you're going to want to
flip them all over. Some of these have
started to curl. So, I'm just going to
go ahead and flip them. You don't need
too hard of a sear on these. Look at
that color. That's what you want. It's
not too much. It's not too little. It's
just enough to make you say, "I'm going
to eat that." And once those all have
some nice color and a little bit of
curl, go ahead and remove. All right.
We're going to reduce our heat down to
medium low and drop in a whole stick of
KY Gold unsalted butter. You want
unsalted because you want to be able to
control the amount of salt you're using.
If you're not using unsalted,
it's okay. I mean, you just have less
control over the salt content, but
whatever you want to do, whatever. Don't
yell at me. Give that butter a good mix.
Make sure you get all that butter
melted, all that flavor inside your pot
from the shrimp. And then once you've
got a nice layer of melted butter, you
can add in your garlic and shallots. You
just want to sweat these out. You don't
want them to burn. You just want to get
that flavor going. You want you want
want it to be nice and aromatic, not
burn. And once that butter is melted,
make sure you keep all of it moving. You
just want the flavors to come out. Be
nice and gentle. Even turn that heat
down a little bit cuz I had mine too
hot, but yours was probably set
correctly. We got a little bit of color.
That butter is getting a little bit
brown.
Just like that. That's what you want.
And now we're going to add in our heavy
cream. I'm adding about two cups to
this. And I'm just going to mix this up.
Get it all nice and incorporated. And
you see all those little speckles, all
those little dots. That's all flavor
that's building into our sauce. Totally
crowd tomato paste. You should have
added this in before you add your cream
cuz you want to toast it off, but that's
okay. We're adding it now.
Try a tablespoon of that. It's totally
okay. Mistakes happen. You know what?
Still going to taste good. Get that
tomato paste broken up cuz you don't
want like a chunk of tomato paste in
your sauce. That would suck. Once you've
got that tomato paste all incorporated,
you're just going to let it come up to a
simmer nice and easy. And make sure you
keep it moving because you don't want
any of it to burn right in the center.
In my case, all my heat comes from the
center, so I need to make sure it stays
moving. And then after it's simmered for
a while and thickened up, turn it down
just a hair. Then grate in some fresh
parameo.
And this part is like Olive Garden. I
can tell you exactly how much I put into
it, but realistically speaking, you can
add however much you want. You're an
adult. You do you.
Then just fold all that cheese in. Mix
it all together until it's nicely melted
and incorporated. And this is a good
time to go ahead and taste it to make
sure your salt is good. Mine is not. I
need more salt, which makes sense
because I didn't salt it earlier is what
it is. You should be salting as you
cook, but sometimes your ADHD takes over
and you just forget. Much better. M. So
much good. So much good. And now that
that sauce is right where you want it,
I'm going to go ahead and toss in a
couple of these sundried tomatoes
because I think they'll add a nice
little pop. And now that those are all
nicely mixed in, go ahead and add back
in your pasta.
Go ahead and fold it all together.
And then because you want to plate it
real nice, you're going to go ahead and
move it over to a cleaner pot. So
technically speaking, it's no longer a
one pot meal, but that's okay because
I'm the one who's doing the dishes and
not you. And then I know I said we're
going to mix them in before, but I
really want to just put them right on
top or shrimp. And then we'll finish it
off with another round of freshly grated
parmesano vegano creamy tomato pasta
with shrimp.
And this, my friends, is arguably the
easiest and the most rewarding of
anything we made all day.
Oh yeah.
And with that, I say thank you so much
for liking, subscribing, and hitting
that bell. I appreciate every single one
of you, and I will see you next week.