10 Easy Meat & Potato Dinners

This bag of potatoes is already growing little arms. Peeling is what stopped me. My knuckles ache all night. So the peeler goes in the drawer and the cutting board stays in the cupboard. These canned potatoes are already cooked, so they bake up crisp in half the time. And this freezer bag goes straight onto the pan. 10 meat and potato suppers for two, all on one pan. Stay for number 10. You will hear it crackle before you taste it. Grab a glass and let's go. 1. Garlic Butter Steak Bites and Smashed Potatoes A steakhouse plate and the potatoes come out of a can. You press each one flat with the bottom of a glass, and the edges turn crisp and brown. Pick up one 15-ounce can of whole potatoes, half a pound of sirloin steak tips, 2 spoons of butter, 1 good spoon of garlic from the jar, a little smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Grab a small sheet pan, about 9 by 13, and lay a sheet of parchment paper on it so you never have to scrub it. Drain the potatoes in a colander and give them a quick rinse under cold water. That washes off the starchy water from the can so they taste like potatoes and not like tin. Pat them dry with a paper towel. Set them on the pan and push each one down with the bottom of a glass until it cracks open. Brush them with a little oil, salt them, shake on the smoked paprika, and roast them 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Melt the butter with the garlic in your coffee cup. Salt and pepper the steak, pile it in the middle of the pan, pour that garlic butter right over it, and slide it back in for 8 minutes. That smoked paprika is the one thing people ask about. It makes a potato out of a can taste like it came off a charcoal grill. And do not skip that paper towel. A wet potato just steams in the oven, and a dry one gets a crust. Those potatoes are already cooked all the way through, so the oven only has one job left. When you pull that pan out, the butter is still popping, the steak is brown outside and pink in the middle, and the potato edges crackle under your fork. Spoon that garlic butter over everything, and you have got a Saturday night steak dinner on a Tuesday. Now put the butter away, because the next pan gets all its flavor from one little paper packet. 2. Ranch Pork Chops and Potato Wedges One little paper packet seasons the whole pan. It goes on the chops and on the potatoes, and the supper tastes like it was planned. For this one, grab two thin boneless pork chops, two big handfuls of frozen potato wedges, one packet of dry ranch seasoning, and a little oil. Spread the frozen wedges over your pan, right out of the bag. Drizzle them with oil and sprinkle on half of the ranch. Roast them 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Push the wedges out to the edges, lay the chops in the middle, rub the rest of the ranch into the meat, and bake 10 minutes more. When you open that oven door, the ranch has gone toasty on the wedges and the chops are sizzling in the middle of the pan, Golden on top and white all the way through. Buy those chops thin on purpose. A thin chop is done in 10 minutes, right when the wedges turn crisp, so nothing on that pan waits for anything else. Leave a thin chop in longer and you are eating cardboard. That packet has buttermilk, dill, garlic, and onion in it, and I am not opening four jars and measuring a pinch of each on a weeknight. You will find it next to the salad dressing. A little bottled ranch on the side for dipping those wedges, and you will have this in the oven before the evening news is over. Got a jar of mayonnaise in your refrigerator door? Then you have already got the secret to the juiciest chicken you will make all year. Number three, Parmesan chicken with sliced potatoes. People do not believe me when I tell them what is on this chicken. It is mayonnaise and parmesan, stirred together and spread on top. In the oven, that mayonnaise keeps the meat juicy and the cheese bakes into a golden crust. All it takes is two boneless chicken thighs, one 15-ounce can of sliced potatoes, three spoons of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of grated parmesan from the shaker, a little garlic powder, and a big pinch of dried oregano. Drain the sliced potatoes, pat them dry, and lay them in two rows along the sides of your pan, overlapping like shingles on a roof. Salt them and bake them 15 minutes at 400 degrees. Stir the mayonnaise, the parmesan, the garlic powder, and the oregano together in a coffee cup. Smell that cup, and it smells like a pizzeria. Set the two thighs in the open space between those rows of potatoes, spread that mixture over the top of the chicken, and bake 25 minutes more until the top is golden and puffed. Leave it on the pan for two minutes before you cut in. That crust settles, and the juice stays in the chicken instead of running out onto the pan. Keep the chicken off the potatoes. Those thighs let go of a lot of juice, and right underneath them, a potato goes soggy. Set side by side, the potatoes brown at the edges and still catch a little of that juice where it runs. You will not taste mayonnaise. You will taste cheese and garlic and chicken that is still moist after half an hour in a hot oven. The top comes out the color of a toasted marshmallow. Thighs forgive you more than breasts do, so buy the thighs. They stay tender and they taste the way chicken is supposed to taste. Now a thick slice of ham and a sweet glaze you stir together in a clean coffee cup in 10 seconds flat. 4. Brown Sugar Ham Steak and Potatoes O'Brien A ham steak is already cooked, and that is why it belongs on a lazy night. All you are doing is making it hot and shiny. For this one, grab one fully cooked ham steak, about a pound, three cups of frozen potatoes O'Brien, the kind with the red and green peppers already in the bag, two spoons of brown sugar, a spoon of mustard, and a pinch of ground cloves. Spread the frozen potatoes on your pan with a spoon of oil and roast them 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Stir the brown sugar, the mustard, and that pinch of cloves together in your cup. Just a pinch. Cloves are what make a ham smell like a holiday ham, and a little goes a very long way. Push the potatoes out toward the edges, lay the ham steak in the middle, brush it with that glaze, and bake 12 minutes more until the edges darken and the glaze bubbles. You will smell it before the timer goes off, that sweet, smoky smell of a ham coming out of the oven, and it fills the whole kitchen. Brown sugar and mustard is the whole recipe for a holiday ham, just smaller. The sugar catches a little at the edges, and those dark bits are the best part. The potatoes around the ham pick up some of that sweet glaze where it drips off the side. Those peppers in the bag give you a vegetable without washing a single one, and the little bits of onion go sweet and brown in the oven. Cut the ham in half and you have got two suppers, or one supper and a ham sandwich for lunch tomorrow. From a ham that is already cooked to a supper every diner in the country keeps on the menu, made small enough for two. 5. Mini Meat Loaves with Tater Tots A whole meat loaf takes an hour and a loaf pan. Shape the same meat into two little loaves right on your sheet pan, and they are done in 25 minutes, with a sticky red top and a crusty edge all the way around. Pick up three quarters of a pound of ground beef, one egg, a sleeve of saltine crackers, one packet of dry onion soup mix, a bottle of ketchup, and two big handfuls of frozen tater tots. Crush about 12 saltines right inside the sleeve with your fist, before you even open it. Crack the egg into a bowl, add the crackers, half the onion soup mix, and a big spoon of ketchup, and stir it with a fork. Put the beef in and mix it with your hands just until it comes together. Shape two little loaves, each about the size of your palm, and set them in the middle of your pan. Tumble the frozen tater tots all around them, right out of the bag, with a little oil. Spread a good spoon of ketchup over the top of each loaf and bake 25 minutes at 400 degrees, until that ketchup goes dark and sticky at the edges. That onion soup mix is the trick. The dried onion, the salt, and that deep, beefy flavor all come in one little packet, so you never chop an onion or open five jars. Fold the other half of the packet shut and it waits in the cupboard for next time. And go easy with your hands. Squeeze that beef too hard and the loaf comes out tight and tough. Mix it just until it holds. Two small loaves instead of one big one means every slice has a crusty edge. And that sweet ketchup top is the part everybody reaches for first. The tater tots crisp up right next to the loaves, in a little of the beef drippings. Cut into one with the side of your fork and you will see it is soft inside and still holds together on the plate. Now let us take a famous sandwich and trade the bread roll for crispy potatoes. Number 6. Philly cheesesteak on hash brown patties. Here is the trade. You take the long roll away and you put a crispy hash brown patty in its place. All of that beef and pepper and melted cheese sitting on a little golden potato raft. Pick up four frozen hash brown patties, half a pound of thin sliced roast beef from the deli counter, one cup of frozen pepper and onion strips, a little oil, four slices of provolone, and a spoon of Worcestershire sauce. Set the hash brown patties on your pan and bake them 10 minutes at 425 degrees. Turn them over, scatter the frozen peppers around them with a little oil, and bake 10 minutes more. Put those peppers in at the start and they water the bottoms of the patties and burn at the edges. Toss the roast beef with the Worcestershire and pile it on each patty with the peppers and onions. Lay a slice of provolone over each one, tucking the beef under the cheese like a blanket so the edges do not dry out, and slide it back in for five minutes until the cheese melts down over the sides. The bottoms of those patties should be good and crunchy by now, and when the provolone starts to slide off the beef and onto the pan, take it out. The deli does the hard part. That beef is already cooked and sliced paper thin, And all your oven has to do is warm it and melt the cheese. Ask the deli for half a pound, sliced as thin as they can get it. Plain roast beef is all you want. Nothing peppered or herbed, because the cheese and the onions bring the flavor. That splash of Worcestershire is what makes it taste like a sandwich shop on a Philadelphia street corner, and not a cold cut. Pick one up with your fork and your fingers, and that patty holds together right to the last bite. Stay right there, because the next pan turns a bag of shredded potatoes into one big golden crust. Number seven, lemon pepper chicken and crispy hash browns. The bottom half of this pan turns into one big golden potato pancake, and you slide the chicken right on top of it when you serve. You want two boneless chicken thighs, half a bag of shredded hash browns from the refrigerated case right by the eggs, about two big cups, Two spoons of butter and a jar of lemon pepper seasoning. Put the butter on one half of your pan and set it in the oven while it heats until the butter melts. Shake lemon pepper all over the chicken and lay the thighs on the other half of the pan. Tumble the hash browns right into that melted butter. Toss them once so every strand gets coated and press them down into one thin tight layer with your spatula. Bake it all 25 minutes at 425 degrees until the potatoes are brown at the edges and the chicken is golden. Do not stir those hash browns and do not poke at them. Leave them alone and the butter underneath does all the work. Buy the hash browns from the refrigerated case, not the freezer. Frozen ones are full of ice and ice turns to water. These are dry and dry potatoes pressed Pressed into hot butter, fry instead of steam. Fold the top of that bag over, clip it shut, and the other half waits in your refrigerator for breakfast on Saturday. Lemon pepper is one of those jars people forget they own, and it is the best thing in the spice rack for chicken. Bright and salty, and a plain thigh tastes like you worked at it. Cut that potato crust into squares with the edge of your spatula, lift each one off the pan and lay a piece of chicken on top. You hear the crust crack when your fork goes in. Two minutes of work for the next one and it comes out like a basket from the county fair. Number eight, barbecue meatballs and crinkle fries. Those paper baskets at the county fair with the crinkle fries spilling out the side and a pile of sticky barbecue on top. That is what this is and it all happens on your sheet pan. Pick up 12 frozen fully cooked meatballs, the plain homestyle kind. Two big handfuls of frozen crinkle-cut fries, half a cup of your favorite barbecue sauce, a little oil, and a pinch of chili powder. Spread the fries over one side of your pan, right out of the bag, and drizzle them with a little oil. Set the frozen meatballs on the other side, close together in one little bunch. Roast it all 20 minutes at 425 degrees, and give the fries one stir halfway. Stir that pinch of chili powder into the barbecue sauce in your coffee cup. Pour the sauce over the meatballs right there on the pan, roll them around with a spoon until every one is coated, and slide it back in for six minutes until the sauce turns sticky and shiny. Keep those meatballs together in one bunch. Spread out across the pan, the sauce runs thin onto the hot pan and burns. Huddled together, it stays on the meat and cooks down into a glaze. That pinch of chili powder is what people notice. It does not make it hot. It gives a sweet bottled sauce a little warmth at the back, like it came off a smoker at a church picnic. Those meatballs are already cooked all the way through, so the oven only has to heat them and thicken that sauce. Spear a meatball with your fork, drag a crinkle fry through the sauce on the pan, and eat it right off the pan. Now a diner breakfast plate before the big finish, because this one makes an even better supper. Number nine, corned beef hash and eggs. Crispy potatoes, salty corned beef, and two eggs baked right into the middle. Every diner in America has this on the menu, and most of them open the very same can you are about to open. You want one 12-ounce can of corned beef, three cups of frozen diced potatoes, the kind with the little onions already in, two spoons of butter, two eggs, and a little paprika. Spread the frozen potatoes on your pan with the butter and roast them 20 minutes at 425 degrees until they start to brown. Break up the corned beef with a fork and stir it right into the hot potatoes. Push the hash into two tight little mounds and press a deep hollow into the top of each one with the back of a spoon. Crack an egg into each hollow and bake about eight minutes until the whites are set and the yolks still shine. Dust the eggs with a little paprika when they come out. Red on white and suddenly it looks like the plate a diner waitress sets down in front of you. The potatoes get their head start for a reason. Put the corned beef in at the beginning and it dries out into salty crumbs. Stir it in at the end and it warms through with the eggs and stays tender. When you break that yolk with your fork it runs right down into the crispy potatoes and that is the bite you have been waiting for. A shake of hot sauce never hurt this one. And you can eat it straight off the pan. Now, the one I promised you at the very start. Number 10. Sunday Chicken with Crispy Potatoes. A whole chicken leg, the thigh and the drumstick still together, with skin so crisp it crackles when you tap it. Potatoes gone golden in the chicken drippings. It is the supper people make on a Sunday, and leg quarters are one of the cheapest things in the whole meat case. You need two chicken leg quarters, one 15 ounce can of whole potatoes, 1 teaspoon of baking powder, a little garlic powder, a pinch of dried rosemary, salt, and a little oil. Pat the chicken dry with paper towels, top and bottom, as dry as you can get it. Stir the baking powder, a big pinch of salt, and the garlic powder together in your coffee cup and rub it all over the skin. That is baking powder, the little round can, and not baking soda. Lay both pieces skin side up on your pan, with room between them, and roast 20 minutes at 425 degrees. Drain the potatoes, pat them dry, and turn them in a little oil with that pinch of rosemary. Pull the pan out, tumble the potatoes in around the chicken, and roll each one through the drippings with a spoon. Back in for 25 minutes more, until the skin is deep gold and the potatoes are brown on every side. That teaspoon of baking powder is the secret I promised you. In the oven, it dries the skin out and puffs it up into tiny little bubbles, so you get crackling instead of rubbery skin. You will not taste it at all. And the rosemary is what makes those potatoes smell like Sunday dinner, warm and piney, the minute you open the oven door. The potatoes wait 20 minutes for a reason. By then the chicken has let go of its drippings and your potatoes roll around in that instead of plain oil. That is where all the flavor comes from. Tap that skin with your fork and listen to it crackle. The meat slides right off the bone and the potatoes are crisp outside and soft in the middle. The cheapest piece in the meat case and, to my mind, the best supper on this whole list. Tell me down in the comments which potato you keep in your pantry, the can or the frozen bag. I read every one of them. Take good care of yourself, and I will see you very soon.