The problem: It’s dinnertime. Maybe not right this minute, but soon. It happens every night. But so do a lot of other things, all of which conspire to keep cooks out of kitchens. The simplicity of the skillet can pull them back in.
These days, cooks across America aren’t looking for advice on the perfect puff pastry. When asked what they want in a meal, home cooks are most prone to chant, “Quick and easy.”
A skillet, frying pan, saute pan, whatever the trusty vessel happens to be called, can be a cook’s secret weapon for getting dinner on the table in a hurry and without a lot of supporting cookware. No other piece of equipment, not even the microwave oven, offers so many self-contained mealtime solutions. And just about everyone has one, and often two or three.
Consider that a skillet fries eggs, onions, cheese sandwiches and chicken. It browns burgers, pork chops and piles of peppers. It can coddle delicate asparagus with the same facility with which it chars a fish fillet or a lightning-quick stir-fry. Anything from paella to omelets to eggplant to bacon lies within the capabilities of a skillet.
Providing the handle is heatproof and it doesn’t have a non-stick finish, a skillet can go in the oven or under the broiler; some cooks even plop it on the barbecue as an adjunct to a grilled meal. And yes, it even can be used to boil water.
A skillet is simple, deceptively so. Despite the flourishes and acrobatics that chefs use to maneuver a skillet around the range, anyone can master it.
Cooking teacher Monique Hooker, owner of the Cooking Academy of Chicago, believes that a skillet, some fresh ingredients and about 10 minutes are all that stand between a motivated cook and quick and easy suppers.
“Many simple meals can be made in a skillet,” she says, then improvises a list:
“Chicken breasts with zucchini, peppers and tomatoes. Pasta with tomatoes, garlic and basil. Frittatas. This time of year, there’s so much that can be done.”
Skillet strategy
Success with a skillet is not quite as simple as putting food in pan, pan on stove and heat under pan. But the proper technique is barely more complicated than that and applies to almost all foods that are cooked in a skillet. According to Hooker, a few simple points should forever banish fear of frying.
“Never put anything in a cold pan. Not even oil,” she says.
Instead, she suggests heating the pan briefly, over a medium-high flame. When it is uniformly hot but not smoking, add a small amount of oil, swirl it around and let the oil heat briefly. Then and only then, add the food.
“This way, every pan is non-stick, even those without a coating,” she says.
“Pat the food dry before you put it in the pan,” she says. This allows it to cook more quickly, without steaming.
She also stresses that the proper heat level is key. “Flames shouldn’t be up the sides of the pan. Yes, you often do want to cook over high heat, but not too high. You need control.”
Another important lesson, one that cooks often try to get around, is not to cook too much food at the same time. When food is crowded in the skillet, the heat doesn’t circulate properly. Instead of browning, the food will steam.
Cooks who are on an endless quest for efficiency sometimes look too hard for answers. Hooker aptly notes that the quick and easy meals, so tantalizing to cooks, are among the simplest to prepare. A selection of express skillet recipes follows.
MIDDLE EASTERN CHICKEN WITH TOMATO FETA RELISH
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 4 minutes
Yield: 2 servings
1 whole chicken breast, boned, skinned, split
4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground red pepper
1 large tomato, seeded, diced
3 green onions, sliced
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1 tablespoon olive oil
1. Put each breast half between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Flatten to a uniform thickness of 1/4 inch; set aside. Mix vinegar, mustard and seasonings in a small dish. Combine tomato, green onions, mint, feta, 1 1/2 teaspoons of the oil and 1 1/2 teaspoons of the vinegar mixture in a small bowl; set aside.
2. Brush both sides of chicken breasts with remaining vinegar mixture. Place a large skillet over high heat. When it is hot, add remaining 1 1/2 teaspoons oil. Heat about 30 seconds. Add chicken breasts; cook, turning once, until they are cooked through, about 3 minutes total. Transfer chicken to two dinner plates.
3. Add tomato mixture to skillet, cook and stir about 20 seconds and divide between chicken breasts. Serve at once.
SHRIMP AND NOODLE STIR-FRY
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 7 minutes
Yield: 2 to 4 servings
1 tablespoon Oriental sesame oil
1/2 to 1 teaspoon chili paste
12 ounces large, peeled shrimp
1 small red bell pepper, seeded, cut into slivers
1 package (7.7 ounces) stir-fry noodles, see note
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 tablespoon seasoned rice vinegar
3 green onions, cut into slivers
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons chopped peanuts or cashews
1. Place a large skillet over high heat. When it is hot, add the oil and chili paste. Let it sizzle for a minute, then add shrimp and bell pepper. Cook, stirring constantly, until shrimp turns pink, 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Add the noodles, chicken broth and vinegar; boil until liquid is slightly reduced, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the green onions and cilantro and remove from heat. Serve topped with peanuts.
Note: Packaged, precooked stir-fry noodles are increasingly available at many supermarkets. We used Fortune Brand, carried in the refrigerator case. If they are not available, 2 cups of cooked linguine or soba noodles may be used instead.
ZUCCHINI AND GREEN HERB FRITTATA
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 small zucchini, diced
Salt, crushed red pepper flakes to taste
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/3 cup minced fresh herbs, preferably a mix of several kinds such as thyme, basil, oregano and/or tarragon
3 ounces mozzarella cheese (preferably fresh), diced
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
Grated Parmesan cheese
1. Heat the broiler. Place a 10-inch skillet over high heat. When it is hot, add oil. Heat briefly then add zucchini, salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until zucchini begins to soften, about 3 minutes.
2. Reduce the heat to medium-low; add the eggs, green onions and herbs. Cook gently, using a fork to lift the cooked portion from the sides of the pan so the uncooked center flows underneath. Cook until the frittata is almost set, 4 to 5 minutes. Scatter the mozzarella over.
3. Transfer pan to the heated broiler. Broil just until the top is lightly browned and set, 30 to 45 seconds. Brush with the vinegar and sprinkle Parmesan over. Serve hot or at room temperature.
MEXICAN BEANS AND RICE
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 6 minutes
Standing time: 5 minutes
Yield: 4 servings
1 small onion, diced
4 ounces chorizo sausage, removed from casing, crumbled
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 1/2 cups instant white rice
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) Mexican-style stewed tomatoes
3/4 cup water
1/4 cup red or green salsa
1 cup black beans
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1. Combine the onion, chorizo and cumin in a medium skillet. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until sausage is browned, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the rice, tomatoes, water, salsa, beans and corn. Heat to a boil; remove from heat, cover and let stand 5 minutes. Add cilantro and serve at once.
How to choose the best skillet
Skillets are part of most cookware collections, so chances are, you’ll be using the one that’s already there. But purchasing a new one can be a confounding experience. There are slick non-sticks, cast iron, sleek and shiny stainless, and enamel-coated numbers that come in all sorts of colors. The range of prices is so great that one can’t help wondering whether the $8 model bears even a faint resemblance to those requiring a $100 investment. They do, of course, but the differences can be as great as any similarities.
Technically, a slope-sided pan is a skillet or fry pan. A shallow pan with straight sides is a saute pan. The sloped sides of a skillet allow foods to brown better since evaporation is more efficient.
A 10-inch skillet is probably the most versatile and common in most kitchens. Unfortunately, not all 10-inch skillets are quite the same size. It depends on who does the measuring and where. Some are measured across the top; others across the bottom. The slope on the sides of the pan makes a difference. The capacity of 10-inch skillets can range from 6 to 10 cups.
The metal it’s made from dictates much of a skillet’s performance. Heavier pans take longer to get hot; once hot, they hold the heat longer than a lighter pan. Think of the ability of a cast-iron pan to hold heat; it is quite an asset for frying chicken but a decided drawback when cooking delicate foods.
Copper is the choice of purists; it is light, conducts heat well and reacts with impressive agility to temperature changes. But it is expensive, occasionally fussy and hard to maintain.
Stainless steel has everything going for it except one thing. It looks good, is non-reactive, is affordable and reacts quickly to heat changes. However, it is a poor conductor of heat. To compensate, many stainless-steel pans have a piece of copper “sandwiched” in the bottom.
Several years ago, the Food Guide tested several skillets. One of the premium stainless-steel pans was rated the top performer, beating even the non-sticks. Though non-stick pans are frequently used in the Tribune test kitchen, it is generally agreed that a good stainless-steel pan is tops.
Cast iron is in a class by itself. These pans are heavy, sturdy workhorses with a bargain price tag. They do react with acidic foods such as tomatoes, wine and vinegar, imparting a metallic taste to such foods. Also, they aren’t ideal for delicate foods because they tenaciously hold heat. However, in two-skillet households, where the other pan is stainless or non-stick, cast iron is terrific.
Non-stick finishes have surged in popularity. Initially, the chief advantage was the ease of cleanup; since nothing sticks, there’s nothing to scrape and scour out of them. Now, equally compelling is that foods can be cooked with little or no added fat.
Most non-stick surfaces, called Teflon II, Silverstone and Silverstone Supra, are applied to a brushed aluminum base, although the compounds also are used on enameled cast iron and anodized aluminum. There also is a brand, called Scanpan, that achieves a non-stick surface by fusing ceramic onto a metal base.
