7 Vintage One-Pot Dishes We Want To Bring Back In 2026

For some of us, the only thing that can outweigh our love for cooking is our hatred of dishwashing. Even if you don't have to scrub each dish by hand (although you still have to make sure you load the dishwasher right), contending with all that cookware is sometimes just too much to deal with at the end of the day. Enter the one-pot dish: while these recipes are usually more complicated than plunking all the ingredients in a pot of water and letting them boil, they greatly simplify cleanup.

But what if you've gone through all the trendy, "lemony garlicky miso gochujang brown butter" recipes you found on TikTok or in The New York Times? Then it may be time to look to the past and try one of these hearty vintage recipes — while not every version is traditionally a single pot, adjustments can be made to make your life much easier.

Not to be confused with Brunswick stew, another popular communal dish with an unknown origin, mulligan stew is made with tomatoes and ... well, basically whatever else you have on hand. It was popular during the Great Depression, where groups of traveling vagrants would each place an ingredient into a pot until it became a full, satisfying stew. Thankfully, financial stress isn't quite as bad just yet, so you can make it with beef, potatoes, corn, green beans, and any other odds and ends kicking around in your crisper drawer.

We'll grant you that this dish doesn't have the most appetizing name. But in truth, you may have already eaten a New England boiled dinner before and not even known it. It's essentially corned beef and cabbage — that St. Patrick's Day tradition, which originated in the New World once Irish immigrants met Jewish butchers — with additional vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and rutabaga thrown in. The dish's name doubles as its recipe: just boil it all together in a big pot, and don't forget to repurpose the leftover corned beef the next day.

This dish may or may not have originated at Alex Guarnaschelli's favorite old-school New York City steakhouse, Delmonico's — but wherever it came from, it's pretty darn tasty. It's a classic dish, with chicken prepared in a rich, creamy sauce, with mushrooms to provide a savory boost and vegetables to round out the flavor profile. It's not exactly what you'd call light on the stomach, but that's not always such a bad thing — and it can all be made in one skillet.

You can put those fondue forks away — despite the name, Swiss steak doesn't actually hail from the land of cuckoo clocks and those giant horns they use to sell Ricola. "Swissing" actually refers to pounding out a piece of cheap, tough beef until it's more tender and receptive to braising. From there, all you need is a rich, savory tomato-based braise to make something tender, juicy, and perfect for a slow cooker.

Let's take a moment to appreciate this dish's wonderful name. It sounds like the name of a "Dark Souls" area, or perhaps something an old-timey prospector might yell out if he stubbed his toe. But in truth, it's a hearty, savory bit of comfort food, made from elbow macaroni, ground beef, and tomatoes. (You can also add mushrooms if you're feeling naughty.) Just toss in the macaroni with the tomatoes and other liquid into one pot, and you're golden. The dish has also been called "American goulash," which is perhaps more accurate than "slumgullion" — but far less whimsical.

Like chicken à la King, turkey tetrazzini has a few different origin stories. Some say it was created by the legendary Auguste Escoffier, while others claim it was invented to please the opera diva Luisa Tetrazzini. Whatever the case, this is a solid, hearty casserole. Turkey is mixed with spaghetti (which gets cooked in creamy sauce) and veggies, covered in breadcrumbs, and baked. Once a popular option in fancy restaurants and frozen dinner aisles alike, the dish is a little more obscure these days — which means you get plenty of cool points for bringing it back.

Depending on where you live, chicken dumpling soup may not be particularly vintage at all. It's still a common comfort food choice in the South (or in mid-Atlantic states like Delaware, which has differently shaped dumplings), and matzo ball soup is a Jewish twist on the dish. But if you're after something warm, savory, and (depending on the recipe) a bit creamy, you'll do yourself a world of good by making chicken dumpling soup, which is a cinch to make in one pot with premade biscuit dough.