Mario Batali’s One-Pot Chicken Is What Weeknight Dinner Dreams Are Made Of

One-pot meals are by no means reserved for half-assed Pinterest recipes.

Case in point: Mario Batali's polla alla Romana, a dish he picked up in Lazio, Italy. It's made in one pot, which makes it perfectly appropriate for weeknight dinners, but it's complexity means it's also a hit for entertaining. In fact, he cooked it for comedian Jimmy Fallon and celebrity caterer Mary Giuliani on the sixth episode of MOLTISSIMO, and they loved it. (Well, Jimmy pretended to spit it into his napkin, but he definitely approved.)

The recipe only involves a couple of steps—rendering some fat from guanciale (ahem, pork cheek), browning pieces of chicken in the pork fat, throwing together a sofrito, then braising all the components with some crushed tomatoes and wine.

Mario serves the finished product with a salad of herbs and escarole, dressed in—get this—the sauce from the chicken dish.

Efficiency never tasted so damn good.