Cooking your favorite dishes in the reliable instrument that is the cast-iron skillet has certainly garnered more and more support over the past few years, and it’s for good reason. Because if the tool is preserved, seasoned, and cleaned correctly, countless meals can be enjoyed by way of its superior cooking practices. So, take out your trusty cast-iron cookware instrument, and test out its celebrated benefits with Country Living’s curated list of delicious dinner recipes you can cook right in the cast-iron pan!

Every cook’’s cast-iron story is different, as you might have inherited your skillet from a previous generation of accomplished family chefs. Alternatively, you might find yourself to be breaking in your cast-iron skillet for the very first time. Either way, it cannot be overstated that the cooking instrument is among the more versatile cooking tools found in the modern-day kitchen, but this is only true if it’s properly taken care of.

A well-seasoned cast-iron pan can last decades or even entire generations if you take careful attention to properly clean it after each use so that you preserve the seasoning on the surface of the pan, making it relatively non-stick. Though, if you are unlucky in preserving that “surface seasoning” and your pan needs to be re-treated, that is also possible, and since the average non-stick pan only lasts for a maximum of a few years, the cast iron skillet might just be one of the more reliable and long-lasting cooking dishes on the market today. So survey the following cast-iron recipes from Country Living’s archives for the next time you need your steak dinner perfectly seared or the heat of your cornbread skillet perfectly contained.

Fig and Rosemary Glazed Skillet Chicken

This recipe comes from Julie Chiou’s food blog “Table for Two,” and it aims to highlight the heat-trapping benefits of the cast iron skillet by roasting rosemary, garlic, and butter-seasoned chicken drumsticks and thighs in a 425°F oven. Throughout the cooking process, you’ll take the skillet out of the direct heat to brush a savory, balsamic rosemary and fig preserve glaze atop the dark chicken pieces until it’s thoroughly cooked. This recipe blends together the sublime flavors of sweet fig preserves and herb-apparent rosemary to give you an unforgettable chicken dinner recipe that’s easy to prepare and bring out whenever you need it.

Skillet Scalloped Potatoes

This recipe, which originated from the “kitchen kapers blog” known as “Host the Toast,” can be served as a hearty dinner side dish or as a hefty breakfast staple due to its abundance of cheese and potatoes. Always a welcome paining at most dinner tables, the golden-brown potato and cheese combination is widely considered to be a family favorite, and this recipe is no exception as this dish can be served up alongside a simple-to-prepare mac and cheese plate or a platter of mozzarella-melted bread for expectedly celebrated results. Layers of thinly-sliced and herb-seasoned Yukon Gold potatoes evenly line the bottom of a 9-inch cast-iron skillet in this recipe in an overlapping spiral pattern. This is done so that each piece of potato can be properly dressed by the butter, milk, and cheese mixture that is poured atop the vegetable before it’s all wrapped in foil and baked to golden-brown heaven.

Outside of the above two standouts from Country Living Magazine’s 72 cast-iron recipe collection, the following are also notable dishes you should consider testing out in your own kitchen.

• Sweet Potato Kale Frittata
• Beef and Stout Skillet Pie
• Chili Lime Sweet Potato and Chicken Skillet
• One-Skillet Lemon Butter Chicken and Orzo
• Black Iron Skillet Deep Dish Pizza

For more delicious recipes, click here.