Sheet pan chicken & veg

Simple and versatile, the sheet pan meal is one that should be in everyone’s repertoire. Even the clean-up is a breeze. So in case you’ve never thought of this or given a sheet pan meal a try at home, allow me to make your acquaintance.

In addition to being incredibly easy to make and clean up, this recipe yields three to six meals and the total cost to make is about $20*. If the portion pictured above looks too small, try adding a side salad and bread to stretch this recipe to six servings.

*This cost assumes that you have some basic staples on hand: olive or cooking oil, salt, pepper, and other seasonings. We use garlic powder and Herbs de Provence or Italian seasonings.

Ingredients

6 pack of bone-in, skin-on, chicken thighs

3 large russet potatoes or a bag of baby reds

1 bag of carrots

1 onion

1 lemon (optional)

Obviously, there is a lot of room for adaptation here. Don’t like chicken thighs? You can use legs or even breasts. Just remember that different cuts or choosing boneless cuts will alter your cooking time. I’m going to tell you how we make this meal with the bone-in thighs.

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Prep your veg: If using russet potatoes, cut into large bite-sized pieces. If using baby reds, simply halve. Peel and slice onion. For the carrots, you could leave them whole, cut into large bites, peel or leave unpeeled. Note: if you use different veggies, cook times may vary. For veggies that cook faster, start the chicken without them and add to the pan allowing for appropriate cook time.

Toss vegetables in olive oil, salt and pepper.

Pour vegetables evenly onto baking tray. If your tray is kind of shot or if you will be using anything sticky like BBQ sauce in this recipe, you may want to consider first lining your pan with parchment paper.

Nestle the chicken pieces on/in your veg, evenly spaced. Sprinkle desired seasonings over the top (garlic powder, Herbs de Provence or Italian seasonings) and finish the pan with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Bake for about one hour. We baked ours for one hour and 15 minutes. The veg were perfectly cooked through but still firm. The internal temperature of the chicken should be a minimum 165 degrees.

This is a killer recipe for meal prepping, if that is your jam. Simply divide the chicken and veg into individual containers. Jeff and I each had two pieces for dinner the night we made this, so I packed the remaining thighs and veg into one container. This could have easily been two meals, especially if packing a lighter lunch.

Have you had success with a different sheet pan meal? We’ve only done this one and would like to try others. Tell me about your recipe in the comments!