You can’t knock a complete meal prepared on a baking tray, ready to eat straight from the oven with few, if any, pots or pans to wash up. It’s no wonder that sheet pan dinners are touted for their convenience.
There is another advantage to a sheet pan meal: It delivers big on flavor. One-pan cooking ensures that each ingredient mingles in a happy jumble during the cooking process, sharing their spices and aromas, exuding their juices and uniting in a flavorful meal.
In this recipe, chicken, tomatoes and chickpeas are coated in a smoky, lemony-infused marinade, then spread on a baking sheet and banished to the oven for just enough time to cook the meat. While it cooks, the chicken crisps and gives off its juices, the tomatoes collapse into jammy slumps and melt into the pan juices, and the nubby chickpeas take a bath and crisp in the sauce. In a mere 30 minutes, you end up with a saucy, aromatic chicken dinner, with any heavy lifting done by the oven.
The juices are key to this dish, so serve the chicken over a bed of couscous to capture every drop. Finish with a cooling dollop of spiced yogurt if you like. You can make this recipe with bone-in chicken thighs, too. Simply adjust the cooking time for the meat.
Sheet Pan Chicken Breasts With Tomatoes and Chickpeas
Servings: 4
Ingredients
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 garlic cloves, grated
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper or red chile flakes
Kosher salt
1 cup Greek whole-milk yogurt
4 boneless chicken breasts, with skin, 6 to 8 ounces each
16 ounces grape tomatoes
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Freshly ground black pepper
Chopped Italian parsley and/or cilantro, for garnish
Directions
Heat the oven to 400 degrees.
Whisk the oil, lemon juice, garlic, honey, both paprikas, cumin, lemon zest, red pepper and 1 teaspoon salt in a small bowl.
Add the yogurt to a separate small bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon of the oil mixture and whisk to blend. Set aside for serving.
Place the chicken in a large bowl. Add the remaining oil mixture and turn the chicken to coat, rubbing the oil between the skin and meat. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas to the bowl and stir to coat with the oil. Dump the chicken, tomatoes and chickpeas onto a rimmed baking sheet. Spread in one layer, nestling the chicken, skin-side up, between the tomatoes and chickpeas. Lightly season everything with salt and black pepper.
Transfer the baking sheet to the oven. Roast until the chicken is cooked through the center (an instant-read thermometer should register 165 degrees when inserted in the thickest part), 25 to 30 minutes, depending on the thickness of the meat.
Divide the chicken, tomatoes and chickpeas and pan juices between serving plates (or spoon over prepared couscous). Garnish with parsley or cilantro and serve with the yogurt sauce.
Lynda Balslev is an award-winning writer, cookbook author and recipe developer, and authors the blog TasteFood, More recipes can be found at chicago.suntimes.com/taste.