Chicken sheet pan dinners always look like a great idea.
Can we all agree on a few things?
- Sheet pan dinners are trendy.
- They look good in photos.
- It’s a good way to get food on the table simply and easily.
- And you’ll spend the rest of the night trying to scrub all that baked-on stuff off the sheet pan!
I’m as easily conned as the next person and have been crazy busy lately, so this chicken recipe on the NY Times Cooking site, looked like a winner. Give yourself some time to let it marinate. Serves 4.
Chicken, chickpeas and fennel recipe
- 3 to 3 1/2 pounds of bone-in, skin-on chicken parts, such as breasts, thighs and legs
- Salt and pepper
- 1 ½cups full-fat Greek yogurt, divided
- 5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided
- 2 teaspoons ground turmeric, divided
- 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1 tablespoon fennel seed
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 large red onion, thinly sliced, divided
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- ½cup mint or cilantro leaves, torn
Season chicken parts with salt and pepper.
Combine 3/4 cup yogurt, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon turmeric and 2 tablespoons water in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper. (It should be on the salty side, as this is a marinade.) Add chicken and toss to coat evenly. Let sit at least 30 minutes at room temperature, and up to overnight in the refrigerator.
Place oven rack on the top third of the oven and heat to 425°.
Combine chickpeas, fennel seed, cumin, remaining teaspoon of turmeric and half the red onion slices on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
Move chickpeas to the outer edges of the baking sheet. Scrape any excess marinade off the chicken, and place the chicken parts in the center. Place baking sheet in oven and bake, tossing chickpeas occasionally, until the skin of the chicken is evenly browned and the chickpeas are golden and starting to crisp, 45 to 50 minutes.
Meanwhile, toss remaining onion slices with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and season with salt and pepper; set aside.
Combine remaining yogurt with remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice and season with salt and pepper; set aside.
Once chicken is ready, scatter with lemony onions and mint or cilantro. Serve with seasoned yogurt alongside as a sauce and enjoy!
My verdict:
Winner, winner, sheet pan dinner!
Since I didn’t feel like cleaning for days, as you can see by the photos, a simple piece of parchment paper, lining the pan, made the clean-up a snap.
I tossed some fennel with the chickpeas and roasted it—it was wonderful, tender and silky.
The chickpeas were a bit of a disappointment. They were chickpeas I had soaked, cooked and frozen. Rather than get crispy like the original recipe said, they were a little tough. I don’t know if canned chickpeas would work better in this case, but it would be worth a try. What might be even better would be to cube up some potatoes and roast them instead of the chickpeas.
We also really liked the contrast the “lemony onions” gave to the dish. I used up all the Greek yogurt I had on the marinade and forgot to buy more, but a few tablespoons of labne, worked just as well and made a good sauce.
