Yogurt Marinated Chicken and Potatoes

Yogurt, chicken, and potatoes—the ingredients for this sheet pan dinner are always terrific and this didn’t disappoint! Supposedly serves 4, but you won’t want to share.

Yogurt Marinated Chicken and Potatoes

For the Chicken and Potatoes:

• 1½ pounds fingerling or baby potatoes
• 1 medium yellow onion
• 1 tablespoon melted ghee or olive oil
• Salt
• 4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1½ pounds)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons heavy cream

For the Marinade:

• ¼ cup full-fat plain yogurt
• ⅓ cup cilantro leaves and tender stems, roughly chopped, plus more cilantro for garnishing
• 5 garlic cloves
• 1 1½“ piece fresh ginger, sliced
• 1 -2 serrano chiles, depending on your heat tolerance
• 1 tablespoon ghee or olive oil
• 1½ teaspoons garam masala
• Salt

Arrange the oven rack in the center of the oven and heat to 425°F/220°C.

As the oven heats, halve potatoes lengthwise (quarter any big ones). Halve the onion lengthwise and cut each half into quarters. Transfer potatoes and onion to a sheet pan, add the ghee and season with 1½ teaspoons of salt. Transfer to the preheated oven, and roast for 10 minutes while you prepare the marinade.

Make the marinade: Using a mini food processor, combine the yogurt, cilantro, garlic, ginger, chiles, ghee, garam masala and 1½ teaspoons salt. Blend until the mixture is mostly smooth (if needed, add a tablespoon of water to thin it out). Transfer the marinade to a medium bowl or resealable bag and add the chicken. Massage marinade into chicken and let marinate while the potatoes cook. If you want to marinate the chicken longer, refrigerate for up to 24 hours and remove from the fridge 30 minutes before cooking.

When the vegetables have roasted for 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven and nestle chicken on top, skin side up, scraping any excess marinade from the chicken skin onto the vegetables. Return sheet pan to the oven and adjust heat to 450°F/230°C. Roast until the chicken and potatoes are cooked through and the chicken skin is browned and crisp, 30 to 35 minutes.

Carefully transfer the chicken to a plate, leaving the vegetables in the pan. Add the lemon juice, cream and 3 tablespoons hot water to the sheet pan and toss with a metal spatula, carefully scraping up any browned bits, until the potatoes are coated in sauce. Transfer the chicken back and serve immediately, garnished with more cilantro, and enjoy!

My verdict:

Probably the best chicken dish I’ve made! We both thought this was amazingly good and I was kind of jealous that Frank took the last thigh for lunch yesterday.

I marinate the chicken overnight using Greek yogurt and about 2/3 of a serrano chile and it was nicely spicy. Wiping the excess marinade off made the chicken skin nice and crispy. I added some asparagus with the chicken because they were in the fridge, but you could add any veggie you’d like, or not. Next time, because it was so good, I may add another onion or toss some shallots in instead.

It was fine with olive oil but ghee might be worth seeking out because butter (in any form) makes everything better, right?