Ahh, the roast chicken dinner. This time-honored tradition conjures warm feelings of home and heart. And it’s easier and more delicious than ever when you cook everything in one pan. After a long day, sometimes it’s hard to muster the enthusiasm to cook up a healthy main course and sides. Then there’s the mountain of pots and pans to clean. Enter these chicken sheet pan recipes! Cooking all the ingredients on one baking sheet couldn’t be easier, and clean-up is a snap.
Roasting chicken and vegetables together is a wonderful way to get more superfoods like Brussels sprouts and sweet potatoes into your diet. Roasting vegetables intensifies their flavors and causes natural sugars to caramelize into a beautiful crust. But crisping vegetables in chicken drippings? It sends these recipes over the top. These chicken sheet pan recipes engage all the senses and awaken the palate while delivering loads of fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
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1. Sheet Pan Chicken with Rainbow Vegetables
Courtesy of Well Plated
“Eating the rainbow” is a simple trick for getting important cancer-fighting phytochemicals into your diet. In this recipe, a mélange of colorful vegetables is pulled together by a bold blend of Italian herbs, garlic, and onion powders. Feel free to punch up the flavor further with red chile flakes. Eating less of a “centerpiece” meat and more of the surrounding vegetables is an added benefit of a one-pan dinner.
Try the recipe at Well Plated.
2. Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka
Courtesy of Smitten Kitchen
Bone-in chicken drumsticks and thighs are infused with aromatic Indian spices in this clever weeknight twist on chicken tikka. The yogurt marinade is a ticket to flavor town. A widespread cooking practice in Central Asia, it prevents dreaded rubbery chicken. The calcium and lactic acid in the yogurt break down the chicken’s protein, tenderizing the meat and making every bite nice and juicy. Both cauliflower and Yukon golds are excellent sources of vitamin C. Many of the nutrients are in the skin of potatoes, so make sure not to peel them.
Try the recipe at Smitten Kitchen.
3. Sheet Pan Kung Pao Chicken
Courtesy of Life Made Sweeter
When the craving strikes for Chinese take-out, turn to this healthier recipe instead. It comes together in 30 minutes, less time than it takes for a delivery to reach your door. This is a great way to get more heart-healthy cashews into your diet, which have been linked to lower blood pressure. To get an extra silky sauce, swap out the corn starch with arrowroot starch, a flavorless, gluten-free thickener. Any leftovers can be repurposed for lunch with brown rice or rice noodles.
Try the recipe at Life Made Sweeter.
4. Honey Mustard Sheet Pan Chicken with Brussels Sprouts
Courtesy of 100 Days of Real Food
Two types of mustard, Dijon and whole grain, thicken the tangy honey glaze of the chicken. The recipe calls for quickly dipping the meat in the marinade, but if time allows, we let the chicken soak up the flavors for at least 30 minutes and up to two hours in the fridge before popping it into the oven.
Try the recipe at 100 Days of Real Food.
5. Paleo Turmeric Chicken Meatballs with Green Tahini Sauce
Courtesy of Ambitious Kitchen
Chicken meatballs flavored with all sorts of aromatics – turmeric, cumin, cilantro – transform the concept of bland ‘ol chicken and potatoes into something special. The finishing touch is a healthy green tahini sauce that adds a layer of bright flavor and can double as a dressing for the fresh spinach. With increased food costs, the popularity of ground chicken is on the rise. Typically a mixture of dark and white meat, it’s less expensive and leaner than ground beef and freezes well, too.
Try the recipe at Ambitious Kitchen.
6. Sheet Pan Chicken and Mango Stir-Fry
Courtesy of Rachel Hartley Nutrition
What better way to make use of this delectable, juicy fruit than in a sheet pan chicken dinner? The enzymes in nutrient-rich mango tenderize the meat and add an alluring sweet-tart flavor to all the ingredients. Try this on top of black rice, an ancient Chinese grain that blows away other types of rice when it comes to antioxidant power.
Try the recipe at Rachael Hartley Nutrition.
7. Sheet Pan Sausage and Potatoes
Courtesy of The Healthy Epicurean
A dizzying array of chicken sausages is on the market (Aidell’s has a dozen flavors alone). Depending on the kind you buy, you can take the flavor of this dish in different directions. We like this sheet-pan dinner with spicy Italian chicken sausage or artichoke and garlic. When roasted, vitamin-rich red and green bell peppers take on a more complex, sweet flavor that contrasts nicely with spiced meat.
Try the recipe at The Healthy Epicurean.
8. Asian Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Courtesy of The Endless Meal
Hot take: Spicy honey will overtake buffalo sauce as the most popular sauce for chicken. The Sriracha-honey sauce in this recipe is a flavor bomb, deriving extra depth from soy sauce and sesame oil. It is the workhorse that brings this dish together, acting as a marinade for the meat and a dressing for three nutritious vegetables: broccoli, snap peas, and bok choy. To avoid corn starch, substitute cassava starch as the thickener.
Try the recipe at The Endless Meal.
Read next: 8 Healthy & Easy Winter Sheet Pan Dinners You’ll Love
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