Lemony Sheet Pan Chicken w/ Potatoes + Peppers
There’s something glorious about lemons cooking in chicken fat. The fat renders, breaking down the lemons until they’re sweet like candy but still deliciously savoury and not at all bitter - it’s the perfect balance of flavour. But before developing this recipe I had only seen this done with whole roasted chickens, and as much as I love a good roasted bird, I don’t always have time to make it. That’s where this sheet pan recipe comes in. The bone-in chicken thighs get covered in a thick marinade then placed atop thinly sliced lemons and surrounded by golden potatoes and red peppers. The potatoes get crispy, the peppers caramelized and the lemons get gloriously schmaltzy. Oh, and did I mention the creamy dill and garlic sauce that brings everything together??
Watch me make it here on Instagram!
Active Time: 40 minutes + 20 minutes of prep
Servings: 4
Ingredients
4 chicken thighs, bone-in and skin on
salt
½ tbs paprika
½ tbs cayenne
½ tbs cumin
1 tsp coriander
5 tbs olive oil, divided (4 tbs + 1 tbs)
750g yukon gold potatoes (about 4 medium size)
2 red peppers
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
1 lemon
⅓ cup chopped dill, plus more for serving
¾ cup plain greek yogurt
½ tbs pepperoncini peppers in oil, roughly chopped (optional)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400F
Wash chicken and pat dry with a paper towel. You want to get rid of as much moisture as possible to get crispy skin.
Season the chicken all over with 1 tbs salt. Set aside while you make the marinade.
In a large bowl, combine paprika, cayenne, cumin, coriander and 4tbs olive oil. Mix to combine.
Add your chicken to the bowl and toss to coat, ensuring you get the marinade in all the nooks and crannies. Let sit for 20-30 minutes, or until everything else is prepped.
While the chicken is marinating, cut the potatoes and peppers into bite-sized pieces. The potatoes should be about 1cm thick and the pieces as equal as possible to ensure even cooking.
Add potatoes, peppers and smashed garlic to the pan. Using your hands, evenly coat everything with 1tbs olive oil and 1 tsp salt. Push everything towards the outer rim of the pan to make room for the chicken, but make sure each piece of potato is touching the pan so they can get crispy. It’s O.K. if some of the peppers are not touching the pan.
Cut 6 thin slices off the lemon (should only be about half the lemon) and arrange them in a rectangle in the center of the pan. Place the marinated chicken on top.
Cook for 35-40 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165F. At the 20-minute mark, rotate the pan so that the chicken fat gets evenly distributed throughout.
Meanwhile, combine greek yogurt, juice of half a lemon, dill and pepperoncini peppers in a small bowl. Season with 1/2 tsp salt and a few cracks of black pepper.
When the chicken is finished, remove it from the pan and let rest for 5 minutes. Toss the potatoes, peppers and lemon slices to soak up the remaining chicken fat before serving.
Serve with yogurt sauce and more dill.
Playing Around
The reason we’re using bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs instead of boneless, skinless is that we’re using the chicken fat to build flavour and depth in a small amount of time. The bone and skin simply help produce more fat, in a shorter amount of time so we can build more flavour!
If you don’t have all the spices listed here to make your marinade, no worries, try adding in things you do have. Garlic powder, onion powder, ground mustard and chili powder would all be welcome additions to this party.