Eats
Sheet Pan Supper: Lemon Chicken
This month’s Sheet Pan Supper hits all the buttons.
It’s tasty, pretty, and healthy: chicken thighs covered in lemon slices, artichoke hearts, wedges of sweet red onion, bites of Yukon Gold potatoes, thick slices of zucchini, and sprigs of fresh thyme. It sparks joy.
Sheet pan recipes are all about getting dinner on the table fast, so there’s no time to devote to a long period of marinating the meat. To get around that, start the recipe by mixing the olive oil, seasonings, artichokes, and chicken in a bowl, and set them aside while you wash and chop the vegetables. The chicken will achieve a good flavor in short order.
McCormick’s California Style Garlic Pepper is one of the ways I push the easy button when it comes to seasoning food for roasting. I especially love it in my make-ahead recipe for Everyday Salad Dressing that doubles as a marinade for most varieties of meat and fish.
I use either bone-in or boneless, skinless thighs depending on what I have on hand. To keep the meat moist while it cooks, place a slice of lemon over each thigh.
The first few times I made this, I used frozen artichokes. Some store brands of artichokes left a heavy preservative aftertaste in my mouth. I switched to canned or jarred varieties and found them more flavorful. If using frozen, Trader Joe’s brand has the best flavor of the four brands I tested.
I used dried thyme in the marinade and fresh from my garden for the garnish. When substituting fresh herbs for dried in a recipe, the rule of thumb is to use three times as much of the fresh as called for of the dried.
You can change up the Yukon Golds to colorful fingerling potatoes and get a whole new color palette using the same recipe.
Roasted Lemon Chicken, Potatoes, Zucchini, and Artichokes
Yield: Serves 4
Prep time: 15 minutes Roasting time: 45 minutes
Ingredients
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons McCormick’s California Style Garlic Pepper
1 teaspoon dried thyme or 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, more for garnish
1 large lemon
1 pound boneless chicken thighs, or 4 bone-in thighs
1 (8½ ounce) can whole artichoke hearts packed in water, cut in half
½ pound red onion, cut into wedges
1 pound zucchini squash, unpeeled, cut into 1-inch slices
1½ pounds Yukon Gold, or colorful waxy potatoes, unpeeled, cut into 1½-inch chunks
Instructions
Preheat oven to 400º. Line a half sheet pan with parchment paper.
Prepare marinade: Pour olive oil, salt, garlic pepper, thyme, lemon zest, and sliced lemons into a large mixing bowl. I use a Microplane grater to zest the lemon. Remove pithy ends and seeds from the lemon and cut it into four slices, one to cover each piece of chicken.
Prepare chicken: Trim fat and skin (if using bone-in thighs). I ended up pulling off the skin so the lemon slices could impart their citrusy flavor directly onto the thigh meat. Add chicken to marinade and toss until well coated.
Prepare artichokes: Cut artichokes in half. Add to marinating chicken. Set chicken and artichokes aside to marinate while you prep the other vegetables.
Prepare onions, zucchini, and potatoes as noted. Add vegetables to the bowl of marinating chicken and mix until everything is well coated.
Spread ingredients onto the sheet pan. The pan will be crowded, but everything will become tender when it cooks.
Roast for 45-60 minutes. No need to stir. I have cooked this at 425º with good results, too—the vegetables brown a little more and the lemon slices cook enough to become edible.
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This looks absolutely delicious! I have an obnoxious request of the MDK Overlords: Downloadable pdf recipe for Judy’s creations? At any rate, I’m definitely copying and pasting this one into Word to create my own pdf to add to my electronic recipe file in Dropbox!
Oh Wendy of my favorite gorgeous linen kimono, I wish I could help you here. I get the same request on my website. The WordPress theme I chose does not support downloadable pdf recipes. I’m guessing this one doesn’t either. We’ll have to hear from the Overlords. It has been nice to hear how readers have gotten around this issue. The colorful version of the sheet pan recipe kind of matches that kimono …
Wendy, have you looked at Paprika or CopyMeThat recipe managers? They let you paste the URL and they capture the whole recipe and let you meal plan, create a shopping list, even print out the recipe.
That is so good to know! Thank you!
I love Paprika and definitely recommend it as well. My iPad is the only recipe book I need.
I had not heard of them — thank you!
Thank you!
I think this is going to be dinner tonight. Thanks Judy!
My pleasure. This morning, I scrambled the leftovers of ours with eggs for breakfast. So yummy!
I plan on making this as well. Only instead of potatoes I will add beets. They taste great and add another color. We love roasted beets.
Linda, I love roasted beets, too! Would you cook them on the side so they don’t “bleed” over everything??
This sounds delicious! Will definitely be making it this weekend!
Would this be too dry using chicken breasts? Looks delicious!
I haven’t experimented with using chicken breasts because I too have wondered about them drying out. It’s on my list to try one of these days. Meanwhile, if you try it, let us know how it works out.
Souns fabulous! One query, I don’t like dark meat, would breasts dry out too much if I substituted?
I have successfully roasted chicken breasts. I think it would work, especially with all the olive oil and lemon on them.
As I wrote to Lisa, I haven’t tried this with breasts. I do know that putting a slice of lemon on each piece of meat while it roasts has helped keep the meat moist in addition to giving it a a jolt of bright flavor. Give it a try and let us know. Thanks for writing!
I can’t wait to try this! Sounds delicious and the photos are beautiful. Thanks Judy, and thanks to all the commenters with excellent thoughts, questions, and answers. I’m a huge fan of sheet pan suppers. What a good column!
Thank You, Annie! You’ve made my day!
Can’t wait to try the sheet pan lemon chicken! I’m a big chicken eater (no beef) so always looking for new recipes that include veggies too! Sounds and looks delicious!
Thank you! I love your enthusiasm!
I love sheet pan dinners – they can be so pretty, so delicious, and best of all – sooooooooo easy!
If you brine the chicken breasts first the do not dry out. Brine 1/4 cup salt to 4 cups water for at least 2 hrs. Can add spices or herbs to water. I love sheet pan dinners Good luck
It’sIt so really good. I’ve made something similar in my crockpot express. I’ve never seen the benefit of adding zucchini though,. They seem kind of tasteless to me.
Hi, Mary Lynne! Zucchini perks up a lot when it is roasted. It also adds moisture to each bite in this combo — the other ingredients are kind of dense. If you slice it thick enough, it won’t turn into mush while it cooks for the hour.
Love to have a print version of this or a pdf download to save.
I made this last night and it was so good- and so easy. A total win. Thank you for making my life more delicious!
This was Sunday supper, and it is wonderful! Perfect day for it…cool weather (West Coast…not like you all are having), football, and this pleased everyone. I had a large, boneless chicken breast that I cut in thirds and added to the pan with the thighs. It wasn’t dry at all! The flavors…mmmm. Judy this is a winner!
Thank you, Annie! So good to know about the chicken breasts. I’m so glad to hear you and yours enjoyed it. That makes me happy!
Sounds delicious but, to me, looks not so good. How about tossing in a few whole cranberries – for a pop of color to brighten the look?
I do that with my stuffing for the Thanksgiving turkey.
The only thing holding me back from having sheet pan suppers every day is the prospect of having to wash sheet pans. In the sink. By hand. Will it still turn out if the pan is lined with foil?
HaHa! Totally! So glad you asked:-)
Made this last night as written (well, almost….I used lemon pepper and granulated garlic because that’s what I had). It was perfection on a cold, rainy night in New Orleans. I will definitely make this again!
Sheet pan suppers are my absolute jam! I usually use parchment paper underneath. And I too use mostly chicken thighs. I love marinated jarred artichokes, but I’ve never tried roasting them!
I really like how you gave so many alternatives in this recipe, like different oven settings, types of potatoes, etc.
Made this tonight for Shabbat supper — it was delicious! Wonderfully caramelized and I even really enjoyed eating the lemon slices (although the husband tried and couldn’t manage it). Looking forward to going back and trying the others in this series!!
I made this for supper tonight, husband loved it and I did too, delicious even the red onions had a great flavour.
Love this recipe! I’ve been using Trader Joe’s marinated artichokes for the marinade as well as the artichokes. Easy and delicious.
I make a version of this without zucchini, coating or marinating the chicken with small amount (1/4 cup or less?) Pernod (or the cheaper Pastis) and fennel seeds and lots of lemon and oil olive. The licorice taste is transformed into something rich and yummy.
I am excited to try some of your menus as my husband and I are needing to eat an organic fruit/veg, fish/chicken diet and there is not a lot of recipes that are simple, quick, and looks tasty like yours. I will be trying the salmon sheet supper and chicken one in the crock pot this week and let you know how it comes out and how my husband likes them.
I had to come on and comment here that this dish has been such a great city food for my soul this winter. It’s delicious, it’s easy, and we end up making a double batch at least every other week. Thank you so much.
Rebecca, I’m so glad you took a moment to write. It makes me feel great to know you are enjoying this recipe. Thank you! !
OMG! Just finished eating this tonight and it was gorgeous! So tasty! I threw in whole radishes for me (I’m keto), a grocery store container of 3 herbs rosemary, thyme and sage, a huge lemon sliced with a slice and a piece of artichoke under the chicken skin, which I left on and uncovered.Delicious!! Wish I could post a photo!
PS: Can you please post the breakdown of carbs, fats, macros etc? Taking two huge marinating bags to my friends tonight! They are going to be SO impressed!!