We’re Feeling Fall With This Simple Sheet-Pan Roasted Hen, Candy Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts Recipe

I haven’t got a dishwasher, so I really like any recipe that may be made in only one cooking vessel. On busy weeknights, I additionally like a recipe that’s largely hands-off so I can multitask and do chores similar to sorting mail or doing laundry whereas dinner is taking good care of itself within the oven. This straightforward hen dinner matches the billon each scores, plus it is scrumptious and ideal for fall. Meaty bone-in hen thighs, Brussels sprouts, candy potatoes, shallots, and applewood-smoked bacon are roasted all on one pan for a full dinner with minimal cleanup and loads of hands-off time. The Brussels sprouts are tender with darkish, crispy edges, the hen is juicy with crispy pores and skin, the candy potatoes are on what one taster referred to as “taste increase” from absorbing all of the spices and juices from hen, and the bacon lends its salty, smoky taste to the entire meal.

The entire shebang will get a spicy-sweet-umami punch from gochujang, which is whisked into an oil and vinegar dressing and used to season the hen and greens earlier than cooking.The gochujang performs double responsibility, because it’s additionally included right into a mayo-based ending sauce to spoon over the roasted hen and greens proper earlier than serving.

This autumnal awesomeness is what our Birmingham-based take a look at kitchen colleague Renu Dhar created once we requested her to develop a sheet-pan hen dinner that is excellent for fall.  Learn on for our key suggestions for making the most effective sheet-pan hen dinners together with the complete recipe. 

3 Easy Ideas for a Sheet-Pan Hen Dinner That is Something however Fundamental

Select bone-in, skin-on hen thighs. Whereas it is doable to roast boneless, skinless hen breasts with out them drying out, selecting fattier bone-in, skin-on thighs all however ensures juicy meat. The thigh meat’s abundance of connective tissue makes it each flavorful and forgiving of longer cooking occasions, in contrast to breast, which tends to dry out shortly. So even when you get distracted and go away the hen thighs to cook dinner for a number of additional minutes, you may nonetheless have meat that is tender and moist. Thighs which are about 5 to 6 ounces every work finest for this recipe.

Add the greens, hen, and bacon in phases. The issue with many sheet-pan hen recipes is that all the things simply will get tossed on the identical pan on the similar time, then chucked within the oven to roast. This results in uneven cooking and one factor might be undercooked whereas one other is overcooked—you would find yourself with soggy, underdone greens and charred hen or undercooked hen and greens which have turned to charcoal. To keep away from this, we begin by preheating the pan, then add the greens and roast briefly at  450°F earlier than nestling the hen into the pan and including the bacon.

As Critical Eats editorial director Daniel Gritzer factors out in his guide to how to make a sheet pan dinner with no recipe, getting your sheet pan scorching within the oven earlier than placing your meals on it could assist jumpstart browning the Brussels sprouts. As soon as the hen and bacon is added, we flip down the oven to 400°F and proceed cooking till all the things is completely browned and cooked via. To additional guarantee browning and maintain the dish from being soggy, make sure you unfold the greens out on the sheet pan somewhat than piling them up.

End the dish with a creamy, flavorful sauce. Whereas a part of the fantastic thing about a sheet-pan hen comes from its simplicity, that does not imply you should not zhuzh it up a bit, particularly if you are able to do so with substances which are already sitting in your fridge. Right here, we serve the hen and greens with a easy sauce of mayonnaise, gochujang, and candy and tangy rice vinegar— the latter two are additionally used for seasoning the hen and greens earlier than cooking so you may have already got them readily available for this recipe. It takes lower than a minute to whisk the sauce up nevertheless it pulls the meal collectively for a dinner that’s straightforward sufficient for a weeknight, however particular sufficient for firm.