Holy Sheet
Another chicken dinner
Hello and happy Friday! First of all, I hope you’ll excuse me for being a bit brief this week. I have had my hands full with a special project (which I will tell you about if it ever comes to fruition!), and at the same time am preparing to go to LA for two weeks to work (as a stylist) on a cookbook project. This always feels a little bit like preparing for battle, even though I will be with the best crew and I know we are going to have lots of fun, and laughs, especially as I get punchy towards the end. I’ll make sure to share lots of fun BTS moments with you when it’s all over!
I’m not sure when we went from thinking about the humble kitchen workhorse — the sheet pan — as just another pan in our kitchens to it being the gateway to all kinds of quick and easy dinners, and much, much more. As a professional, I’ve always used these strong, rolled-edge pans for everything, and sometimes worried when I called for them in recipes that people at home would use the flimsier, slightly smaller ones instead. They just don’t cut the mustard. I have always gotten mine at a restaurant supply store — specifically, Bari pizza oven on the Bowery in NYC. I have had mine for more years than I care to think about and they are still in fine working order, some with a bit more character than others.
But back to sheet pan recipes. We all love them, because they’re easy and one-pan. You can cook a variety of foods on one (or maybe two) sheet pans and have a complete meal. Just about anything can be sheet-panned to make cooking for a crowd easier: French toast, bacon, meatballs, grilled cheese, you name it. There are some caveats though. It’s hard to put everything on a sheet pan at the same time and expect it all to come out perfectly. Especially when there is chicken involved. It’s crucial in my mind to give some ingredients a head start so they can start browning before adding loads of vegetables, which will just cause everything to steam.
The recipe I’m sharing with you today does require adding ingredients in two steps so that you end up with optimal results. A few of you told me in our recent survey that you prefer white meat chicken, and asked why so many chicken recipes call for thighs? Well, I’ll tell you. Recipe developers like them, especially for sheet-pan recipes, because they provide a lot of fat for the other ingredients to bathe in and they are hard to overcook. Thighs just get more rendered and more tender the longer they cook. Recipe developers want foolproof, easy-to-describe methods with predictable results.
That said, I am more of a white meat person, and my husband is a dark meat lover, so I usually mix the two when making this kind of dinner. I usually cut the breast into two pieces, so that they are more or less the same size as the thighs, and I check them frequently after the 30-minute mark using a thermometer, so as not to overcook them, which would render them dry and unpleasant. You can throw them back in for the last 5 minutes to rewarm.
While we’re on the topic of sheet pan meals, I have a book recommendation for you. Ready for another sheet-pan pun? It’s called Hot Sheet: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan Recipes for Every Day and Celebrations by Olga Massov & Sanaë Lemoine. You might remember Sanaë’s name as the coauthor of the recently highlighted Make it Japanese by Rie McClenny. I recently met Sanaë, who is also a novelist (!), at the Cherry Bombe jubilee, and she was so lovely. I found out we had a shared history at Martha Stewart Living (she worked in the books department, natch), so we bonded over that. I told her how intrigued I was by her new book, and she kindly sent me a copy. It is packed with all kinds of creative and delicious ideas for using this singular pan. As an author, I love a single subject challenge like this one, and I can see these authors met the challenge beautifully. I’m eager to start cooking from it on those nights when I’m not quite sure what’s for dinner. I highly recommend adding this one to your bookshelf.
Now onto today’s recipe, which is a favorite chicken-dinner sheet pan recipe in my own house!
Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Cauliflower, Potatoes, and Olives
Serves 4
There’s nothing like a sheet pan dinner to get a meal on the table quickly and in style. This one has all the food groups (protein, vegetables, and carbs) with added last-minute flavor supplied by briny green olives, tart lemon, and a sprinkle of fresh parsley.