Chicken and Root Veggies
Chicken and root veggies roasted on a sheet pan is so easy and versatile. Serve up a dinner that’s quick enough for a weeknight dinner but feels like a Sunday supper. With the chicken cut into pieces, or purchased in the pieces you prefer, it doesn’t take much time or effort. Choose some vegetables, this will work with anything that has enough substance to hold up to some high heat. Lightly season, pop it in the oven and dinner is as good as done. This would be great with a salad or some garlicy noodles, but it’s perfect just as it is.
I like to start with a whole chicken for a number of reasons. It’s usually less expensive than buying parts so save a few pennies and do a little work. When we don’t have an hour or more for the whole bird to roast, it’s simple to break it down. And, we like to make chicken broth, so the back, giblets, and scraps go right into the stock pot when we’re cutting it up. The pieces heading for the roasting pan get seasoned with whatever tickles my fancy.
Root vegetables are perfect for this application. They tend to be a bit denser and hold up to the higher heat and cooking time. Beets, turnip, and potatoes mixed with the slightly softer fennel and onions get caramelized and almost turn into a sauce really works. This would work great with broccoli and cauliflower as well or just potatoes and onions. Plus, if you have leftovers, and you made some stock, you have soup for later in the week!
Chicken with Root Veggies
Equipment
- 1 Sheet pan
Ingredients
- 1 Chicken, cut into parts
- 6 Beets, cut into 1-1.5" cubes
- 2 Potatoes, cut into 1-1.5" cubes
- 2 Carrots, cut into 1" rounds
- 1 Turnip, cut into 1" cubes
- 1 Fennel Bulb, cut into 8 wedges
- 1 Onion, cut into 8 wedges
- 2 tbsp Olive Oil
- 2 tsp Salt
- 1 tsp Black Pepper
- 2 tsp Granulated Garlic
- ½ tsp Thyme, dried or 1 tsp of fresh thyme
- 1 tsp Seasoning Blend, optional I like Trader Joe's everyday seasoning
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450" and adjust rack to middle position. Spray a sheet pan with cooking spray.
- Cut up a whole chicken into parts, place back, giblets, and scraps into a stockpot if you're making broth.
- Wash veggies and peel beets, turnip, potatoes, and carrot. Cut veggies into uniform cubes and cut onion and fennel into wedges.
- Place all vegetables and chicken onto the sheet pan, drizzle with olive oil, dust with seasonings, and toss together to distribute. Spread veggies evenly over the pan with the chicken pieces on top of the veggies.
- Put the sheet pan in your preheated oven and roast for 20 minutes.
- Check the chicken and vegetables after 20 minutes, shake the pan to prevent sticking. Check the temperature of the chicken with an instant read thermometer. Breast meat should be 165, dark meat should be 175 degrees. If the chicken isn't up to temperature yet, roast for another 10-20 minutes checking every 10 minutes.
- Pull the chicken out as soon as it reaches safe temperature, lightly tent with foil and if the veggies are not yet tender, continue roasting until a fork can easily be inserted.
