Recipes that use a single sheet pan to cook chicken and vegetables together promise a full meal, simple prep, and minimal cleanup. However, this method often leads to unevenly cooked meat and vegetables. To get the chicken and vegetables to cook at the same rate, we used bone-in split chicken breasts, which contain less fat than a whole chicken and don’t run the risk of smothering the vegetables underneath, causing them to steam. Halving the breasts further assisted in even cooking. We selected hearty, autumnal vegetables to pair with our chicken: butternut squash, kale, and shallots. A sprinkling of dried cranberries added a sweet-tart chew to the mix and a simple sage marinade worked to season both the chicken and vegetables. Because we used only breast meat, we were able to drastically shorten our cooking time (compared to a whole chicken) to just 25 minutes, plenty of time to achieve crispy chicken skin, tender but not mushy squash, and fully cooked and lightly crisped kale. We topped our chicken with a drizzle of light, creamy yogurt sauce accented with orange zest and garlic to bring the whole dish into harmony. Both curly and Lacinato kale will work in this recipe.
Ingredients
- ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons minced fresh sage
- 2 teaspoons honey
- Salt and pepper
- ¾ cup plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 tablespoon water
- 7 garlic cloves, peeled (6 whole, 1 minced)
- 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
- 8 ounces kale, stemmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces, (6 cups)
- 8 shallots, peeled and halved
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 4 (10-to 12-ounce) bone-in split chicken breasts, trimmed and halved crosswise
- Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk oil, sage, honey, 1 teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper in large bowl until well combined. In separate bowl whisk yogurt, water, minced garlic, orange zest, and 1 tablespoon oil mixture together; set yogurt sauce aside for serving.
- Vigorously squeeze and massage kale with hands in large bowl until leaves are uniformly darkened and slightly wilted, about 1 minute. Add squash, shallots, cranberries, whole garlic cloves, and ¼ cup oil mixture and toss to combine. Whisk paprika into remaining oil mixture, then add chicken and toss to coat.
- Spread vegetables in single layer on rimmed baking sheet, then place chicken, skin side up, on top of vegetables. Bake until chicken registers 160 degrees, 25 to 35 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking.
- Transfer chicken to serving platter, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Toss vegetables with any accumulated chicken juices and transfer to platter with chicken. Drizzle ¼ cup yogurt sauce over chicken and serve, passing remaining yogurt sauce separately.
