Who doesn’t love a sheet pan dinner? It makes cooking for a family easy with minimal clean-up. I’m definitely on board with that. Even though I have a small family … just my husband, our daughter and me, I don’t mind an easy and quick solution for dinner some nights.

I had some things in my refrigerator that I wanted to use and that’s how I came up with this particular recipe. I bought a package of bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs at the market over the weekend and wanted to cook them before having to put them in the freezer for a later date. I also bought green beans to use for Easter, but chose broccoli instead, so those needed to be cooked. I had a container and a half of grape tomatoes, which were also calling out to be added to a recipe. “Kris, Kris … pick me, I know you love little tomatoes!” – which I do, I can eat them like candy and love to add them to lots of different dishes. I even cut mini tomatoes onto a sandwich instead of using a large tomato that I cut into slices. It seems to make my sandwich just a little fancier, which in my mind, makes it that much tastier.

I placed my chicken in a large glass bowl and set it aside. To a measuring cup, I added olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lots of minced garlic (I used 10 cloves of garlic … wanting this dish to be very flavorful), the juice of two lemons, kosher salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning and whisked it all together.

I poured my marinade over the chicken breasts and set them in the refrigerator to marinate for a couple hours.

Once I was ready to bake my chicken, I pulled it from the refrigerator and added my green beans and tomatoes to the glass bowl and combined it with the chicken and marinade and let it sit on the counter for a half hour while the chicken came to room temperature.

My husband and I stopped at a local bakery yesterday morning and picked up a loaf of sourdough that was not yet sliced. Sadly, this bakery is closing at the end of this week – they make the best breads and cinnamon rolls you’ll ever have! I wanted to add cut up sourdough (making a bunch of large croutons) to my dish for a rustic flare. I cut off a third of the loaf and cut it into cubes to be added to the sheet pan once there was just 10 minutes of cooking time left.

I sprayed a large baking sheet with non-stick cooking spray and placed the chicken, beans and tomatoes on the pan, making sure to include any juices left in the bowl, and placed it in a preheated 400 degree oven and set the timer for 40 minutes. With the bone in thighs, they could take between 35 and 45 minutes, depending on their size. Once the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees, your chicken will be done.

With 10 minutes left of cooking time, I added the cubed bread and drizzled olive oil onto the bread and placed it back in the oven to finish cooking and “toast” the bread.

When the dish was done, I added fresh basil and a little shaved parmesan, as well as another dash of red pepper flakes before serving.

This dinner was a bit hit with Dennis! And me, I loved it as well.

Ingredients

4 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

3/4 cup olive oil, plus a drizzle for bread

1/4 cup aged balsamic vinegar

2 lemons, juice of

10 cloves of garlic, minced

1-1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes, plus extra for garnish

1/2 pound green beans

24 ounces grape tomatoes

1/3 loaf of sourdough, cut into large cubes

fresh basil, chopped

shaved parmesan

Directions

1. Place chicken in a large bowl for marinating.
2. In a large measuring cup, whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, kosher salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and Italian seasoning. Pour over chicken. Set in refrigerator for 1-3 hours to marinate.
3. Remove from refrigerator and add beans and tomatoes to bowl. Mix together making sure the beans and tomatoes are covered with the marinade. Let sit on the counter for 1/2 hour so the beans and tomatoes will soak up the flavor of the marinade.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
5. Place chicken, beans and tomatoes onto sheet pan and place in oven for 35-45 minutes. At  25-30 minutes, add the sourdough and olive oil and place back in the oven for the remainder of the cooking time (10 minutes).
6. Serve with fresh basil, shaved parmesan and another sprinkle of red pepper flakes.

Enjoy!

Until next time, Kris