Herbed Lemon Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner

Servings 4 -5 Servings

Ingredients

For the chicken:

1 whole chicken, bone in, skin on, cut up into parts 3-4 pounds
olive oil
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
2 small lemons
6 cloves garlic smashed and peeled, whole
dried oregano
fresh thyme

For the potatoes:

1 1/2 pounds tiny golden potatoes
olive oil
kosher salt
pepper
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped

For the asparagus:

1 pound fresh asparagus trimmed
olive oil
kosher salt
3 cloves garlic smashed and peeled, left whole

Garnishes:

fresh lemon juice
fresh oregano or other fresh herbs

Instructions

Place oven racks evenly spaced in top, middle and bottom positions. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line two large and one small baking sheet with foil for easy clean up.

For the chicken:

Brush one of the large baking sheets with olive oil. Scatter a handful of fresh thyme sprigs over the pan. Smash the garlic cloves, remove papery skin and scatter in the pan. Place chicken parts on top of garlic and thyme. Cut lemons in half, squeeze 2 of the lemons over the chicken pieces. Then, drizzle each piece with olive oil. Season generously with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle dried oregano over the top. Add squeezed lemon halves to the pan.

For the potatoes:

Place potatoes on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Then, using your hands, roll the potatoes around until they are all coated with the oil. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle chopped fresh rosemary over all.

For the asparagus:

Place the trimmed asparagus on the baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Add the smashed, peeled cloves of garlic.

To cook:

Place the tray of chicken on the top rack and the potatoes on the middle rack. Roast until chicken is a rich golden brown. Then switch the potatoes to the top rack and move chicken to the middle rack. This will prevent the chicken from over browning while it continues to cook. It also give the potatoes a chance for some direct browning. Cook chicken and potatoes for a total of 20-35 minutes or until chicken temperature reaches 165 and potatoes are fork tender and have your desired level of browness.
About 5-10 minutes before chicken is done, add tray of asparagus to the bottom rack. Cook until desired tenderness. Time will vary based on thickness of asparagus. Check at 5 minutes and then add time as necessary. When it's done, remove the pan from the oven and use tongs or a fork to roll the asparagus around the pan to pick up the roasted garlic flavor. (See recipe notes if you only have two oven racks or two baking sheets.)
To serve, arrange chicken, potatoes and asparagus on one baking pan. I like to choose something other than the chicken pan so that nothing is sitting in the excess fat/juices from the chicken. (I used the asparagus pan.) Once assembled, if desired squeeze fresh lemon over the chicken and garnish with fresh oregano or other fresh herbs.

Recipe Notes

*If you only have two baking sheets or two oven racks, you can cook the potatoes and the asparagus on one sheet. I used a full 3 pounds of potatoes on my sheet just to get them all roasted, but the recipe only calls for half that amount. So, you should have enough room on that sheet to add the asparagus, but add it only AFTER the potatoes have cooked for about 15- 20 minutes. Then, remove the pan from the oven and add the asparagus. (You can already have the asparagus on another plate, with olive oil, garlic and seasonings done and ready to add to the pan. The asparagus will only take about 5-10 minutes depending upon thickness.

*If you're not sure when to put the asparagus in, don't sweat it. You can wait until the chicken and potatoes are done and out of the oven, then pop the asparagus in.

*For the juiciest, most flavorful chicken, I used bone in, skin on. The chicken was already cut up into parts. I cut each chicken breast in half to help them cook a little faster, because they were so much larger than the other pieces.

*This isn't part of the recipe, but I want to do this next time I make it. You're already adding your squeezed lemon halves to the chicken pan. Cut up a couple of extra lemon and those halves( that haven't been squeezed) to the chicken pan. Let them roast along with the chicken. Then, you can use those to squeeze over the tray later, instead of using fresh lemons.

*I don't give measurements for olive oil, but I would say I use somewhere between 1-2 Tablespoons for each pan. You don't want to drench it. You just want enough so that all of the items on the pan get a light coating.

*I used teeny tiny potatoes. They were about an inch in diameter, give or take. They cook much faster than a larger potato, so they work well in this recipe. You can also cut up larger potatoes into smaller pieces so that you have a similar cooking time.