WHAT’S COOKIN’
The Best Weeknight Dinner Chicken and fall vegetables come together for a sheet pan meal that leaves you plenty of time to enjoy the evening.
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BY SANDI GRIGG |
PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMES STEFIUK
If you’re looking for a recipe that is perfect for meal-prep or a simple weeknight dinner, then this is the recipe for you. This versatile fall meal feeds a family quickly, is healthy and is easy to clean up. Recently, my family and I sold our home and moved. In the days leading up to the move, we were trying to eat all the food in the house. Sheet pan meals became very popular for us because it was easy to throw various items together and not spend a lot of time preparing and cooking. We could pack while it baked, and there was even enough for lunch the following day. One night I realized I had already boxed up all of my spices, pots and pans and really didn’t want to unpack them to make dinner. We still had three nights in the house before the big move, so I just pulled the sheet pan off the top and opened the fridge to see what we had left. I saw chicken thighs, Brussels sprouts and a few red onions. We also had one lone sweet potato and a single apple. On the back deck I still had fresh herbs, and I thought rosemary would accompany my selections well. I threw the thighs in a bag with a few ingredients to marinate for a few hours to kick up the flavor and went back to packing before dumping it all on the sheet pan. When making sheet pan meals, you want to make sure all the veggies cook at the same time so you don’t get some that are still hard while others are overcooked. To ensure proper cooking, you will want to chop them all the same size. The apples will likely cook down because they have so much juice in them, but it only adds to the flavor of the veggies. I prefer chicken thighs over breasts because thighs often come with skin that crisps up when cooked, and they emit more grease (flavor). You can certainly use chicken breasts if you want to be extra healthy, but nothing in this recipe is really unhealthy except for the dark meat and skin — which is probably why I like it best. When this sheet pan dinner was done, my spouse and I devoured it, and we each had another meal from the leftovers for lunch the next day. Clean up was super easy as we just washed the sheet pan and went right back to packing. Next time you want to make a quick and easy meal with little clean up and the option to prep a meal for the next day, try this recipe. I hope you and your family enjoy it as much as we did.
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South Brunswick Magazine
