These are four different easy Sheet Pan Chicken Meals that you can either use as different meal prep lunches or use one combo as an easy sheet pan chicken dinner for a family of four.
In my Clean Eating for Beginners and Meal Prep Ideas posts, I explain the importance of eating delicious to be able to stick to a healthy diet. In this Sheet Pan Chicken recipe we focus on using all kinds of spice blends to make the chicken thighs interesting and finger-licking good! Spices are a great way to bring flavor to any dish without sacrificing nutrition. If you struggle with sticking to a healthy diet start here. Make it delicious! The rest will come a lot easier then.
Ingredients & Substitutions
Chicken – the best chicken part for this sheet pan chicken recipe is skinless boneless chicken thighs because they need the same amount of roasting time as the potatoes and sweet potatoes. You could also use chicken breasts but I recommend seasoning them on a plate then and adding them to the baking sheet about 10 minutes later so they don’t overcook and become dry. Bone-in chicken thighs will need longer to bake (45-ish minutes) so you’d have to add them before. In that case, it’s probably best to use two smaller baking sheets instead of one big one and add to the oven in stages.
Carbs – I’m using basmati rice, quinoa, sweet potato, and potato because they all need the same cooking time in the oven (35 minutes). You can use just one or all 4 as individual portions. For the grains, you’ll need oven-proof baking dishes with tight-fitting lids like these cocottes or a ramekin which you’ll wrap super tightly with aluminum foil. No water should escape them.
Veggies – green beans and broccoli are great because they both take about 20-25 minutes to roast in a 400F oven. You could also use bell pepper, sugar snap peas, and/or cauliflower florets. Roasted onion gives tons of flavor, too. Any type of onion for that matter.
Spices – the sky is the limit here. My favorite spice mixes are Sazón, Curry, Paprika, and Poultry mix but get creative and make your own if you like.
Sauces – if you have extra time I strongly recommend making this Ají Verde Sauce, or Salsa Criolla for your sheet pan chicken. However, if you’re short on time mixing yogurt with dill, garlic, and lemon zest does the trick, too.
How To Make Sheet Pan Chicken Meal Prep Bowls
There are only 6 simple steps necessary. This recipe is very very easy.
- Prepare your carbs by slicing sweet potato, potato, onion, and adding rice and quinoa to cocottes.
- Add chicken to your sheet pan, oil chicken and potatoes, and season chicken with your favorite spice mixes.
- Top potatoes with Parmesan and place the whole sheet pan in the oven.
- Prep your yogurt sauce.
- Add veggies to a separate tray and oil and season with salt. Then add to the chicken in the oven.
- Mix and max ingredients in meal prep bowls.
How to Make Interesting Spice Mixes
In this sheet pan chicken recipe, I use four different spice mixes that I love. Use the following ratios to make them just like mine:
- Sazón – 1/4 tsp achiote, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/8 tsp garlic
- Curry – 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp pepper
- Paprika – 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp chili, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp pepper
- Poultry – 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning of your choice. My personal favorite is the one from the brand NOMU. (No they’ve never sent me their product for free nor have they ever sponsored a post of mine. I’m simply in love with their spice blend and it’s 100% clean ingredients).
Frequently Asked Questions
According to the FDA, almost all animal protein can be safely stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Yes! The full meal can be frozen except for the yogurt sauce. Simply keep the yogurt sauce separate.
Sheet Pan Chicken Meal Prep Bowls
Ingredients
- 1 red onion
- 1/2 sweet potato
- 1 yellow potato - 1 large or 2 small
- 1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup Basmati rice
- 1/4 tsp turmeric
- 1/4 cup quinoa
- 1.5 lbs skinless boneless chicken thighs
- 2 Tbsp avocado oil
- 6 tsp poultry seasoning - * SEE NOTES
- 6 oz green beans
- 6 oz broccoli florets
- 1 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1/2 cup plain unsweetened Greek yogurt
- 1 clove garlic
- 2 Tbsp dill
- 1 tsp capers
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- sea salt to taste
- pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Peel and thickly slice red onion. Peel and thickly slice half sweet potato (about 1/2" thick rounds), and thickly slice the potato (1/2" rounds).
- Place sweet potato, potato, and onion on a large baking sheet. Add rice + 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1/8 tsp salt to one cocotte and quinoa + 1/8 tsp salt to the other cocotte. And add chicken to the baking sheet as well.
- Season vegetables with sea salt (not the chicken) and drizzle chicken and vegetables with about 2 Tablespoons of oil. Then use your hands to work in the oil into each piece from all sides.
- Add grated parmesan to the potatoes and 1/3 cup boiling water to the rice, and 1/3 cup boiling water to the quinoa. Put on the cocottes' lids and place in the oven for 35 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the yogurt sauce by chopping dill and garlic, and zesting the lemon. Then mix yogurt with chopped dill, garlic, capers, and lemon zest and season with salt.
- Add broccoli florets and green beans on a separate baking sheet and season with salt and drizzle with about 1 Tbsp oil and work oil and salt into the vegetables with your hands. Makes sure each pieces is well coated in oil.
- Place broccoli and green beans in the oven, under the sheet pan chicken, for 20-25 minutes.
- Divide all ingredients amongst four meal prep containers in any combination you like making sure you add chicken, vegetables, and carbs to each container.
Notes
-
- Sazón – 1/4 tsp achiote, 1/4 tsp cumin, 1/4 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp pepper, 1/8 tsp garlic
- Curry – 1/2 tsp curry powder, 1/2 tsp coriander, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp pepper
- Paprika – 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/4 tsp chili, 1/4 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp sea salt, 1/8 tsp pepper
- Poultry – 1 1/2 tsp poultry seasoning of your choice. My personal favorite is the one from the brand NOMU. (No they’ve never sent me their product for free nor have they ever sponsored a post of mine. I’m simply in love with their spice blend and it’s 100% clean ingredients).
Mareen Bergemann says
Hi Lorena, hallo Margarete,
I made the recipe this morning, also adding tofu crumbles with 4 different seasonings, and it was delicious!!! I substituted Brussels sprouts and zucchini for the greens and it turned out very well. Thank you, Lorena, for this fantastic dish!
Margarete’s idea of using Weck glass jars instead of cocottes made me very curious and I just had to try it. I used the small cake glasses (guglhupf) and just the glass lids – no clips, no seals. The quinoa turned out perfectly but the rice was undercooked and too dry. It definitely needs more water if you’re using just the glass lids. I think the seals would melt… But it’s definitely doable and the rice looks extremely pretty in the glass jars.
Best wishes from Northern Germany
Mareen
Lorena Grater says
I didn’t even know the Weck jars were oven-proof Margarete. Mareen now tried it. Thank you so much for the feedback Mareen. Very very interesting. I don’t recommend adding the rubber even though “in theory” they should actually not melt, the glass could shatter because of the pressure building up in the jar so definitely don’t add them. It could be that the glass lids don’t sit on the jars as tightly as the lids of my cocottes and thus more water evaporates. OR it could be that the glass doesn’t maintain heat as much as ceramic and the water is at a lower temperature than the cocotte. Either way, adding a little more water should definitely solve the undercooked rice problem.
Margarete says
The WECK glas works! Yes, better without the rubber. I made a mistake when reading the instructions and only added 1/4 cup of water, but the quinoa still turned out perfect nevertheless and the rice was okay. I’ll try again with more water next time.
I knew these glases were fine for cooking in the oven, because you can bake cake in them. After baking, while still warm, you put on the glas lid with the rubber and the vacuum preserves it. It’s also nice as a gift. I have the 580 ml WECK Sturzglas, but I saw that you can use jars for jam with normal lids, too.
Margarete says
Hi Lorena,
would Weck-glases with a glas lid also work instead of cocottes to cook the rice and quinoa? What do you think?
Liebe Grüße aus Deutschland