A lemony dressing and a few sprigs of rosemary add fresh flavor to this one pan meal of crispy chicken thighs and tender roasted baby potatoes. 

My two-year-old June has a complicated relationship with lemons. When we have fresh lemon slices sitting out she will, without fail, grab one and take a confident bite. Seconds later, she’ll throw it on the floor, exclaiming “ohhh so sour!” 

Skip ahead to days or weeks later when another round of lemon wedges are sitting on the counter and the entire scene will repeat itself. 

I can’t say I entirely blame her. I’m a moth to a flame when it comes to anything with lemon in it too. Lemony shrimp, lemony cauliflower, lemony pasta, lemony cake – I love them all. Fortunately once you add lemon to a recipe like these, it’s no longer the super sour ingredient that June can’t resist / can’t stand. It becomes the ingredient that lets all of the other flavors shine.

In this classic chicken and roasted potatoes meal, it’s a homemade lemony dressing that makes the dish special. Toss some of the vinaigrette with the potatoes and chicken before they’re roasted, but save some to drizzle over the dish after all of the cooking is done. The result is the bright flavor of lemon infused throughout the meal, all in a simple sheet pan package (and who doesn’t love only one pan to clean up? If you are in love with sheet pan cooking like me, try Sheet Pan Roasted Sausage and Vegetables next). 

Ingredients

• Chicken Thighs – Use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs for this recipe. While roasting at high heat, the chicken will stay tender while the skin gets crisp and golden. 
• Baby Red Potatoes – Baby red potatoes hold their shape as they roast, but any other baby or new potatoes should work fine here. If the potatoes are quite large, it’s a good idea to quarter them so they finish roasting at the same time as the chicken. 
• Fresh Rosemary – Roasting the chicken and potatoes with fresh rosemary infuses the dish with fresh herb flavor. I like to have a few extra sprigs so that I can discard the crispy ones that bake with the dish and add a few fresh sprigs as garnish to the finished dish.
• Lemons – Use both the zest and the juice of two lemons in the dressing. When zesting the lemon, be sure to just get the outer yellow part of the peel, not the white pith beneath it (which can be bitter-tasting).
• Dijon Mustard, Dried Oregano, Honey, Garlic, Olive Oil, Salt and Pepper – The rest of the ingredients for the dressing are (hopefully) kitchen staples.

Possible Variations

• Add vegetables – Don’t want to use potatoes? Try it with broccoli or cauliflower florets. They will take about half the amount of time to roast as the potatoes, so add them to the pan with the chicken after it is about halfway through cooking.
• Use boneless chicken – You could use boneless chicken breasts or thighs in place of the bone-in thighs, but adjust the cooking time. Get the potatoes started roasting and add the boneless chicken breast / thigh after the potatoes have already been roasting for about 15 minutes. 

More Fun Sheet Pan Recipes

Sheet Pan Chicken Shawarma

Sheet Pan Jerk Shrimp with Coconut Rice

Sheet Pan Steak Fajitas

Sheet Pan Tacos