A sheet pan meal can help you the week before Thanksgiving

Sheet pan dinner, you always seem too good to be true.

Like slow cooker meals in which you dump everything into a pot and come back in 8 hours, I never quite trust that a sheet pan meal will live up to its potential. Can a meal that easy really taste good?

The answer is yes, duh. And at the end of 2020, when our love for cooking has fluctuated depending on how quickly we got bored with our sourdough starter, we just need something easy.

This is also a good recipe if you’re trying to clean out your fridge ahead of Thanksgiving meal prep, or want to conserve the number of dishes you’re going to have to wash in the coming weeks.

A marinade is a quick way to add flavor to the meal. It’s a hack for sheet pan meals, which only have so many opportunities during which you can build depth with your flavors. Yogurt in particular helps the chicken skin get nice and crispy as it cooks, which is crucial for a recipe that calls for skin-on chicken thighs or legs. Life is too short to accept flabby chicken skin.

You can swap just about any bean for the chickpeas here. Cannellini beans would be great, but whatever you have on hand can work with the other flavors we’ve got going on here: turmeric, onion, lemon, salt and pepper. Pretty classic stuff.

Sheet Pan Chicken and Chickpeas

2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs or legs

Kosher salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt, divided

5 tablespoons fresh lemon juice, divided

2 teaspoons ground turmeric, divided

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed

1 tablespoon fennel seed

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 red onion, thinly sliced, divided (you could also use 2 shallots)

2 tablespoons olive oil

½ cup fresh mint, if you have it

Season chicken with salt and pepper.

Combine ½ cup yogurt, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, 1 teaspoon turmeric and 2 tablespoons water in a large bowl. Season well with salt and pepper. Add chicken and toss to coat evenly. Let sit at least 30 minutes at room temperature, and up to overnight in the refrigerator.

Place oven rack on the top third of the oven and heat to 425 degrees.

Combine chickpeas, fennel seed, cumin, remaining teaspoon of turmeric and half the red onion slices on a rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat.

Move chickpeas to the outer edges of the baking sheet. Scrape any excess marinade off the chicken and place the chicken parts in the center. Place baking sheet in oven and bake, tossing chickpeas occasionally, until the skin of the chicken is evenly browned and the chickpeas are golden and starting to crisp, 45 to 50 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss remaining onion slices with 2 tablespoons lemon juice and season with salt and pepper; set aside. Combine remaining yogurt with remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice and season with salt and pepper; set aside.

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Once chicken is ready, scatter with lemony onions and mint. Serve with seasoned yogurt alongside as a sauce.

Serves 4.

Source: Adapted from Alison Roman