How to Make Sheet Pan Chicken & Vegetables

This easy recipe for sheet pan chicken and vegetables is a great way to use meal prep to help you make better, faster dinners throughout the week.

Why Home-Cooked is Better

When we’re thinking about food quality, one of the best things you can do is cook your own food. Pre-packaged foods are often stuffed with fillers and addictive ingredients. And as much as I love restaurants, we just have no idea what they put in their food.

If you cook your own dinner, you know exactly what’s in it. You can guarantee the quality and the amount of what you’re eating. You know you can be proud of what’s on your plate.

The downside? Cooking takes time. Whenever I start talking about cooking with someone, they often tell me that they’re just too busy to cook dinner every night.

I get it. I don’t have time to make dinner every night either – and I love to cook. The kitchen is my happy place. If I can’t figure out how to make a nice dinner every night, I know most others can’t either.

This is why meal prep is great. You spend an hour or two on the weekend cooking some food and the rest of your week becomes super simple.

Some people like to prepare the same meal for multiple days in a row. If that’s you, great. But I rarely want to eat the same thing day after day. I want variety.

So I just cook a ton of ingredients in advance. I’ll spend an hour cooking a few pounds of meat and vegetables on a Sunday. I’ll season them with nothing more than salt, pepper, and olive oil. Then I’ll use them to make a few different quick and easy recipes throughout the week.

One of my favorite ways to do this is through the use of sheet pans. Here’s a simple recipe for sheet pan chicken and vegetables that should help you get through a few busy weeknights.

The amount here lasted us about 3 days.

Sheet Pan Chicken and Vegetables

Preparing the Chicken

Start by laying everything out on a couple of sheet pans. If you have a rack, great. Place it in one of the sheet pans and lay the chicken out evenly across the rack. If you don’t have a rack, no worries. Just lay the chicken directly on the pan.

Season the chicken on both a generous amount of salt. For this amount, I used about 1.5 tablespoons sprinkled over both sides. If you’re less active or don’t like your food very salty, you could go down to a couple of teaspoons.

Then I slid this pan, uncovered, into the bottom of my fridge.

If you can do this step a couple hours in advance, it will allow the chicken to brine, which will lead to more moist chicken. If you don’t want to wait for it to brine, don’t worry about it. You’re not going to notice a huge difference.

While the chicken is brining – you’ll prep the vegetables.

Preparing the Vegetables

I started by lining my sheet pan with a piece of silpat. It helps prevent things from sticking and makes clean-up a little easier. You could also use parchment paper.

For this round, I sliced one large onion, one yellow bell pepper, and one red bell pepper. Then I put all of that into a big bowl. I also tore about 2 pounds of broccoli into small pieces and added that to the bowl. Finally, I added 15-20 cloves of garlic.

Then I added about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a couple teaspoons of salt, stirred everything together, and spread it across the prepared sheet pan.

You could really use any vegetables you want here. You just want to make them all about the same size so they’ll cook really evenly.

Cooking the Sheet Pan Chicken and Vegetables

When you’re ready to cook, place one rack in the lower third of your oven and another rack in the upper third of your oven. Then preheat the oven to 375F.

Once the oven has reached 375, slide the vegetables on the lower rack and the chicken on the upper rack. Cook for about 15 minutes, then pull the chicken out of the oven, use tongs to flip the pieces over, and place back into the oven. The chicken’s done when a thermometer reads 165F after being inserted into the thickest part of the chicken.

This usually takes 25-30 minutes, but it will depend on your oven.

Once the chicken’s done, the vegetables are technically finished too – but you’ll get better flavor if you move them to the top rack and cook for an extra 10-15 minutes – about 40-45 minutes total.

Let all of the food cool to a reasonable temp, then store in glass storage containers for up to a week in the refrigerator.

Putting Meal Prep into Practice.

Once you have the bulk of the work done, you can use your sheet pan chicken and vegetables to make quick dinners throughout the week.

Here are a couple recipes to get you started:

How to Make a Quick Chicken and Vegetable Curry

How to Make Quick Chicken Burrito Bowl

Or you can just top the chicken and vegetables with one of your favorite store-bought sauces and serve it alongside some rice or with a piece of sourdough bread.

Print Recipe

Sheet Pan Chicken and Vegetables

Here's a simple way to make a lot of chicken and vegetables at one time. It only takes about an hour of real work and it will set you up for success throughout the week.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time45 minutes mins

Brining (Optional)8 hours hrs

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Meal Prep

Keyword: Meal Prep

Servings: 12

Ingredients

• 4 pounds chicken thighs
• 1 Tbsp kosher salt
• 1 onion sliced
• 2 bell peppers sliced
• 2 pounds broccoli chopped or torn into small pieces
• 20 cloves garlic peeled
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tsp kosher salt

Instructions

• Place a rack (if using) on a sheet pan. Spread the chicken evenly across the rack. Sprinkle 1/2 Tbsp of salt across one side of the chicken pieces. Then flip the chicken over and sprinkle the other 1/2 Tbsp of salt across the other side. Slide the pan of chicken into the fridge.
• If brining, let the chicken sit for up to 8 hours in the fridge.
• Place a piece of silpat or parchment paper on a second sheet pan. Toss the prepared vegetables and garlic into a large bowl along with 2 Tbsp of extra-virgin olive oil and 2 tsp of kosher salt. Stir to combine. Spread the vegetables evenly across the sheet pan.
• When ready to cook, place one rack in the lower third of your oven and the other rack in the upper third. Preheat the oven to 375F.
• Once the oven is heated, slide the vegetables onto the lower rack and the chicken onto the upper rack.
• After 15 minutes, remove the chicken, flip the pieces, and return to the oven. Cook for another 10-15 minutes. It's done when a thermometer reads 165F after being inserted into the thickest piece of chicken.
• (Optional) Once the chicken's done, move the vegetables to the top rack and cook for another 10-15 minutes. The extra time will create more browning, which will improve the flavor.
• Let everything cool, then place into glass storage containers and keep in the fridge for up to a week.