Sheet Pan Chicken with Sprouts and Butternut Squash
Sheet Pan Chicken with Sprouts and Butternut Squash
A No Measurements Recipe
A dish using one sheet pan is the perfect way to cook for a weekday meal, or for one of those Saturdays where you want good food, but would prefer to spend the day outside.
in the new spring sunshine, wrapped up against the chill, walking your dog!
The latter for me.
A walk at the weekend doesn’t mean that I don’t want to eat great food, and it certainly doesn’t mean that I don’t want to cook great food, cooking being one of the pleasures of the meal for me.
Making food in one pot (slow cooker) or on one tray is a great way of using up those bits of vegetables that I’ve got left over.
Not the dregs of the fridge.
Not the wrinkled forgotten mysterious offerings buried under the wilted salad leaves.
A few sprouts, leeks, carrots or as in this dish, butternut squash that I’ve used throughout the week and still have a few bits left to use up.
I love to buy butternut squash, or any squash I can get my hands on if I’m lucky enough to come across them – this is a message aimed at you my son - Bring me the spaghetti squash you keep saying you’re going to!
Spaghetti squash being so rare to find in County Durham that I feel like having a party if I come across one.
My number one son, lives in the ‘big smoke’ where of course, the whole world lives too; said with sarcasm as a northern living lady who is very aware that there most certainly is a north south divide; and where things such as spaghetti squash seems to be one of the many thousands of food ingredients that don’t seem to reach the corner independent shops up here in the north.
I do tend to over-buy when it comes to vegetables.
Mainly because me and the lovely Mr G love them all and because I get so excited seeing all of those fresh vegetable lined up in our local grocers with the seasonal changes drawing me in.
So, with a fridge full of vegetables, there are bound to be a few bits that I leave behind when cooking.
What You Need
For this dish, I knew I had chicken thighs in the freezer, let’s face it, I can’t remember a time when I don’t have some cut of chicken ready for me to cook.
There were slices of butternut squash ready for me to use, a handful of sprouts, one carrot, lots of fresh garlic cloves and two oranges. Of course, I’ve always got my favourite Maldon sea salt and fresh ground black pepper.
No fancy seasoning or ingredients for this tray dish, and no fancy cooking methods either.
Use up your leftover vegetables - let the flavours do their thing
How It’s Done
As you can see from the photo, lay everything onto the tray, grate and juice the orange, give them a mix and pour over the chicken skins.
Cut the used oranges into large pieces, and place around the rest of the ingredients, season everything with lots of salt and pepper and place into a hot oven for 45 minutes.
What you have when it’s all cooked are slightly charred sprouts, soft butternut squash, crispy skinned chicken thighs, and the sauce, well there isn’t a lot of the sauce on the tray, but what there is, you shouldn’t waste.
Scoop it up with a piece of bread or scrape it over your meal before you tuck in.
Lots of caramelised veg and a crispy chicken skin
Tip Box
Use what you have
Trust the flavours – No fancy seasoning needed here, trust the vegetables to give off their flavours and the orange to caramelise the skin of the chicken.
What have you got in your fridge? – Use what you have, you don’t need to have any fancy ingredients to make a great meal, just put in the love and out will come the flavours.
