Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

This easy sheet pan dinner features roasted chicken, potatoes, carrots, and leeks seasoned with herbs. Bakes in under 30 minutes, and cleanup couldn’t be easier. 

Is there anything easier than a sheet pan dinner? Just line a sheet pan with foil, add your ingredients, and bake! And this sheet pan roasted chicken and vegetables dish is particularly delicious—perfect for a chilly fall evening. And, it fills your house with mouthwatering aromas as it cooks, so your family won’t want to wait to dig in when it’s done. 

Why Make This Dish

• Easy to Make: There’s a bit of prep work involved in getting your vegetables ready to roast, but after that, this recipe couldn’t be easier. Just toss vegetables with savory herbs and olive oil, then place onto a sheet pan next to chicken breasts covered in a lightly spicy butter. Then roast! 
• Easy to Clean Up: Maybe my favorite part of a sheet pan meal is the cleanup (or lack thereof). You use only one pan to cook the whole meal, and when that is well-wrapped in aluminum foil, there’s barely any cleanup at all! 
• Family Friendly: This dish is super family-friendly, and by that I mean the picky eaters you might have around your table. The only thing spicy in this dish is the pimente d’espelette butter on the chicken, and you can easily leave that off the picky eater’s piece of chicken! Plus, eaters can pick their favorite veggies when they serve themselves.

🥗 Ingredients

• Chicken: This recipe calls for boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Covering them with a butter paste ensures they retain moisture and don’t become overcooked and dry. But, you can substitute chicken thighs or chicken breasts on the bone. If you choose to do that, just keep in mind that they will need more time to cook. See below for more on this in my Expert Tips section. 
• Potatoes: I like Yukon Gold potatoes for this recipe, but you can use small new potatoes or red potatoes as well. Just stay away from russet (also known as baking) potatoes—the texture of those will not work as well in this dish. 
• Herbs: I’m using fresh thyme sprigs and bay leaves in this recipe, but you can play around with other types of herbs as well. Fresh rosemary sprigs would be lovely in this dish. You could also try sage or oregano. And, if you don’t have fresh herbs handy, feel free to add dried herbs to the mixture when you are tossing the vegetables in olive oil. 
• Piment d’Espelette: Piment d’Espelette is a French chili pepper, grown mostly in the Basque region of France. It is a fairly mild pepper, but does add a little bit of heat to the chicken in this dish. You can substitute a mild chili powder or paprika (smoked or plain) if you don’t have access to piment d’Espelette. 

🥣 Instructions

Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius or 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Now, prepare your vegetables. Peel and chop one pound of Yukon Gold potatoes into 1-inch chunks. Peel 10 ounces of carrots and cut into 1-inch chunks. Horizontally halve carrots that are 1-inch or more in diameter.

Cut off dark green leaves from two leeks, and slice off root ends. Peel off top layer of leeks, and rinse. Cut into 2-inch chunks, then halve, horizontally. If you can see dirt between the layers of your leek, rinse again, then pat dry with a paper towel.

Chop one garlic clove. Put potatoes, carrots, leeks, and chopped garlic in a large bowl. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil, ¼ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper.

Add 2 bay leaves and 3 fresh thyme sprigs, and stir gently. In a separate small bowl, stir together 2 tablespoons softened butter and ½ teaspoon pimente d’espelette. Line a large sheet pan with tin foil.

Add 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts to center of the pan, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Divide spiced butter on top, smearing across the top of each breast. Add the vegetables around the chicken, in a single layer.

Bake for 25 minutes, and test to see if chicken is done. It should reach 74 degrees Celsius or 165 degrees Fahrenheit on a meat thermometer. If the chicken is done but the vegetables are not yet tender, remove chicken and keep warm on a foil-covered plate.

When both chicken and vegetables are done, you can brown them a little more by moving the sheet pan to the top rack and broiling for 2-3 minutes. Serve chicken and vegetables drizzled with any pan juices. Sprinkle with additional fresh thyme leaves if you’d like.  

🧐 Recipe FAQs

👩‍🍳 Expert Tips

The key to this recipe is making sure your vegetable chunks are the right size. You may be tempted to cut your vegetables into larger chunks, but that will not allow them to cook in the same time as the boneless chicken breasts. And leaving your chicken breasts in too long will cause them to dry out. That said, if you choose to use a different cut of chicken such as bone-in chicken thighs, you can cut your vegetables into larger chunks because the chicken thighs will take longer to cook.

Normally when I roast vegetables, I like to roast them at a higher heat (at least 425 or 450 degrees Fahrenheit) because it gives them a nicely browned and caramelized flavor. However, roasting at a high temperature like that will cause the chicken to cook very quickly (and possibly stay a bit raw on the inside while the outside is quite browned).

With this recipe, since we are using a lower temperature to roast the ingredients, don’t be afraid to pop them under the broiler at the end—that creates a bit of that lovely browning that looks and tastes great. 

Want to take this recipe to the next level? Make this Tahini Yogurt Sauce and drizzle it on top of your chicken and veggies!

Got leftovers from this recipe? Try using them to make this Israeli Couscous with Chicken and Vegetables. It's one of my favorite leftover meals of all time!

Looking for more recipes that feature potatoes? Check out these delicious Salt Potatoes done in the Instant Pot! Or, try this delicious French Shepherd's Pie. Extra Yukon Golds are also great in these Crispy Parmesan Potatoes.

And how about more gluten-free chicken recipes? Try these Gluten-Free Enchiladas for a comforting meal packed with flavor.

Other Easy Recipes for Weeknight Meals

I love this Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken dish for an easy weeknight meal. If you’re looking for other delicious options that you can pull together quickly, you may want to check out my round-up of 25 Last-Minute Dinner Recipes. Or see these favorites:

You might also want to try this easy recipe for baked turkey wings—a little change from your usual chicken dinner, but so simple and delicious!

If you try this Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken recipe, I would love to hear from you! Leave a comment below—I read them all, and your feedback is invaluable to me. And please follow along on Instagram, Pinterest, and Facebook or subscribe to my newsletter. I'd love to inspire you with more delicious, healthy, and seasonal recipes!

Instagram Users: Now that you've made this recipe, tag me @vanillabeancuisine or #vanillabeancuisine because I'd love to see your results!