Optional ingredients not an option

You know that famous saying about taking one thing off before you leave the house? I think of that often when I’m cooking.

My general rule is that unless an ingredient truly adds something to the experience of eating the dish, it has to go. I’ve tested enough recipes in my day to know whether a stew could survive without that quarter of a teaspoon of ground cumin or if a sheet-pan dinner really needs the four additional vegetables it calls for.

I think we as home cooks get so fatigued with basic ingredients and preparations that we grasp at straws, adding a handful of this or a spoonful of that to whatever we’re cooking just to compensate for our own boredom. But for me, less has always been more.

You don’t need every vegetable from the market sprinkled with the contents of your pantry to make something excellent. Choose two or three ingredients, then season them interestingly and assertively.

Take chicken and potatoes. This isn’t news, but chicken and potatoes are good — really, really good — and I’m not sure they need anything else getting in their way. Would this particular chicken, slathered in a simple, garlicky chilli butter, be excellent stuffed with loads of herbs and halved lemons? Absolutely. Does it need it? Not really. Would the potatoes, highly seasoned with vinegar and salt, be delicious if they were tossed with sliced onion or maybe some cauliflower? Probably, but I will never know for certain because I will not be doing that. My chicken and potatoes are all I need.

Once your sheet pan is out of the oven, you’ll see your restraint rewarded with a juicy, fiery-orange chicken and tangy potatoes that are equal parts crisp and tender. If you feel like adding a third star ingredient because you, like me, do not like even numbers, thinly sliced scallion or the tender stems and leaves of cilantro will give you freshness without feeling superfluous. But they are definitely optional.

For a few moments, all will be made right in your world. And it happened there on that sheet pan.