ERIC AKIS SERVES SHEET-PAN CHICKEN
Mediterranean-style chicken dish leaves the cook with more Sunday-funday time
Today marks the return of my Sunday Dinner column, which is what my Sunday food page was originally called when I started writing it back in 2001.
The concept is simple: to offer dinner idea so appealing that folks will want to start shopping for and cooking it soon after reading the newspaper.
In this column, and in my Wednesday feature, I’ll still answer any culinary questions you have, as I did when this page was called Ask Eric.
To start things off, today I’ve decided to offer you a recipe for a sheet-pan dinner. This style of meal seems trendy, given how many recipes I’ve seen for them in cookbooks and food magazines lately.
In our busy world, it’s easy to understand why they’re popular. Cooking an entire meal on one pan reduces cleanup time, as it will be the only cooking vessel to wash once dinner is done.
My recipe does require you to mess up a large bowl. That’s where you’ll toss chicken, vegetables, olives and sausage with flavourings, before setting them on the pan and roasting them.
I call it Mediterranean-style sheet-pan chicken dinner because those flavourings include lemon, olive oil, garlic, oregano and spices, all of which create a most amazing aroma during cooking.
I like to offer guests both white and dark meat, which is why I used a whole chicken, cut up, in my recipe. You can buy a whole chicken, cut up, at some supermarkets. You can also cut up the chicken yourself by following my instructions below. Or, if you want, you could use drumsticks and thighs (see Eric’s options). There are methods for cutting up a whole chicken. This is the one I used for today’s recipe. You will end up with 12 pieces of chicken. • Set chicken breast-side down on a cutting board. With kitchen shears or a very sharp knife, cut along either side of the chicken’s backbone, which is directly opposite the breastbone, and remove. Save backbone for stock. • Set chicken breast-side up. Press on the chicken to make it flat. Cut the chicken in half down the middle of the breastbone. • Cut the legs and wings off the breast. Cut each leg into drumstick and thigh pieces. Cut each breast, widthwise, in half. Cut each wing into drummette and wingette pieces. Trim off excess fat and loose skin on the chicken pieces. The chicken is now ready to use in the recipe. Olives, lemon, garlic, chorizo, herbs and spices give this one-pan chicken dinner a lively Mediterranean-style taste. The dried, cured chorizo used in the recipe is sold in the deli section of many supermarkets. Preparation: 30 minutes Cooking time: 50 to 55 minutes Makes: four servings Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line a large-sided baking sheet (mine was 13 by 18 inches) or large shallow roasting pan with parchment paper. Combine first seven ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken pieces, olives, onion, green peppers, potatoes and sausage and toss to coat with oil mixture.
Set chicken on the baking sheet, skin side up. Now surround chicken with vegetables, olives and sausage, placing some of the onions and peppers under the chicken. (Don’t cover the chicken with the other items. The skin needs to be exposed, or the chicken won’t brown.) Sprinkle the items on the pan with salt and pepper.
Roast the chicken, basting with pan juices occasionally, for 50 to 55 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked and the potatoes are tender.
Sprinkle on parsley, set on the lemon slices (or wedges), if using, set pan on the dinner table and dig in. Eric’s options: If you don’t care to cut up a whole chicken to use in this recipe, or prefer just to have dark meat, you could replace it with six chicken thighs and six chicken drumsticks. Eric Akis is the author of eight cookbooks. His latest is The Great Rotisserie Chicken Cookbook (Appetite by Random House). His columns appear in the Life section Wednesday and Sunday.