Let’s take a quick moment of silence for this Sheet Pan Moroccan Chicken. Why? Because it is one of my kids absolute favorite meals that I have ever made. It’s kind of funny, because when I originally made this for Whole30recipes I was nervous that my kids wouldn’t like the Moroccan flavors of this dish. Man oh man was I wrong. Like really really REALLY wrong. I should have made 2 pans of it because they blew right through this!
I like to class it up a bit by hasslebacking the potatoes. Plus for some reason my kids will eat a hasslebacked sweet potato, but not normal diced sweet potatoes. Kids are weird. I digress. If you want to look like the most awesome person ever below is the how-to on hasslebacking. If you want to be boring and lame you can just cut up your potatoes. (jk, jk….or am I jk-ing; you’ll never know 😉 )
Hasslebacking dem taters:
- Wash your potato.
- Take chopsticks or pencils and put them on each side of the potato (length wise) This will be your “stopper” so that you don’t cut all the way through the potatoes.
- With a sharp knife (duh) slice thinly width wise.
Boom. You’ve just hasslebacked your 1st potato.
You ready to get to the delicious recipe yet? Alright, I won’t leave you hanging anymore!
Ingredients
- 2 lbs boneless chicken thighs or breasts
- lemon slices
- 2 12 oz bag of baby carrots
- 4 potatoes of choice
- 1/2 cup melted ghee, for potatoes
- OPTIONAL: fresh cilantro
- 1 yellow onion, sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbl paprika
- 1 tbl turmeric
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1 tsp salt and pepper
- 1/4 cup avocado oil
Instructions
- Stick chicken, onion, oil, and seasonings into a bowl or bag, toss and let marinate for at least 2 hours. Overnight is best.
- Preheat oven to 425° F.
- Slice your potatoes very thinly and place on sheet pan.
- Brush melted ghee onto taters and place in oven for 20 min.
- After 20 minutes, remove pan, add your chicken and carrots and place lemon slices randomly on top.
- Brush more ghee onto potatoes and place the whole pan back into the oven.
- Cook another 20-25 minutes or until chicken is done.
- Garnish with fresh cilantro.
You may already know that I’m not a huge fan of leftovers, but boy oh boy is this good the next day. Probably because all the flavors had even more time to mingle with each other.
And as if hasslebacking your potatoes wasn’t enough, add some green olives when you add the lemon slices in for some extra noms in this delicious meal.
Try this with your picky kids, or husbands, or wives, friends or foes…..whoever! This sheet pan meal could definitely be the game changer for this. I’m almost willing to place bets on it!
Whole30: yes
Paleo: use sweet potatoes only
I am going to make this Sunday! Very excited, looks perfect for me to eat on all week. I am a cooking newbie, so we will see if I mess it up 🙂
You won’t mess it up!! 🙂
Question, the picture shows onions, did you keep the onions from the marinade or what?
You can put them in with the marinade, or keep them out. Up to you! 🙂
My daughter is allergic to lemons (of all things!). Would it change the flavor dramatically to skip it? Or is there another citrus profile that might work instead?
it won’t change it dramatically, if she can do oranges, that would probably work, but you can totally omit it.
I made this last week and am already making it again! So much great flavor!! Is it okay to marinate the carrots with the chicken? I did last time but wasn’t sure if I should be doing that, with chicken/salmonella issues. We didn’t get sick last time but we are serving to guests tonight. ?
Yes, it should be fine because everything cooks up in the oven! Hope your guests love it!!
Chicken thighs cook in 20-25 minutes? I always find the timing to be an issue with pieces of chicken that are bone in. I seem to over cook it and I am always skeptical when a recipe says 20-25 minutes for chicken thighs, I feel like they are barely cooked in 40-45 minutes. Do you cover the sheet pan with foil or something?
Chicken thighs are much smaller so they cook up quicker. 25 min at 425 degrees is usually enough time when I cook chicken. I don’t cover the sheet pan. Check them after 25 minutes and see. Remember all meat continues to cook after you have taken it out of the oven, especially if you cover it with foil after its out of the oven. So it may look fine in the oven after 45 minutes, but will get dry because it still “cooking” after. My oven cooks fairly evenly, all ovens vary. You can also turn on the convection part of your oven if you’d like, but you may need to lower temp to 400 degrees. Hope that helps
I just had to leave a comment because I made this last night and it was SOOOO good!!!! I found that it took a little longer in the chicken cooking phase, about 39 minutes instead of 20, but I think that might have been because I added a bunch of extra veggies (green beans!) and there was just more to cook. My husband said “print this one!” Because the recipes that I print I’m more likely to make again 🙂 thank you for all you do!
30 minutes, not 39 :/
Yay!! I’m so glad that you all loved it and that it gets the honor of being printed!! Thank you!
So excited to try this for my family!!!
Is the ginger fresh?? I’ve never use ginger before, so I’m not sure what I’m looking for in the store.
Thanks!!
I prefer fresh ginger amd I just use a micoblade grater to get it real fine. You cam find fresh ginger in the produce section. It looks like a root. And I just freeze the root to make it last forever. You can also used ground ginger seasoning and it will still taste fine!!!
100 degrees here in nor cal. Could this be good in the insta pot. I know that sheet pan would do crispy magical wonders but in a pinch….?? Thoughts. Thank you.
It would be fine in an instant pot, but like you said things wouldn’t get crispified! I would also use the trivet. Not sure on times to cook since I have never played around with it in the instant pot. If you try it please let me know how it turns out!