(almost) one-pan garlic butter roasted chicken and crispy potatoes

with romesco, feta, and lemon!

One of the most fun parts of my job is getting to meet really cool people from across the world who are also obsessed with food.

Enter: my new friend

Margie Nomura

— London native, mom of two, writer of

DINNER TONIGHT

(you all must subscribe, it’s fabulous!), and host of the very popular Desert Island Dishes food podcast. Oh, and she has the most soothing, beautiful British accent… ever?

I love

DINNER TONIGHT

, so I asked Margie if she wanted to do a London —> California recipe collab with me, and here we are! We started by sharing a ton of ideas, whittled it down to a fancied-up sheet-pan chicken with potatoes sitch, tested and tweaked it in our own kitchens, and wound up adding a romesco sauce at the last minute (the recipe is simple and wonderful without it, but the sauce takes it to the next level). We had so much fun creating this recipe together!

Can’t wait for y’all to make this one. And, again, be sure to give Margie a follow at

DINNER TONIGHT

!

The chicken and potatoes are roasted together at the same time. We are using skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs because they are our favorite, and also because, conveniently, they take the same amount of time as potatoes to cook in the oven. While they roast, you’ll whip up a garlic butter sauce and a romesco sauce. The garlic butter gets drizzled over everything as it comes out of the oven, and the romesco is served with the final dish.

If you haven’t made it before, romesco is a delicious tomato and roasted red pepper sauce that is nutty, piquant, and rich. We are taking a short cut and using jarred roasted red peppers because really truly they do the job just as well as when you char them yourself. Romesco is a great dip to serve with chips and crudité but also a brilliant sauce for serving with just about any protein. From lamb meatballs, to whole roasted cauliflower, a simple piece of fish… you name it. Trust us, once you’ve made it and seen how easy it is, you’ll definitely be making it again.

Margie loves to serve this meal with pita, and I served mine with some good ole San Francisco sourdough — we both highly recommend some sort of carby vessel for scooping up all of the leftover sauciness.

Cozy February food, from our London and California kitchens to yours!

In the mood for a true one-pan meal? Skip the garlic butter, and, in lieu of the homemade romesco, buy store-bought romesco if you can find it (there’s a brand called Haven’s Kitchen that’s sold at Whole Foods and makes a romesco — I’m sure there are others out there too!) OR use store-bought pesto instead.

If you or someone you know is/will be expecting a baby at some point in the future, this week’s episode of So Into That is a must listen. I picked the brain of my former Navy Seal husband, George, who was an absolutely amazing labor and postpartum partner for each of our three sons’ birth, and polled more than 20K moms on Instagram to compile *the* guide to being the best newborn dad ever. To go along with it, we made a short and sweet two-page PDF that you can text or print and hand to your partner to read (click here for the PDF). So many men/partners — and moms! — have written to say that it’s been a big help. So spread the word!

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(almost) one-pan garlic butter roasted chicken and crispy potatoes with romesco, feta, and lemon

Serves 4 to 6

Cook time: ~1 hour, 10 minutes (30 minutes active; 40 minutes inactive)

Tools:

• Chef’s knife

• Cutting board

• Microplane or box grater

• Sheet pan

• Blender or food processor

• Small saucepan

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 pounds of baby potatoes, cut in half

• 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs

• 1/2 cup olive oil

• 1 lemon, zested and juiced

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For the romesco sauce:

• 1 (12 ounce) jar of roasted red peppers, drained

• 1/2 cup blanched almonds, skin off (if you can’t find these, no worries, just use ANY almonds — raw, toasted, slivered, whatever)

• 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained

• 1 garlic clove, peeled

• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

• 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

For the garlic butter:

• 2 tablespoons butter

• 1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

• 1/4 cup (plus more for garnish) finely chopped soft green herbs, such as parsley, dill, basil, chives…

For garnish/serving:

• 1 lemon, cut into wedges or slices

• 1/4 cup crumbled feta

• Pita or a good loaf of bread (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Cut 1 1/2 pounds baby potatoes in half and place them and 8 chicken thighs on your largest rimmed sheet pan, all in a heap in the center. Add 1/2 cup olive oil, the zest (use a microplane or the smallest hole on a box grater to zest it) and juice of 1 lemon, 4 crushed garlic cloves (just smash them with the side of your knife blade), 1 teaspoon paprika, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper on top and get in there with your hands to distribute and coat everything evenly.

Space everything out on the sheet pan with the chicken skin-side up. If your pan is too crowded, put half of the chicken and potatoes on another pan.

Bake in the oven uncovered for 50 to 60 minutes until the potatoes are tender when poked with a fork, the chicken is cooked through (to 165°F), and the skin is crispy. If you’re using two pans, put one on the middle rack and one on the bottom rack, and switch them 30 minutes in.

While the chicken is cooking, make the romesco and garlic butter. To make the romesco: in a blender or food processor, combine everything but the olive oil (1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained; 1/2 cup almonds; 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained; 1 peeled garlic clove; 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar; and 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt). Once mostly blended, drizzle in 1/2 cup olive oil while the motor is running. Keep going for several minutes — you want it to be gorgeously creamy and smooth. Taste and add more salt if it needs it.

If you don’t have a blender or food processor, you can make a coarse romesco sauce by simply hand chopping everything as finely as possible, then stirring it in a bowl with 1/4 cup olive oil (less than the normal recipe since it won’t emulsify into a smooth sauce).

For the garlic butter, simply melt 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, add 1 crushed garlic clove (smash it with the side of your knife), and bubble gently for a minute. Remove from the heat and stir in 1/4 cup chopped parsley (or another soft green herb).

Remove the chicken and potatoes from the oven and drizzle the warm garlic butter over top. Spoon on some of the romesco sauce, add lemon slices, and crumble 1/4 cup feta over top. Add some fresh herbs for garnish and bring the whole pan to the table to serve family style alongside some good bread or pita, if you’ve got it. Enjoy!

(almost) one-pan garlic butter roasted chicken and crispy potatoes with romesco, feta, and lemon

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• Love your leftovers: Leftovers of this dinner will keep up to 3 days stored in an airtight container in the fridge. You could shred leftover chicken to make it easier to throw onto salads or grain bowls for lunch.

  • What to do with your leftover romesco: You may not use all of the romesco with this recipe, unless you want to serve the plates individually, in which case I would place a few spoonfuls of romesco on each plate, top it with the chicken and potatoes, and garnish in the same way as above. If you do have left over romesco, I recommend serving it with chips and crunchy crudité the next day. It’s also delicious with a simple bit of fried fish and some roasted vegetables. It’ll stay fresh for up to 5 days in the fridge (stored in an airtight container). It can also be frozen — simply pour it into an ice cube tray and once it’s frozen solid you can pop it into a freezer bag for when you need it.

• Prep ahead: Prep the romesco days ahead of time! You could also prep the entire sheet pan up to 24 hours in advance — just wrap it tightly with plastic wrap and store it in the fridge.

• Vegetarian: Roasted chickpeas could be delicious with this. Drain and rinse 2 cans of chickpeas and pat them dry. Marinate them as you would the chicken. They’ll cook faster than the potatoes — they’ll probably be golden and crispy in about 20 minutes — so I’d cook them on a separate sheet pan.

• But I don’t like butter: Replace the butter with 2 tablespoons EVOO. Don’t heat it, just stir in a bowl with the garlic and the parsley.

• I don’t like roasted red peppers: If you don’t like red peppers, leave the romesco out. It’s just an extra — the dish is good enough without it! You could, as an alternative, gently heat several tablespoons of olive oil in a pan, add some halved cherry tomatoes, and cook for a few minutes until the tomatoes begin to break down. Then add 1 crushed garlic clove and cook for another 30 seconds. Season well and spoon this over the cooked chicken in place of the romesco. This garlicky tomato “sauce” is a very useful thing and makes most things delicious in the space of a few minutes.

• Dairy-free/gluten-free: See the “but I don’t like butter” note above for a butter-free sauce, or use plant-based butter instead. Omit the feta or use a DF feta like Violife. For GF, just skip the bread or find a gluten-free bread you love.

• Potatoes: You can use any potato or sweet potato you want. Cut non-baby potatoes into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Leave fingerlings or teeny tiny potatoes whole. Quarter red potatoes.

• Skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs:

  • You can definitely use different types of chicken. I’ve made this with boneless chicken thighs too, but you will need to adjust the cooking time of the chicken as without the bone the chicken cooks a lot quicker. For that, get everything tossed in the marinade but keep the chicken and potatoes separate. Roast the potatoes for 25 minutes in the oven alone and then add the chicken and finish cooking for another 20 to 25 minutes until cooked through. DItto for chicken breasts, which take about 22 to 26 minutes to reach 165°F.

  • Pork tenderloin would be great too. Marinate it with the potatoes and let the potatoes roast alone for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, sear the pork tenderloin in a cast-iron skillet so that all the exterior has a nice golden crust — 1 to 2 minutes per side. Then add it to the sheet pan for the last 10 minutes of cooking. It needs to reach 145°F.

  • Or peeled and deveined shrimp. They’ll just need roughly 8 minutes of oven time.

• Olive oil: Another neutral cooking oil like grapeseed, avocado, safflower, etc.

• Lemon: For the marinade, omit the zest and use a tablespoon of a light-colored vinegar like apple cider or white wine vinegar instead.

• Garlic gloves: Garlic powder — 1/2 teaspoon for the chicken and potato marinade, 1/8 teaspoon for the romesco sauce, 1/8 teaspoon for the garlic butter

• Paprika: Chili powder or cumin

• Roasted red peppers: These are vital for romesco! See the “I don’t like roasted red peppers” note above if needed.

• Almonds: Another raw nut like pine nuts, walnuts, or cashews

• Sun-dried tomatoes: Omit, or sub for oven-roasted cherry tomatoes (you can drizzle them with olive oil, sprinkle with some salt, and roast them in the oven at 350°F for about 30 minutes — or sauté them quickly in a skillet on the stove until they’re golden and have released their juices.)

• Red wine vinegar: Any vinegar except for balsamic (so apple cider vinegar, white wine, sherry vinegar…)

• EVOO: Olive oil

• Butter: See the “I don’t like butter” note for a sub.

• Fresh herbs: Parsley, dill, chives, basil — anything you’ve got will do! Omit if you have none.

• Feta: If you don’t like feta simply leave it out. You can just skip it or replace it with something like pitted olives (I’d do green over black) or freshly grated Parmesan.

• Lemon slices: Omit if you don’t have another lemon

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Editor: Molly Ramsey