Start with new potatoes, super-sweet onions, sliced lemons, and aromatic sprigs of lemon thyme. Roast them all together on your sheet pan until they’re tender, then add the chicken pieces. Continue roasting, and wait until everything is close to done before scattering the asparagus all around the pan. It’s a clever way of making an entire meal at once, and you don’t even need a sauce because you’ll have chicken juices in the pan to spoon over the meat. Your trusty sheet pan does it again! My sheet pan gets just as big of a workout as my favorite chef’s knife in my kitchen. In fact, most of the time, I pull out my sheet pan even before pulling out my knife because I know it will come in handy for something, even if it’s only as a tray to carry supper to the table! The sheet pan I use most often are about the same size as a jelly roll pan – 11-by-17-inches – and it has stiff rolled edges. I think the aluminum pans are better than the nonstick because food on aluminum browns more.
Sheet pan, at least 11 x 17 inches or larger
All of the vegetables should also be cooked through. (Total cooking time is roughly 1 1/2 hours.) If your chicken isn’t brown enough, slide the pan under the broiler for 2 minutes, watching it carefully to avoid burning. Arrange the chicken and vegetables on a platter. Remove the thyme from the remaining fresh sprigs and sprinkle it over the chicken.
