Honey Balsamic Sheet Pan Chicken

This recipe came across my newsfeed a few weeks ago and I knew it was a must-try! You can always find amazing videos detailing recipe creations, but here’s my tip: read the comments after a recipe post on Facebook or on the website itself. It’s often there where you’ll find some great tweaks and adjustments to help you along the way. In this case, the oven temp for cooking was made in error, but in the comments it was all worked out. Others gave insight and tips on how to cook the vegetables, and I’m glad I read those. My green beans still ended up dried out yet oddly enough still tasted delicious! The recipe below shares my adjustments for next time as well.

Ingredients:

¼ cup balsamic vinegar
6 tablespoons honey
2 TBSP olive oil, divided
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
¾ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon red chili flakes
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper
4 chicken breasts (about 2 lbs)
2 pounds baby red potatoes, quartered (I used a 907g bag)
1 pint cherry tomatoes
1 pound green beans, trimmed (I used a 227g bag)

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 325F (175 degrees Celsius).
• In a medium bowl, combine the balsamic vinegar, honey, a tablespoon of olive oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary, chili flakes, salt and pepper. Stir well to mix.
• Place the chicken breasts in a resealable plastic bag and pour the marinade over the top. Seal and toss the chicken to evenly coat. Marinate for at least 30 minutes. If you can marinate overnight, even better!
• Place the potatoes on a sheet pan. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and stir to coat. Bake for 25 minutes.
• Remove the sheet pan from the oven and toss the cherry tomatoes and green beans with the potatoes and tomatoes. This step is important – if you just add them to the pan, they don’t get coated with the olive oil and seasoning.

• Remove the marinated chicken breasts from the plastic bag, reserving the remaining marinade in the bag. Place the marinated chicken, evenly spaced, on top of the vegetables. Pour the marinade from the bag over the top of the chicken and vegetables.

• Return the sheet pan to the oven. Bake for 30 to ­40 minutes, periodically basting the chicken breasts with the pan juices, until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165F (74C). <— I had zero pan juices to baste with so next time I will double the chicken marinade. Do this if you want to baste (but it was delicious without this step too!)
• Allow chicken to rest for 5 minutes (this allows the moisture in the chicken to redistribute giving you juicy, not dry, chicken)

Let me know if you’ve tried it and what you think! Other veggies can be added like beets (on the suggestion of my niece), asparagus, mushrooms, carrots and more. I’ll definitely double the marinade next time! Leftovers, if you have them, are amazing and full of flavor too!