8 healthy delicious sheet pan dinners to simplify your life! Sheet pan recipe ideas for busy nights.
Everyone has "those" nights when you're just too busy, too tired, or unmotivated to cook a healthy dinner. Sheet Pan dinners to the rescue! What could be easier than cooking your entire meal on one pan?
These one-pan dinners are quick and easy with minimal fuss and minimal clean-up.
Are you telling me that everything on a sheet pan will be cooked and ready to eat at the same time?
While it may seem too good to be true, it is. However, insuring even cooking does require some forethought, planning and common sense.
You can't simply throw everything on a pan and expect perfection.
8 Helpful Tips for Making Sheet Pan Dinners
- Use a half sheet pan. This is a heavy gauge aluminum pan with raised sides. It measures 18 inches by 13 inches. It is strong enough to be able to withstand high heat and to be placed under a broiler.
- Use cuts of meat and types of vegetables that will cook at the same rate. For example, bone-in chicken thighs take longer than boneless, so you can cook them with dense root vegetables like potatoes, carrots and beets. Fish cooks quickly, so pair it with vegetables that do same, like asparagus or peppers.
- Cut vegetables into uniform sizes so they cook at the same rate. Pat them dry.
- Toss vegetables with oil to prevent them from drying out in the oven.
- Space the veggies out on the sheet pan. Crowding them causes them to cook in their own steam, rather than roasting. Veggies with crispy edges are what we're looking for!
- Line your sheet pan with parchment paper or foil for easy clean up. Remember, this type of dinner is all about making life easy for yourself.
- Test for doneness by using a meat thermometer.
- Depending on what you're cooking, you may have to roast your food in stages. Add the dense vegetables first, giving them a head start, before you add more tender ones.
Ready to make one of these healthy sheet pan dinners? Here are 8 sheet pan recipe ideas for you to try.
Sheet Pan Chicken and Roasted Harvest Vegetables
Thai Chili Sheet Pan Salmon
Hoisin Orange Sheet Pan Dinner with Sweet Potatoes
Prosciutto and Cheesy Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Maple Garlic Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Harissa Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Loaded Nachos Sheet Pan Dinner with Avocado Cream
Maple Walnut-Crusted Sheet Pan Halibut
Which of these sheet pan recipe ideas will you try? Enjoy!
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