Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Thyme
with zucchini / olive tapenade
If you made the olive and bell pepper tapenade earlier in the week, this meal has very little prep and comes together fast. The flavors of this dish play well off each other, so serve them in shallow bowls, getting a bit of everything in each bite.
Ingredients
- Olives, mixed and pitted green and kalamata - 3/4 cup (ideally from the olive bar)
- Roasted red bell peppers - 4 oz, drained and chopped (from a jar)
- Garlic - 2 cloves
- Capers - 1 tsp, drained and rinsed
- Celery seed (opt) - 1/4 tsp
- Oregano, dried - 1/4 tsp
- Vinegar, red wine - 1 tsp
- Zucchini - 1 1/2 lbs, cubed
- Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless - 1 lb
- Thyme, fresh - 2 sprigs + 2 sprigs
- Lemon zest - 1 tsp
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp
- Butter - 4 Tbsp
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Make tapenade - (Skip if tapenade was made ahead for Tuesday.) Combine olives, roasted bell peppers, garlic, capers, celery seed, dried oregano, and vinegar in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse until everything is chopped but some pea-sized pieces still remain. (If you don’t have a food processor, you can chop everything very finely by hand or use an immersion blender or standing blender, which will produce a more smooth tapenade.) Taste and season with some salt and pepper. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Zucchini - Cube zucchini. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Chicken - Tenderize with a fork and season with some salt and pepper. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
- Thyme sprigs / Lemon zest - Tear leaves off half the thyme sprigs; leave the other half of the thyme sprigs whole. Combine thyme leaves with lemon zest. Reserve whole sprigs. (Can be done 1 day ahead)
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Make
- Heat oven to 400F / 204C degrees.
- Spray a sheet pan with nonstick cooking spray or rub it with some oil.
- Toss zucchini with first portion of oil and some salt and pepper. Spread it out on the sheet pan. Transfer to the oven and roast for 8 to 10 minutes to get it started cooking.
- Once zucchini is in the oven, heat a large skillet with second portion of oil over medium heat. Sear chicken thighs on each side just until light golden brown, ~3 minutes each side.
- While chicken is searing, melt butter in the microwave until soft. Stir in thyme leaves and lemon zest.
- Remove zucchini from the oven and turn it with a spatula. Add chicken to the zucchini (cooking chicken over the zucchini will give the zucchini extra flavor.)
- Brush or drizzle lemon-thyme butter over top of chicken thighs. Top everything with whole thyme sprigs.
- Return sheet pan to the oven and continue roasting for 12 to 18 minutes, until chicken reaches 165F / 74C. (The timing will depend on the size of the chicken thighs you’re using, so if using smaller pieces, be sure to start checking the chicken on the lower end of the range.)
- Serve chicken and zucchini with tapenade on top. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
33 reviews
We loved this meal! I love the ease of sheet pan meals and my kids love any roasted chicken/veggie combo. The tapenade made it extra yummy!
Easy and super tasty! I spritzed some juice over everything before serving which added some extra pop.
Agree quick and easy, don’t normally like the tapenade ingredients but it was all delicious.
Used asparagus instead of zucchini and added lots of Parmesan cheese. Decent and satisfying, for some reason didn’t love it though. I’m not sure why!