Sheet Pan Berbere Chicken and Carrots
with green salad
Berbere spice is a North African spice blend with warming, fragrant notes from allspice and cinnamon. To temper its heat, we stir it into a compound butter with some honey for this quick sheet pan meal.
Ingredients
- Carrots - 1 1/2 lbs, sliced at a bias
- Chicken thighs, boneless and skinless - 1 lb
- Foil - for roasting
- Oil, cooking - 1 Tbsp + 1 Tbsp
- Lemon juice - 2 tsp
- Butter - 3 Tbsp
- Berbere spice - 2 tsp
- Honey - 1 tsp
- Vinegar, sherry - 1 1/2 Tbsp (sub apple cider vinegar)
- Mustard, Dijon - 2 tsp
- Paprika - 1/2 tsp
- Oil, olive - 3 Tbsp
- Mixed greens - 8 oz
- Raisins, golden - 1/4 cup (sub dried cranberries)
- Almonds, sliced or slivered - 1/4 cup
Nutrition Facts
Prep
- Carrots - (If prepping right before cooking, get oven heating first.) Slice carrots at a bias. If the carrots are thick, slice them in half in the thickest part so that the pieces are an even thickness. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make vinaigrette - Whisk together vinegar, mustard, and paprika. Add olive oil while whisking. Season with a pinch of salt. (Can be done up to 5 days ahead)
- Make spiced butter - Microwave butter until soft. Stir in berbere spice and honey. If prepping right before cooking, leave the butter at room temperature so it will be easy to pour. (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)
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Make
- Heat oven to 400F / 204C. Line a sheet pan with foil to make clean-up easier.
- Toss carrots with first part of cooking oil and season with some salt and pepper. Spread out on sheet pan. Transfer to the oven and roast for 15 minutes to get them started cooking.
- Once carrots are in the oven, heat a skillet with second portion of cooking oil over medium heat. Add chicken and sear on both sides until golden brown but not cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side.
- Remove pan with carrots from the oven and turn carrots with a spatula. Nestle chicken thighs into carrots.
- If spiced butter is too firm to pour, melt it in the microwave. Drizzle butter over chicken and carrots.
- Return pan to oven and continue roasting until chicken is cooked through and carrots are tender, 15 to 20 minutes more. (Note: The timing will vary depending on the thickness of chicken thighs and how much they cooked during the searing step. Chicken is done when it reaches 165F / 74C degrees.)
- When the chicken and carrots are done, squeeze lemon juice over top of both.
- Just before serving, toss mixed greens, raisins, and almonds in vinaigrette until dressed to your liking.
- Serve chicken and carrots with salad on the side. Enjoy!
Nutrition Facts
Reviews
Ratings
Most Helpful
Tl;dr Delicious. Will make again. Like many others, I had never had berbere spice before, but I will definitely have it again. I made it myself, since I had everything but fenugreek, and despite the age of my cayenne, it had the perfect level or background spiciness for my liking. I added potatoes to the carrots, browned the chicken in bacon fat (because it was already in my cast iron from earlier), and toasted the sliced almonds (because always). First CookSmarts meal was a success!
1 Helpful33 reviews
I enjoyed the berbere spice a lot and I think it is versatile enough to be used in a LOT of other dishes. The dressing for the salad was pretty basic, just "okay." I doubt I will come back to this recipe just because it lacked the "wow" factor.
0 HelpfulHoly Berbere is spicy but oh so good! I love the spicy butter and can see a lot of uses for it! My husband is in love with this new spice!
0 HelpfulThis was SO GOOD! The warmth of the spices made this a perfect fall/winter meal. We skipped the salad and made rice, which was perfect for sopping up all the delicious sauce.
0 HelpfulCarrots were delightful, the chicken also turned out very good. Fast and easy, the salad was very vinegar forward might add honey next time or add more raisins. Update: also tried the veggie version, the sauce worked better on the chicken than the tofu. Added potatoes/red onions to the roasted carrots for extra leftovers, increased the sauce proportionally and put green onions on top for color. For leftovers we wanted more berbere flavor so mixed some spice into sour cream for an extra topping which was a great addition.
0 Helpful