Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs With Crispy Potatoes is the perfect meal for a cold day, and an easy and delicious dish to serve to guests. The hearty sheet pan dinner is complimented with surprising flavors like oregano and orange zest, which blend to create an amazingly flavorful dish.
I love to cook, and there are times when I happily slave for hours over a dish for my family or friends, testing out new recipes and trying intricate techniques. But lately, I’m all about minimal effort in the kitchen, and nothing is easier than a sheet pan meal. And I’m truly loving this sheet pan chicken with sausage, potatoes, and orange zest. It's one of my favorite sheet pan recipes and is so easy for a weeknight, or a fancy dinner!
In This Post
What I Love About This Easy One Pan Weeknight Meal!
- Easy. These sheet-pan chicken thighs are stupid-simple to make. You literally just pile everything on the pan - the chicken, sausage, onion, potatoes, garlic, and spices - and your oven does all the work. The best hands-off meal ever and a great recipe for busy weeknights.
- Makes clean-up a breeze. Not only is this recipe easy to make, but cooking it all on a sheet pan makes cleaning up super easy.
- It’s hearty enough for a fall or winter meal. Nothing says comfort like meat and potatoes, amiright? And, because everything cooks on the sheet pan, you have a complete meal in one go!
- It’s so so good. This easy weeknight dinner is layered with amazing flavor like oregano and orange zest, which complement the juicy chicken thighs and the spiciness of the sausage perfectly.
- Versatile recipe. This is an easy meal to riff on. Add in veggies like Brussels sprouts, baby carrots or bell peppers, switch out the chicken thighs for chicken legs or chicken breast, or use sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes.
- Great for company. Easy enough for a weeknight dinner, but fancy enough for company. Just throw everything on a nice-looking platter and voila, dinner is served!
Key Ingredients
The name of the dish sort of gives it away, but here are a few more details on the simple ingredients you'll need for chicken thigh sheet pan dinner:
- Chicken. I love using skin-on chicken thighs when roasting chicken because they’re much more forgiving than breasts which can easily dry out in the oven if you’re not careful. Be sure to use bone-in chicken thighs as the meat will be a bit more flavorful and tender. Plus the crispy skin on the chicken is so delicious.
- Italian sausages. I love using hot Italian sausage in this dish to pump up the heat, but if you’re not a spice fanatic like me, you can use mild and it will still taste delicious. Sometimes I even use a mix, especially when I know I’m serving it to little ones.
- Potatoes. You can choose what type of potato you like here, but I think Yukon gold potatoes or baby potatoes work great. Just be sure to cut them in a similar size so that they all cook evenly.
- Onion and garlic cloves. These amp up the flavor. You can really use any kind of onion you want to - I used sweet onion here but have used red onion with great success in the past. And, have you ever had roasted onion quarters? Yuuumm…
- Oregano & thyme - so good with the chicken! You can also use a store-bought or homemade Italian seasoning here.
- Orange zest. The secret ingredient! Something about the addition of the orange zest here makes this dish. It brightens everything up in an unexpected way and really enhances the other flavors. DO NOT OMIT THIS!
How To Make This Delicious Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs With Sausage And Crispy Potatoes Recipe
No real tricks here folks -just arrange all the ingredients on a sheet pan and bake. Follow these simple steps.
- Arrange the chicken on the baking tray. Start by lining a large rimmed baking sheet pan with parchment paper, and pour the olive oil onto it. Then rub the chicken thighs in the oil on both sides to coat and arrange them on the tray in a single layer.
- Add the veg and sausage. Next, add the potatoes, onions, and garlic, then the sausage.
- Add the spices. Finally, sprinkle the entire pan with the orange zest and spices, pop the sheet pan in the oven, and go about your business. Rotate the pan halfway through and in an hour you’ll have an amazing meal on the table.
This chicken, sausage, and potato dish is great for families (everyone in my family LOVES it), but it’s classy enough to serve on a platter if you have company coming over. Add a salad and these easy crescent roll garlic knots and you’re good to go!
Variations And Substitutions
- Change out the chicken. As I mentioned, bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs are my cut of choice, but if you want to experiment with chicken legs or chicken breasts, go for it.
- Add some veggies. Adding in different veggies like carrots, or Brussels sprouts are great options.
- Try a marinade. A simple marinade would add some additional flavor to these succulent chicken thighs.
Helpful Tips
- Don’t put all the same ingredients in one spot on the sheet pan. Be sure to spread your ingredients out across the pan - in other words, don’t lump all the same type of thing in one spot. This dish really benefits from the flavors blending together and mixing the ingredients up on the sheet pan helps to do this while it is baking.
- Don’t skip the orange zest or oregano! They add so much flavor and make this sheet pan chicken dinner really pop.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not necessarily, but it really does give the chicken more flavor than boneless/skinless thighs.
Nope! I love the way the dark meat of the thighs pairs with the sausage, but if it’s white meat you’re looking for feel free to opt for chicken breasts instead. You can also use chicken drumsticks!
As written, this recipe serves 4-6 and is made by roasting everything on one pan. But, as you can see from my pictures - this is a TIGHT fit. If you want your veggies a bit crispier, or if you’re upping the recipe to feed more, just divide the ingredients onto two sheet pans. Then after the first 25 minutes, flip the pans, moving the top pan to the bottom rack, and the bottom pan to the top rack. This will ensure that everything bakes evenly.
Any leftover chicken and sausage can be stored in an airtight container for about 2 days.
What To Serve With This Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner.
This recipe is great because you could serve it as a complete meal all on its own. But if you’re looking for a little extra, one of these salads or bread recipes is a great fit:
- 20-Minute Yogurt Flatbread (with Roasted Garlic!)
- Pita Bread
- No-Knead Rosemary Parmesan Bread (This crusty bread goes beautifully with this chicken thighs recipe!)
- Chopped Zucchini Salad With Parmesan and Herbs
- Sauteed Green Beans With Garlic
If you try this recipe, don’t forget to tag me @FrontRangeFed on IG. I love to see your creations!
Recipe
Easy Sheet Pan Chicken Thighs With Crispy Potatoes
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoon olive oil
- 3 lbs chicken thighs, bone in with skin on (about 6 pieces)
- 4 hot Italian sausages, sliced into 14 inch rounds
- 2 lbs yukon gold potatoes, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 1 large onion, quartered, and divided
- 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon dried or fresh oregano
- ½ tablespoon dried thyme
- zest of 1 orange
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
- Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Pour 2 Tablespoons of olive oil onto each sheet pan. Rub the chicken in the oil to coat on both sides, then place skin up on the pan. Season with salt.
- Add the potatoes, sausage rounds, quartered onions, and chopped garlic to the two pans, divided evenly.
- Sprinkle the oregano, thyme and grated orange zest over the pans.
- Cook for 25 minutes, then rotate the pan in the oven and cook for an additional 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through and the potatoes are crisp.
- Transfer the contents of the sheet pan to a platter, sprinkle additional oregano on top, and serve immediately.
Notes
- Bone-in chicken. Use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs if you can - the meat will be so much more tender and flavorful.
- Try other cuts of chicken. Chicken drumsticks work great with this recipe too. And chicken breasts will work too, although they may be a bit direr than the dark cuts.
- Spread the ingredients across the pan and mix it up. This helps the flavor blend together and complement each other.
- For crispier veggies, don’t crowd the pan. You may even want to spread all the ingredients into two pans for optimal crispiness. Just be sure to rotate the pans from top to bottom racks halfway through cooking to make sure both pans cook evenly.
- Don’t skip the orange zest or oregano! These two ingredients make the dish and add so much flavor!
Catmom says
Haven't tried it yet. With all the skin that chicken thighs have on them and using a baking sheet, doesn't the chicken grease splatter over the low sides of baking sheet with baking a such a high temperature?
Sarah Jenkins says
Yes, there is a little. But a way I've found to cut down on mess is to either use a baking pan or or a casserole dish with higher sides, or use longer sheets of foil to create some "sides" on your baking sheet to reduce the splatter.