Sheet Pan Chicken with Potatoes, Leeks, and Arugula

These days I do a lot of my chicken cooking on a sheet pan, sometimes with a whole chicken and sometimes with just thighs, usually bone-in. Last night I cooked Melissa Clark’s sheet pan chicken with potatoes, leeks, and arugula, but since I didn’t have arugula, I used finely shredded kale—and it worked. It’s supposed to be served with yoghurt with grated garlic, but I forgot to put it on the table—dish was fine without it.

Her recipe is for 4 but since I had a whole chicken and there are just two of us here, I halved the other ingredients in her recipe. I will make a curry or Moroccan chicken dish with some of the leftover chicken, probably the latter since the chicken was marinated in olive oil and harissa. I cut the whole chicken into 8 pieces, removing the backbone, and the timing is about the same as with chicken thighs, maybe just a few minutes more. Here are Melissa’s ingredients for 4:

1½ pounds chicken thighs (My chicken was about 3 pounds)

1¼ pounds small Yukon gold potatoes—I used 3 smallish ones—cut in half and thinly sliced

2 leeks cut in half length-wise and thinly sliced (white and light green, I used one large one)

4 Tb olive oil

¼ tsp ground cumin

2 Tb harissa

grated lemon rind from ½ lemon

3-4 ounces arugula (I used finely shredded kale)

1 cup plain yoghurt with one grated garlic clove

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Marinate the chicken and potatoes for at least 30 minutes in 3 Tb of the olive oil mixed with the harissa and cumin, and add the remaining olive oil and lemon rind to the leeks. Spread the chicken and potatoes onto a large sheet pan and bake for 15 minutes. Loosen the potatoes with a spatula, and spread the leeks over all. Cook another 25 minutes or a bit more if using a whole chicken. Remove from oven and spread the greens over the top. When using kale, I mixed them into the potatoes and juices to coat completely and put it back in the oven for a couple of minutes. That seemed to work. Serve with the yoghurt on top—though I forgot! 

If you can't find harissa, you might try some other type of hot pepper sauce but use a bit less. If I don't have leeks, I do this with yellow onions, and they are fine too. Her recipe adds dill at the end, but I rarely have it. Do give it a try if you have some.