Sheet Pan Lemon Rosemary Chicken
This post may contain affiliate links. Please see our privacy policy for details.
SHEET PAN DINNER! Crispy, juicy chicken thighs with tender baby potatoes and crisped kale. So hearty, so good, so easy!
SHEET PAN CHICKEN DINNERS! Is there anything better? The answer to that is NO. Definitely not.
This is a sheet pan dinner with all the good stuff – bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, baby pee wee potatoes, and crispy kale all tossed in lemon slices, garlic, thyme and rosemary.
See, I told you. ALL THE GOOD STUFF.
Now I wish I could tell you that you could throw everything on the sheet pan and roast. But the chicken needs a quick little sear on the stovetop first (I know, it’s an extra step but SO SO worth it). From there, you can roast your chicken + potatoes at the same time, adding in your kale bits at the very end so they don’t get overcooked and shriveled. We want them as crisp as possible.
Stay safe, stay healthy, stay positive. We will get through this quarantine/shelter-in-place! With comforting, hearty chicken sheet pan dinners, of course.
Sheet Pan Lemon Rosemary Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 4 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 1 ½ pounds pee wee potatoes, about 1/2 inch size
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 1 bunch kale, stems removed and leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Lightly oil a baking sheet or coat with nonstick spray.
- Season chicken thighs with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1 teaspoon pepper.
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, add chicken, skin-side down, and sear both sides until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes per side.
- Place chicken in a single layer onto the prepared baking sheet.
- In a large bowl, combine potatoes, garlic, thyme, rosemary, lemon and 2 tablespoons olive oil; season with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Place potato mixture in a single layer around the chicken on the prepared baking sheet.
- Place into oven and bake until the chicken is almost cooked through and the potatoes are almost tender, about 25-30 minutes.
- In a large bowl, massage kale with remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil.
- Remove sheet pan from oven; stir potatoes and add kale. Place into oven and continue to roast for an additional 10-12 minutes, or until the kale has crisped. Let stand 5 minutes.
- Serve immediately.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Love this recipe!  I always season my chicken with garlic powder & onion powder as well as s&p. Often use boneless skinless chicken breast instead of thighs since family prefers white meat. It’s great no matter what!
Excellent and very pretty presentation with the dark green kale. Â I did add little peppers and grape tomatoes (color was really nice). Â Kale turned out a bit crispy and tasted great – no bitterness. Â
I did use bone in skin on thighs. Â (Cut off much of the skin but left the top pieces for crispness.
So yummy and easy to make!!!Â
This was a hit in my household! We will be making this often. Thanks!Â
I made this dish last night and it was all gone within minutes! I recently purchased a lemony thyme plant so I was excited to use fresh thyme for this dish–what a difference that makes! I followed the recipe exactly as written and would not change anything. This recipe will surely make it into the monthly rotation of recipes!
I substituted bone-in thighs for boneless and reduced the cook time by 5 or so minutes. I also added crushed garlic cloves and some onion wedges for more kick. I put some fresh chopped rosemary and fresh lemon juice on the chicken before putting it into the oven. Very easy and made for delicious leftovers the next day.
Great way to use the rosemary and lemons from my backyard in California!
Damn delish! My tweaks—I baked for 50-55 mins and I skipped pan-frying/searing the chicken. Used dried herbs instead of fresh (didn’t have fresh) and squeezed 1/2 lemon onto chicken. Stays on rotation.Â
I really liked, chicken had nice flavor .
I really liked this,
I used skinless, boneless chicken breasts cut in half,
and accidently left the pan in the oven an extra 10 minutes.
Due to my error, it was a little dry. I also didn’t have mini-potatoes,
so I used a regular russet potato cut into cubes.
My only critique would be I wish the chicken had a little more flavor.
If I were to make this again, I think I would perhaps squeeze a little
lemon on the chicken before baking or maybe pre-season and let it
soak in ahead of time. Otherwise, I thought it as great.
My 4 year old ate up the Kale and called it really yummy. (hooray!)
Literally make this 3x a month! 10/10 rating for sure!!
A+
The lemon Rosemary chicken thighs are awesome! Even The kale, whether you use it or if you don’t – at least  try it. It’s so much better than I thought it would be!! So great for a couples dinner, most steps are done early so you will be able to enjoy your company or family at dinner!
This is absolutely one of my favorite easy meals! I have made it probably 10 times in the last several months. It’s flavorful, healthy, and my kids will gobble it up! Usually the only meal they all gobble up is tacos, so this makes me happy!
Looks delicious! Is it okay to use chicken breast instead of thighs?
This has become one of our weekly meals! It’s so simple, but  feels like a fancy and decadent dish. Even our toddler approves!!
This is one of my absolute favourite recipes to use! That lemony flavor to the vegetables – absolutely yummy. I like adding other vegetables like carrots and beets as well! Next time I’m gonna try brining the chicken first for some added flavor and tenderness.
LIving up to its name, this dish is damn delicious! Made it last night with a package of 10 chicken thighs so the sheet pan was a little tight to stir in kale. Just layered it on top, then spooned some of the juice over it prior to serving. Used small russet potatoes quartered, fresh rosemary and dried thyme. Chicken and potatoes were cooked perfectly. Will definitely make again! Thanks!
Easy and delicious! I left out the thyme and used parsley on the potatoes. I didn’t have kale so I added asparagus from the start and it caramelized beautifully. As with all dishes I find on this site, there were hardly any leftovers!
Question: My daughter all of a sudden will NOT eat chicken thighs. Can this be made with breasts? If so, does it need to be bone in?
Jeannie – Sorry the “Damn Delicious” honcho didn’t respond – -I did it with Chicken Breasts (without bone) and it came out fine. Just watch to time. Bit shorter than using thighs,
Made this last night and it was delicious. My kids loved it. Simple to make. Your website and recipes are amazing. Thank youÂ
My husband and I loved the sheet pan rosemary lemon chicken! I cut the recipe down to 4 chicken thighs and I did it in my cast iron frying pan – in the oven, too! That way you don’t have to transfer the meat to the sheet pan unless you’re making the recipe with the larger amount of chicken. Then the frying pan wouldn’t be large enough to accommodate all the ingredients. Came out excellent! And I loved the kale. I think I’ve tried eating kale once before but didn’t like it. This I loved! The kale I purchased was all chopped up in cellophane bag. Perfect! Will be making this again. Loved using the tiny potatoes too.
OMG! this is so good, love the recipe will be trying it out soon. I am already salivating.
Hi,
I want to make this for my family while in quarantine, but we can only get chicken breast (which took weeks even for that). Can chicken breast be substituted for chicken thighs and what could or should be done to keep moist??Â
This may be  much too late to be helpful, but I made this with chicken breasts and it turned out lovely. I halved two chicken breasts (so there would be more pieces, like if I were using thighs) and used 2 tbsp olive oil instead of one, and they stayed moist!
Hello,
I have made a lot of you recipes. Have not found one that we did not love! Mexican street tacos…YUM!
I have skinless bone in chicken thighs, do you think they will work as well? I am not going to brown, since no skin.
The crispy kale is absolutely delicious! Â I will halve the baby potatoes next time, because we like them really crispy. Â A definite keeper.
Great recipe! Chicken was very moist and crispy on the outside. Flavor was good. Another win!Â
Absolutely delicious! Made it this quarentine for dinner!
Really good! I used sweet potatoes in place of regular, which was delicious, but the lemon took it to another level!
I have been cooking through your blog like crazy during this quarantine! Even my two year old eats almost everything I’ve made. My favorite recipe so far has been the beef bulgogi! We’ve made it once a week at least. So last night we took a break from the Asian inspired recipes and tried this one. It didn’t disappoint! This was our first time trying kale and I loved it!  Looking forward to cooking more damn delicious recipes.Â
Looking forward to trying this recipe it looks absolutely delicious. My family will not eat kale. can I substitute spinach?
Spinach might wilt instead of getting crispy like the kale would since kale is more of a sturdy vegetable and spinach has such a high water content. I think I’m going to try this recipe with broccoli or asparagus and adjust the cooking time for them since I don’t have kale and don’t want to go to the grocery store in this chaos.Â
Im hoping to cook this on Friday, it looks fabulous and I have most of the ingredients. Would it work well with chicken drumsticks? Due to hoard-shoppers it’s been impossible to get chicken thighs, but I have drumsticks in my freezer!
I tried to cook. My whole family like it. Im gonna make another one tomorrow.
I tried to cook it. My whole family ate it and asked for more. You are great.
Like your simple easy to follow, nutritious and lovely to look at recipes
Genius idea to make kale chips with this! Â Haven’t made it yet, but definitely will once supermarket shopping gets back to normal.
Just made this, it’s gone. Delicious, thank you. My family is very full and very happy. I only had frozen, boneless, skinless, chicken breast. Also, I only had broccoli. Looking forward to trying it with the thighs and Kale. Thank you for the recipe.
What is the bright yellow thing in the upper right corner of the picture?Â
Lemon
I love all your recipes. I also enjoy the way you have designed your blog…simple and easy to follow. Keep up the great work!