Sheet-pan chicken thighs with lemon potatoes

One pan, one oven, one thing to wash. Crisp-skinned thighs roast on top of potatoes, which cook in the drippings. The weeknight default for the oven season.

yield: Serves 4
active: 15 min
total: 1 h 5 min
oven: 220°C / 425°F

Posted September 29, 2026

Ingredients

6 to 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 1.4 kg / 3 lb)
700 g (1 1/2 lb) small potatoes, halved
4 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
2 tbsp olive oil
2 3/4 tsp kosher salt, divided (use about half as much fine table salt)
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp dried oregano
1 lemon, halved
A handful of parsley, chopped

Method

Heat the oven to 220°C / 425°F. Give it a full 20 minutes.
Pat the chicken very dry with paper towels. Season all over with 2 tsp of the salt, the pepper, and the oregano.
On a rimmed sheet pan, toss the potatoes with the olive oil, the garlic, and the remaining 3/4 tsp salt. Spread them in a single layer.
Set the thighs skin side up on top of the potatoes, spaced so they are not touching.
Roast 35 to 45 minutes, until the skin is deep golden and the thickest thigh reads at least 74°C / 165°F. Thighs are juiciest around 80°C / 175°F.
Squeeze the lemon over everything, rest 5 minutes, scatter the parsley, and serve straight from the pan.

Notes

Use small potatoes, or cut larger ones into 3 cm (1 1/4 in) chunks. Big pieces will still be firm when the chicken is done.
No thermometer: pierce the thickest thigh near the bone. The juices should run clear, not pink.

sheet-pan-chicken.sh21 lines, do not run

#!/usr/bin/env bash# sheet-pan-chicken.sh# one pan, one oven, one thing to wash. serves 4.set -euo pipefail   # stop at the first sign of smokepreheat --oven 425F           # 220C. give it a real 20 minutes.pat-dry chicken-thighs --count 8salt add --to chicken-thighs 2tspseason chicken-thighs --with black-pepper oreganotoss potatoes --halved --with olive-oil:2tbsp garlic:4 salt:0.75tspspread potatoes --pan sheet --single-layer   # crowding = steamingplace chicken-thighs --on potatoes --skin-side uproast --for 40m --until "skin is deep gold" \      --probe 175F            # safe at 165F. better at 175F.squeeze lemon --over panrest --for 5mgarnish parsley && serve --from pan

# The script is the joke. The ingredients and method are the recipe.