Sheet Pan Harissa Chicken! If you're not familiar with harissa, it's a blend of chiles, spices, garlic, and olive oil. It livens up simple chicken and veggies in this sheet-pan dinner!

Photography Credit: Sheryl Julian

The star ingredient here isn’t the chicken or the vegetables, but a warm, bright, red pepper paste from North Africa that is both hot and smoky called harissa.

Our Favorite Videos Get Recipe »

WHAT IS HARISSA?

Harissa is a red-colored paste blended from chilies, spices, garlic, and olive oil. Nearly every family in its region of origin has its own formula.

Think of harissa as a cross between your favorite hot sauce (especially if that hot sauce is sriracha) and ketchup (if ketchup were made with peppers instead of tomatoes).

A little goes a long way, so I like to stir olive oil and a little cumin and coriander into harissa to stretch it. In this sheet-pan of chicken, carrots, and cauliflower, I put dabs of the harissa on everything; it mixes with the cooking juices to make the dish warm and mildly hot.

WHERE TO BUY HARISSA

You can buy harissa in a tube or jar, and they’re all different. It can be lipstick red or so dark that it’s almost burgundy. It also comes in powdered form, and in that case, follow the label instructions to rehydrate.

Look for it in the condiment aisle of a store that carries a lot of specialty ingredients, such as Whole Foods, or order it online.

HOW TO MAKE THIS SHEET PAN CHICKEN

Buy chicken pieces on the bone for this recipe—whole legs, thighs, or bone-in breasts. They work best because they need to cook longer than boned (which helps everything finish cooking at the same time), and their juices baste the vegetables as they cook. Before you cook the chicken, rub it with a little of the harissa sauce and let it sit in the fridge for as long as you have. An hour is okay, but the longer, the better—up to 12 hours. Let carrots, cauliflower, sweet onion, and lemon slices get a head start in the hot oven, covered in foil, for about 20 minutes until they’re nearly softened. Then uncover and give them another 15 minutes or so. Finally, add the chicken and continue cooking 30 minutes more.

This seems like a lot of time for roasting vegetables, I understand! But by the end of cooking, these slow-cooked vegetables have become incredibly juicy and charred in spots. The lemon and onions become very soft, so their sweet and tart flavors mingle in the dish, and the chicken skin is crisp with a pleasing heat.

MAKE-AHEAD TIP

There is no way to shorten the vegetable roasting time, but you can make them a day ahead, refrigerate, and let the pan come to room temperature before adding the chicken and finishing the recipe.

To prepare the dish partially in advance, cook the vegetables with the foil, and then with the foil off (through step 4). Cool, cover with the foil, and refrigerate. Before serving, remove the foil and let the vegetables come to room temperature. Then add the chicken and finish roasting.

MORE SHEET PAN RECIPES TO TRY!