Green Herb Chicken Thighs: Healthy Make-Ahead Sheet Pan Dinner

This is one of my favourite meals to prep in the morning, and then all I have to do is throw it all together and into the oven to finish it up for dinner. It makes my mum life SO much easier!

Plus, I always make extra to use for leftovers the next day, so I've made the recipe big enough for you to do the same!

Serves 12 (so you have dinner tonight, lunch for tomorrow, and enough chicken leftover for dinner tomorrow; depending on the size of your family, you may have to make extra)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Marinating time: 30 minutes to 8 hours
Cook time: 40–45 minutes
Total time: about 1 hour 5 minutes, plus marinating

PREP NOTE: Marinate the chicken thighs in the morning so that it’s one less thing for you to do in the evening. You can also chop up the veggies and leave them on the baking trays ahead of time so you can make dinner quicker at 5pm!

INGREDIENTS:

• 24 Chicken thighs (bone-in, skin-on) (I usually account for a minimum of 2 per adult, so you can adjust this depending on the age of your kids and how much they eat. Remember I’ve factored in leftovers for lunch tomorrow.)

• Big handful of basil leaves (picked off the stem)

• Big handful of flat-leaf parsley (keep the stem)

• 4 cloves of garlic

• 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (basically enough so the blender doesn’t get stuck, so just use as much as you need)

• 1/4-1/2 of lemon juice

• Salt & pepper

• 3 Sweet potatoes, chopped into medium-sized cubes

• 2 Eggplants, chopped into sized cubes

• 1/2 Cabbage, chopped into chunks

• 2 Purple onions, chopped into chunks

METHOD:

• Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F.

• Blend the basil leaves, parsley, garlic, EVOO, lemon juice, salt, and pepper.

• Put the mixture all over the chicken thighs, and place in the fridge to sit all day until dinner time. (They also don’t need to marinate all day.)

• Toss the vegetables in a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.

• Place the marinated chicken thighs on 2-3 cooking trays with the chopped up sweet potato, eggplant, cabbage, and purple onion.

• Roast in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes, until the skin is golden and the chicken reaches 75°C / 165°F in the thickest part. Swap the trays between racks halfway through so they cook evenly.

Keep leftovers covered in the fridge for 3–4 days.

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