Name: One-Pan Chicken with Kale and Butternut Squash
Total time: 1 h 15 min
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: ½ cup cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil; 2 tablespoons minced fresh sage; 2 teaspoons honey; Salt and pepper; ¾ cup organic plain low-fat yogurt; 1 tablespoon water; 7 garlic cloves, peeled (6 whole, 1 minced); 1 teaspoon grated orange zest; 8 ounces kale, stemmed and cut into 2-inch pieces; 2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1-inch pieces (6 cups); 8 shallots, peeled and halved; ½ cup dried cranberries; 2 teaspoons paprika; 4 (8- to 10-ounce) organic bone-in split chicken breasts, trimmed of all visible fat and halved crosswise

Why This Recipe Works

Chicken plus dark leafy greens plus starchy vegetable is an equation for a complete, satisfying, nutritious meal that the baking sheet is so successful at adding up. While we often stagger the cooking for multicomponent meals, we’re able to roast these three very different ingredients together at the same rate thanks to the way we placed them on the sheet. We mixed the kale—massaged for tenderness—and squash with seasoned oil, halved shallots, bright dried cranberries, and whole garlic cloves. We spread the vegetables across the sheet and then placed paprika-seasoned skin-on halved chicken breasts right on top of the vegetables to elevate them from the pan and to let their drippings flavor the veggies. Once everything was cooked, we tossed the vegetables—the tender caramelized squash and shallots and the appealingly crispy kale—with the chicken juices and served everything with a unifying yogurt sauce.

Before You Begin

Both curly and Lacinato kale will work.

Instructions

Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 475 degrees. Whisk oil, sage, honey, ¾ teaspoon salt, and ½ teaspoon pepper together in large bowl until well combined. In separate bowl whisk together yogurt, water, minced garlic, orange zest, and 1 tablespoon oil mixture, then season with salt and pepper to taste; set aside.

Vigorously squeeze and massage kale with hands in large bowl until leaves are uniformly darkened and slightly wilted, about 1 minute. Add squash, shallots, cranberries, whole garlic cloves, and ¼ cup oil mixture and toss to combine. Whisk paprika into remaining oil mixture, then add chicken to oil mixture and toss to coat.

Spread vegetable mixture in single layer on rimmed baking sheet, then place chicken, skin side up, on top of vegetables. Bake until chicken registers 160 degrees, 25 to 35 minutes, rotating sheet halfway through baking.

Remove skin from chicken and discard if desired. Transfer chicken to serving platter, tent with aluminum foil, and let rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Toss vegetables with any accumulated chicken juices and transfer to platter with chicken. Drizzle ¼ cup yogurt sauce over chicken and vegetables and serve, passing remaining yogurt sauce separately.