Harissa Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner (2024)

This Harissa chicken sheet pan dinner, with leeks, potatoes, and yogurt sauce, is herby, flavorful, and takes chicken and potatoes to a whole new level.

This harissa chicken with potatoes, leeks, and a garlicky yogurt sauce is simple to make and can be ready in less than 90 minutes. It's a perfect "dinner for four" meal all in one pan. All you need is a salad and rolls and you're set!

This meal includes juicy chicken thighs (or you can use drumsticks), crispy Yukon Gold potatoes, leeks, and harissa. It's a great dinner for when you have company. It's easy but looks impressive.

What is Harissa?

Harissa is a Moroccan/North African red pepper paste. It has a smoky flavor and comes in various levels of spicyness. You can make your own if you like, but I'm a big fan of the Mina brand, which comes in spicy, green, and mild flavors and is readily available in my local grocery store in the hot sauce section (yes, there's a whole 10 foot section of shelves of hot sauces).

I keep a jar in my fridge to add to eggs, sauté with shrimp, season seafood, make an aioli for burgers.... it's so versatile!

It's become one of my favorite condiments and I go through a jar pretty quickly (as you can tell by the almost empty jar below).

Additional Ingredients You'll Need to Make this Sheet Pan Dinner:

For the Chicken: Use skin-on bone-in thighs and/or legs. I used four large thighs.

For the Potatoes: I used Yukon Gold but if you prefer, you can also use the smaller gold Dutch Baby yellow potatoes. There's no need to peel the potatoes.

Leeks: You'll need the white and light green parts of the leeks. To clean them, cut them in half lengthwise, and then thinly slice them into crescents before washing them thoroughly in several changes of water.

To Season and Marinate the Chicken and Potatoes: Olive oil, salt, pepper, ground cumin, and the harissa.

To Season the Leeks: Lemon zest, salt, pepper, and olive oil.

For the Sauce: Plain yogurt, garlic, and salt and pepper.

Herbs: Fresh dill and fresh parsley.

The chicken is juicy, the potatoes are crispy, and the entire meal is super flavorful.

How to Make This Chicken and Potatoes Dinner:

First, you toss the chicken and potatoes in the olive oil, harissa, cumin, and salt and pepper and let it marinade for about 30 minutes.

Next, you toss together the leeks and the lemon zest with more olive oil and salt and pepper.

After that, arrange the chicken and potatoes on a half sheet pan. Be sure to spread everything apart so that it can all get nice and crispy. You don't want to overcrowd the sheet pan.

Equipment You May Need:

The only thing you'll need is a half sheet pan. USA Pan is one of my favorite brands. It does really well in a super hot oven. I also love Nordic Ware for the same reason.

For washing and drying the leeks, a small salad spinner comes in super handy.

You can serve this dinner directly from the sheet pan or transfer the ingredients to a serving platter and garnish it with the sauce and herbs.

Leftovers:

While this dish is not great as a make-ahead meal, leftovers are pretty fabulous reheated in the toaster oven or oven.

You can also recrisp everything by reheating the chicken and potatoes in an air fryer for a few minutes.

More Sheet Pan Dishes You May Also Enjoy:

Sheet Pan Roasted Chicken and Potatoes

Sheet Pan Shrimp, Roasted Potatoes, and Prosciutto

Sheet Pan Pancakes

Halibut with Corn and Sausage Sheet Pan Dinner

Sheet Pan No Bake Banana Split Cheesecake

This is my next installment in the Alphabet Challenge. Our group is sharing recipes that begin with a letter in the alphabet, and today the letter is "H."

From ham, to honeydew, to hazelnuts, to hamburgers, and haricots, there are so many choices! Check out everyone's recipes representing the letter "H."

Sneha’s Recipe:Homemade Hollandaise Sauce
Culinary Cam:Halva with Fiori di Sicilia
Mayuri’s Jikoni:Panna Cotta With Hibiscus Berry Sauce
A Day in the Life on the Farm:Corned Beef and Cabbage Hash
Jolene’s Recipe Journal:Spicy Hashbrown Waffles
Blogghetti:Grilled Hawaiian Ham Skewers
Palatable Pastime:Batter Fried Halloumi Cheese
Karen’s Kitchen Stories:Harissa Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Food Lust People Love:Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
Magical Ingredients:Hummus Herb paratha
Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice:Sweet Honey Deviled Eggs with Fennel Fronds

Harissa Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner

Yield: 4

Ingredients

1 1/2 pounds bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and/or legs
1 1/4 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes (about 2 medium) cut into 1 1/2 inch chunks
3 teaspoons kosher salt
3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons harissa
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
4 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts, halved lengthwise, thinly sliced widthwise, and rinsed and thoroughly dried.
1/2 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
1/2 cup plain full fat yogurt
1 garlic clove, grated
Handful of finely chopped fresh dill and parsley
Lemon wedges as needed

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine the chicken pieces and potatoes. Sprinkle with 2 1/2 teaspoons of the salt and 1/2 teaspoon of the pepper. In another small bowl, whisk together the harissa, cumin, and 3 tablespoons of the olive oil. Drizzle this mixture over the chicken and potatoes and toss everything together. Let rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.
In a medium bowl, toss together the leeks, lemon zest, 1/4 teaspoon of the salt, and 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil.
Heat your oven to 425 degrees F.
Place the chicken and potatoes on a baking sheet with plenty of space between and roast for 20 minutes.
Remove the pan from the oven and gently toss the potatoes. Sprinkle the leek mixture over everything and return the pan to the oven. Bake for an additional 20 to 25 minutes, until the chicken pieces reach 165 degrees F.
To prepare the yogurt sauce, whisk together the yogurt with the garlic, along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 teaspoon of pepper.
To serve drizzle some of the yogurt sauce over the chicken and potatoes and top with the dill and parsley. Serve with lemon wedges and extra yogurt sauce.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

621

Fat (grams)

41 g

Sat. Fat (grams)

9 g

Carbs (grams)

35 g

Fiber (grams)

4 g

Net carbs

31 g

Sugar (grams)

5 g

Protein (grams)

28 g

Cholesterol (grams)

146 mg

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2024/04/harissa-chicken-sheet-pan-dinner.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

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This recipe was adapted from Melissa Clark's wonderful book, Dinner: Changing the Game(published in 2017, you would not believe how many recipes I've bookmarked in this book). I have a ton of her books, including Dinner in One,Dinner in French, Dinner in an Instant, Comfort in an Instant.

She also spent years collaborating with chefs in writing their own cookbooks. My favorite is The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern by Claudia Fleming.