Sheet pan Dinners

[lindag]

Lately, because of the hot weather, I’ve gotten into sheet pan recipes and I’ve found the perfect summertime easy meals.

Fresh vegetables that include asparagus, red onion, radish, carrot, bell pepper and yellow potato wedges.  Roasted for 10 minutes (or so) then added some fresh wild-caught cod fillets and back into the oven for another 10+ minutes.  Drizzled it with balsamic vinegar and it was wonderful.

[Darienne]

I've never heard of sheet pan recipes before, but your idea sounds brilliant.  Thanks for posting it.

 

Edited July 30, 2020 by Darienne (log)

[chromedome]

Sheet pan meals were a real "thing" a few years back, I remember being paid to write a few articles about them.

 

Tonight's dinner is almost but not quite that...potatoes, cauli and broccoli roasted in the oven, but the chicken cutlets are pan-fried.

[heidih]

Yes as @chromedome mentioned it became a term a few years ago. Part of "easy cooking" blog and instagram trend. Basically roasting things on the same sheet pan - how novel!  But it works. You just have to gauge the timing of different elements.

[JAZ]

I wrote a cookbook for Ninja's new (at the time) digital air-fry convection oven that was all done on the sheet pan that comes with the oven. I discovered that with a little ingenuity, you can make a lot of meals on a sheet pan. For instance, I developed a recipe for an oven version of a shrimp boil, and found a way to do oven versions of typical stir-fry dishes. Fajitas are amazingly easy to do on a sheet pan, if you just time the veg and meat components corectly.

[Margaret Pilgrim]

Tycoon Henry Kayser, starting with a cement business, built his empire with the motto “Find a need and fill it.”

 

Today we seem to be inundated with “fills” in search of “needs”.

[pastameshugana]

2 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Tycoon Henry Kayser, starting with a cement business, built his empire with the motto “Find a need and fill it.”

 

Today we seem to be inundated with “fills” in search of “needs”.

Touché. However, as messy as my cooking adventures can be, I am drawn to techniques that cut the clean up a bit. 

[chromedome]

10 hours ago, Margaret Pilgrim said:

Tycoon Henry Kayser, starting with a cement business, built his empire with the motto “Find a need and fill it.”

 

Today we seem to be inundated with “fills” in search of “needs”.

It's not necessarily a bad thing. The laser was derided as "a solution in search of a problem" for the first several years of its existence, and it wound up being a foundational technology once we got our collective head wrapped around its capabilities.

[Bernie]

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnip, swede mushrooms, capsicum, tomatoes all large cubes (not much of any one) Add a slab of pork belly on top, cross scored & liberally salted on the top (covering the veges) cook slowly ending with a grill to get crackling.

One pan and heavenly rendering of fat to cook the veges in.

 

(save the resulting leavings for future use)

[MokaPot]

Plain roasted carrots (with oil and salt) are amazingly delicious. I don't know exactly what it is or why. Maybe the concentration of the flavor after roasting (evaporation) plus the caramelization. That plus some corkscrew pasta and feta cheese.

[Alex]

Melissa Clark has several articles about this in the New York Times: one two three

[heidih]

31 minutes ago, Alex said:

Melissa Clark has several articles about this in the New York Times: one two three

Yes her broccoli and shrimp has been mentioned here. (I am a fan girl in general of MC)  

[Toliver]

1 hour ago, MokaPot said:

Plain roasted carrots (with oil and salt) are amazingly delicious. I don't know exactly what it is or why. Maybe the concentration of the flavor after roasting (evaporation) plus the caramelization. That plus some corkscrew pasta and feta cheese.

I've posted this previously around here somewhere, but sheet pan roasting carrots with cumin gave off the most delicious aroma while they roasted.

And yet when I had them with my supper, the cumin was barely there. Odd, to say the least.

Yes, thumbs up on sheet pan roasted carrots.

[heidih]

22 minutes ago, Toliver said:

I've posted this previously around here somewhere, but sheet pan roasting carrots with cumin gave off the most delicious aroma while they roasted.

And yet when I had them with my supper, the cumin was barely there. Odd, to say the least.

Yes, thumbs up on sheet pan roasted carrots.

 

I prefer the Kenji idea of a little pre cook so they are not beef jerky carrot. I do not par-boil  simply nuke with bit of water.

o

[Anna N]

I don’t think we have a topic devoted to sheetpan meals. I know that. @weinooseems to make them quite successfully. Recently in the dinner thread. @MaryIsobelmade one which looks very successful.
Here

These look like the perfect answer for someone who does not want to (or cannot) spend much time in the kitchen nor have a sink full of dishes to clean afterwards. I have made the odd one, but rarely have they turned out very successfully.  I would love for you to share your combinations and methods for overcoming the issue of overcooked and undercooked ingredients. Cookbooks devoted to the subject do not seem to have tested the recipes very well if my results mean anything. They seem to choose some inappropriate combination of ingredients in order to accumulate enough recipes to justify a book.  I would be quite happy with 3 to 5 dishes to choose from. 

 

One hint I have received from @blue_dolphinis to keep like ingredients together, so if one of them does cook more quickly, it can easily be removed.

 

Any other hints to a successful sheetpan dinner? Thanks.
 

[Tropicalsenior]

22 minutes ago, Anna N said:

the issue of overcooked and undercooked ingredients.

Admittedly, I am only cooking for two but I have had better luck cooking things in a glass casserole dish. It's a lot easier to clean than a sheet pan. The only way that I have done it successfully is to parboil some ingredients that I know will take longer to cook and I guess that defeats the whole idea of one pan cooking.

[kayb]

Not exactly a sheet pan meal, but I like to take tiny potatoes (new potatoes if they’re in season), roast in my CSO for about 15 minutes, then put pork chops or chicken thighs on top and roast. Toss potatoes in olive oil and spices of choice first. And line the pan with foil.

 

Have also done this with sausages and potatoes, and with summer squash, cubed up. Can do it with eggplant, or with cubed butternut squash, or whatever. It’s good to coat chicken tenderloins in a Chile powder/brown sugar combo and put those on top of cubed sweet potatoes.

 

Just put whatever needs to cook longer in first, for however long it needs, add what doesn’t need to cook as long, then back into the oven.

[MaryIsobel]

I sent this to my sister when she expressed interest in sheet pan meals, but was stymied by what to cook with what and for how long. The one I made last night was everything in at once for the same amount of time, and for that combination, the method worked well. Obvisously you couldn't cook thin fish and potatoes at the same temp for the same time, but it's easy enough to add different things at different times. Here's the chart which will give you an idea. http://jessicaiveyrdn.com/2019/08/sheet-pan-dinner-infographic/

[rotuts]

I firs became aware of this sort of cooking

 

was from Jamie Oliver 

 

very early on in his career 

 

with videos , that reflected his early books .

 

there was a party of guests 

 

and he did a sheet pan , or pad w a larger lip

 

and added the various ingredients 

 

at different times , so it all came out perfect 

 

and restaurant quality 

 

as I did a few just as he did.

 

than's for the reminder

 

Ill think about using the CSO

 

and it would be ,dinner  for One ?

 

some leftovers for breakfast ?

[&roid]

31 minutes ago, rotuts said:

I firs became aware of this sort of cooking

 

was from Jamie Oliver 

 

very early on in his career 

 

with videos , that reflected his early books .

 

there was a party of guests 

 

and he did a sheet pan , or pad w a larger lip

 

and added the various ingredients 

 

at different times , so it all came out perfect 

 

and restaurant quality 

 

as I did a few just as he did.

 

than's for the reminder

 

Ill think about using the CSO

 

and it would be ,dinner  for One ?

 

some leftovers for breakfast ?

He did a great one when cooking a meal for then prime minister, Tony Blair. Seem to remember it was something like sea bass fillets, sliced potatoes, mushrooms and was dressed with salsa verde afterwards. Like you I’ve made it a couple of times but not in years… must fix that

[rotuts]

the one I remember was for

 

a party for his wife , and her friends 

 

possibly before she was his wife ...

 

I have int somewhere 

 

green beans ( fresh ) , potatoes 

 

chicken , mushrooms 

 

in rows , based on when the stuff was put in.

 

Im going to have to dig those videos out.

 

 

[Maison Rustique]

I cook this way often, but don't really do recipes--just start putting stuff on a pan, add seasoning and start roasting. Whatever takes longest to cook goes in first, then the smaller items get added later. 

[liamsaunt]

I cook this way sometimes, but find that you have to add things in stages or stuff turns out over or underdone.  One favorite in this house is sheet pan fish with peppers.  I roast the peppers for a while and add the fish and capers toward the end.  I usually serve it with crispy potatoes.  

 

sheet pan fish with sweet peppers

[Anna N]

14 minutes ago, liamsaunt said:

I cook this way sometimes, but find that you have to add things in stages or stuff turns out over or underdone

This seems to be the secret. I guess too many people have tried to suggest that everything can be put on the sheetpan  at the same time.  (This was in fact, the way I discovered one pan cooking. I believe it was a Nigella Lawson recipe. Here). I realize from reading through that recipe now that it was not so much a sheetpan meal as a roasting pan meal, but it was very simple. Then sheet pan/traybake meals took off and cookbooks were written, and testing was neglected, methinks.  Ever the optimist I was hoping for some magic formula, which would pair proteins and vegetables in such a way that each would cook in the same amount of time. I have given my head a shake, and realize how unlikely that is.

[blue_dolphin]

3 minutes ago, Anna N said:

I was hoping for some magic formula, which would pair proteins and vegetables in such a way that each would cook in the same amount of time. I have given my head a shake, and realize how unlikely that is.

I suspect that with much experience and a good dose of luck, one can achieve the result you desire.  I also think that a small change to even one variable:  exact size of cuts, moisture content of ingredients, ratio of one ingredient to another, # of servings, size of pan, oven size and type, etc, and it's all out the window.