This is one of several recipies from Smitten Kitchen Every Day (also available on the Food Network) that are in our regular rotation. It is also one of several variations on the “chicken and veggies on a sheet pan” dinner, which we have at least a couple of times a month when it’s not too hot to use the oven.

Smoked paprika is the star of this one, and I also really like the pop from the olives. I’ve made this a ton of times and have found it to be very forgiving of different types of potatoes (just try to chop them all roughly the same size or width), and really you can just eyeball the amount of veggies you make. If your sheet pan is full, you’re on track. If it’s overflowing, pull out another pan and roast some of them separately. You won’t be sad to have extra veggies.

I don’t follow this to the letter. I almost always use dried thyme and add a little bit of smoked paprika when prepping the veggies. I don’t think I have ever added the finishing elements (although sometimes the veggies do need a little more salt at the table, so perhaps I should look into this).

I made a bigger change this time though, which was to use delicata squash instead of cauliflower. This came about mostly becuase our grocery delivery came with a too-small package of pre-chopped cauliflower instead of a whole head, and because I have a small stockpile of winter squash acquired over the course of the last few weeks of the farmer’s market. Delicata squash is delicous so it worked really well here, but I did miss the textural contrast of the cauliflower against the potatoes.

I should note that in my oven this cooks up faster than the recipe says. I (carefully) toss the veggies at 15 minutes in, and check the chicken and a few of the bigger pieces of potatoes at 30 minutes. More often than not the chicken is done and so are the potatoes. But the nice thing about using bone-in skin-on chicken is that it won’t dry out if you need to roast it for the full 45 minutes.