The Chicken and Rice, Street Cart Style is a favorite from Smitten Kitchen Every Day. It’s one of those dinners that seems like a lot of work, but once the chicken is in the marinade you have plenty of time to prep everything else. It’s also got a built in pause point. If you’re still working on prep when the rice is done, just take it off the heat and leave it in the pot while you finish your prep. Then once everything else is ready, go back and do the last step, which is to finish the chicken.

The main tweak that I’ve made to this one is the white sauce. I use greek yogurt, since that’s what I have on hand, and for my taste it needs more mayo and vinegar to get a nice tangy sauce. This time I did 3TB each mayo and vinegar, which was pretty perfect. But it does make a lot of sauce. (It comes together super fast, so would be easy to make some more for leftovers if you’re not sure you’ll want it all.) Since yogurt can vary a lot, start with the ratios Deb recommends and adjust to your taste. I do tend to skip making the red sauce, mostly because we are both content to just hit it with some Cholula.

I also recommend that you think about how much rice to make. The recipe makes a lot! And it’s delicious, but if you get pitas, too, it may be too much depending on who you’re feeding. It will definitely be too much if you make a half batch of chicken, which I actually do not recommend. Make the full batch of chicken, the leftovers for this are so good. (I made a half batch this time and I’m regretting it. We just have one small serving of chicken left, and while I’ll sub chickpeas when that runs out it won’t be the same.)

I realize that there have been a lot of “I’ve made this before” entries for a project called “Why haven’t I made that?” but this illustrates how much Deb’s recipes are already in our repertoire. The Crispy Tofu with Sesame-Peanut Pesto is a favorite from Smitten Kitchen Every Day.

I make this as described, though I do tend to make more broccoli than she calls for. Sometimes so much that it won’t fit on one sheet pan, and the one with the tofu gets the overflow. I like to make things veggie-heavy anyway, and this also stretches the meal for us. (We typically get two dinners and one lunch out of it.) I usually don’t make rice with this, but that’s a good way to stretch it if you don’t have or want as much broccoli. Either way there’s plenty of sauce to go around, although we do add chili crisp as well.

The peanut pesto is the star here. The sesame seeds mostly stay whole, and the peanuts are blitzed down to slightly larger pieces. I wouldn’t call it a chunky sauce but it’s got a great texture. I also appreciate that this is a sheet pan dinner. No need to manage things coming in and out of a hot skillet.

It’s not necessarily super fast but it is very easy, which is nice during a busy week. I cut up the tofu and press the cubes while I prep the broccoli and the oven preheats. If I’m not sure when my husband will be done with work, or if it’s too early to actually cook, I’ll make the pesto and then pause there. Otherwise, once the broccoli is ready I finish up with the tofu and make the pesto while it’s in the oven. I like to get a good char on the broccoli and some color on the tofu, so I’ll usually let this roast for the maximum time, tossing the broccoli and flipping the tofu once.

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.