For the past few months, this Garlic-Parm Roast Chicken with Potatoes is what everyone wants for dinner. Whole chicken legs are coated in an obscene amounts of garlic, doused in lemon, mayo, and mustard and seasoned with sweet herbs and paprika. Then all of this goodness roasts together over potatoes, whole cloves of garlic, and veggies. This all forms perfectly crispy-edged bed of fluffy potato bites topped with the juiciest, most flavorful chicken around. I know many of you may be focused on summer meals, but for those of us in cooler climates playing hide and seek with spring for a few more weeks. If it’s a cold rainy day, this garlic-parm chicken will (almost) make that bad weather a blessing in disguise.
Here’s my inarticulate, basic girl attempt at expressing how well balanced the flavors and textures of this meal are: This meal is so damn good. It is a thousand times better than any roasted chicken and potatoes served at a fancy restaurant. The lemon makes chicken and potatoes bright and light feeling, the Parmesan provides umami depth that amps what you get from the roasted garlic and fennel, and the mustard, paprika, and herbs give it all life. Well, now I need to go make this for dinner, again.
As always, let me know if you have any thoughts or questions about the recipe below. I live for conversations about recipes and food. I spend a silly porition of my day thinking about food, and I love it when other people do too.
Notes
Note about Roasting with Mayonnaise
Mayo coated chicken is a beautiful trick (it’s amazing with turkey and fish as well) and you can listen to Kenji Alt Lopez talk about it during this episode of The Splendid Table Podcast. Your meal will not taste or look like it’s covered in mayo. We have some mayo haters in my family, and they love this recipe. The idea is that the protein holds its juices so much better with mayo (as opposed to butter or other oil because it doesn’t just slide off the meat.
Note about the Best Pan for this Recipe
This pan by Mesin is my favorite for sheet pan cooking. I don’t know what else to say. If I’m making sheet pan meals, roasting poultry, or baking a large focaccia, this pan is the best. (I have an old high school friend who works for the company, but this is my opinion and they no idea I’m writing this).
Key Ingredients
whole chicken legs
golden potatoes
garlic
lemon
Parmesan
paprika
mayonnaise
olive oil
Garlic-Parm Roasted Chicken
Serves 5-6. Takes about 60 minutes to make (including all prepping). Adapted from NYT Garlic and Parmesan Roast Chicken Thighs by Toni Chapman
Ingredients
Potato-Veggie Mélange Ingredients
- 2-3 pounds of gold potatoes cut into bite-sized pieces
- 8 cloves of garlic, in their skin
- 1 medium fennel bulb chopped into bite-sized pieces
- 1 medium onion chopped into bite sized-pieces
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- 3 springs of fresh thyme (optional)
- 3 T olive oil (plus more for greasing the pan)
Chicken Marinade Ingredients
- 6 whole chicken legs (or about 4 pounds thighs/legs)
- ½ cup mayo (or if your shy about mayo: ¼ cup mayo plus ¼ cup olive oil)
- 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
- 4 cloves of garlic, minced
- zest and juice of ½ lemon
- ½ teaspoon onion powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon Italian seasoning (or mix of oregano and thyme)
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon sweet paprika
- Cracked pepper to taste
Ingredients to Finish
- 2 ounces finely shredded Parmesan
- ½ lemon
- Fresh parsley to garnish (optional)
Step One
Preheat oven to 380 degrees (or 360 convection). Grease bottom of large metal roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon olive oil. Using a large mixing bowl, combine potatoes, fennel, onion, and garlic cloves then sprinkle all of the seasoning (paprika, salt, garlic powder, onion powder), and 2 tablespoons of olive oil on top. Mix to coat potatoes and then pour it all onto greased pan. Put the potatoes in the oven to cook for about 15 minutes while you prep the chicken.
Step Two
Put chicken in the large mixing bowl used for the potatoes. Set aside. In a medium sized bowl (I use a cereal bowl), combine the all ingredients for the marinade (mayo, minced garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon zest, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder, sweet paprika, Italian seasoning, salt, and cracked pepper). Mix the marinade then pour over the chicken in the bowl making sure to coat the chicken completely. Once chicken is coated and about (15 minutes has passed) take the potatoes out of the oven and carefully set in a heat safe location. Turn oven temperature up to 400 (380 convection). Place chicken thighs on top of the potatoes and then return the whole thing to the oven.
Step Three
Roast potatoes and chicken until chicken reaches about 180 degrees (30-40 minutes) and the potatoes are tender and crispy. Sprinkle finely shredded Parmesan over the chicken and potatoes cook for another 1 minute. (If the chicken skin is not crispy, turn the broiler on to crisp it up). Remove pan from oven, squeeze lemon juice over top and sprinkle with fresh chopped parsley.
Enjoy immediately. But also, potatoes and chicken both reheat phenomenally well.