I think if I were to summarize my recent trekking adventure in a single sentence, that sentence would be “Holy moly, it was exhausting.” The phrases I’ve been using with actual people who ask me how it was are more like “It was incredible!” or “It was the trip of a lifetime!” or other cliche responses because I can’t bring myself to come up with anything more truthful or original, but underlying all of it is the fact that I am just …pooped.

I’m also hungry. However, my grand ambitions to do things like make fresh food to feed myself (or also, like, pick up my pants from the dry cleaner where they’ve been for a month) are completely out of sync with the reality that I am struggling to stay up past 7:30pm, sleep for fewer than 14 hours per night and not get completely wiped out by the 30 minutes of walking that my daily commute requires. I did manage to make a one-pot pasta meal last week, which took me several days to muster the energy to tackle, and spent the weekend pretending to be my old self by baking a deep-dish apple pie (which sounds better than it was, sadly) and making a crazy cabbage stuffed with sausage and chestnuts, which was delicious but decidedly ugly.

But onto the topic at hand. Projects are well and good, and I’ve got homemade soba noodles on the docket for next weekend (I know, I know). But sometimes you need to eat your dinner from a sheetpan because it is cost-effective, delicious and, most importantly, takes little to no effort. Critical when you are recovering from a trek in the Himalayas and also when you are simply recovering from a day at the office, or really just any old day.

Also, I’ve been harboring this recipe for more than six months now. I made it (twice!) just as the weather was getting warmer in the spring and suddenly it was too late for oven-roasted chicken and bacon. So consider it THAT GOOD that it has not been forgotten, and is coming out of reverse hibernation just in time for autumn chills.

Print
Sheet-Pan Chicken with Sourdough and Bacon

Category: Main Course

Servings: Serves 6

Ingredients

  • 1/2 lb. sourdough boule, cut or torn into 2-inch pieces
  • 1/2 lb. slab bacon, cut into 1-by- 1/2-inch lardons
  • 1 large baking potato—scrubbed, halved crosswise and cut into 3/4-inch wedges
  • 1 large red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
  • 2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced
  • 4 oregano sprigs
  • 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
  • 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt
  • Black pepper
  • 6 whole chicken legs

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°. On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss the bread, bacon, potato, onion, butter, oregano and crushed red pepper with the olive oil and season generously with salt and black pepper. Spread in an even layer. Season the chicken with salt and black pepper and arrange on the bread mixture.
  2. Roast the chicken and bread mixture for about 45 minutes, until the bread is crisp and an instant-read thermometer inserted in the chicken registers 160°. Serve.

Notes

https://www.thekitchenchronicles.com/2018/10/30/sheet-pan-chicken-with-sourdough-and-bacon/