Busy Weeknights? These Effortless Sheet-Pan Dinners Practically Cook Themselves

A plated dish with roasted chicken thighs, asparagus, and a creamy sauce — Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

There may be no kitchen tool more versatile than the sheet pan. We use it to bake the perfect chocolate chip cookies and roast broccoli until its edges are crisped and brown. But the sheet pan is great for so much more. When you're short on time and can't fathom washing more than two or three dishes, you can bring an entire meal together on a single tray. As our editorial director, Daniel, says: "At their best, sheet-pan dinners are easy, convenient, and delicious. The key is to be smart about them." Below, you'll find our favorite dinners that make the most of a sheet pan, including a fabulously easy chicken piccata, skirt steak fajitas, and broiled shrimp.

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Sheet-Pan Chicken Marbella

Serious Eats / Niedle Creative

In contributor Rebecca Firkser's twist on classic chicken Marbella, tender chicken thighs, prunes, and olives quickly soak up a tangy marinade in a bowl as the oven preheats. As the chicken roasts, the rendered fat melds with the marinade to create a rich, salty-sweet pan sauce that you'll spoon over the chicken and rice or couscous. The dish can be served hot, cold, or at room temperature, making it ideal for both dinner parties and weeknights.

Sheet-Pan Chicken Marbella
Sheet-Pan Gnocchi With Sausage and Broccoli Rabe

Serious Eats / Victor Protasio

The beauty of using a sheet pan to cook store-bought gnocchi is that it turns a common downside into a strength. Light and tender homemade gnocchi are too delicate to try to brown in a skillet or roast in the oven—they'd just fall apart, destroying all your hard work. Here, store-bought gnocchi, Italian sausage, broccoli rabe, and cherry tomatoes cook on a single sheet pan, making prep and clean up a breeze.

Sheet-Pan Gnocchi With Sausage and Broccoli Rabe
Sheet-Pan Salmon With Tomato-Eggplant Compote

Photograph: Vicky Wasik

Need more proof that fish can be an easy weeknight protein? Let this tender salmon with tomato-eggplant compote convince you. Most stew-making projects are best reserved for the weekend, when you have plenty of time to cook. But this easy tomato-eggplant one comes together quickly, on the same pan you use to cook the salmon until it's flaky and tender.

Sheet-Pan Salmon With Tomato-Eggplant Compote
Sheet-Pan Chimichurri Chicken

Serious Eats / Qi Ai

In this minimal-effort chicken dinner, bright cilantro chimichurri doubles as both a flavorful marinade and a zingy green sauce for the finished dish. Salting the zucchini draws out excess moisture, preventing the dish from becoming soggy, and a touch of honey in the chicken marinade lends subtle sweetness.

Sheet-Pan Chimichurri Chicken

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Sheet-Pan Chicken Piccata

Serious Eats / Jatin Sharma

Like classic chicken piccata, this streamlined version is juicy and saucy, with chicken cutlets nestled in a buttery sauce with sliced lemons and shallots. Everything, including the sauce, comes together right on the sheet pan in a few simple steps.

Sheet-Pan Chicken Piccata
Sheet-Pan Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts

Serious Eats / Robby Lozano

Meaty bone-in chicken thighs, Brussels sprouts, sweet potatoes, shallots, and applewood-smoked bacon are roasted all on one pan for a full dinner with minimal cleanup and plenty of hands-off time. The Brussels sprouts are tender with dark, crispy edges, the chicken is juicy with crispy skin, the sweet potatoes are on what one taster called "flavor boost" from absorbing all the spices and juices from the chicken, and the bacon lends its salty, smoky flavor to the whole meal.

Sheet-Pan Roasted Chicken, Sweet Potatoes, and Brussels Sprouts
Easy Sheet-Pan Chicken With Asparagus

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

This genius sheet-pan dinner gives you a built-in vinaigrette, a creamy olive-yogurt sauce, and shockingly little effort.

Easy Sheet-Pan Chicken With Asparagus
Sheet-Pan Harissa and Orange Chicken With Chickpeas

Serious Eats / Maureen Celestine

Marinating the chicken, chickpeas, and onions with harissa, orange zest and juice, honey, and a blend of warm spices creates a bold, intensely flavored dish. Roasting the onions and chickpeas under the chicken ensures they soak up the chicken’s flavorful juices as everything cooks together.

Sheet-Pan Harissa and Orange Chicken With Chickpeas

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Sheet-Pan Chicken With Mashed Potatoes and Parmesan Green Beans

Serious Eats / Larisa Niedle

This comforting one-pan chicken dinner is big on flavor, low on effort. Rendered chicken fat and roasted garlic give the mashed potatoes a deeply savory flavor, and steaming the potatoes inside a foil packet means there's no need for boiling.

Sheet-Pan Chicken With Mashed Potatoes and Parmesan Green Beans
Sheet-Pan Spiced Cauliflower and Tofu With Ginger Yogurt

Photograph: Vicky Wasik

This vegetarian sheet-pan dinner offers layers and layers of flavor, without demanding a ton of time or effort. Gingery, tangy yogurt acts as a base for spiced cauliflower, crisp tofu, preserved lemon, and a quick red onion and herb salad.

Sheet-Pan Spiced Cauliflower and Tofu With Ginger Yogurt
Broiled Whole Porgy With Blistered Shishito and Tomato

Photographs: Vicky Wasik

Contrary to popular belief, whole fish can be an ideal weeknight dinner. Here, whole porgy is laid out on a sheet pan along with shishito peppers, lemon slices, and cherry tomatoes. We leave the peppers and tomatoes whole (which minimizes knife work), and the lemon slices ensure the fish doesn't stick to the pan as it cooks. Under the heat of the broiler, the fish becomes crisp and tender while the peppers and tomatoes blister and caramelize. How's that for a weeknight dinner?

Broiled Whole Porgy With Blistered Shishito and Tomato
Sheet-Pan Skirt Steak Fajitas

Photograph: Vicky Wasik

We adapted this recipe from our classic grilled skirt steak fajitas recipe, without sacrificing any of the flavor that makes the original recipe so great. The direct heat of an oven's broiler browns and chars the skirt steak, which is served on the sheet pan along with sweet peppers and warm corn tortillas.

Sheet-Pan Skirt Steak Fajitas

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Sheet-Pan Chicken Fajitas

Photograph: Vicky Wasik

Not a fan of steak or looking to switch things up a little? We used Kenji's original grilled skirt steak fajitas recipe as inspiration for these chicken ones that are juicy, flavorful, and easy to get on the table.

Sheet-Pan Chicken Fajitas
Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs With Potatoes, Fennel, and Mustard-Beer Sauce

Photograph: Vicky Wasik

You just need one sheet pan to make crisp-skinned chicken thighs, a potato-fennel gratin, and a simple sheet-pan sauce comprised of a can of beer and some mustard. This might be a dead-simple weeknight dinner, but what you gain in ease and efficiency, you certainly don't give up in flavor.

Sheet-Pan Chicken Thighs With Potatoes, Fennel, and Mustard-Beer Sauce
Sheet-Pan Cuban Sandwiches

Photograph: Morgan Eisenberg

This recipe was designed with a hungry crowd in mind. Technically, you'll need two sheet pans to make these Cuban sandwiches—one to bake them on, and one to press them—but beyond that, you don't need any special equipment. And while most traditional Cuban sandwiches call for slow-roasted pork, we opt for quick-cooking tenderloin here, so you can make these impressive sandwiches midweek.

Sheet-Pan Cuban Sandwiches
Quick Broiled Shrimp With Harissa and Beer

Photograph: Vicky Wasik

If you've got shrimp in the fridge and a beer on the counter, you've already got almost everything it takes to make this quick dinner. We leave the shrimp shell on, so they remain plump and juicy, and broil them on a sheet pan along with a reduced beer, butter, and harissa sauce. Sop up the flavorful sauce with crusty bread, between bites of sweet shrimp. Not too bad for a Wednesday.

Quick Broiled Shrimp With Harissa and Beer