EASY Weeknight chicken dinner idea with sides of Croutons and Baby Potatoes, takes 20 minutes to prep and bakes in 50 minutes with incredible lemony flavor!
The golden brown croutons go perfectly with the tender warm baby potatoes and lemon chicken. Beautiful to serve for an easy family weeknight dinner or a fun meal prep idea!
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Sheet pan dinners are all the rage because they are a breeze! Simply slice the ingredients, place on a large sheet pan, “toss” to season each piece, and bake. Everything you need is made on one sheet pan with a few ingredients for a fast delicious weeknight family dinner.
This is also a company-worthy dish full of fresh flavor for any special occasion…
How To Make Easy Lemon Chicken, Potatoes, and Croutons:
- Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
- Clean lemons and baby potatoes in a bowl of cool water, and a splash of vinegar. (tip: this cleans fruits and veggies really well, but doesn’t leave any taste!)
- Cut each lemon lengthwise into 8 pieces, place on the sheet pan. Cut potatoes in half place on the sheet pan.
- Next, slice the baguette bread into 1″ pieces and place those on the sheet pan. Drizzle the olive oil, salt, and pepper and using tongs or your hands, toss well to coat each piece. (You can also do this in a very large bowl, but that is one more dish to clean.)
- In a small bowl, mix smoked (not hot) paprika and lemon pepper. Next, cut the chicken into 1” cubes, and toss in paprika and lemon pepper seasoning mixture.
- Place the chicken pieces on top of sliced lemons, baguette bread pieces, and baby potatoes halves. (note: if you leave the chicken breasts whole, I found it is much harder to get everything to brown nicely and to cook evenly.)
- Bake at 400 degrees 25 minutes, then drizzle a little more olive oil and use tongs to turn on the sheet pan. Rotate the sheet pan around for even baking. Finish baking at 400 for 25 more minutes until the bread is golden brown, and the chicken is baked.
FLAVOR TIP: Squeeze a little tangy fresh lemon over the croutons, chicken, and potatoes. You can even eat some of the roasted lemon pulp spread onto the chicken, it is sweet and amazing.
SERVING TIP: Serve with a fresh green salad, and a little homemade herb butter for the potatoes and dinner is done!
MAKE AHEAD TIP: If prepping the sheet pan in the morning, cover well with plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge. Simply remove plastic wrap, and pop right in the oven at dinner time.
POTATO TIP: There are more than 200 potatoes sold in the United States, and seven categories: russet, red, white, yellow, blue/purple, fingerling and petite. The best potatoes for this recipe are Immature Baby Potatoes Fingerling Potatoes or New Potatoes. And the best part is you don’t need to peel them. Slightly larger ones can be cut in half so they bake, cook, grill, or roast all the way through.
What Kind of Small Potatoes Can I Use For This Sheet Pan Lemon Chicken?
Baby Potatoes are simply immature potatoes—no matter if they’re red, yellow, or purple—are deemed baby, new, or creamer. Because of their small size, these potatoes are best-cooked whole—boiled, steamed, and even roasted—allowing the skins to add a colorful element to dishes.
Fingerling Potatoes are their own variety of potato. As their name suggests, fingerlings look like fingers with slim, firm and knobby short sizes, you can find them in regular grocery stores, farmers markets, or high-end markets. I LOVE to put them on the grill with steaks, that recipe will be on Delicious Table one day!
Fingerlings have a thin delicate skin that doesn’t need to be peeled and can be boiled, roasted, grilled, or baked. Their flavor is closer to the regular, mature potatoes we’re used to, and they have a firm texture that holds up well to cooking.
New Potatoes aren’t a potato variety by themselves but are simply the baby version of any potato a farmer grows. In fact, those being sold as “baby” potatoes are the same as new potatoes, or slightly more mature. These are immature potatoes that get thinned out early in the season order to make room for the rest of the potatoes to mature.
New potatoes have a creamy texture and a light delicate, slightly sweet flavor. They have an oval or round shape and can range from the size of a walnut to the size of a ping-pong ball.
Also, since their skin is so thin and new potatoes haven’t been hardened, they are more perishable than regular potatoes. They can be stored in a paper bag in a cool place like mature potatoes but should be eaten within a few days of purchase.
More Chicken Dinner Ideas:
- Oven-Baked Chicken and Rice by Recipe Tin Eats
- 86 Lighting Fast Weeknight Chicken Dinners by Delish
- Creamy Herb Chicken by Cafe Delights
All The Best Dishes,
Lisa
XO
Readers love this recipe because:
- Super easy and delicious! This is a GREAT sheet pan dinner. Thank you, Lisa.
- This was SO easy to make and such great flavors! Definitely adding this to our meal rotation!
- What a quick and delicious one-pan dish! I love making this one on our busy weeknights!
Chicken Dinner Idea: Lemony Chicken, Croutons, and Baby Potatoes
Equipment
Ingredients
- 3 lemons each cut into 8 pieces lengthwise
- 2 1/2 lbs. baby white potatoes fingerling potatoes, or new potatoes (unpeeled)
- 1/4 cup good olive oil
- 1 baguette cut into 1” pieces
- 1 teaspoon kosher sea salt
- 1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
- 2 pounds 3 breasts skinless chicken breast, sliced into 1” pieces
- 1 tablespoon smoked paprika (not hot paprika)
- 1 tablespoon lemon pepper
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- Clean lemons and potatoes in cool water, and a splash of vinegar. (The vinegar helps clean fruits and veggies, and leaves no after-taste).
- Cut each lemon lengthwise into 8 pieces. Cut potatoes in half. Place on the large sheet pan.
- Next, slice the baguette bread loaf into 1″ pieces and place those onto the sheet pan. Drizzle the oil, salt, and pepper and toss well to combine on the pan. (You can also do this in a very large bowl, but that is one more dish to clean!)
- In a small bowl, mix smoked paprika (not hot paprika) and lemon pepper. Next, cut the chicken into 1” cubes, and toss the chicken cubes in the paprika and lemon pepper mix.
- Place chicken pieces on top of lemons, bread, and potatoes. (note: if you leave the chicken breasts whole, I found it is much harder to get everything to brown nicely and to cook evenly.)
- Bake at 400 degrees 25 minutes, then drizzle a little more olive oil and toss again using tongs.
- Finish baking at 400 for 25 more minutes until the bread is toasted, and the chicken is lightly browned and baked.
What a quick and delicious one pan dish! I love making this one on our busy weeknights!
This was SO easy to make and such great flavors! Definitely adding this to our meal rotation!
Super easy and delicious! This is a GREAT sheet pan dinner. Thank you, Lisa.