This easy one pan dinner is going to change your life! Everyone will eat up their brussels sprouts if they’re served roasted with chicken and mushrooms and drenched in a super delicious honey balsamic sauce. Quick & easy, loaded with superfoods, and ridiculously tasty.
Why do most of my favourite quick and easy dinner recipes seem to involve throwing chicken thighs into a baking dish with various other veggies and flavours? It’s hard to pick absolute faves, but if I had to I’d say this easy chicken and sweet potatoes with maple orange sauce or this amazing Greek chicken and potatoes first.
The thing is, they’re crowd pleasers, they include HEALTHY and DELICIOUS roasted veggies, and of course they’re SUPER QUICK & EASY. This honey balsamic chicken and brussels sprouts is certainly no exception.
What’s so great about it?
This chicken traybake is a perfect easy weeknight dinner recipe for the following reasons (unless you happen to be a brussels sprouts or mushroom hater… and if so, I dare you to try this all the same!):
- It’s a skinless boneless chicken thigh recipe = super easy, affordable lean meat option.
- It includes super healthy brussels sprouts, mushrooms & onions!
- It’s a sheet pan meal/traybake, which means minimal dishes to clean up.
- It’s incredibly easy to prepare. Just marinate the chicken in the sauce, then throw it onto a sheet pan with the veggies.
- It’s ready in a little over 30 minutes.
- The honey balsamic sauce is absolutely divine – I can’t imagine anyone not liking it!
If you’re interested in finding tastier ways to serve super healthy green vegetables like brussels sprouts, then I’d highly recommend this recipe.
About the ingredients
Can you believe you only need FOUR MAIN INGREDIENTS to make this roast chicken and brussels sprouts dinner and 5 ingredients to make the yummy sauce?
Chicken thighs: I always use skinless boneless chicken thighs for this recipe, because they’ll cook in the same amount of time as the rest of the ingredients. Choose 4 big ones to make a good meal for 4.
Brussels sprouts: I usually wash the brussels, top and tail them, and slice them in half so that they cook in the same time as everything else.
Mushrooms: I like brown mushrooms, but use any you like. Even plain old button mushrooms will work.
Onion: You just need a regular onion, either white or red. Just peel and chop roughly.
Butter: This is the ‘magic’ ingredient! Dot it all over the dish before it goes in the oven. The butter will melt into the sauce as it cooks. Yum!
5-ingredient sauce: honey, balsamic vinegar, mustard, herbs, corn-starch/cornflour. You can use any kind of mustard but I usually choose Dijon or Wholegrain for plenty of punchy flavour.
Garlic… or no garlic?
I considered including garlic too, but didn’t bother in the end. Partly because I hate peeling garlic (!!) and also because the dish already includes onions.
I thought I could get away without bothering with garlic in this instance. If you want to include it in your marinade though, by all means do so! (2 cloves would probably be about right)
How to make it
One of the best things about this sheet pan chicken dinner is how easy it is to prepare. All you do is throw the chicken thighs into a Ziploc bag with the 4 marinade ingredients and smoosh around.
Pop the bag into the fridge while you prepare the vegetables. Scatter the vegetables over a baking tray, then nestle the chicken in among them.
Lastly, pour any leftover marinade in the bag over the chicken.
The perfect honey balsamic sauce
You’ll find the sauce pools all over the tray, mixing with the chicken juices as it cooks, which is exactly what you want.
It doesn’t drench the vegetables, so they’re able to brown and begin to caramelise nicely on the top, but you still get plenty of the delicious sauce in every bite.
Another ingenius thing is the tiny bit of corn starch / cornflour you add to the marinade. It slightly (very slightly) thickens the sauce, which I think makes it just perfect.
Variations for brussels haters
Brussels sprouts hater? No problem!
Various other vegetables would work. How about:
- broccoli
- cauliflower
- sweet potato or butternut squash cubes
- bell peppers / capsicum
- small cubes of eggplant
- zucchini
All of these vegetables will do fine being in the oven for the half an hour that your chicken takes to cook.
If you choose sweet potato, butternut squash/pumpkin or eggplant, just make sure you cube them into fairly small pieces so that they’re nice and soft at the end of the cooking time.
What to serve with it
I usually just serve this sheet pan chicken with toasted bread sprinkled with olive oil and salt. I do this with pretty much all the sheet pan dinners I make! I’m so (un) original.
It’s just so tasty, and the easiest carb option…
Rice would work well too, as would some kind of potato side. I think it would go particularly well with this lemony Mediterranean rice with chickpeas. I’d probably make this the previous day, however, to keep the main meal nice and easy.
Or if you wanted to you could sneak a few diced potatoes onto the sheet pan. Just make sure you give the potatoes about a 20 minute head start in the oven if you decide to do this.
Maybe use a slightly larger baking tray, too. You don’t want the ingredients to crowd each other out too much.
Helen’s recipe tips and FAQ
You really don’t have to. However… I find this is one of those meals where the baking tray gets really sticky and messy. So what I do is line it with some baking paper. The baking tray may still need a wash, but the clean-up will be a lot easier.
You can, but I’d pre-roast them for 10 to 15 minutes before adding everything else to the baking tray. I like to use skinless boneless because they cook in the same amount of time as everything else.
Absolutely! I find this is one of those meals that can somehow taste even better the next day. Just keep the leftovers well covered in the fridge until the next evening. Reheat covered on 80% power in the microwave for around three and a half minutes (check that the chicken is thoroughly hot and if not give it a bit longer).
The brussels sprouts won’t be as crispy as they were when you first cooked them but the dish will still be mighty delicious!
Brussels sprouts season? Why not try these honey balsamic brussels sprouts with caramelized onions, pine nuts and feta too? They make an AMAZING side dish with a difference!
More sheet pan / one pan chicken dinners
- This amazing sheet pan chicken tikka really is… amazing!
- Who doesn’t like sausages? This sausage traybake with sweet potatoes and orange is more than your average sausage and mash, and a real crowd pleaser!
- This one pan baked chicken with chorizo is another recipe that we keep coming back to time and time again. Pile just 5 main ingredients into a baking dish and bake.
- Ever tried a tagine? This Moroccan chicken stew is aromatic, sweet and delicious – sure to become a family favourite!
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Honey Balsamic Chicken And Brussels Sprouts With Mushrooms
Ingredients (UK/Australia? Click below for grams/ml)
- 4 chicken thighs (large skinless boneless)
- ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 teaspoon mustard Any, but I’d recommend French, English or wholegrain
- 2 teaspoons dried mixed herbs
- 1 teaspoon corn starch (mixed with a little water) UK = cornflour
- 14 ounces brussels sprouts
- 5 ounces mushrooms sliced into large pieces
- 1 medium onion sliced into large chunks
- olive oil and salt & pepper for drizzling
- 2 tbsp butter for dotting (rough estimate)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375F/190C.
- Put the chicken thighs into a Ziploc bag, then add the balsamic vinegar, honey, mustard, herbs, and cornstarch (corn flour). Close the top of the bag and smoosh around until the chicken is well covered in the marinade. Place the bag on a plate and store in the fridge while you assemble the rest of the dish.
- Line a baking tray with baking paper, then scatter the brussels sprouts, mushrooms and onions over the tray. Drizzle over a little olive oil, then toss with your hands or a big spoon.
- Tuck the chicken from the Ziploc bag in among the vegetables, then pour the rest of the marinade over the chicken. Dot the top of the chicken with little bits of the butter.
- Sprinkle with plenty of salt and pepper, then roast for 35 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and the vegetables are starting to caramelise in parts.
- Serve with toasted crusty bread, rice or potatoes.
Linda says
This was a delicious recipe, but I had a couple questions/comments about it. I wasn’t sure what dried mixed herbs to use, so I’d be interested to know what herbs you use, or if this is a type of spice you can buy. I used Herbs de Provence and it was good. Also, it may be my oven, but the brussels sprouts weren’t done after 35 minutes, so I turned it up to 400 and left them in another 10 minutes. They could have used 15 minutes. I even cut the bigger ones in half.
Helen says
Hi Linda, Herbs de Provence are absolutely fine. Also Italian herbs or any kind of herb mix. Thanks for the feedback on the cooking time. Next time I make this again I’ll double check the cooking time and temp and make a note of your findings in the recipe. I’d definitely cut the brussels in half and maybe in quarters if they’re really big. Glad you enjoyed it and thanks so much for the honest feedback! 🙂
Trevor Leighton says
Thank you so much! It was scrummy! Did garlic and it is worth the peel! I learned that spooning the jus over everything whilst serving maxed the sweetness and flavour. Might try replacing the balsamic with soy and adding a little chilli, Asian transposition? Yum, will keep checking and trying your Scrummy recipes. I have an amazing Sri Lankan chicken curry recipe from a holiday experience that is probably my death row meal after a Super Supreme with extra cheese from Pizza Hut. Stuffed crust and garlic bread with cheese on the side not withstanding 😝
Helen says
So happy you enjoyed this too, Trevor – thanks so much for taking the time to leave feedback. I like the sound of your Asian twist. The Sri Lankan curry sounds incredible. You’ve got me thinking now about what my death row last meal would be hahaha. I wonder if I’d be feeling too sick already to eat anything at all, but in theory I’d go for Thai too… or Mexican… followed by something very gooey and chocolaty.
Janet Schilling says
You never say anything in the directions about the olive oil or butter so I am using the oil on the veggies and dotting the chicken with butter. Fingers crossed.
Helen says
Hi Janet! Great catch! Sorry about that. You guessed correctly and I hope you enjoyed the meal. I’ll change it in the recipe right now 😉
Kay says
The chicken in this recipe was wonderfully moist and tender, but the small brussel sprouts and the squash that I added were still hard. I reheated it later in the week; veggies were somewhat softened, but the chicken was overcooked.
Helen says
Hi Kay! Sorry to hear this! What I normally do is cook the veggies until they are starting to brown/caramelize, then taste to check they’re cooked. It’s OK if you go slightly over the cooking time. The chicken won’t overcook for the sake of 5 to 10 minutes longer. I hope you’ll give this another go – it’s one of my favourite sheet pan dinners!
Mindy says
What herbs do you recommend? This looks delicious!
Helen says
Hi Mindy! I decided to just use dried mixed herbs to keep things simple, but you can use any dried herbs you happen to like or have!
mimi rippee says
This is a beautiful meal. My husband thinks he doesn’t like Brussels sprouts, so I could never use your combination, but after almost 37 years of cooking for him, I know what he would like. It’s a great recipe!
Helen says
Thanks, Chef Mimi! I really appreciate you saying that. Maybe you could replace the brussels with broccoli or cauliflower? Good luck!
Wilhelmina Wessel says
This looks amazing! I love the simplicity of one pan meals!
Helen says
Me too! Thank you, Wilhelmina!
Abeer Rizvi says
Omg! I am literally salivating over my screen right now. This looks amazing!
Helen says
Thanks, Abeer! I really hope you give it a go soon. It’s soooo delicious and easy!
ann says
Sounds good to me including Brussel Sprouts (luv them) but might leave it until it cools down a wee bit ……currently 40 deg C. I’m not putting the oven on for anything!
Helen says
Oh wow – 40? Temperature keeps swinging up and down here still. Beautiful day today – about 23 degrees! Good plan to save this for a cooler day!