The biggest (and possibly only) challenge of sheet-pan cooking is recovering the browned bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. These caramelized juices and drippings from meats, fish and vegetables can add glorious complexity to any dish — if you can pry the baked-on puddles off the surface of the pan, that is. With a skillet, you simply deglaze it by adding some liquid and then simmering until the browned bits dissolve. But the low sides and way-bigger-than-a-burner width of a sheet pan can make that maneuver awkward.
In her recipe for sheet-pan malai chicken and potatoes, Zaynab Issa shows us how to do it right. By pouring liquid into a still-hot pan, she eliminates the need to simmer — she just gives everything a firm stir. Zaynab uses heavy cream and lemon to unlock the drippings, which are an especially savory mélange of warm spices, chicken fat and green chiles. Spooned over roasted, yogurt-marinated chicken thighs and soft potatoes, it makes a rich and silky sauce for this delightful, curry-inspired dish.
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Sheet-Pan Malai Chicken and Potatoes
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More food for thought:
Angel hair pasta: Dan Pelosi works his magic on a beloved Italian classic, this time conjuring an intense sauce from a pantry-friendly mix of cherry tomatoes blistered in a garlic-herb butter, all seasoned with Parmesan. Angel hair pasta is an especially delicate and quick-cooking option, but any long pasta shape will catch the sweet, bright notes of tomatoes, shallots and basil.
Roasted salmon with ginger-lime butter: Fancy enough for a spring dinner party but easy enough for any given Tuesday, David Tanis’s recipe uses a citrus-and-ginger compound butter two ways: melted, as a medium for wilting a panful of spinach, and smeared on roasted salmon fillets as an exquisitely easy sauce.
Snap pea, tofu and herb salad with spicy peanut sauce: Verdant and fresh, crunchy and soft, Hetty Lui McKinnon’s ode to springtime is a multitextured delight. And it’s tossed with what might be the most brilliant minimalist dressing in her repertoire: peanut butter spiked with chile crisp and thinned down with water. Steal this, and use it everywhere.
Berbere meatballs: Scented with a mix of Parmesan and berbere — a fenugreek-and-chile-laced spice blend popular in Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisines — Ifrah F. Ahmed’s zippy little meatballs draw on traditional flavors to create a radiant, innovative East African-Italian hybrid with kick.
Mango lime loaf cake: I have several mangos at various degrees of ripeness on my counter, and the ripest one is earmarked for Jocelyn Delk Adams’s tender, lime-glazed loaf cake. This treat is easily whisked together without a mixer, and, with its fragrant pockets of tropical fruit, it’s like a sunny beach vacation in your very own kitchen.
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That’s all for now. See you on Monday.
