Chicken Potatoes & Sausage
Submitted by luciana75
One-pan chicken with Italian sausage and potatoes baked together with oregano, paprika, and garlic salt. The sausage fat bastes the chicken while crisping the potatoes for an effortless rustic Italian sheet pan dinner.
YIELD
4 servingsPREP
15 minCOOK
1 hrsREADY
1 hrsThis is Italian-American Sunday cooking in its simplest form. Chicken pieces, sausage chunks, and quartered potatoes share a single pan, each ingredient contributing to the others as they cook together. The Italian sausage renders its seasoned fat over the chicken and into the potatoes, seasoning everything from below while the chicken skin crisps above.
The two-stage bake is the technique that pulls this off. The first 30 minutes covered at 425°F (220°C) traps steam to cook the chicken through and soften the potatoes. The next 45 minutes uncovered at 375°F (190°C) browns the chicken skin and crisps the potato edges, with the sausage releasing fat throughout the process.
Splitting the seasoning between the potatoes and the chicken (half before stacking, half after) ensures everything gets seasoned, not just the top layer. Sprinkling all the spices on top means the potatoes underneath stay bland.
Use sweet Italian sausage as specified, or hot if you like heat. The fennel and pepper in Italian sausage is what flavors the entire pan; substituting plain pork sausage gives you a much blander result.
Kitchen Tips
- Cut potatoes to roughly the same size. Uneven quarters give you some pieces overcooked to mush and others still raw at the center.
- Use bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. Boneless skinless breasts dry out badly in this long cook; the bone insulates and the skin crisps for flavor.
- Don’t crowd the pan. Use a baking sheet large enough that everything sits in a single layer; crowded pieces steam instead of browning.
- Pierce the sausage casings before baking to release fat for basting. Whole casings can burst dramatically and unevenly.
Variations
- Add a sliced bell pepper or whole baby carrots to the pan in the second 45 minutes for color and additional vegetables.
- Drizzle a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar over everything in the last 15 minutes for a sweet-tangy glaze.
- Use chorizo or kielbasa in place of Italian sausage for a different flavor direction (Spanish or Polish style).
Ingredients
Directions
Arrange potatoes in a large shallow baking pan.
Mix all of the seasonings together and sprinkle half on the potatoes.
Arrange the chicken and sausage pieces on top.
Pour the oil over the ingredients and sprinkle with the remaining seasonings.
Cover with foil and bake in 425 degree oven for ½ hour.
Reduce the heat to 375 degrees, uncover, and bake for 45 minutes longer until chicken and sausage browns.
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