My fusion version of a ‘sheet pan’ chicken and roots dinner for one, with smoked paprika, Chipotle and veggies!
Cast Iron Pan Dinners For One
Don’t you just love it when your entire dinner can be served out of one pan, particularly if you are just cooking for you!
This healthy dinner for one, can be prepared in under an hour, start to finish, or simply double up the ingredients and use a slightly larger pan for more than one.
Cast Iron Pans
The best pan to cook for one. I find the small cast iron pans are truly a worth-while investment, of which you don’t need a name brand in order to get quality.
Cast iron is a heavy iron that holds heat better than steal. I always find them for really cheap at variety of home shopping stores. In fact, the small one I use in this dish was just nine bucks!
Why are they so good? Heat! Heat is what is needed to sizzle a steak, fry a piece of chicken, or put a crunchy crust on your frittata, and nothing distributes the heat quite like cast iron.
The other thing I love about cooking with them is they can be used to sauté on top the stove, and then pop them into a hot oven to finish cooking, with or without a lid.
Chicken And Roots For One
For this dinner, I used 1 small iron pan for the chicken, a baking sheet to par-roast the veggies, which were then added to the chicken pan near the end of its cooking time.
Wash up that baking sheet, and set out your dinnerware while the meal finishes its last 15 minutes in the oven, and clean up time will be fast and done!
Other Dinners For One
- Shrimp and Quinoa Buddha Bowl
- Beef Short Ribs
- Mango and Squid Buddha Bowl – 1 large or 2 small
Ingredients Needed
- Chicken pieces
- Fingerling potatoes
- Carrots
- Onion
- Baby Bok Choy
- Flour
- Paprika
- Chipotle powder
- Salt
- Butter
- Balsamic vinegar
- Olive oil
- Garlic salt
Equipment Needed
- Gallon zip baggie or closed container – to shake up the chicken in
- Oven mitt
- Cast iron pan
- Baking sheet pan
- Measuring cup
- Measuring spoons
- Tongs
- Spatula
- Cutting board
- Chopping knife
- Oven
Cast Iron Chicken And Roots Dinner For One
Ingredients
- Chicken pieces – 2 thighs and a leg, or one breast, bone in, skin on
- Fingerlings Potatoes – 1 cup, peel left on and cut in half
- Carrots – 3, rough diagonally cut
- Onion – 1 small, or half of a larger one, chopped
- Baby Bok Choy – 1 bundle, chopped lengthwise
- Flour – 1/2 cup
- Paprika – 1 tbsp
- Chipotle powder – ¼ tsp
- Salt – 2 tsp
- Butter – 1 tbsp
- Balsamic vinegar – 1 tbsp
- Olive oil – 1 tbsp
- Garlic salt – 1 tsp
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400 and place the iron pan in the oven
- In a gallon zip bag or closable container, place the flour, paprika, chipotle, and salt.
- Rinse chicken, pat dry and toss into flour baggie. Give a good shake to cover all its nooks and crannies.
- Slice all the vegetables so they are ready for you. Diagonal slices expose the most of a vegetable and provide even cooking.
- Carefully pull out hot iron pan from the oven with a mitt, drop the butter in, and place the chicken in the pan, skin side down. Return it to the oven for 35 minutes.
- Mix the garlic salt, oil and vinegar, drizzle across the baking pan, and toss in the onions, potatoes, carrots in the drizzle and pop it into the oven for 15 minutes.
- When the 35-minute timer goes off, pull out the chicken, turn it, place the veggies in the pan with the chicken and its juices, layer the Bok Choy on top and put it back into the oven for another 15 minutes.
- Place the veggies and chicken on a plate with the yummy juices in the pan, or serve in the pan with a hot plate and a cloth napkin wrapped around the handle, rustic style.
Nutrition
I believe the table... that place that draws people to gather, is the most powerful symbol of togetherness. All that happens before the table is set, the planning, the gathering, the preparing, are all an intricate part of the dance that create the mood of celebration to share with friends and loved ones.