Sheet Pan Cinnamon Chicken And Plums Recipe

Plums are a fruit we typically associate with desserts, such as plum cobbler, roasted plum semifreddo, and the famous New York Times plum torte. But, plum-based savory foods may be less familiar. Developer Katie Rosenhouse, however, says, "It's always fun to play around with flavors," so she came up with this chicken and plum dish when she was blessed with an overabundance of these stone fruits. In case you, too, find yourself with surplus plums on your hands, this recipe provides a great way to use the slightly overripe ones.

While this sheet pan recipe takes around an hour and a half to make, much of that is hands-off time. Once it's ready to come out of the oven, you'll have your entire dinner all set to go. This dish really does have it all, from meat and starch to flavorful fruit and vegetables that are tied together with tart lemon slices and a sweet maple syrup drizzle. If you want to add anything else to your dinner plate, a simple salad will suffice, and you could always chop up another plum or two to mix with the greens.

This sheet pan meal consists of chicken thighs and plums supplemented by russet potatoes and red onion. You'll also need olive oil for cooking, as well as lemon, garlic, thyme, maple syrup, salt, pepper, and cinnamon (both ground and sticks) for flavoring.

Preheat the oven to 425 F.

Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Chop the potatoes into 1-inch cubes.

Peel, quarter, and thinly slice the red onion.

Halve and pit the plums, and thinly slice the lemons.

Toss to combine the potatoes, onions, garlic, and 10 sprigs thyme on the prepared baking sheet.

In a medium bowl, stir to combine the oil, maple syrup, 1 teaspoon salt, ground black pepper, and ground cinnamon.

Pour half of this mix over the potato mixture and toss to coat. Pour the remaining half over the chicken thighs along with remaining ½ teaspoon salt, and toss to coat.

Top the potato mixture with the lemons, plums (cut-side down), and cinnamon sticks.

Place the chicken thighs, skin-side up, on top.

Roast for about 1 hour, or until the internal temperature of the chicken thighs registers 165 F.

Transfer the chicken thighs to a plate and increase the oven temperature to 450 F.

Roast the potato mixture for an additional 15 to 20 minutes, until browned and tender.

Transfer the vegetables to a serving platter, top with the chicken, and garnish with additional thyme.

Serve hot.

If you can't find plums in season, you can certainly make this dish with other stone fruits, such as peaches, nectarines, apricots, and even cherries. Fresh fruits are preferable, of course, but you can use frozen fruit, if necessary. There's no need to thaw them, because the cooking process will take care of this. Whichever fruit you choose, its flavor will become concentrated as it bakes, intensifying both the sweet and tangy notes.

Depending on the fruit, you may wish to make a few tweaks to the other ingredients in the recipe. While cinnamon goes well with most fruits, you might prefer spicy ginger to give some zing to super-sweet nectarines and peaches, as in our seared pork with gingery peach chutney. Apricots, which tend to be tarter than peaches, are complemented by cardamom's earthy, floral notes, and this spice also works well with cherries. If you don't care to pair maple syrup with your chosen fruit, you can swap out this ingredient for a different sweetener, such as honey, brown sugar, or agave syrup.

We highly recommend oven-roasted for this recipe — this allows the chicken skin to get nice and crispy and also lets the plums, lemons, and potatoes brown after the meat is done cooking. If you prefer not to turn on the oven, an air fryer is always an option, since these are basically mini convection ovens. You should cook the chicken at a lower temperature (400 F instead of 425 F), and it may be done in just 45 minutes.

If you'd prefer to cook it in a crockpot for the sake of convenience, this is doable, but the dish might come out tasting more stew-like. If you'll be cooking it on the stovetop, though, you'll need to change the recipe up a bit. Boneless, skinless chicken cut into chunks might be easier and quicker to cook, taking about 20 to 30 minutes. You'll also need to add a few cups of chicken stock or water to give the chicke sufficient liquid for simmering. If you opt for the crockpot or stovetop methods, it might be best to save the lemon slices to use as a garnish, since boiled lemons can be bitter.