Garlic Chicken and Green Beans Sheet Pan Dinner
“Prior planning prevents piss poor performance.” – A very, very wise woman.
I know for a fact that a woman stated this first. Do you know how I know? Because guys can’t plan for sh*t. Sorry guys, but it’s the truth. You just can’t.
Where am I going with this? I’m extremely excited to report that we are getting ready for another weekend of hiking in the Whites! We are leaving straight after work on Friday night and we don’t expect to get home until late Sunday night. Whenever I’m gone for the whole weekend, I get a little anxious about it because it means I won’t have much, if any, time to prepare some food for the following week. I don’t stress so much about what I’ll be eating for dinner because I can make time to do that on Monday night after I get home from work, but I really really like having healthy lunches prepared to eat at my day job throughout the week. I don’t know what it is, but the thought of having to leave the office to spend $15 on crap food for a single lunch really just gets my goat. So I try to avoid it at all costs. I’ve been working an 8-5 day job Monday through Friday for eight years now, and in that time I’ve probably only had to do this MAYBE three times. I’d say my track record is pretty good, and I’d like to keep it that way, thank you.
Since we’ll be gone all weekend, I had the bright idea to prep most of this meal tonight so I can basically throw it in the oven ten minutes after I get home on Sunday night. Last night I pulled some Butcher Box chicken breast out of my freezer and I let it thaw in my refrigerator overnight. Tonight, I made the marinade, cut up the chicken, added both to a zip top bag and it’ll sit there until Sunday night when I get home. I now look back and laugh at the time I texted my mother and asked her if I could marinate meat longer than just overnight. Her response: “Well, yeah…why not?” You know, now that I think of it, maybe the woman I quoted at the beginning of this post was my very wise, very talented chef of a mother! She’s not really a chef, but her food is so darn delicious she definitely could be.
I didn’t fully grasp the importance of massaging vegetables until somewhat recently. I roast A LOT of vegetables, and the massage really makes a difference in some recipes. These greens beans are one of them. Really get in there and get those beans fully coated. Your family will thank you, or you will thank yourself five days in a row. That meal prep life.
Garlic Chicken and Green Beans Sheet Pan Dinner
Ingredients
Method
- Preheat oven to 400° F. Line a large sheet pan with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp avocado oil, 3 cloves minced garlic, coconut aminos, and sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste. Add chicken pieces to the bowl and stir to coat. Set aside. OR, if marinating overnight, add the marinade to a large zip top bag with the chicken pieces and massage. Place in the refrigerator to marinate overnight.
- Place green beans in a pile in the center of the sheet pan. To the top of the pile, add 2 tbsp avocado oil, 3 cloves minced garlic, and sea salt to taste. Massage the beans to coat evenly with the garlic/oil mixture. When the beans are completely coated, arrange the beans around the edges of the sheet pan in a single layer, leaving an open space in the middle.
- Using a slotted spoon, place the chicken in the center of the sheet pan in a single layer. It's okay if the chicken is touching.
- Bake at 400° F for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and flip chicken pieces over using tongs. Toss beans with the tongs as well. Return to the oven and bake 12-15 minutes more, until chicken is cooked through and green beans are fork tender.
