If you love sheet pan dinners, you’re in for a treat with my latest Caesar salad inspired recipe. Roasted bacon and chicken with mixed vegetables drizzled with creamy dairy-free Caesar dressing is a delicious and healthy sheet pan meal you can have on the table within 30-40 minutes. It’s gluten-free, Whole30, paleo and keto-friendly.
Love a good Caesar salad? Me too! We can probably agree that it’s all about the dressing, which got me thinking that it doesn’t just belong in a salad. The idea for this bacon, chicken and vegetable sheet pan dinner was born and I was off to the supermarket to pick up the missing ingredients.
What I Love About Sheet Pan Dinners
If you’ve never made a sheet pan meal, you’re missing out on one of the easiest, most fuss-free cooking experiences. Using a flat baking tray – also known as a sheet pan – you cook all your meal ingredients in one go. These meals are often dinners and savoury but not exclusively and will consist of some kind of protein and vegetables; sometimes legumes or grains are added too. They are quick and require little washing up at the end.
The only constraint with this type of meal is the size of the sheet pan. Making a meal for two is usually not a problem, but if you’re cooking for more people, you may need an extra-large tray or use two sheets and cook those simultaneously.
How To Make Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
Let’s get to the order of things and what you will need to make the meal and the Caesar dressing.
The full recipe and nutritional breakdown are below but here are some step-by-step pics. My recipe is for 2 people as I only had a small sheet pan tray, but you can easily multiply the ingredients for a larger batch and the dressing will stretch for 3 servings or you can make more.
You can use chicken breast and thighs for this recipe. For smaller cut pieces (similar to the ones in my picture), the cooking time is about 20 minutes at 220 C /425 F. If you want to cut the breast say in just 3-4 longer pieces or using whole chicken thighs, I would give it 25 minutes. You can always check and pop the tray back in for a bit longer.
Grease the sheet pan with a little oil, then spread the meat and cut up veggies evenly. I am using Brussel sprouts, baby zucchini and some sliced sweet peppers. You can also use broccoli, cauliflower, asparagus, cabbage wedges, carrots and so on.
Season everything with salt and pepper and drizzle with just a little bit of oil over the top. Bacon will also release some fat while cooking, which will keep everything nicely oiled. Scatter bacon on top so it can crisp up during cooking.
My quick tip is to remove the sheet pan at the 10-15 minute mark and tip out some of the cooking liquid into the sink. Then pop back in for those remaining 5 minutes. This will help everything to ‘roast’ rather than ‘steam’.
Easy peasy so far, right? Now that everything is in the oven, get your dressing ingredients ready and whisk them up in a bowl.
Dairy-Free Caesar Dressing
I wanted to make a dairy-free Caesar dressing so I didn’t use any Parmesan cheese and instead added some nutritional yeast flakes for that umami cheesy flavour. If dairy is not an issue, feel free to add a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese for a truly authentic Caesar.
A note on anchovies (or rather a note to anchovy haters): don’t be afraid to use them in the dressing! They are essential for a good Caesar taste and they blend it enough that you get the saltiness and that lovely umami flavour but not the fishiness some tend to avoid. If you don’t have anchovies, add a teaspoon of fish sauce (which is made from anchovies anyway).
Once ready, serve everything drizzled with a little dressing or divide between bowls and dish the dressing on the side.
More Sheet Pan Meals
- Sheet Pan Salmon With Green Veggies & Herb Dressing
- Chicken Chorizo Sheet Pan With Asparagus
- Baked Cod With Brussel Sprouts & Cherry Tomatoes
- Balsamic Chicken & Mushroom Bake
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Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 8 Brussels sprouts ends cut off and halved
- 3 baby zucchini sliced in halves (or 1 large zucchini, sliced in quarters lengthways)
- 1/2 red pepper capsicum, sliced into strips
- 1.5 medium chicken breast sliced into thick pieces
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 2 rashers bacon sliced into strips or cubes
For Caesar dressing
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 2 anchovies chopped very finely
- 1 garlic clove grated or minced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast flakes
- A good pinch of pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 220 C / 425 F. We want it nice and hot so that our food is roasted quickly.
- Remove the ends off the Brussel sprouts and cut them in halves. Cut larger zucchini into quarters going lengthways or into large circles. If using a baby or small zucchini like me, slice them in halves and score with a knife in a criss-cross pattern (not essential but looks pretty). Cut the red peppers into large strips or cubes.
- Grease the sheet pan with a tablespoon of olive oil. There is no must-have way to arranging the chicken and vegetables on your baking tray as long as you don't overlap them much. Once everything is laid out, season with salt and pepper and then drizzle a little more oil over the top (mostly veggies). Bacon will also release some fat while cooking. Scatter bacon pieces over the chicken and vegetables.
- Bake for 15 minutes, middle shelf, then remove the tray and tip out some of the cooking juices (this will help to crisp everything up). Pop back in for 5 more minutes, so a total of 20 minutes. If cooking larger pieces of chicken, allow a total of 25 minutes.
- Mix the dressing while everything is roasting away.
- Once ready, remove the sheet pan from the oven and drizzle some of the dressing over chicken and vegetables and serve the rest on the side. You can also divide the food between two plates and then drizzle with the dressing when serving.
Notes
- Anchovies can be replaced with a teaspoon of fish sauce. Don't be afraid of using them as they add that authentic touch to the Caesar dressing. If dairy is not an issue, you can replace nutritional yeast flakes with a tablespoon of grated Parmesan cheese.
- Chicken breast or thigh meat can be used for this recipe.
- Feel free to use any other vegetables or swap with whatever is in season for you. If you want more carbs, add some sweet potato, pumpkin or carrots. If you want fewer carbs, omit the red peppers and use more green vegetables. If you eat bread, you can even toss some diced old sourdough cubes for extra crouton action.
Nutrition
This is how tasty this sheet pan dinner was! Our dog Mango waited patiently for any leftovers, however, there weren’t any. He did get a little bit of bacon.
I hope you guys enjoy this quick and easy sheet pan dinner. Don’t forget to rate this recipe above or below and leave any comments or feedback for me.
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This was so good. I loved the bacon and the grease that it created and how it made the whole dish taste. I used bottled Ken’s Salad Dressing in Caesar. I did different veggies, as was suggested in the notes section.
I made it about 2 months ago. Thought of it yesterday, and am making it again tonight.
Thanks so much for the kind feedback 🙂