Spanish Sheet Pan Chicken with Smoked Paprika and Olives
The easiest real dinner of the week, and the one to start with. Bone-in chicken and baby potatoes on one sheet pan, smoked paprika and garlic, olives and lemon - it roasts while you do nothing. Deeply savory Spanish flavor with a single pan to wash. This is the Monday dish: the one that gets everyone back on the rails.
- Prep
- 10 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Total
- 45 min
- Serves
- 4
- Method
- Sheet Pan
The potatoes roast in the same pan as the chicken on purpose - they crisp in the paprika and the fat that renders down, so they come out golden outside and soaked with flavor inside. Do not put them on a separate tray; that fat is the whole point.
What actually matters here
- Roast the potatoes in the same pan as the chicken - they crisp in the paprika and rendered fat.
- Use bone-in, skin-on thighs; the skin crisps and the meat stays juicy.
- Halve the potatoes so the cut sides catch the pan and go golden.
Ingredients
Serves 4.
Chicken
- 8bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 lbbaby potatoes, halved
- 2 tbspolive oil
- 1 tbspsmoked paprika
- 4garlic cloves, smashed
- 1 tspdried oregano
- salt and pepper
To Finish
- 3/4 cupgreen olives (Castelvetrano or Manzanilla)
- 1lemon, halved
- 1/4 cupparsley, chopped
Optional
- a few slices of cured chorizo, if you want it
Before you start
- Heat the oven to 425 degrees.
- Pat the chicken dry; toss with the potatoes, oil, smoked paprika, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper.
- Spread everything in one layer on a large sheet pan, chicken skin-side up, potatoes cut-side down.
Method
- Roast 30 to 35 minutes until the chicken is 175 degrees and the skin is crisp.
- Scatter the olives over in the last 10 minutes so they warm and soften.
- Squeeze the roasted lemon over the whole pan.
- Shower with chopped parsley.
- Bring the pan straight to the table.
- Spoon the paprika-stained pan juices over everything.
How you know it is right
- The chicken skin is crisp and deep red-gold.
- The potatoes are crisp outside, tender inside.
- The olives are warm and jammy.
- The pan juices are the best part - do not leave them behind.
How to serve it
Serve straight from the pan with the lemon and a simple green salad, or bread for the juices.
If you want it simpler
- A few slices of cured chorizo tucked in adds smoke and richness if you want it.
- Boneless thighs work too - check them at 25 minutes.
One pan, smoked paprika, roast it hard, and do not waste the juices.
This dish came from the SEASON plan for August 3 - 9, 2026, alongside nine other dinners and one shopping list.
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Written and tested by Chef Michael Rossi, who has spent thirty years in professional kitchens including Napa Rose, THE RANCH, The Masters at Augusta National, and The Beach Club. Every SEASON recipe is one he has cooked on a real line before it reaches a home kitchen.