This Sheet-Pan Chicken with Broccoli, Chickpeas, and Parmesan is a game-changer for weeknight dinners. Packed with protein, fiber, and flavor, it’s a one-pan wonder you’ll make again and again. The crispy chicken wings and roasted broccoli pair perfectly with the nutty parmesan and hearty chickpeas.

Sheet-Pan Chicken with Broccoli, Chickpeas, and Parmesan Recipe

I rarely make sheet pan meals, but when I saw this Sheet-Pan Chicken with Broccoli, Chickpeas, and Parmesan on food52 I immediately knew I had to try it. After making it a couple times and adding a few tweaks and changes, this healthy chicken and broccoli recipe has become one of my favorite dinners to make.

Despite being fairly simple, this easy sheet-pan dinner is not exactly a just-throw-it-in-the-oven-and-you’re-done kind of dinner. It requires a little bit more effort than that. But don’t worry!! It’s nothing you can’t handle.

The recipe is very versatile and forgiving, so you can’t really mess it up. For super crispy chickpeas and chicken, and perfectly cooked broccoli, just follow some tips and you’ll have the best parmesan chicken sheet-pan dinner.

Ingredients for Sheet-Pan Chicken

This sheet-pan recipe is all about timing and strategy because even though the purpose of a sheet-pan meal is to make life easier, different ingredients have different cooking times. You don’t want the chicken to be done before the vegetables or vice versa.

One of the best things about this recipe is how crispy the chicken wings are. In order to achieve that level of crispness, the recipe calls for a surprising ingredient: baking powder.

Baking powder promotes better browning and crispier skin. It’s a known trick often used for chicken wings – the original recipe calls for chicken thighs.

In fact, baking powder is a key ingredient when browning chicken: it raises the chicken’s pH level so proteins break down more efficiently, which leads to better browning.

The flavors here are bold and bright: the rub mixture is full of different spices, the parmesan adds a rich, salty finishing, and the fresh lemon lends a much needed acidic balance.

Tips for Perfect Sheet-Pan Chicken

How to achieve crispy chicken skin: Dry the chicken well before rubbing the mixture of baking powder, salt, and other seasonings all over the chicken. The baking powder promotes browning and crispier skin. (via Serious Eats)

Sear the chicken in the oven: place an empty sheet pan in the oven while it heats to 500° F. Carefully add the chicken skin-side down on the hot sheet pan (it’ll sizzle and start to sear as soon as it hits the pan), then lower the heat to 425° F. Wait about 15 minutes before flipping the chicken, or until the fat from the skin has rendered (via Simply Recipes Sheet Pan Chicken with Roasted Broccoli and Potatoes).

Add big, bold flavors: Add diced preserved lemon peel to the pan drippings to up the boldness, brightness, and complexity of the whole dish (via Canal House’s Chicken Thighs with Lemon).

Stagger entry of ingredients: Nestle the broccoli and chickpeas (I’ve never tried the sun-dried tomatoes version, but the addition of an acidic element sounds great! Cherry tomatoes would also work great here) amongst the chicken thighs after they’ve been flipped. For best results, cut the broccoli into really small pieces to create more surface area for browning and ensure a quick roast (via Melissa Clark and many others).

Boost browning: Sprinkle parmesan cheese over the entire dish for its final roasting time to enhance browning and flavor (via Diana Henry’s One Pot Parmesan Roast Chicken and Cauliflower).

Crisp vegetables while the chicken rests: Spread the broccoli and chickpeas evenly across the sheet pan (tossing them a few times in the pan drippings) and return them to the oven for a few extra minutes; they’ll get browner, crispier, and more delicious.

Ingredient Substitutions and Variations

Like I mentioned above, cherry tomatoes would be a great addition to this recipe. They’ll char and blister in the oven, adding a nice acidic and saucy element to the dish. The original recipe calls for sun-dried tomatoes.

If you don’t like broccoli you can use cauliflower instead. For a vegetarian version, try swapping the chicken for tofu.

The original recipe also calls for preserved lemons, which I usually skip. If you don’t have preserved lemons, adding a generous squeeze of lemon is enough to elevate the flavors. It tastes amazing and it’s one less step and one less ingredient to worry about!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

A sheet-pan dinner is great for many reasons: minimal cleanup, minimal technique, minimal effort.

This chicken and broccoli recipe in particular is a healthy weeknight dinner that’s full of textures and bold flavors. It’s easily customizable and the trips you use here can easily be applied to other recipes, so you can create your own dinners inspired by this one.

The smoking hot sheet pan is truly a genius move: it’s the reason why this is such a speedy dish and crucial to getting the ingredients so delightfully crisp.

Setting a timer is a good idea when making this dinner—the first time to remind yourself to flip the chicken, and the second time to check its doneness—so there are no surprises or burnt dinner!

Even though all this time coordinating takes a little bit of effort, it’s the attention to detail and all those extra tricks mentioned that make this dish such a great weeknight dinner.

If you make this Sheet-Pan Chicken with Broccoli, Chickpeas, and Parmesan please be sure to leave a comment! I’d love to hear from you and I love responding to every comment. And don’t forget to also tag me on Instagram. I’d love to see your photos!