Greek Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Kale

Lemony, garlicky good: Greek Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Kale is a simple one pan roast chicken recipe that creates its own built-in veggie side. Naturally gluten free, too.

Happy bonus recipe Tuesday! How about Greek Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Kale today? My whole house still smells like lemon, garlic, and oven roasted chicken from cooking up this recipe, which makes me so happy. Don’t you love it when your home speaks the language of comfort food?

(I also love buying big bags of chopped organic kale at ALDI, because I generally get at least two recipes out of each bag. It’s also so much easier than stripping the leaves off the stems myself, and a nice change of pace from our more usual spinach.)

What went into this particular combination of ingredients? Well, you might think there’s always some kind of science going on behind the scenes — but sometimes recipes just come about from a random confluence of events. To wit, a few of the thoughts that went into today’s Greek chicken & sweet potatoes recipe:

• Split chicken breast was on sale
• I had half a bag of kale left over from making sheet pan gnocchi earlier this week
• We haven’t had sweet potatoes in a while
• The inherent bitterness of kale seems to balance out the inherent sweetness of the potatoes
• A couple of lemons had been sitting in my fridge for quite a while
• I was feeling garlicky

So… what’s lemony and garlicky? Greek chicken! And if you can make Greek chicken with potatoes, couldn’t you make Greek chicken with sweet potatoes? And what the heck, let’s throw in that kale, too.

That all worked! Yay. So, here’s how you too can make your own Greek chicken dinner with its own built-in veggie side.

Greek Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Kale

Ingredients

– for the chicken

4 bone-in split chicken breasts (about 4-4.5 lbs)
Juice of one small lemon
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp minced garlic (about 6 cloves)
1 Tbsp oregano
Sea salt, to taste
Black pepper, to taste

– for the veggies

2 medium sweet potatoes (about 1.5 lbs), chopped
1 medium yellow onion, sliced into eighths
6 oz roughly chopped kale leaves (about one bunch, after stripping ribs and stems)
2 Tbsp olive oil
Juice of one small lemon
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 degrees and spray a roasting pan with cooking spray.

Trim the chicken and place in a large bowl. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, and spices in a small bowl. Drizzle the olive oil/lemon mixture over the chicken, and stir to coat.

Sweet potatoes can be hard to slice when raw. Slice them into rounds, then chop those into chunks.

Let the chicken sit and marinate while you scrub and chop the sweet potatoes, slice the onion, chop the kale (if not using pre-chopped), and mince the garlic.

Place the chicken skin-side up in the prepared roasting pan.

Add the chopped sweet potato, kale, and onion to the same bowl you used for your chicken. Combine olive oil, lemon juice, and spices in the same bowl you used for the chicken marinade, drizzle over the veggies, and toss to coat.

Arrange the veggies around the chicken in the roasting pan. (It will be super-full, but kale cooks down super-fast, so never fear.)

Roast at 425 degrees for 50-60 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through to 165 degrees, stirring the veggies every 20 minutes and arranging them back around the chicken.

Let chicken sit for 10 minutes before serving. Cut the chicken off of the bone and slice it, in order to get a good six servings, then spoon pan juices over the chicken and serve it with the veggies.

Note: I didn’t peel the sweet potatoes because I prefer them skin-on; if you don’t, peel away.

That’s some lemony garlicky good chicken

And, so pretty! One of the things I left out of my recipe considerations above: Color. One way to eat with your eyes (and to balance out the fruits and veggies you consume) is to think about how much color and contrast you can incorporate into your meals. It doesn’t always work, of course — but here, the orange sweet potatoes, dark kale, and white onions balance out the browned chicken in visual contrast as well as in flavor, making for a harmonious plate.

This Greek chicken recipe is naturally gluten free, and creates its own handy built-in side for an all-in-one-pan dinner. This is a great recipe for a lazy Sunday afternoon; let it roast away in the oven, and then enjoy a comfort food dinner to close out your weekend.

Greek Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Kale, printable recipe

Recipes in the real world

Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!

Be sure not to miss the free ALDI meal plans, which show you how to use these easy family recipes to meal plan affordably and realistically for your family. Or, find more recipe ideas with the Recipe Search!