Sheet Pan Smoky Parmesan Chicken Tenders & Veggies

Sheet pan smoky Parmesan chicken tenders & veggies is a super flavorful, naturally gluten free, easy sheet pan dinner recipe — you can swap the veggies out with what you happen to have on hand, too!

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Sheet Pan Smoky Parmesan Chicken Tenders & Veggies is such a happy accident of a recipe! Let me explain: Yesterday (it seems so long ago already) I told you about the smoked sausage, zucchini, and spinach pasta I’d thrown together earlier in the week.

Well, today’s Sunday Scratchups (your weekly recipe from scratch around grocery sales and affordable ingredients) actually focuses on affordability in terms of using up ingredients (like those I had left over from that earlier pasta recipe), and reducing food waste. That mindset alone can go a long way towards bringing down your grocery bill over time: Always look for ways to use up what you have, before buying new!

For instance: The zucchini I bought at ALDI this week comes in a one pound bag, but the sausage & zucchini pasta required just half the bag. So, today’s Sheet Pan Smoky Parmesan Chicken Tenders & Veggies recipe uses up the other half! I included shredded Parmesan in that earlier pasta recipe, so today’s sheet pan chicken tenders recipe also makes use of some of that container of shredded Parmesan. I had the end of a bag of carrots in the fridge that was starting to lose its crispness, so carrots made their way into today’s sheet pan dinner. (Leave these out or substitute something else if you want to be super low carb.) My fridge also yielded half a bag of broccoli from an earlier recipe, so that jumped onto the sheet pan as well.

Sheet pan recipes, soups, quesadillas, and stir fries are all great ways to incorporate leftover veggies from your fridge that you might not otherwise have a specific use in mind for. And, as for the chicken tenders? Well, when you spot one of these half-price clearance stickers and don’t have anything else thawed for dinner, that sale meat clearly becomes your protein for the day! 🙂

I was still in a smoky mood after the pasta the other day, too, so went with a smoked paprika flavor in tonight’s variation on sheet pan chicken dinner.

Sheet Pan Smoky Parmesan Chicken Tenders & Veggies

Four more garlic cloves jumped onto the pan later…

Ingredients

– for the veggies

8 oz zucchini (about one medium or two small), sliced into coins
8 oz broccoli, cut into florets
2 carrots, peeled and sliced into coins
1 medium yellow onion, cut into eighths
12 whole cloves garlic, peeled
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
2 tsp Italian seasoning
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Black pepper, to taste

– for the chicken

1.5 lbs chicken tenderloin, trimmed (or cut boneless skinless  breast into strips, if you don’t have tenderloin)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp seasoned salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne (omit if you’re sensitive to spice)
1 tsp smoked paprika
Black pepper, to taste

– for everything

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two rimmed baking sheets with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray.

Add vegetables to the prepared sheet pans (keeping one pan less full, so that you’ll have room to move them to one side and add the chicken later). Drizzle veggies with olive oil and season them with seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, and black pepper, then toss to coat. Spread veggies out in a single layer and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, trim the chicken tenders and toss them in a bowl with olive oil, seasoned salt, garlic powder, cayenne, smoked paprika, and black pepper until well coated with the spice mixture.

Remove pans from the oven. Stir veggies and flip over the zucchini, then push the vegetables on your less full baking sheet over to the side in order to make room for the seasoned chicken tenders (but leave veggies in a single layer). Arrange the chicken in a single layer on the pan, then sprinkle both pans of chicken and vegetables with shredded Parmesan.

Return to oven, switching pans between their original racks, and roast for another 12-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through to 165 degrees internal temperature.

Note: Cooking time will vary somewhat, depending on the thickness of your chicken tenders.

I was going to say this is an easy one-pan meal…

But I guess that, technically speaking, it is a two pan meal. But this is a good thing! It just means that you’re packing more veggies into this easy all-in-one weeknight sheet pan chicken dinner than one pan can safely contain. 🙂 And, all of them are smoky good — while roasting the vegetables brings out their natural sweetness, in a lovely contrast to the smoked paprika and salty Parmesan.

Sheet pan smoky Parmesan chicken tenders & veggies are also naturally gluten free, and everything but the carrots here is low carb (so they’re easy for MashupDad to avoid, or if the whole family is low carb, just switch them out for a different veggie).

Sheet Pan Smoky Parmesan Chicken Tenders & Veggies, printable recipe

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Sheet Pan Smoky Parmesan Chicken Tenders & Veggies

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Roasting the vegetables brings out their natural sweetness, in a lovely contrast to the smoked paprika and salty Parmesan.

Course dinner

Cuisine sheet pan dinner

Keyword chicken, one pan meal, sheet pan, sheet pan dinner

Total Time 45 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rachel Singer

Ingredients

– for the veggies

• 8 oz zucchini (about one medium or two small) sliced into coins
• 8 oz broccoli cut into florets
• 2 carrots peeled and sliced into coins
• 1 medium yellow onion cut into eighths
• 12 whole cloves garlic peeled
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
• 2 tsp Italian seasoning
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• Black pepper to taste

– for the chicken

• 1.5 lbs chicken tenderloin, trimmed (or cut boneless skinless  breast into strips, if you don’t have tenderloin)
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 tsp seasoned salt
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/4 tsp cayenne (omit if you’re sensitive to spice)
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• Black pepper, to taste

– for everything

• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line two rimmed baking sheets with tinfoil and spray with cooking spray.
• Add vegetables to the prepared sheet pans (keeping one pan less full, so that you’ll have room to move them to one side and add the chicken later). Drizzle veggies with olive oil and season them with seasoned salt, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, and black pepper, then toss to coat. Spread veggies out in a single layer and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, trim the chicken tenders and toss them in a bowl with olive oil, seasoned salt, garlic powder, cayenne, smoked paprika, and black pepper until well coated with the spice mixture.
• Remove pans from the oven. Stir veggies and flip over the zucchini, then push the vegetables on your less full baking sheet over to the side in order to make room for the seasoned chicken tenders (but leave veggies in a single layer). Arrange the chicken in a single layer on the pan, then sprinkle both pans of chicken and vegetables with shredded Parmesan.
• Return to oven, switching pans between their original racks, and roast for another 12-15 minutes or until chicken is cooked through to 165 degrees internal temperature.

Notes

Cooking time will vary somewhat, depending on the thickness of your chicken tenders.

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