Sweet & Spicy Roast Chicken with Carrots, Dates & Pistachios
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This sheet-pan roast chicken dinner is the perfect no-fuss dish for company. Everything can be prepared and assembled a day in advance, so all that’s left to do at dinnertime is pop it in the oven.
Don’t you just love discovering new “keeper” recipes? The first time I made Melissa Clark’s fabulous sweet and spicy roast chicken recipe from The New York Times, I knew it’d be a family favorite for years to come. The chicken is immersed in a honey, citrus, and chili-infused marinade, and then roasted on a sheet pan with carrots and dates.
Before serving, herbs, scallions, and pistachios are added for freshness, color, and crunch. Not only is it delicious, but it’s also the perfect no-fuss dish for company. Everything can be prepared and assembled a day in advance, so all that’s left to do at dinnertime is pop it in the oven. Serve with couscous and a green vegetable and dinner is done!
Table of Contents
“I told the family I would clear up after dinner so I could have a quiet moment alone with the leftovers. Such a delicious dish!”
What You’ll Need To Make Sweet & Spicy Roast Chicken
The original recipe is wonderful as printed but, as with any recipe, each time I’ve made it, I’ve tweaked it to suit my style and my family’s taste. What follows is the version I make today.
Step-by-Step Instructions
Begin by making the marinade: whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, orange zest, orange juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, red pepper flakes, garlic, thyme, and salt.
Place the chicken, carrots, onions, and dates in a large sealable plastic bag. Add the marinade and seal shut. Massage to make sure everything is evenly coated with the marinade, then marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.
Transfer all ingredients from the bag, including the marinade, to a rimmed sheet pan. Turn the chicken skin side up.
Roast until chicken is lightly browned and cooked through, 40 to 45 minutes. Turn on broiler (leave pan on middle rack), and cook a few minutes more, or until the skin is golden brown and crispy. Watch very carefully: the honey in the marinade can cause the skin to burn quickly!
Transfer the chicken, carrots, onions and dates onto a platter, along with the sauce in the pan. Sprinkle the parsley, scallions and pistachio nuts over top and serve.
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Sweet & Spicy Roast Chicken with Carrots, Dates & Pistachios
This sheet-pan roast chicken dinner is the perfect no-fuss dish for company. Everything can be prepared and assembled a day in advance, so all that’s left to do at dinnertime is pop it in the oven.
Ingredients
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- 3 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, from 1 large lemon
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 6 tablespoons freshly squeezed orange juice, from 2 oranges
- 6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons whole grain mustard
- 6 tablespoons honey
- ½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves (or 1 teaspoon dried)
- 2½ teaspoons salt
- 4 pounds bone-in chicken pieces (thighs, drumsticks and breasts)
- 3 cups ¼-inch sliced carrots
- 1 medium yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
- 1 cup thinly sliced dried dates
- 2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley, for garnish
- 2 scallions, light and dark green parts, thinly sliced, for garnish
- ¼ cup chopped salted pistachios, for garnish
Instructions
- Make the marinade: In a medium bowl whisk together the lemon zest, lemon juice, orange zest, orange juice, olive oil, mustard, honey, red pepper flakes, garlic, thyme, and salt.
- Place the chicken, carrots, onions, and dates in a large sealable plastic bag. Add the marinade and seal shut. Massage to make sure everything is evenly coated with the marinade. Place the bag on a rimmed sheet pan to protect against leakage and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 6 hours or overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 425°F and set an oven rack in the middle position.
- Transfer all ingredients from the bag, including the marinade, to a rimmed sheet pan (do not line the pan with foil). Turn the chicken skin side up. Roast until chicken is lightly browned and cooked through, 40 to 45 minutes. About halfway through cooking, stir the carrots so that they don’t burn around the edges of the pan.
- Turn on broiler (leave pan on middle rack), and cook 1 to 3 minutes more, or until skin is golden brown and crispy. Watch carefully: the honey in the marinade can cause the skin to burn quickly.
- Transfer the chicken, carrots, onions and dates onto a platter, along with the sauce in the pan. Sprinkle the parsley, scallions and pistachio nuts over top and serve.
Pair with
Nutrition Information
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- Per serving (6 servings)
- Calories: 1,022
- Fat: 62g
- Saturated fat: 15g
- Carbohydrates: 59g
- Sugar: 49g
- Fiber: 6g
- Protein: 60g
- Sodium: 1306mg
- Cholesterol: 227mg
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
Gluten-Free Adaptable Note
To the best of my knowledge, all of the ingredients used in this recipe are gluten-free or widely available in gluten-free versions. There is hidden gluten in many foods; if you're following a gluten-free diet or cooking for someone with gluten allergies, always read the labels of your ingredients to verify that they are gluten-free.
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Love this! I substitute dried apricots because my husband doesn’t like dates. Delicious and simple to make.
My family liked but did not love this dish. Two of my sons disliked the dates in the dish; my husband told me it was a little too rich for him; and I was surprised to discover that I disliked the chili/orange/date flavor combination. Oh, well. I finished the leftovers, but so far it is my least favorite recipe on this website.
Jenn,
I have the chicken marinating to cook tonight and will follow the recipe for cooking, but I was curious why you don’t line with the foil (possible reaction to citrus?)or can I use parchment paper to line the pan. I’m serving it along with your brisket recipe and the apple crisp for dessert. Great holiday recipes. Thank you.
Hi Ilene, I’m always nervous to line the pan with foil when the recipe calls for sticky ingredients like honey, as it can stick (even to heavy duty foil). And I don’t use parchment because I think it prevents the veggies from browning really well. That said, several readers have said they used foil with success so might be a good idea and would certainly make clean-up easier. The recipes on your menu are some of my favorites – hope everyone enjoys and Happy New Year :).
Can you make this ahead and reheat?
Hi Jane, I think this is best right out of the oven, but everything can be prepared and assembled ahead, so all you need do when ready to serve is pop it in the oven. Hope that helps!
This is an excellent family dish and very convenient to have in the fridge when you get in from work. The marinade comes together quickly the night before and the chicken doesn’t take long to cook . As some people noted, the carrots take a bit longer to cook than the chicken, and the next time I make it I’ll julienne the carrots so that they’ll cook faster. I spatchcocked a whole chicken, which is all I had, and it worked well. It took a bit longer than pieces to roast, but was done in 70 minutes. The breast and legs were done at the same time, so the breast was nice and moist. I only used 2 tbsp of olive and 3 tbsp of honey and thought that it was the right balance of sweet/savory. The sauce is delicious and was great drizzled over the root veggies and fennel that I roasted in a separate pan.
As per the recipe, I didn’t line the pan with foil or parchment, and spraying with PAM didn’t completely eliminate the mess in the pan from the burnt on sauce. My thanks to Phil for the Huffington Post link about using a dryer sheet to clean a roasting pan. It worked like a charm. I only had to soak the pan for a little over an hour to get it clean.
Can I do this with skinless chicken breasts? Do I need to modify the cooking time or temperature?
Hi Pat, You could try the recipe with bone-in skinless breasts, but I think you’d need to add a few more tablespoons olive oil to make up for the fat in the skin – otherwise the chicken might be dry and the sauce off balance. Hope that helps!
I made this chicken last night for a dinner with friends. Followed recipe exactly as written (except I coarsely chopped carrots in food processor to save time). It was sooo delicious, wonderful flavors and textures! Served with salad, crusty harvest bread, and pearled couscous-sooo yummy with the sauce from the chicken mmmm! Perfect comforting meal on a cccold night!
I prepared this recipe twice. I cut the olive oil, mustard and honey by 1/3 both times. The second time, I omitted the dates, and I added the garlic an hour before it went in the oven. Marinating with garlic overnight the first time made my whole house smell like garlic! It was extremely flavorful both ways. I’m sure that I’ll make this again.
I would give this a 3.5/4 star. I’m not sure if I did something wrong but the result did not turn out exactly how I thought. Primarily it was a little too sweet for me, the chicken had ok flavor, and I didn’t like how the onions cooked. I doubt I would make again but if I did I would increase the savory a little and decrease sweet. I will say that my very picky 3 year old thought it was yummy…like candy. And it smelled amazing cooking. I love most of the recipes on this site and think this one was good but I don’t have much of a sweet tooth so it definitely wasn’t my favorite.
Really good recipe, I found it a little too sweet for my taste so will add less honey next time, but oh yes….there will be a next time!
I just made this dish for Christmas Eve dinner. It was a big hit with my family. They loved it! It is not only delicious but looks beautiful when served. Thank you for a wonderful recipe!!