This sheet-pan chicken and Brussels sprouts recipe is infused with bold Szechuan flavor. It takes only 20 minutes of hands-on time before baking in the oven. Packed with flavor and nutrients, a weeknight dinner your whole family will love! Vegan and gluten-free adaptable.
There is nothing more satisfying than creating a flavorful meal that requires minimal prep time. Even though I am a chef and love to cook, there are some nights when time is short and I need a quick, healthy meal, fast! Sheet pan dinners to the rescue!
With just 20 minutes of prep, this baked chicken and Brussels recipe is bold and flavorful with the Szechuan sauce. Serve it with jasmine rice, cauliflower rice, or just on its own (like we do here). So yummy!
A full-flavored weeknight dinner your whole family will love. Go here for more easy Sheet Pan Meals!
INGredients
- Chicken thighs: Use bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. You can substitute skinless boneless thighs or skinless chicken breasts, but cooking times will shorten (see notes).
- Brussels sprouts: Depending on their size, the Brussels sprouts can be halved, quartered, or left whole.
- Red onion: Adds a nice aromatic, punchy component.
- Dried red chilies: Optional, but add a pop of color and look pretty for presentation!
- Szechuan marinade: Honey (or agave or maple syrup), soy sauce (or gluten-free liquid aminos), rice vinegar (or black vinegar), toasted sesame oil (or peanut oil), Chili Garlic Sauce (or sriracha), garlic cloves (use a press), fresh ginger (or ginger paste), salt, Szechuan peppercorns (or sub black pepper), five-spice, and cornstarch (optional, for thickening).
- Garnish: Scallions, chives, or cilantro for a fresh, herby finish!
Variations
- Make it gluten-free: Substitute the soy sauce for gluten-free liquid aminos.
- For a vegan version: Use tofu instead of chicken! Cut into “filets” (square or rectangular slabs) about 3/4-inch thick, or into strips or cubes. Marinate the tofu in a bowl for 20-30 minutes, or in a bag overnight. Season with extra salt.
- Swap in seasonal veggies: Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, bell peppers, fresh green beans, zucchini, or snap peas roast beautifully in the same marinade. Red potatoes would be a nice addition, too. Use your favorite veggies!
How to make chicken and Brussels Sprouts Sheet Pan Dinner
1. Prep the oven and Szechuan marinade. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Mix all of the marinade ingredients in a medium bowl.
2. Marinate the chicken. Place the chicken in a large bowl or zip-lock bag. Pour half of the marinade mixture over top (enough to coat). Let marinate while prepping the Brussels sprouts-or, for even better flavor, marinate overnight!
3. Slice and season the Brussels sprouts. Trim and halve the Brussels sprouts. If they are large, you may need to quarter them. Smaller Brussels sprouts can be left whole. Place in a bowl with the red onion and optional red chilies. Pour a little marinade into the bowl and toss to lightly coat.
4. Bake. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread the vegetables out evenly. Nestle the chicken thighs in between. Sprinkle a little kosher salt on the chicken. Bake for 30 minutes. Check at 20 minutes, rotating the pan if needed. If the chicken looks dry, drizzle a little more marinade on top. After 30 minutes, use a thermometer to check for doneness. The temperature should be at least 170 degrees F.
5. Broil. Turn on the broiler for a few minutes to get the skin golden and crispy.
Sheet pan Chicken TiPs
- To achieve crispy skin, use your broiler for the final minutes, or use your convection setting for the first half of baking time. Or you can pan-sear the chicken for 4-5 minutes over medium-high heat before baking.
- Dry the chicken before marinating. Pat the chicken thighs dry to help the marinade cling to the skin.
- Don’t overcrowd the pan. Give everything plenty of space. Crowding traps steam, which prevents even browning.
- For optimal flavor, give the chicken (or tofu) an extra sprinkling of salt before baking.
- A note on Szechuan peppercorns: They add a unique flavor, but using too much will overpower. Start with 1/2 teaspoon. If you’ve never tried one, taste a peppercorn. It has a fragrant flavor and numbing effect on the tongue, adding interesting complexity! This, for me, was an acquired taste. You can absolutely leave these out and substitute black peppercorns.
Serving Suggestions
Serve over Jasmine rice, black rice, cauliflower rice, quinoa, or on its own. Top the dish with chili crisp for a crunchy extra spice kick.
You may also enjoy these starters, sides, and salads with our sheet pan chicken!
- Crunchy Bok Choy Salad
- Egg Roll in a Bowl
- Wonton Salad
- Chili Crisp Cauliflower
- Asian Cucumber Salad
- Sesame Soba Noodles
- Longevity Noodles
Storage
- Storage: Leftovers will keep up to 4 days in the refrigerator and can be reheated in a 350°F oven.
- Freeze in the marinade: Turn this into a freezer meal by freezing the chicken in the marinade for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the fridge, then roast as directed.
- Freeze baked chicken: Fully cooked chicken can be frozen for up to 2 months. Let thaw before reheating at 350°F for 20-25 minutes.
FAQs
Once the chicken has been marinated, place it on a parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 425°F. The chicken is ready when its internal temperature is 170°F.
It depends on what the contents of the sheet pan are. Chicken thighs and Brussels sprouts bake at 425°F for 30 minutes. Boneless skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts may only take 15-20 minutes. And different veggies may roast more quickly.
Leave the chicken thighs uncovered (no need for aluminum foil) to achieve deeply golden, crispy skin. If covered, the chicken may be too moist. If the chicken looks dry, brush more marinade over the top.
There is no need to flip the chicken; however, you can to get both sides crispy and browned.
For the best texture, marinate the chicken overnight. Then, while baking, brush more marinade over the top of the chicken when it begins to crisp.
The chicken thighs can be removed from the fridge and sit out for 15-30 minutes before baking to reach room temperature. This can help it cook more evenly.
More Sheet Pan Chicken Recipes
After you try this sheet pan chicken dinner recipe, let us know how it turns out in the comments below. Your review will help other readers, too! Sign up here to join our community and receive our latest recipes and weekly newsletter! xoxo Sylvia
Baked Chicken and Brussels Sprouts Recipe
- Prep Time: 25 mins
- Cook Time: 35 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: main, vegan main, chicken , sheet pan dinner
- Method: baked
- Cuisine: Chinese
Description
This baked, Sheet-Pan Chicken and Brussels Sprouts is made with a Szechuan marinade and takes only 20 minutes of hands-on time before baking in the oven. A full-flavored weeknight dinner your whole family will love! Vegan adaptable with tofu- see notes.
Ingredients
- 2–3 lbs chicken thighs (bone-in, skin on)
- 1 1/2 lbs medium brussels sprouts, halved (see notes)
- one red onion, cut into 1-inch wedges
- optional, 10 dried red chilies (just for looks)
- Salt to taste, step 4
Szechuan Marinade:
- 3 tablespoons honey (or agave or maple syrup)
- 1/4 cup soy sauce (or use GF Liquid Aminos )
- 1 tablespoon rice vinegar (or use black vinegar)
- 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil (or peanut oil)
- 1 tablespoon Garlic Chili Paste (or sriracha)
- 4 fat garlic cloves, finely minced (use a garlic press)
- 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, finely minced or ginger paste
- 1 teaspoon salt, more for sprinkling
- 1/2 – 1 teaspoon Szechuan peppercorns, toasted, crushed (or substitute black pepper, see notes)
- 1/2 teaspoon five-spice
- 2 teaspoons cornstarch (optional, thickens the sauce)
Garnish with scallions, chives or cilantro. Serve on its own, over jasmine rice or cauliflower rice.
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (If you don’t have a broiler, see notes about convection)
- Make the Szechuan marinade by stirring all ingredients together in a medium bowl.
- Marinate. Pour half of the marinade over the chicken (or enough to coat) either in a bowl or a zip-lock bag. Let chicken marinate while you prep the Brussels sprouts, or marinate overnight (for even more flavor!)
- Prep Brussels Sprouts. Trim and halve the Brussels Sprouts. The Brussels sprouts pictured here are ping-pong ball-sized, so depending on size, you may need to quarter or leave them whole. If using very, very small Brussels sprouts, leave them whole. If extra-large, like a golf ball, then quarter. Place the Brussels sprouts in a bowl with the red onion and optional dried red chilies, and pour just enough marinade over them to lightly coat. Save the rest.
- Assemble. Spread Brussels sprouts on a large, parchment-lined sheet pan. Nestle the chicken thighs in between. Season the chicken with more salt.
- Bake it in the hot oven for 30 minutes, checking at 20 minutes, rotating if need be, and spooning a little of the remaining marinade over the chicken. After 30 minutes, double-check for doneness (use a thermometer; cook until it reads at least 170°F)
- Broil for a few minutes until the chicken skin is deeply golden and crispy. (See notes)
Notes
If you don’t have a broiler, either pan-sear the skin side of the chicken over medium-high heat for 4-5 minutes (or until golden) before nestling into the sheet pan, or use the convection setting for the first half of the baking time (or gauge the convection based on level of browning ).
If using tofu, either cut into “filets” ( a square or rectangular slab) about a ¾ inch thick, strips or cubes. Marinate the tofu in a bowl for 20-30 minutes, or in a bag overnight. Season with extra salt.
Chicken: You can use skinless boneless thighs, or even chicken breast but cooking times will shorten. Check after 15- 20 minutes, and if the chicken is done but the brussels sprouts need longer, just remove the chicken, letting the brussels sprouts cook until tender, probably the whole 30 mins.
You can cook both chicken and tofu for mixed households, keeping the chicken on one side and the tofu on the other.
To ensure good flavor, it is important to give the chicken and tofu an extra sprinkling of salt.
Szechuan Peppercorns add a unique flavor, but using to much will overpower. If unfamiliar, start with ½ teaspoon. If you’ve never tired one, just plop one in in your mouth and taste it. It has a very perfumy flavor and numbing effect on the tongue, adding interesting complexity! This may be very pleasant, or very unpleasant to you. This, for me was an acquired taste. You can absolutely leave these out and sub black peppercorns.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: – Using Chicken Thighs with Skin
- Calories: 650
- Sugar: 24.5 g
- Sodium: 722.2 mg
- Fat: 36.3 g
- Saturated Fat: 9.4 g
- Carbohydrates: 44.1 g
- Fiber: 9.9 g
- Protein: 41.9 g
- Cholesterol: 189.1 mg
Sheet pan meals are new to me and I am excited to try this one.
I am all for simplicity and super easy clean up.
Awesome Karen! Let us know what you think.
OMG!!! Had it last night for dinner. Made marinade with hot honey. Did not have Szechuan peppercorns, so used quite a bit of black pepper, and extra five spice powder. No cornstarch or decorative peppers. Marinated the skinless boneless chicken thighs overnight. Vegetables were thickly shredded cabbage, and broccoli florets (both needed to be used). Cooked all at 375 for about 25 minutes (thighs were small and on the thin side), and added some snap peas on top for the last 5 minutes of cooking. INSANELY GOOD!!! So good that we are repeating the sauce recipe tonight, the very next day, this time with brussels sprouts and tofu (already marinating in the fridge), to host a vegan neighbor for dinner (we were assured that the honey will be ok in this recipe, as the neighbor eats it sporadically). Gotta get the Szechuan peppercorn soonest.
What a find – thank you!!!!!
Wonderful to hear this Beata! The details are so appreciated, thanks for taking time to leave a review. 🙂
My husband and I absolutely love this recipe.
Loved this!! So flavorful with just the right amount of seasoning and spices!!
Glad you enjoyed Donna!
This recipe comes together so quickly and easily. The hardest thing is remembering to marinate it overnight, which is optional. Don’t skip the Szechuan peppercorns! They add amazing flavor and tingle.
Thanks Matt, really appreciate the review!
My husband went nuts for this recipe! I loved the flavors in the marinade. Used Thighs and didn’t even have to broil as skin had a nice color. The brussel sprouts were a tad over cooked for my taste so I think I will remove them a bit before the chicken next time. I didn’t have Schezhaun pepper so used pink peppercorns instead. I want to try with Schezhaun.
Hi Nanci! I’m so glad he enjoyed this! Yes, timing will depend on the size of the Brussels Sprouts. 🙂
What a delicious dish! I didn’t have brussel sprouts, so subbed red cabbage and mushrooms. The cabbage was so yummy, crispy and flavorful! Another excellent recipe Sylvia!
So glad you enjoyed Deb!
Is there anything you’d recommend to substitute for the chili paste or sriracha for kids that don’t do spice? Thanks!
I would just leave it out!
10/10. Full disclosure: I made changes to this recipe based on what I had. Instead of the garlic chili paste, I used chili crisp. I also used only 1/4 tsp of Szechuan peppercorns because they can be intense for me. When I opened my oven it smelled like char siu heaven. I served with brown rice, edamame, and a salad of cucumber, cherry tomatoes, onion, mint, serrano, and nuoc cham. Def a mix of cultures on my plate, but so, so delish. Thank you for this recipe – it will be a new mainstay for me.
Yum- glad you enjoyed this!
Delicious and flavorful. Fairly foolproof and easy. Healthy. An excellent recipe I have made time and again. My husband loves this. We serve with white rice. We do use the thighs with skin on but appreciate the healthier option of breast and that works well too. Has a bit of sweetness to it.
Great to hear Del!
Can you sub anything for sesame oil. My husband is allergic to sesame
Peanut oil would taste good here!
Great. Is peanut oil a good substitute as a rule of thumb
It really depends on the recipe- in Szechuan food it’s usually good.
Excellent marinade! I had 1.5lb boneless skinless thighs that I cut in thick strips, along with cabbage and broccoli. My pan was pretty full, so I ended up cooking ~36 min, stirring halfway through. My husband looooved it and he doesn’t usually like recipes with sweeteners. Will definitely make again. After toasting, and running Szechuan peppercorns through a spice grinder, I sifted them through a sieve to remove gritty-like pieces, then stored in fridge. Sounds like a lot of steps buts its quick and your pepper is ready to use for months!
Great idea May! So glad you enjoyed.
Amazing sauce/marinade. I added turnips bc I love them. Wonderful compliment. Next time I am trying duck that will be complimented by that marinade.
This was really good. I used ground black pepper in place of the Szechuan peppercorns, and 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts. Baked with the Brussels sprouts at 425 for 30 minutes… perfectly done at the same time.
Awesome Trish! Great to hear!
So good! Need to make extra marinade next time to drizzle over some rice noodles, too! Made
With frozen green beans and frozen stir fry veggies & it all turned out great! I love Brussels so can’t wait to try it with them when I can get my hands on some!
So happy you liked this!
One of my favorites!
Oh goody! Great to hear Maria!
I just made this recipe for the 50th/100th time. It is in my faves folder. When your “sheet pan dinner” recipes came out, I asked my husband to pick a few of his favorites, (simple for him to do on his own), he was retired, cooking for himself, and I was trying to stick with my vegan ways, off to work with my other favorites from you. He now begs for brussel sprouts, thanks to you. I use this marinade even when doing brussel sprouts solo, no other brussel sprout recipe seems to compare. Thank you again for a very special, simple recipe. The longer the thighs sit in the marinade the better. I added quite a few arbols to the marinade and I think they enhanced the flavor even more.
Awesome Dana- thanks!
Please, what are arbols? I tried to lookit up, but all I found was ‘trees’!
I believe she means arbol chilies?
Dang. This was FANTASTIC. It was my first sheet pan dish. So glad I ordered the Szechuan pepper. I got the tingly mouth towards the end of the meal! Anyway, I used fresh ginger, garlic, brussel sprouts. I did use the sriracha as a sub as my grocery store was out of the garlic paste. Served it over rice. This will go in to my regular rotation.
Another wonderful dish, Sylvia. I turned it after 20 minutes and my chicken thigh skin was still quite rubbery, but after another 15 minutes the skin was beautifully crispy and reddish from the marinade. My two year old twins loved the chicken and ate several brussel sprouts (which is a win for us). Your recipes are wonderful for introducing little ones to various flavors, textures, and spices. Will definitely make this again. Did I mention it was so easy?!
Awesome Heather!
Hi, I have not tried this recipe but it looks delish and with four kids I am looking for more sheet pan meals. However, in the past, my sheet pan dishes never look like the pictures. The chicken or veggies are never caramelized and there is always excess liquid in my pan. So it seems like everything is steamed instead of roasted. I’ve always used tinfoil to line my pan, do you think that may be the problem? I’d love to try your recipe but not sure if I should skip the parent/tin foil. Thanks!
I would either use foil or parchament. Try broiling the chicken a few mintues after cooked through to give the skin good color and cook up some of the juices.
This was excellent. My chicken marinated for about 2 hrs and I did not salt it as it was a little salty already due to the soy sauce. I used dark soy sauce and black vinegar. I served it with a miso-ginger salad and it was really lovely.
Made this tonight; great flavor and my chicken thighs were so tender! I got great color on the chicken skin, but it was not crispy overall. I did make my 4 thighs in a glass dish vs. a baking sheet, as there was not enough room for the chicken and sprouts (I added baby carrots too) on my baking sheet, so I did them separately. Very good and I will make this again!