Sheet-pan Tarragon Chicken (or Tofu!) with Asparagus, Lemon and Leeks – all roasted on a sheet pan for a fast and healthy dinner with minimal cleanup! Feel free to serve this with a side of smashed potatoes, black rice or everyday quinoa, cauliflower rice!
Whether we are happy or not depends on our awareness. ~Thich That Hanh
Here’s another Make life Simple recipe featuring fresh spring asparagus. This healthy sheet-pan dinner can be made with chicken or tofu – or both (for mixed households where both vegans and meat lovers cohabitate). When cooking for two, load up on the veggies and decrease the protein, like we do at home.
You’ve been telling me a lot of things. Mainly that you really want to cook “healthy” meals, fast! Healthy means so many different things to so many different people. And of course, it should, because our bodies are all different and we have different needs. To some, healthy means vegan. To others, healthy means low-fat, low cholesterol, or means low carbs and paleo. You’re a tough crowd!
But one thing we all seem to have in common is we all believe fresh seasonal produce is healthy. Which I just happen to love and why you see so many veggie-based recipes on the blog. In fact, when I make recipes, I make them around the produce. Always. That’s why if you follow on instagram, you’ll see I go to a lot of farmers markets….the number one place for me to get inspiration.
This recipe can be made vegan with the tofu option, or with chicken, or both, for mixed households.
And here it is with the chicken.
One meal two ways.
That’s what I love about sheet pan dinners….they are so adaptable.
Plus, the clean-up is super easy, especially when using parchment paper!!! If you’ve not adopted this habit, you must give it a try. It makes life so much easier!
So many of you have told me how much you dislike clean up and doing dishes….and I hear you. 🙂
This will help.
Parchment paper… the best investment ever!!!
It starts with a simple lemon tarragon marinade.
And one bowl.
Notice the order of things here….this way you don’t need to use more than one bowl. 🙂
Start with tossing the veggies in the bowl with just a little of the marinade.
Then next tofu, if using.
Then lastly chicken.
This way you don’t get chicken all over your veggies and tofu. Get it? 😉
Create a little barricade with the asparagus between the tofu and chicken. 🙂
Or if you need total separation, of course, baking on a separate little pan is just fine. But then you’ll have two pans to clean up – so I just do the one, because it’s just Brian and I.
Feel free to serve this with a starch like smashed potatoes, black rice or everyday quinoa, cauliflower rice or keep it low carb.
Give the chicken a little color by broiling for just a couple of minutes after it cooks through.
Sprinkle with fresh tarragon …..and devour!
xoxo
PS
Here are a few more Make Life Simple, Sheet-Pan Dinners for minimal cleanup….. many are vegan adaptable!
Tarragon Chicken ( or TOFU) with Asparagus, Lemon and Leeks
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 20
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4
- Category: main, chicken, tofu, low-carb
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: French
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
A healthy delicious sheet-pan dinner, that features the best of spring produce! Make it in 30 minutes with minimal clean up. Vegan adaptable, GF and paleo!
Ingredients
- 2 lemons
- 1/ 4 cup olive oil
- 4–6 garlic cloves, finely minced ( or use a garlic press)
- 2 teaspoons salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1-ounce package of fresh tarragon leaves, rough chopped, about ¼–⅓ cup
- 1 extra-large bunch asparagus, trimmed (about 1 1/2 pounds)
- 1–2 large leeks, sliced into ½ inch thick rounds ( if dirty, rinse, see notes)
- 4–5 medium chicken breasts (boneless, skinless) about 1- 1 1/2 lbs or sub tofu, see notes
Instructions
Preheat oven to 450F
In a small bowl make the marinade. Place the zest of one lemon, and its juice ( about 3 tablespoons) in a small bowl. Add oil, garlic, salt and pepper, and mix well until salt dissolves. Add ½ of the fresh tarragon, saving the rest for garnish.
Place trimmed asparagus in a bowl and spoon some of the marinade over top. Toss to combine and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Add leeks to the same bowl, toss with a little marinade, and spread out on the sheet pan. If using tofu, place in the bowl adding a little more marinade, toss to coat, add to sheet pan. Lastly add the chicken breasts, with the remaining marinade, coating well. Nestle the chicken amongst the asparagus.
Zest the second lemon over the whole sheet pan and slice the lemons into rounds, layering them over the asparagus. Place in the hot oven. If using tofu, either nestle it into one side of the pan or place it on a separate sheet pan – up to you.
Bake 20 minutes and check chicken- internal temp should read 160-165 F – thicker pieces will take longer. To get a more golden color broil for just a couple of minutes.
Remove from the oven. Give everything a little toss, turning chicken over to coat the top with the flavorful juices. Sprinkle with remaining fresh tarragon and serve.
Serve this with a starch like smashed potatoes, black rice or everyday quinoa, cauliflower rice or keep it low carb and serve just like this.
Notes
If using tofu, use extra firm. Slice into ¾ inch thick slabs and coat on all sides with marinade. For mixed households, serve both tofu and chicken! (Marinade is enough for 1.5 lbs chicken + 8 ounces tofu and the veggies.)
KEEP IN MIND: The thickness of the asparagus and the thickness of the chicken may affect cooking time. Here I’m using pencil-thick asparagus and 6-ounce chicken breasts (relatively small). If your sizing differs greatly you could use two separate baking sheets.
If cooking for two – you could easily half the chicken and double/ triple the asparagus. ( We do this a lot at home.) You could also marinate the chicken/tofu ahead, overnight if you like.
You could also use skin on bone in thighs, but this will require a longer cooking time and asparagus would need to come of the oven out earlier – so either place to one side or on a separate pan.
If the leeks are dirty when you slice them into rounds, not to worry. Just place the cut rounds into a bowl of water, gently swish and soak them for a few minutes. The dirt will fall to the bottom. Fish them out, pat dry. (They don’t need to be perfectly dry.)
Keywords: chicken and asparagus, asparagus chicken, baked chicken with asparagus, spring chicken recipes, asparagus recipes, tarragon chicken
I dont get this recipe at all. The picture shows 5 breasts but says four servings. A pound and a half of chicken is two breasts pretty much everywhere. Five breasts, two leeks, and a whole bunch of asparagus doesnt fit on one sheet pan. A serving for two suggestion is to half the amount of chicken but DOUBLE the vegetables?
I tripled the amounts to meal prep for a week and wound up with five servings. This feels like a fake recipe.
★
Hi Conrad- sorry, I see the confusion, the recipe is intentionally a little flexible. Here I’m using 5 smaller, 5-ounces breasts. You can use what ever breast size you want, within that 1 to 1 1/2 lb range ( for the amount fo marinade). I’m using a large 20 x14 inch sheet pan- but of course you can use two. The suggestion to double the veggies and half the chicken is just something we do at home, for the two of us, to intake more veggies.
Would like to try it tonight. I don’t have tarragon. which other fresh herb would you recommend ?
Tarragon really makes this one Nahla! I guess you could try basil ribbons ( maybe add at the tail end of baking), or thyme?
LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this recipe. It is healthy, easy, and delicious. A perfect Spring dish. Thank you Sylvia!
★★★★★
So flavorful–beyond amazing
★★★★★
This was perfect on a bright evening in early spring. Great flavor and we sopped up the extra garlic with focaccia.
★★★★★
Great recipe! My husband and I both loved it! I cut my chicken pieces fairly small to make sure they cooked thoroughly. It looks like I ended up with more food in my pan, so everything was closer and steaming vs. baking & roasting, thus needed about an additional 10 minutes to finish cooking. I sprinkled a little smoked paprika on the chicken to give it that golden grilled look. 🙂
★★★★★
We are LOVING a your food recipes!!! Thank you for the Oaxacan Bowl and portobello mushrooms. It’s hard to keep up with you, but I’ve got next week’s menus printed ready to go!
thanks Ann!
Can you please confirm the sodium content. It seems very high per serving.
Is this a typp? Please advise
I think it is just high. Generally, you need 1 teaspoon salt per pound of meat. Here we have 1 1/2 teaspoons (1 1/2 pounds chicke), and then 1/2 teaspoon for the asparagus and leeks. Of course, you can always cut back. 😉
The flavors in this are superb, but after 20 minutes the chicken breasts were still practically raw. I had to cook it for at least 15 more minutes.
★★★★
This was delicious!
★★★★★
Looks great and easy…
I’m planning on doubling the recipe using chicken and wonder whether to serve crusty bread or brown rice. I guess my question is if there are lots of juices with this dish for sopping up every last drop?
Not a lot of juices- some, but not too much extra if I remember correctly.
Hi Sylvia.
Could Quorn Naked Cutlets be used in place of the chicken or tofu?
I have not used these before- so not sure. My guess is yes??
SO delicious! I didn’t have any asparagus, but Brussels sprouts worked beautifully. High recommend!
★★★★★
I made this tonight for dinner, it was DELICIOUS!!!
★★★★★
We loved this dish!!! It is definitely restaurant quality and makes a beautiful presentation. Will make this for our friends soon. Thanks
★★★★★
Thank you so much for this, the marinade was delicious! I struggled with the eveness of cooking though. I pulled out the asparagus and leeks early since they cooked much faster than the chicken. Do you have any tips?
★★★★
Hey Katherine, yes it all depends on the size of the chicken and size of the asparagus. Fatter asparagus tends to work best here.
This was so easy & the perfect light meal for summer. I had to sub dill for the tarragon based on availability and it was wonderful. Can’t wait to try more recipes!
★★★★★
Thanks Jessica- glad you gave it a go.
Thanks! I made this, loved it and shared in a class on Great Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less
★★★★★
and, I should say, I shared your website to make sure you were the one who got credit for it!
Thank you Sylvia, I enjoy your recipes! The tarragon chicken was delicious and you do a great job walking your readers through the steps to great taste with minimal clean up in this one! One bowl-Yes!
Thanks for sharing such tasty & healthy recipes! This was flavorful & well received at my table!
★★★★★
Thanks Sherry- appreciate this so much! xo
Wow….Thanks to your wonderful recipe, this might be one of the best dishes I have ever made. It is almost unbelievable to me how a dish with such simple ingredients can taste like this. This meal felt like it was something that I ordered at an upscale restaurant. It is such a show-stopper that I decided that (when we can all safely visit our friends and relatives again) I’d really like to make it for my mom and step-dad. My mom was (and still is) a really good cook, but as I was growing up, she didn’t use fresh herbs or zest very often, so I think that the fresh herbs and the oils and juices from the lemon zest and lemons were part of the “magic” of this dish for me. I am learning so much from you about how flavors work with one another, and the advantages of using as many fresh and seasonal ingredients as you possibly can….I’m pretty partial to the fresh tarragon, but I realized after I ate it that a variety of fresh herbs would probably work in place of it if you couldn’t find any tarragon or happened to have another fresh herb on hand. Maybe thyme, or rosemary, or basil…. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you, thank you so much!!
Love it Jennifer! Thanks so much!
Loved it!
★★★★★
This sounds amazing! I s the nutrition data for chcken not tofu?
yes, for chicken
Delicious!
★★★★★
this is one of my favorites!! love the tarragon with the roasted lemon! thank you for sharing your creativity with us!
★★★★★
So glad you like it Mert! Thanks!
Loved, loved, loved this!! So yummy! I am so happy I found your website. Can’t wait to try more! Thanks Sylvia
★★★★★
Awwwww, thanks so much Reg! Appreciate you taking the time to rate and comment and welcome to the blog!
Fantastic dish and easy to make. My roommates loved it. Paired it with a French Sauvignon Blanc just wonderful.
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it…perfect with Sauv Blanc!
So flavorful and simple. I used a bit of Thyme and a sprinkle of Basil because I didn’t have Tarragon. I don’t usually use fresh herbs because it adds expense. Dried works well, too. This summer I’ll grow some of your most commonly used herbs to have on hand. I’m learning so much from you! Thanks.
★★★★★
Thanks Trudy I’m so happy you liked it and thanks for sharing!
I just made this again but didn’t have all so the ingredients. I had baby brussel sprouts, dill and I used a bit of EVOO infused with Meyer lemon. I am not a fan of brussel sprouts but they were in the freezer and wow, I almost ate the whole pan!! My husband even went back for seconds!
★★★★★
Wow! What a great mix of flavors. I spatchcocked (butterflied) a whole chicken and roasted it for about 20 minutes before adding the asparagus and leeks. The presentation was nice and the flavors were fantastic!.
We paired this dinner with your fennel, grapefruit, and avocado salad (which is also great and will be made again and again…) and the citrus inthe two dishes complimented each other well.
Thanks for yet another Feasting at Home recipe to add to the repertoire!
★★★★★
So glad you liked it. Sounds perfect with the salad!
Tommy – can you please detail your recipe for this? Thanks
Absolutely gorgeous, simple elegant French-style flavours, looks beautiful plated up and best of all, so very easy to prepare! Love the roast lemons!
★★★★★
Awesome!Great to hear…thanks!
This is delicious. I cubed some potatoes, tossed them in some of the marinade and baked them for about 10 minutes on their own. I then added the remaining ingredients, tossed and then baked for the 20 minutes.
★★★★★
Awesome!Great to hear…thanks!
Hard to find good chicken breast recipes that are not dry. Absolutely moist and delicious, fast and easy to make. Thanks!
★★★★★
I’m not a great cook but you do create such beautiful and simple recipes! I cooked this one this evening and found it very easy to cook – not to mention delicous. Thank you.
★★★★★
Thanks Lavinia, glad you enjoyed it!
This recipe is so easy, quick and delicious! I love leeks with the lemon and tarragon. I have made this twice, once with fresh tarragon and chicken and once with dried tarragon and a turkey thigh. Both were wonderful. Thank you!
★★★★★
Sooo good! So easy! So flavorful! And really pretty to serve as well! Wouldn’t change a thing!
★★★★★
That is awesome Jessika! Thanks for the rating and glad you enjoyed. xo
Another big hit with the family! I’ve done this twice, once with tarragon, and again with thyme (which I had in the garden – I forgot to buy tarragon!). Worked beautifully both ways – a new addition to our regular week night suppers.
So good!
★★★★★
Hi Sylvia,
This came out great. I had fresh asparagus coming up in the garden so I had to try this. The lemon and the tarragon worked well together. I used both boneless chicken thighs and tofu. The only problem I had was I didn’t like the price of fresh tarragon at the market. A little research online makes me think I should get a plant for my garden. Thanks for the recipe. Keep sending me your emails. I love browsing around your website for ideas.
★★★★★
Addendum to my previous comment: My husband lightly steamed the green beans before adding them to the pan to bake. They were perfect.
★★★★★
My husband made me the tarragon chicken sheet pan for dinner this evening. He substituted green beans for the asparagus, and dried tarragon for fresh. It was absolutely delicious!!! We’ll be serving this to guests next week. Hope we find some choice asparagus at the market. Thanks Sylvia!
★★★★★
This looks amazing! Are the nutrition facts for chicken?
Yes for chicken breast