One-Pan Chicken and Broccoli with Cheese Recipe

 

I knew we had chicken and broccoli in the house, but I didn't just want to make grilled chicken with air-fried broccoli on the side. That's boring! So I googled, "easy recipe with chicken and broccoli" and found this one from Christine Pittman's Cook the Story blog. It was simple and yummy!

Ingredients

• 8 skinless chicken thighs
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1.5 pound head of broccoli
• 1/2 cup panko breadcrumbs
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Lightly oil a large skillet or rimmed baking dish. Arrange the chicken thighs in the skillet in a single layer.
3. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, and thyme.
4. Break the florets off of the broccoli. If you’d like, peel and chop the stalks to include them, too. Arrange broccoli around chicken pieces.
5. In a medium bowl toss together the bread crumbs, cheese, olive oil, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon coarse pepper.
6. Arrange bread crumb mixture over the broccoli in the pan. It’s ok if some gets on the chicken, but concentrate on the broccoli.
7. Bake until chicken is cooked through to 165°F on an instant-read thermometer, so about 40-50 minutes.

I'm not sure if I didn't use the right size pan, or my ratio between chicken and broccoli was off, but I had SO much of the bread crumb/cheese mixture that there's no way I could have only put it on the broccoli. I covered the whole dish with it (who doesn't like more cheese?). I baked the dish for 40 minutes, but I left it in the oven for another 5 minutes to allow some browning of the cheese (plus, that gave me time to microwave a baked potato for the side dish). This was definitely a quick dinner to throw together, and while it's cooking, that time can be spent enjoying a happy hour drink beforehand at home. I'll be sure to make this recipe again!