These Ingredients Deserve Your Attention

I used to think that paprika and parsley were just for show — nothing more than powdery red dashes on creamy deviled eggs, and verdant speckles breaking up the brown monotony of beef stew. Pretty, but expendable.

I understood the herbal intensity of parsley when I tasted whole leaves mixed into a butter lettuce salad. Next to the mildness of the other greens, the leaves were bracing, mineral and a little edgy, an ingredient to be used with care, not taken for granted.

Paprika and I had a similar moment after I bought a new tin to make chicken paprikash. When I opened it, an actual aroma wafted out. I dipped in a finger and took a lick. It was sweet and earthy, a less pungent cousin to the spicy New Mexico chile powder I adore for chili, which makes sense given that they’re both ground from dried red chiles.

[For more on sheet-pan meals from Melissa Clark, see our guide.]

This recipe celebrates these unsung ingredients, combining them with chicken and cherry tomatoes for an easy, gloriously colorful sheet-pan meal.

Some of that color comes from the cherry tomatoes, which create a sauce as they roast. Their juices leak onto the pan, condensing and mingling with the rendering chicken fat. Thin-skinned cherry and pear tomatoes tend to be juicier than sturdier grape tomatoes, but use what you have.

I also add bell pepper and mild slices of poblano chiles to the pan, to add complexity to the straightforward sweetness of the tomatoes, and to nod to the paprika, showcasing chiles in their fresh and dried states. There’s another good reason, too: Although there are many peppers in the markets right now, they start to shrivel as the weather gets colder. Roasting gives them a new life.

You can use any chicken parts for this dish, as long as they still have their bones and, preferably, skin for the richest flavor. I’m partial to drumsticks so I can eat them with my hands and gnaw on the cartilage. But white-meat lovers take heart: This dish works perfectly with bone-in breasts.

A sprinkle of Parmesan added before roasting lends tang. Then to finish, chopped parsley brings brightness and herbal depth, and yes, even more color. But don’t think of leaving it out; it’s pretty, but not expendable.

Recipe: Sheet-Pan Paprika Chicken With Tomatoes and Parmesan

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