This sheet pan Harissa chicken recipe is so delicious, hearty, and comforting! It's the perfect sheet pan dinner recipe for any weeknight, and it's low carb. The chicken thighs are roasted in a flavorful harissa marinade sauce along with healthy vegetables. The chicken meat is both juicy and tender!
An Easy Sheet Pan Recipe:
This Harissa roasted chicken is inspired by Morrocan, North African cuisine. It's made from easy seasoning ingredients that you can find in your pantry or local markets.
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Harissa Paste from Trader Joe's
If you have recently purchased Harissa Paste from Trader Joe's and don't know what to do with it? Well, Today, I am going to show you how to use the Harissa paste on another delicious one sheet pan recipe that is loaded with flavors and is very healthy, too.
Harissa Chicken Ingredients:
This harissa marinated chicken recipe is made with chicken thighs and seasoned with harissa paste, greek yogurt, garlic, smoked paprika powder, rosemary, cinnamon, honey, salt, and pepper. It's easy to prepare, cook, and even clean up.
If you are looking for good chicken recipes, don't wait any longer, make this Harissa chicken for dinner tonight!
Check out More Delicious Chicken Recipes:
- MEDITERRANEAN ROAST CHICKEN WITH VEGGIES
- THAI BASIL CHICKEN (PAD KRAPOW GAI)
- SUN-DRIED TOMATO CHICKEN BREAST WITH CREAM SAUCE
- HEALTHY BAKED CHICKEN TENDERS (AKA CHICKEN STRIPS)
- SMOTHERED CHICKEN WITH MUSHROOM GRAVY
- PANKO BREADED CHICKEN KATSU
Why You'll Love This Easy Roasted Chicken Recipe:
- It has the perfect balance of spiciness, saltiness, and sweetness.
- The chicken meat is moist, juicy, tender, and perfectly flavored with herbs and spices.
- It's inexpensive and made with easy ingredients that you can find in your pantry.
- The roasted chicken juice is savory, so you can throw any vegetables of your choice in with it and there is no need to add seasoning!
How Spicy Is It?
It's merely mild to moderate.
What is Harissa:
Harissa is a hot chili pepper paste that originally comes from North Africa (Tunisia and Libya). It is smoky, spicy, and aromatic. The condiment is usually made with roasted red peppers, garlic, caraway seeds, coriander seeds, cumin, and olive oil. It's commonly used in soups, stews, and as a flavoring for couscous.
Harissa comes in a variety of forms, such as harissa powder, harissa paste or harissa sauce.
For this recipe, I am going to use the Harissa paste that I purchased from local Trader's Joe. It's quite inexpensive, around $3 per jar, and no compromise on flavor.
Harissa paste is available at any International market, Trader's Joe or Amazon.com.
A quick tip for storing Trader's Joe Harissa Paste (coming from someone who has purchased Harissa paste from Trader's Joes many times).
I've noticed that the paste will grow some mold quickly within 2-3 days after opening, even when I stored it in the fridge. For this reason, I highly recommend that if you have some paste leftover you store it in the freezer.
How to Make the Moroccan-style Roasted Chicken:
This roasted Harissa chicken recipe is so easy to prepare and to cook. It only requires 30 minutes, and up to 2 hours of marinating time in the fridge.
The first thing you need to do is to mix all the marinade sauce ingredients in a ziplock, then add chicken thighs. You'll then need to massage the chicken with the paste so the meat can absorb the sauce during marinating.
I roasted the chicken thighs in the oven at 425°F for about 20 minutes. Then I removed the chicken from the heat, added some chopped red onions and bell peppers before continuing to cook it in the oven for 20 minutes, or until the thermometer reads 165°F.
If you are not a big fan of chicken thighs, feel free to use boneless chicken breasts. Just be sure to adjust the cooking time to around 18-20 minutes at 450°F, or until the thermometer reads 165°F. Because the cooking time is shorter, you can add the veggies at the beginning.
Vegetables:
For this recipe, I highly recommended adding some red onion, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, and green olives. However, feel free to use any other vegetables that you like. Cauliflower and garbanzo beans will also be a perfect addition to this one sheet chicken meal pan.
What to Serve:
Pair this harissa chicken with couscous or rice. For low carb dieter, serve this harissa chicken with your favorite salad.
Also, check out these delicious side dish recipes:
- SUMMER SQUASH CASSEROLE – CHEESY AND HEALTHY
- ELOTES MEXICANOS – MEXICAN CORN SALAD
- EASY KETO CREAMED SPINACH – SO CHEESY!
- SKILLET FRIED CORN – BUTTERY!
How is it stored? For how long?
Be sure to store the chicken in shallow airtight containers or wrap tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil or plastic wrap. You can keep in the fridge for up to 3-4 days.
📖 Recipe
Harissa Chicken
Ingredients
- 8 pieces bone-in chicken thighs, (about 4 pounds)
- 6 tablespoon plain Greek yogurt , (see notes)
- 4 tablespoon Harissa paste, (recommended: Trader's Joe Harrisa Paste)
- 2 tablespoon olive oil
- 2 tablespoon minced garlic
- 2 teaspoon 100% honey
- 2 teaspoon dried rosemary, (or about 2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary)
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika powder
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- 2 teaspoon salt, (or use less or more according to your liking)
Produce:
- 1 extra large green bell pepper , (cut the pepper into medium strips).
- 1 extra large red bell pepper, (cut the pepper into medium strips).
- 1 large red onion , (cut into big chunks)
- Green Olives
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F.
- Place a ziplock bag over a bowl. Add to it yogurt, harissa paste, minced garlic, dried rosemary, cinnamon, smoked paprika, honey, oil, salt, and pepper. Stir until well combined.
- Add chicken thighs into the ziplock, then seal tightly and spread the paste all over the chicken. Give it a quick massage so the meat is fully covered with the marinade sauce.
- Marinate the chicken for 30 minutes or up to 2 hours in the fridge.
- Transfer the chicken thighs with skin side up onto a large sheet pan. Roast the chicken for 20 minutes.
- Remove the chicken from the heat, then toss the red onion, bell peppers lightly. .
- Put the pan back into the oven. Cook for 20 minutes or longer or until the thermometer reads 165°F
- Turn off the oven, remove the chicken from the oven and add some fresh olives (optional) before serving.
Johara
Can you sub regular yoghurt for Greek?
Rika Livingston
Hi Johara,
You can substitute Greek yogurt with regular yogurt if that's what is in your fridge. Let me know how it goes!
Thanks,
Rika
Johara
It turned out amazing! I found that 3 tsp salt was a bit much but other than that, it was delicious.
Rika Livingston
Hi Johara, I'm so happy that it worked out! Thanks for the kind words and tips. I actually meant to put 2 tsp instead of 3 so you caught a mistake. I corrected that, so thanks again for your input!
Mrs. L.
This was delish. I had to substitute several ingredients due to what was in my pantry. I had the Trader Joe's Harissa in my pantry for several months and wasn't quite sure how to use it. This recipe was super helpful and easy. I substituted sour cream for greek yogurt, herbe de provence for rosemary, and breasts for thighs. I didn't have any olives and didn't use cinnamon as hubby is not too fond of it. This is a keeper. I used the marinade on carrots and chickpeas and served with brown rice and roasted potatoes and onions. Next time I will put the marinade on the potatoes, too. I used sheet pans to cook it all. Love cooking on sheet pans, soooo easy to do. Thank you!!! PS. I froze the the left over Harissa paste in ice cube trays as I read it doesn't stay well once opened.
Rika Livingston
Hi Mrs.L,
I am so glad that you found this recipe and were able to use the Trader's Joe Harissa paste for good use! I'll make sure to share more delicious recipes using the paste. It's one of my favorite Trader's Joe products, can't live without! And thanks for sharing some useful feedback, including how you used alternative ingredients to make this recipe work based on available ingredients, and the ice cube tray tip (great to know!). I am sure that readers will find your input really useful!
Best,
Rika
Kristin
Can I bake chicken with the marinade?
Rika Livingston
Hi Kristin,
Just keep a little marinade on the meat surface to maximize flavor, and discharge the excess marinade before cooking to ensure properly browned meat.
Please let me know if you still have any other questions.
Zee
H! Can you use chicken breast instead?
Rika
Hi Zee,
Sorry for the late reply. Yes, you can use chicken breast. Just make sure that you pound the chicken breast to an even thickness and reduce the cooking time to about 20 minutes (if you are using a 7-8oz chicken breast).
Please let me know if you still have any questions.
Mrs. C.
Great recipe. Good for meal planning in advance.
Here's a tip:
TJ's Harissa Jar is 6.7 oz, just enough for 3 batches.
I make 3 freezer bags with just the marinade only. I keep them in the freezer. When I'm ready I take 1 bag of marinade mixture out and add chicken to the bag.
Rika
Hi Mrs. C
Thanks for reviewing this recipe and sharing a great tip for meal planning! The paste grows mold quickly within days and I think using the whole bottle at once will solve this moldy issue.
Best,
Rika