Slow-Roasted Chicken With Garlicky Green Beans and Sage

Slow-Roasted Chicken With Garlicky Green Beans and Sage
David Malosh for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Simon Andrews.
Total Time
1½ hours
Rating
4(663)
Notes
Read community notes

This may look like just plain chicken and green beans, but by dropping the oven temperature to 325 degrees and slow roasting for 1½ hours, these simple ingredients become so much more: The green beans, which are tossed with olive oil, sage and garlic, will no longer be snappy and bright green, but will slouch and sweeten. The chicken will be tender enough to pull apart with your fingers. (Its skin will be crisp but pale, so for browner skin, broil for a few minutes after roasting.) And the flavorful chicken drippings will mingle with the aromatics on the sheet pan, creating a spectacular, no-effort pan sauce.

Learn: How to Make a Sheet-Pan Dinner

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Ingredients

Yield:4 servings
  • pounds green beans, trimmed
  • Cloves from 1 head garlic (about 10 cloves), smashed and peeled
  • 15fresh sage leaves
  • 6tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • Kosher salt (Diamond Crystal) and black pepper
  • 2½ to 3pounds chicken leg quarters or bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs, patted dry
  • 1teaspoon sherry vinegar, apple cider vinegar or white wine vinegar
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (4 servings)

940 calories; 73 grams fat; 17 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 37 grams monounsaturated fat; 13 grams polyunsaturated fat; 17 grams carbohydrates; 7 grams dietary fiber; 6 grams sugars; 55 grams protein; 1185 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat the oven to 325 degrees. Toss the green beans, garlic cloves and sage leaves with ¼ cup of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper, and arrange in an even layer on a sheet pan. Rub the chicken with the remaining 2 tablespoons oil and 1 tablespoon salt. Arrange among the green beans and season with black pepper; scoot any green beans out from under the chicken. (It’s okay if the green beans are clumped together.) Roast, tossing the green beans occasionally, until the chicken is cooked through, and the green beans are dark green and wrinkled, about 1 hour 30 minutes.

  2. Step 2

    Transfer the chicken to a platter. Stir the vinegar into the green beans and season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer the green beans and garlic to the platter, scraping all the pan drippings and browned bits from the pan.

  3. Step 3

    Eat the chicken with the green beans, cloves of roasted garlic and a spoonful of the pan drippings. Optionally, if you'd like the chicken's skin to be more browned, return the chicken to the sheet pan and broil until golden.

Ratings

4 out of 5
663 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

I browned the chicken pieces first to get color and second, to cook off some of the fat. First time around I found the string beans a little too greasy.

can you substitute boneless skinless chicken thighs?

This is a recipe where I wouldn't change a thing. I never say that. Okay, I guess we made a couple changes: we used Penzey's poultry seasoning instead of fresh sage and we used a bit less apple cider vinegar on the beans. We couldn't believe how decadent this simple meal tasted. It's rare when green beans are every bit as delicious as the protein they're paired with, but I think I want even more beans next time.

This was a great weeknight dinner. I used bone in, skin on thighs and the skin was perfectly crispy. I do think the oil on the green beans can be reduced, however.

I only had half a pound of french green beans on hand so I mixed in a bunch of broccoli florets. I did not have fresh sage so I sprinkled in some rubbed sage. I use 4 chicken leg quarters and split the veggies and chicken on two sheet pans. I flipped the pans between the racks and tossed the veggies half way through. It came out great. I think the broccoli would be a good sub for the beans.

I made the recomendad modifications of using only two tablespoons of oil on the green beans (successful) and adding the beans to the chicken after the chicken had been cooking for half an hour (successful), finally I halved the vinegar (unsuccessful, needed more acid). I only had about two thirds of a head of garlic, and more garlic would have been better. My family LOVED this! So easy, the longest part of prep was doing the green beans.

I've made this dish three times. It is also good if you swap sage for rosemary. A few tips. 1. salt chicken the night before and then only add pepper to the chicken @ cooking 3. remove chicken when it is done. - I had a hard time getting the green beans to a desirable doneness with the chicken on the pan. So the most recent time, when the chicken got to 175ish I removed them, cooked the pan until the beans were done, then broiled the chicken until the skin is crispy.

Asparagus would work!

I made this dish this evening. First time I always follow the recipe. The second time I adjust. The green beans were too oily, and most of them were crunchy, black, and not eatable. Next time, I’ll use less olive oil and place the green beans with the chicken during the last 10-15 minutes. My garlic cloves may have been old since they too either burned or were hard as rock. The chicken however, was delicious, moist and fell of the bone. Like I said, I'll make adjustments the next time.

I really liked this. You definitely want to broil the chicken at the end to make it crispy. I didn't have fresh sage so I used poultry seasoning on both the beans and the chicken and the flavor was great.

I didn't have green beans so I used chard, and it was delicious.

Agree with Rae An and Joy about the beans ("crunchy," "swimming in chicken fat,") and Paul Z ("chicken needs a little more...something). ALSO: I made this in my over-the-counter convection/microwave oven, on convection setting, and seeing the beans looking like the above after maybe 65 minutes, took the pan out and took the chicken's temperature, which was 185-190 F. Don't know what 20-25 more minutes would've done to the chicken, but beans would have been inedible.

I didn’t use as much oil, just drizzled it in the mixture with the green beans and drizzled it over chicken. Used skinless boneless thighs and thyme instead of sage, because that is what I had. Chicken turned out a little dry, green beans looked like they were doing fine at 1 hr, but they ended up scorched by the end. They still had a decent taste, so I will try again but take them out 15 minutes early.

I had a big sheet pan so could spread everything out and chicken was perfectly brown and cooked through when beans were done (about 1 1/4 hours, a little less than recipe says). Cut up some little potatos and roasted them along with the rest, drizzled the juice of half a lemon over the whole thing before serving. Delicious and super easy! Minimal prep and only one pan to clean up. I agree with previous poster who suggested that broccoli could be a good sub for beans if that’s your preference

Simple and tasty and nice not to turn the oven up so hot when the weather is still warm. Used chicken thighs, less olive oil, didn't have sage so used herbs to provence, added some thick wedges of onion, cooked for 1 hour and then broiled the chicken briefly.

Notes: I mis-remembered and used a tablespoon of vinegar in the beans, and it was not too much and I did not use all of the pan drippings - there was a LOT, and the beans were well dressed without it - so I pulled them out of the pan and tossed them with the vinegar in a bowl before serving.

Used 1T Herbs d Provence and grated rind from blood Orange with 2T EVOO, greens beans, garlic and shallots. Tossed roasted beans with 2T juice from the orange at the end. 40 minutes on the chicken before adding “marinated” beans for another 40 minutes. Removed beans and broiled chicken to crisp. Finished all with fresh pepper. Scrumptious!

Used half the amount of oil on beans and put in 30 min later removed drippings from chicken before put in and ended up having to deglaze the pan to get any kind of dripping

Excellent. For the 2 of us, I used 2 whole legs and 12 oz of beans on parchment paper on the baking sheet. Could have used more beans. Picked beans up with a slotted spoon, leaving behind any extra oil (cat loved it). Put legs under broiler for a few minutes after cooking the rest of the dish for 70 minutes. Chicken was incredibly moist and tender. Oh, and the beans don't need the vinegar in my opinion. This was a delicious dinner.

This recipe totally rocks for ease and flavor. The beans steal the show. To echo others: 1. Cut the oil on the beans by at least half 2. Add the beans in the last 30 minutes 3. Double the garlic 4. Do not skimp on the vinegar

This was surprisingly delicious. I used all thighs, and it could've cooked for a bit less time - the thighs held up beautifully, though. I greatly reduced the oil, and I'm glad I did. The amount of rendered chicken fat was more than enough. This is definitely going on the repeat list.

I used bone-in thighs and the thighs were done in an hour. I used fresh sage and green beans, but did reduce by half the olive oil. I pulled the string beans and out the thighs under the broiler to crisp the skin. It smelled delicious and tasted great, another easy and tasty weeknight dinner!

Nothing special. In fact, we were disappointed after all the glowing reviews. There are better sheet pan chicken recipes on this site.

I'm going to make this with frozen beans. Shall I let them come to room temperature before cooking? I think I'll try that first.

I've made this twice and both times there ended up being a pool of oil/drippings at the bottom of the pan. That's not my thing so I drained the pan after an hour the second time I made it and I was SO happy with how everything came out. I also added some truffle powder to the salt and pepper I put on the chicken and it was delicious. Didn't have vinegar on hand so used a squeeze of lemon - no complaints.

Big hit with the family. In true NYT tradition, we made some changes. I added cherry tomatoes and I think they make a difference without them it would be a bit bland. I also used more Garlic. I used a lot of salt which I think it needed. And a balsamic vinegar which didn't matter so much.

I've made this dish three times. It is also good if you swap sage for rosemary. A few tips. 1. salt chicken the night before and then only add pepper to the chicken @ cooking 3. remove chicken when it is done. - I had a hard time getting the green beans to a desirable doneness with the chicken on the pan. So the most recent time, when the chicken got to 175ish I removed them, cooked the pan until the beans were done, then broiled the chicken until the skin is crispy.

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