I know it can be hard to stay inspired while stuck at home, so if you happen to still need a healthy dose of dinner inspo, you can feel free to browse our dinner category.
This week’s featured dinner recipe is a simple one pan meal that’s guaranteed to impress you with incredible unique flavors, plus add a healthy dose of veggies & protein. Meet my moroccan chicken with sweet potatoes and cauliflower infused with cinnamon, cumin and turmeric spices then drizzled with a crazy good zesty feta dressing plus the addition of pistachios, cherries and a little cilantro for freshness.
This meal is HELLA FLAVORFUL and yes, only takes about 45 minutes from start to finish!
Ingredients in this healthy sheet pan Moroccan chicken
The theme of this gorgeous sheet pan Moroccan chicken is flavor + texture. You’ll find plenty of tender + crunchy veggies, the coziest, warming spices & fun garnishes that’s finished with a drizzle of creamy feta sauce to bring everything together. Here’s what you’ll need to make this recipe:
- Boneless skinless chicken thighs: I prefer using chicken thighs in this sheet pan dinner because they’re extra juicy and soak up all of the flavors well. Feel free to use chicken breasts though, too.
- Sweet potato
- Cauliflower
- Carrots
- Onion
- The ultimate moroccan spice mix: cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, garlic powder & cayenne pepper
- Dried cherries but dried apricots would also be the perfect sub, or even golden raisins!
- Roasted pistachios
- Fresh cilantro
- Greek yogurt
- Feta cheese
- and a squeeze of lemon juice
With each bite you’ll get flavorful chicken & veggies, sweetness from dried cherries, a little crunch from roasted salty pistachios and a creamy, cooling finish with the feta yogurt sauce. SERIOUSLY SO FREAKING GOOD YOU GUYS.
How to meal prep this easy Moroccan sheet pan chicken
- After cooking everything according to the instructions, allow your chicken and veggies to cool completely and equally divide everything into 4 separate glass meal prep containers. If you’d like you could also add quinoa, chickpeas, couscous or cauliflower rice!
- Feel free to add the dried cherries, cilantro and pistachios, but I’d recommend leaving off the feta yogurt sauce until you’re ready to serve. You can store the sauce in a container like this one and simply add a bit more water, as needed, before using it.
- Store your meal prep containers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days and enjoy a healthy lunch or dinner all week long.
What else to serve with these baked Moroccan chicken thighs
This recipe not only makes and incredible, filling dinner for 4 (or meal prep dinner for 1-2!) but it’s also a great meal to feed more people with additional sides. Here are a few that would be wonderful:
- Maple Glazed Carrots with Goat Cheese & Pistachios
- The Best Garlic Bread You’ll Ever Eat
- Sesame Garlic Roasted Asparagus
- One Pot Moroccan Chickpea Quinoa Salad
- Vegan Curried Broccoli Chickpea Salad
If you make this sheet pan Moroccan chicken recipe, be sure to tag #ambitiouskitchen on Instagram. We’d also love if you would leave a comment below and rate the recipe. We appreciate you! xo.
Sheet Pan Moroccan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes & Cauliflower
Delicious, easy sheet pan Moroccan chicken and veggies made with sweet potato, carrots, cauliflower and wonderful spices like cumin, turmeric and cinnamon. This protein-packed, healthy Moroccan sheet pan chicken recipe is garnished with juicy dried cherries, crunchy pistachios, fresh herbs and a drizzle of homemade feta yogurt sauce for the an incredible dinner the whole family will love!
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 large sweet potato, cut into ½ inch cubes (about 2 cups cubed sweet potatoes)
- 2 cups small cauliflower florets (from about half a head of cauliflower)
- 1 yellow onion, cut into chunks
- 3 large carrots, sliced into ½ inch thick chunks (or use 6 small heirloom rainbow carrots)
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground turmeric
- 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Lots of freshly ground black pepper
- To garnish:
- ⅓ cup unsweetened dried cherries (or dried cranberries)
- ¼ cup diced cilantro
- ¼ cup chopped roasted pistachios (or sub roasted chopped almonds)
- For the feta yogurt sauce:
- 1 large garlic clove
- 1/3 cup plain greek yogurt (whole milk or 2%)
- 1/4 cup feta crumbles
- ½ tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon water, to thin
- Freshly ground salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
-
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet or two small baking sheets with parchment paper or foil. Set aside.
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Add chicken thighs, sweet potato cubes, cauliflower, onion chunks, carrot chunks into a large bowl. Add in olive oil, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin, garlic powder, cayenne pepper and salt and pepper. Use clean hands to toss all of the ingredients together until well combined and spices evenly coat chicken and veggies. Pour onto prepared baking sheet (or evenly divide between two baking sheets.) You’ll want to group the vegetables as best as possible: carrots in one section, chicken in one section, cauliflower in one section and sweet potatoes and onions in one section (as indicated in the photos). Bake for 25-35 minutes, rotating the pan(s) and stirring vegetables halfway through to encourage even cooking. You’ll know it’s done when the carrots and sweet potatoes are fork tender.
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While the meal is cooking, you can make the feta yogurt sauce by adding the garlic, yogurt, feta, lemon juice and water to a food processor; process until smooth. Add a bit of salt and pepper to taste and process once more. Set aside until ready to serve.
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Once chicken and veggies are done cooking, remove from oven and immediately sprinkle dried cherries, cilantro and pistachios on top. You can either drizzle the feta yogurt sauce on top of the sheet pan meal or serve it on the side for people to enjoy as they so choose. Serves 4.
Recipe Notes
If you don't have dried cherries, then dried apricots, cranberries or raisins would be a good substitute.
Feel free to sub sliced toasted almonds or chopped roasted almonds for pistachios.
Recipe by: Monique Volz // Ambitious Kitchen | Photography by: Eat Love Eats
64 comments
This looks fantastic! What would you recommend for making a dairy-free sauce?
I was just going to ask the same question. 😃
A tahini sauce would be great! I might suggest our curry tahini sauce (you could skip the curry if you’re not into it): https://www.ambitiouskitchen.com/healthy-curry-tahini-dressing/
Awesome idea, thank you!
Can you grill your chicken instead???
Yes, but you’ll still need to roast your veggies (or you could grill them in a foil pack!)
Yum! I’m going to try with chickpeas or tofu instead of chicken 🙂
Melissa, could you report back? I was thinking of the same thing! These veggies and flavors sound amazing!!
I made this with tofu instead of chicken. I just cubed extra-firm tofu into bite-sized pieces and cooked the rest of the recipe as described. It was fantastic!
That sounds amazing!
Perfect! Enjoy!
The flavors paired so well! Roasted extra veggies so did two pans so they could spread out and get nice and crispy! Also did the chicken separately. Only did 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon because I was nervous about adding so much but it turned out so tasty! Made the feta sauce which paired nicely and cooked up farro as well. Easy meal with lots of leftovers!
Perfect! Love the idea of serving with farro 🙂 the best dinner!
I made this exactly as described. Delicious and different from meals i typically make! Very pretty as well.
Perfect! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
This was delicious! I loved how all of the spcies combined for such a unique flavor!
So happy you enjoyed!
Really enjoyed this! Looking forward to trying it with toasted nuts and dried cherries! And with chickpeas instead of chicken! Flavour combination was excellent.
Perfect! Glad you liked it!
This dish is incredible. I LOVE the spice mix. I didn’t have the ingredients on hand for the garnish or sauce, but it was delicious without. I am putting this into my regular rotation. I will also try to sub chicken with tofu, just to change things up. When I made it, I used chicken breast and cooked them in the air fryer so they would stay moist; I still coated them with the spice mix.
Perfect! So happy you loved it!
Idea for using frozen cauliflower?? Cook in microwave beforehand or just put on pan while frozen?
I think you could thaw, drain the cauliflower then use it! Might not be as crunchy but still should be okay!
Sheet Pan Moroccan Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Cauliflower was absolutely delicious.
I’m glad you liked it!
This is hands down my favorite recipe so far from your website! Love the flavors. One thing, I wish the sauce was a little thicker. Any ideas?
So happy to hear that! Feel free to mix the sauce without the water first to see if you like that consistency, and then add just a bit if you’d like it thinner 🙂
This is so tasty! Took me a lot longer than 20 minutes to prep…maybe 20 minutes without chopping the veg. The sauce is amazing! I didn’t have cilantro so left that out..used almonds instead of pistachios. So tasty. Also I did not group the veg in like groups on pan…I just kept the chicken to one side and left everything else mixed and it was fine. Will definitely make again and may just make the sauce for dip. Thank you for the fab recipe!
So glad you enjoyed! Noted on the prep time – everyone’s mixing and chopping times are a bit different 🙂 love the idea of the sauce for a dip, too!
Made this yesterday for mother’s day with your Moroccan quinoa chickpea salad (except used farro instead of quinoa) and it was SO good everyone loved it! Added some garam masala to the spice blend and some roasted broccoli to veggie medley and everything was perfection! I also cooked the chicken separately from the veggies because I like them a little firm and the chicken took about 45 min to cook. Will definitely be making again and again!
Such a great combo! Glad everyone enjoyed!
So good! Not something I normally make but this has so much flavor. My husband loved it too. Thanks!!
Amazing! So happy to hear that 🙂
Love your site. I’ve made the recipe twice now. The first time I thought the cinnamon was overpowering, so I cut it way back the second time and added some coriander. Both my husband and I liked it better that way. It’s great with boneless skinless chicken breasts. Gives them great flavor and allows dieters to avoid a few calories without missing out on taste. I added some green beans for the last 15 minutes and they worked well with the spices and other veggies.
Perfect! This one’s great for customizing to your taste preferences, too 🙂 glad you both enjoyed!
Wow Wow Wow. THIS RECIPE IS SOOO GREAT! I doubled the recipe to serve 6 adults and 2 kiddos. Subbed in paprika for cayenne pepper because we were out and had some folks who are afraid of too much spice. We used toasted almonds and dried cranberries in place of the pistachios and cherries because thats what was on hand. JUST SO GOOD. Seriously, everyone was licking the plates. That yogurt sauce – TOTAL YUM! Thank you so much for posting these beautiful recipes, Monique! They are helping me get through quarantine!
Perfect! So glad everyone loved it! One of my favs lately, too 🙂
spice mix was fantastic!
I’m glad you liked it!!
Well this is ridiculously delicious.. per usual.
So glad you loved it!
Made this tonight using chicken breasts and it was fabulous! Only wish I had doubled the recipe.
Perfect! Glad you loved this one!
Delicious! I love these meals cause it’s so easy to prep the chicken and veggies days in advance and then just pop them in the oven right before dinner time. Sauce was so good! I added dill to it 😋 I sometimes skip the garnishes, but this time I think they are so important! The cherries, cilantro, and pistachios really added something to overall flavors.
Absolutely! Perfect for meal prep. Glad you love it!
I’ve made this recipe several times now, and its always a success! I highly recommend giving it a try if you are looking for something different to make. It really is delicious.
Such a great dinner! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
Easy to make and great flavors! Going to make this a regular meal this fall/winter!
Perfect for the changing seasons! Glad you loved it 🙂
This recipe was delicious! So many flavors all deliciously mixed for a great dinner. All my family enjoyed it!
So happy to hear that! The perfect dinner 🙂
WOW. All I can say is wow. Seriously SO good! Love all the warm spices and the great combo of textures. Also such a great assortment of veggies! Super flavorful and the whole family loved, even my picky sister! Also pretty quick and easy to make.
Absolutely! So happy everyone loved it!
Another incredible, flavorful and EASY meal to pull together! You’ve been a life saver since having our son – healthy delicious and quick meals galore 🙂
Delicious and so easy! I made it tonight and will be adding it to my regular rotation.
Absolutely! Glad you enjoyed 🙂
this is most helpful , I am working on changing my family to healthy food as many vegetables as possible
the spices help make it so tasty , i did not know how to make healthy and tasty at the same time
thank you so much
Perfect! Glad you found this one!
Really really loved this recipe. Saving this spice blend to use for other things! I reduced the cinnamon by ½ tsp and included some garam masala!
Perfect! And yes that spice blend is perfect for tons of different recipes.
Amazing! Couldn’t have loved it more and both kids enjoyed it as well.
So happy it was a hit!
Was wondering about freezing before baking or afterbaking trying to find make ahead meals
After you’ve tossed your chicken and veggies together with the spices feel free to divide them into separate freezer-friendly bags and freeze for up to 2 months! Then you can bake everything on a sheet pan as-written (but may need a bit of extra time).