While I frequently espouse the virtues of cooking from scratch, I do realize many people do not have a ton of time to put into prepping dinner, and need easy dinner recipes. This recipe for roast chicken breasts and potatoes does take a bit of time in the oven, but prep work is easy. It basically amounts to cutting potatoes, whisking together a few marinate ingredients and coating the chicken and potatoes with it. Zap a steamer bag of veggies to serve along with it, and dinner will be on the table in an hour, with some time in between to get a few other things done… or even relax 
Chicken breasts and potatoes, coated & ready to cover with foil for baking. This is a half portion of the recipe below, since it was just my daughter and I.
- 4 large chicken breasts (bone-in, skin on)
- 6-8 med size potatoes (Yukon Gold or red-skinned are best)
- 1 tsp Kosher salt
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp dry thyme
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp chili powder
- 1 clove of garlic (crushed minced)
- 2 tbs. olive oil
- 2 tbs. rice wine vinegar
- Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
- Dice the potatoes and put in large mixing bowl.
- Whisk together the salt, spices, garlic, oil and vinegar.
- Pour most of mixture over the potatoes, and mix to coat them.
- Scoop out the potatoes and place in large baking dish or roast pan.
- Add the rest of the spice sauce to mixing bowl, then put in chicken breasts, and coat them well.
- Put the breasts on top of the potatoes bone side down. Cover dish snugly with foil, and bake for 30 minutes.
- Uncover and bake for 8-10 minutes to brown chicken. Reserve the foil.
- Remove the chicken so it doesn’t dry out. Put on the foil and wrap loosely (It will be warm and perfectly rested when the potatoes are done).
- Stir the potatoes, then put them back in the oven, raise temp to 450, and bake for 8-10 more minutes.
- Serve with vegetable of choice.
Easy enough and I know for a fact that everyone in my house would like it (and that’s sadly not easy)!
That looks so good! I love that you can just throw the chicken and potatoes in there together and cook them all at once!
Easy recipes are pretty much my saving grace. I don’t have time during the week to prepare fancy schmancy dinners, so anything I can whip up quickly and easily is ok in my book.
How would you adjust the cooking for boneless, skinless breasts?
I would bake the potatoes alone for the first 15-20 minutes, since boneless skinless chicken will take about 1/3 less time to cook. You will also get fewer juices dripping into potatoes, which is part of the flavoring, so you might want to add a little chicken base or few tbs. of stock to them.