For an easy and delicious meal with little cleanup, a sheet pan is your best friend.
When we bake or roast food on a sheet pan, we expose the foods to dry heat. Placed in the center of an oven, the food cooks from bottom to top and from top to bottom. Roasting means we heat a solid piece of food, like a chicken, as opposed to baking a batter, which changes its shape when heated. Whether baking or roasting, we are placing just one sheet pan in the center of the oven and enjoying super-delicious, easy meals as a result.
Single-pan roasting/baking is my new favorite cooking method. The lack of ceremony and technique might seem pedestrian. I say “So what?” I know my friends and family just need good food on a busy Tuesday night, and they don’t want to buy expensive boxed meals that arrives in six layers of bubble wrap and thermal bags. Let’s give the landfill a rest.
There is nothing fussy about tossing things together and putting them in the oven. It’s so easy! The fun in this process is finding new items to add and pair together.
The Sheet Pan Shrimp “Boil” is another shortcut that works well. The tomatoes get mushy and slightly caramelized. They blend nicely with the corn and potatoes to round out the flavors. I’ve learned that pre-cooked shrimp gets rubbery very quickly. Toss it in with the other ingredients for only the final five minutes – just long enough to meld the flavors and warm up the final ingredient, the cooked shrimp. Serve this with crusty French bread to sop up the juices.
