The One Thing You Should Always Add to Your Sheet-Pan Supper
Chicken sheet pan dinner
Sheet-pan dinners are unmatched when it comes to quick and easy weeknight meals. Everything bakes in the oven on one pan, which means you get a break from standing at the stove and standing at the sink because you only have one dish to wash. The other thing that's great about sheet pan dinners is their versatility. You can load the pan up with chicken, steak, seafood and veggies or keep things entirely vegetarian.
But the ultimate life hack when it comes to sheet-pan dinners is using them as a way to simultaneously prep for other meals. One of my favorite things to do when I’m making a sheet-pan dinner is to a head of garlic wrapped in foil on the sheet and let it roast with my dinner.
That way, I have my quick and easy sheet pan dinner ready to go, but I also have a delicious head of roasted garlic that I can use in the dish I just made and/or other dishes I make throughout the week. It takes time for garlic to roast, and it makes life so much easier when I already have some on hand. Roasted garlic lasts in the fridge for up to 5 days, which gives me plenty of time to use it up.
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What Does Roasted Garlic Taste Like?
Roasting garlic tempers its bite and makes it soft, rich and savory with a subtle hint of sweetness. Roasted garlic gives you a delicious garlic flavor without the overpowering edge of raw garlic. As the roast, the cloves turn a tan color and are so soft that you can squeeze them out of their skins.
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How to Prepare the Garlic For Roasting
First, peel off the outermost layer of papery skin on the head of garlic. Then trim a few inches off the top—just enough so you can see the tops of each clove. Drizzle with 1 to 2 teaspoons of olive oil, making sure that each clove gets a bit, and then wrap the entire thing in foil and put it on the baking sheet, flat side down. Let it roast with your sheet pan dinner at 400° for at least 40 minutes. You know it's done when the cloves are tan and very soft. You can season with a bit of salt and pepper if you’d like, or even tuck some fresh herbs like rosemary or thyme inside the foil.
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How to Use Roasted Garlic
You can use roasted garlic in pretty much any dish you would use raw garlic in. Because it's more mellow than raw garlic, you can likely use a bit more than you normally would. Roasted garlic amps up the flavor of dips and spreads, like hummus or the garlic aioli used in this muffuletta sandwich, it's a great addition to salad dressing, is perfect for adding to pastas and is also super delicious just spread on bread.
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