This sweetly savory one-pan chicken dinner is indeed worthy of a celebration. It’s easy to make, feeds a crowd, and the combination of roast chicken, sweet potatoes, and dates is truly irresistible. It’s loosely based on that classic, Chicken Marbella from The Silver Palate Cookbook. Trust us when we say your guests will be asking and perhaps even pleading for the recipe.–Angie Zoobkoff
Roast Chicken FAQs
You can, but we’d caution you to use bone-in breasts. Boneless breasts may cook faster than your sweet potatoes, leaving you with unappetizing, dried-up meat in your main course. You’ll need roughly 8 pounds of bone-in breasts for this recipe.
It’s simpler than it sounds, but just use a knife to carefully slice the date lengthwise. You should gently hit the pit but not cut through the whole date. Pry the sides open with your thumbs while pushing the back of the date with your index fingers. This will push the pit out to a point where you can grab it to remove it completely. Need a quicker option? Just buy pitted dates.
The recipe calls for bite-size pieces. That’s pretty small – but it’s an important note. Sweet potatoes are dense and hard, and take a substantial amount of baking time to break down and get to that sweetly soft perfection. The smaller you cut your pieces, the more likely you’ll have finished potatoes along with your chicken. If you’re looking for a specific “bite-size” measurement – cut your sweet potatoes into about 1-inch cubes.
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Roast Chicken with Sweet Potatoes and Dates
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup water
- 8 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 tablespoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
- Two (3- to 4-pound) chickens, each cut into 10 pieces (2 wings, 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breasts cut in half across the bone), backbone discarded (or saved for another use, like stock), at room temperature
- 3 large sweet potatoes, unpeeled, scrubbed and cut into bite-size pieces
- 12 large dried dates, preferably Medjool, halved and pitted
- A small handful of chopped fresh soft herbs, such as cilantro, parsley, dill, or chives
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425°F (220°C).
- In a roasting pan large enough to hold all the chicken pieces in a single layer, whisk the vinegar, olive oil, water, garlic, salt, and pepper together. Add the chicken pieces, sweet potatoes, and dates.
- Use your hands to mix everything together and get the mixture on all of the chicken, sweet potatoes, and dates. Move everything around so the sweet potatoes and dates are in a single layer at the bottom of the pan and the chicken is in a single layer on top, skin side up.
- Roast until the sweet potatoes are tender and the chicken pieces are firm to the touch and their exposed skin is nicely browned, about 1 hour. Let the chicken rest at room temperature for at least 15 minutes before serving.
- Serve the chicken straight from the roasting pan, including a spoon so you can spoon some pan juices over the top, or transfer the chicken, sweet potatoes, and dates to a platter and pour the cooking juices over the top. Sprinkle with the herbs and serve warm.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe Testers’ Reviews
This roast chicken and sweet potatoes is a one-pan dinner that’s a touch sweet, a touch savory, and easy to put together, especially if you’re using chickens that are already broken down. The flavor of this dish improves with age and has a comforting well-balanced flavor. True to its name, this would be a great dish for any celebration.
This roast chicken with dates was delicious! I admit, I was a bit skeptical. I thought it was going to be too sweet with both the dates and sweet potatoes, but it wasn’t!
The headnotes alone gave me the inspiration I needed to cook this roast chicken with sweet potatoes and dates. Looking for something new to make for the holiday and secretly not loving the ever-popular Chicken Marbella, this was perfect.
I cut the recipe in half, as there are just two of us, my husband and myself, and our fridge is already so crowded with food.
This recipe was very good. Made it tonight and I will definitely make again over the fall and winter. Lots of flavour and the apple cider vinegar, garlic, pepper and dates flavours came through nicely. Very welcome addition to the weeknight meal rotation. Easy to assemble and everything was cooked perfectly in the hour.
Wonderful, Tannis! Thank you so much for taking the time to let us know.
Silver Palate Cookbook is one of my favorites – especially love their Lemon Chicken – but I never tried Marbella because I don’t like olives. This version looks right up my alley. Will be trying it soon. I was in our community theatre presentation of Fiddler on the Roof, so I know one term – Mazel tov!
We can’t wait to hear what you think of it, Martha!
I’m always open to a new roast chicken recipe! Especially one like this that uses just a few simple ingredients that elevate an ordinary chicken to something extraordinary. This recipe uses sweet, savory, and tangy flavors—sweet potatoes, dried dates, fresh herbs and a touch of apple cider vinegar. The smell of everything cooking in the hot oven is just marvelous! (I had fresh oregano on hand, so that is the herb I used; not too much though seeing that oregano can become overpowering very quickly…) After 1 hour in the oven, the chicken was perfectly cooked through and browned, the sweet potatoes very tender, and the dates slightly caramelized and sticky. We really enjoyed this easy roast chicken recipe, and would love to try it next time with acorn squash slices and maybe some quartered red onions on the pan as well.
Thank you, Anna, for taking the time to share.