There’s an unwritten rule that dictates if you’re cooking a celebratory dinner, for the Fourth of July or any other summer gathering, then grill you must.
But what if you don’t have access to any outdoor space? Or what if it rains? Or what if it’s just too hot to even consider standing outside over a fire, sweating onto your flank steak?
Even unwritten rules are meant to be broken. If grilling isn’t in the cards, I offer an alternative: a golden, basil-festooned chicken and zucchini dish that’s as exuberantly summery as a sheet-pan dinner gets.
It’s the combination of zucchini and basil that makes this so appropriate for early summer — before the basil flowers and the zucchini grow big enough to fend off bear attacks.
The best zucchini to use here are harvested young, when they’re still small and slim, with minimal seeds and thin skin that crisps and browns in the oven.
To help along this browning, don’t turn or stir the zucchini, which can make it soggy. Just let everything roast undisturbed so that the chicken skin can turn mahogany. As it cooks, the zucchini caramelizes, which it will do all over — but especially on the side that makes contact with the pan.
Although fresh basil is the starring herb of this dish, some dried mint or oregano also seasons the chicken. For the sake of symmetry, I initially tried using dried basil. But it’s not as flavorful as dried mint or oregano, which add a savory and complementary depth to the mix. An herb blend, such as za’atar or herbes de Provence, would also work beautifully.
Because this dish is cooked on a single sheet-pan, there’s just enough to feed two to three. But feel free to double the recipe, dividing everything between two pans. (Make sure each pan has both zucchini and chicken so their flavors mingle.) You may have to add a few minutes onto the roasting time; go by the degree of browning rather than the timer. Everything should be well burnished.
Then, serve this with something to sop up the heady pan juices, like crusty bread, rice, couscous. That’s another advantage of breaking the summer grilling rule: All those glorious juices are there for your bread instead of dripping, sadly, into the fire.
