This is a simple sheet pan dinner that is perfect for those nights when you want dinner but don't want to cook. The dinner does involve some chopping, but the remainder of the recipe is simple. Plus, you can let the dinner cook in the oven while you do other things. Although the sheet pan supper is easy, it's incredibly good and comforting. Winter vegetables--onions, sweet potatoes, and winter squash bake in a sweet-tangy glaze along with sliced apples for more sweetness. Then you top the vegetables and apples with chicken-apple sausages and a little more glaze during the last 15 minutes of cooking. If you add a simple salad, and perhaps some bread, you're meal is done. The sheet pan dinner is easy, filling, and delicious. You'll want to keep the ingredients on hand for other nights when you don't want to cook but do want to eat.
Apple Butter Glazed Sausages and Vegetables -- Serves 4
1 large onion, peeled and sliced or chopped (however you like it)
1 winter squash, split, seeded and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces (I use delicata squash, but
acorn also works well. If you use butternut squash, you'll have to peel it, which is kind
of a bummer)
1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced into 1/2-inch pieces
3-5 cloves of garlic, chopped (depending on how much you like garlic)
3-4 cored and sliced apples (use what you have)
1/2 cup of apple butter
1/4 cup of grainy Dijon mustard
1/4 cup of olive oil (I use extra-virgin)
1/4 teaspoon of pepper
1/4 teaspoon of salt
12-16 ounces of chicken-apple sausages (the fully cooked kind, like Aidell's)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line a sheet pan with aluminum foil. Spritz the foil with non-stick cooking spray. Mix the onion, squash, sweet potato, garlic, and apples on the sheet pan. Sprinkle on the salt and pepper. In a cup, mix together the apple butter, Dijon, and olive oil and drizzle on/mix half the apple butter mixture with the vegetables/apples. Cover the vegetables/apples with aluminum foil and bake them for about 30 minutes or until they're mostly soft. Lay the chicken-apple sausages on top of the vegetables/apples. Mix 1/4 cup of water in with the remaining apple butter/Dijon/oil mixture and pour/drizzle it over the sausages and vegetables. Return the sheet pan with the vegetables/apples/sausage back to the oven, uncovered, and continue cooking the sheet pan dinner for 10-15 minutes or until the vegetables/apples are tender and the sausages have puffed up and browned. Let the sheet pan dinner cool for 5 minutes before serving it.
