5 Traybakes for Easy Weeknight Dinners

Traybakes are one of our favorite ways to get dinner on the table. With no skillet work, this throw-it-in-the-oven format is perfect for a beginner, or even a more seasoned cook who values expediency. is based on a dish known as kotopoulo skorthato (“garlic-lemon chicken”).​

​We roast the chicken, lemon, garlic, and potatoes on a rimmed baking sheet in a hot oven to ensure the quickest cooking possible and to develop nice caramelization. At the end, we also toss in black olives, dill and capers to ratchet up the flavors, mashing the garlic and scraping up the browned bits to create a delicious pan sauce. If using chicken breasts, try to purchase pieces that are close in size so they cook at the same rate.​

More of our favorite traybakes:

Crisped Chickpea and Cauliflower Traybake with Lemon-Garlic Yogurt

This traybake will convert the cauliflower haters in your life. “This recipe caused the cauliflower to transform from something barely tolerated into something truly delicious,” wrote one reader. Rather than roasting the ingredients in olive oil and salt, we use a warm, nutty spice blend. A lemony, garlicky yogurt sauce ties everything together.​

Honey-Miso Salmon and Broccolini Traybake

Miso, soy sauce and honey make a savory-sweet, umami-rich marinade for meaty, fat-rich salmon. Some of the mixture is set aside and combined with orange juice and zest, creating a savory-sweet sauce for drizzling over the finished dish. While the fish marinates, the broccolini gets a head start on roasting. Once the quick-cooking salmon is added, the traybake is nearly done. Serve with steamed rice.​

Georgian Creamy-Garlic Chicken (Shkmeruli)

This traybake chicken makes its own rich and garlicky pan sauce. It’s our version of shkmeruli, a Georgian classic we learned in Tbilisi from Giorgi Andghuladze, chef at Craft Wine Restaurant, and home cook Mako Tchabashvili. For ease, we moved the cooking into the oven, turning shkmeruli into a simple, almost hands-free traybake. Placing whole garlic cloves in the center of the baking sheet, surrounded by the chicken parts, prevents the garlic from scorching but allows them to soften so they can be mashed to flavor the sauce.​

Yakisoba Traybake

Stir-fried noodles minus the need to stir-fry. Other than boiling noodles, all the cooking happens hands-off in the oven on a baking sheet. We found that “stir frying” in the oven achieved a bowl of noodles with much more crunch and depth of flavor. First crisping up the bacon and cabbage, then baking the sauced noodles in the leftover pan drippings, forces the flavors to meld and permeate every noodle.​

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Claire Lower

Claire Lower is the Digital Editor for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street, with over a decade of experience as a food writer and recipe developer. Claire began writing about food (and drinks) during the blogging boom in the late 2000s, eventually leaving her job as a lab technician to pursue writing full-time. After freelancing for publications such as Serious Eats, Yahoo Food, xoJane and Cherry Bombe Magazine, she eventually landed at Lifehacker, where she served as the Senior Food Editor for nearly eight years. Claire lives in Portland, Oregon with a very friendly dog and very mean cat. When not in the kitchen (or at her laptop), you can find her deadlifting at the gym, fly fishing or trying to master figure drawing at her local art studio.