Sheet Pan Suppers: 120 Recipes for Simple, Surprising, Hands-Off Meals Straight from the Oven Paperback – December 2, 2014

This was a big disappointment. I expected from the title and cover to have a book filled with easy dinner recipes that could be made with ease and limited fuss on a baking sheet. The cover photo is exactly the kind of dinner that I thought the book would be filled with--an easy way to combine protein mains with sides all on one sheet pan.

Alas, that is not the case.

The first chapter is for appetizers, not suppers, that just happen to be made on a sheet pan. So, think of any appetizer that happens to be made on a baking sheet. For example, bake a wheel of brie--on a baking sheet! Or crispy chickpeas, or spiced nuts, or roasted radishes. That's the first chapter: 18 recipes that I do not need and which are not supper.

The poultry chapter does have dinner recipes. But...a good number rely on "cooked shredded chicken." I thought the whole point was to cook the entire meal on the sheet pan? And then other recipes just seem dumb or gimmicky, like cook turkey burgers on a baking rack set on the sheet pan or, hey, instead of roasting a chicken in a roasting pan, roast it on a baking sheet!

The meats chapter relies on some pretty expensive cuts--different steaks, rack of lamb (!), leg of lamb, sirloin steak, beef tenderloin, etc. I am not tempted to cook a $15 steak or $40 rack of lamb on a sheet pan. Other recipes, like cook meatloaf on a sheet pan (which has been around a long time) rather than in a pan. Fish recipes largely rely on very expensive fish that are not available in most places (e.g., recipes calling for two whole red snappers, black cod, arctic char, thick-cut halibut, swordfish).

And then some vegetarian recipes , like pasta, that require you make the pasta separately. Or french bread pizza (come on). Some strange recipes here, too, more appetizers than supper. For example, Caesar salad on garlic toast is a vegetarian supper (?), or stuffed mushrooms accompanied by "garlic knots" which are simply canned crescent rolls brushed with garlic olive oil (?).

After going through the entire book, I have three supper recipes that I wish to try that will work for my family, One is the cover recipe, and it will not be one we can have often due to the high cost and limited availability of arctic char.

What follows the mains (the suppers) is a slew of recipes that range from the obvious (standard cookies, such as chocolate chip and peanut butter) to the bizarre to the unusable. The strangest one if the the "doughnut apple cobbler." This is the recipe: toss apples with sugar, spices and butter on a sheet pan, than bake, Remove from the oven and top with 8 whole, glazed doughnuts and bake until doughnuts are warmed through. What??? Then there is a 16-step, 3-page long recipe for homemade poptarts, as well as standard recipes, such as scones, elaborate cinnamon rolls, focaccia, garlic bread, plain roasted potatoes, granola, biscuits, chocolate sheet cake, tart, or, annoyingly, desserts baked in ramekins that are SET on a sheet pan. Really? Nothing surprising, these are recipes that are always baked on sheet pans for heaven's sake. These are not suppers.

It would be ok if the "other" recipes were limited to being a few bonus recipes, but no:

Pages 6-40: Appetizers.
Pages 41-180: Suppers, most of which do not fit the model of what is on the cover.
Pages 182 through 284: desserts and biscuits etc, NOT suppers

More than half the book--61 out of 120 recipes-- are NOT suppers.

I've made three recipes so far and am in love. Many one-pot meals are stove top or Dutch oven based and I love them but they get old. Sheet pan suppers bring in roasted flavors that just don't come from other cooking methods. One sheet pan is also even easier--if you use a liner, clean up is a snap. But more importantly, the dishes are delicious. We made the chicken with broccolini in a spicy peanut sauce and my husband said it was his new favorite dish--and the hands on part came together in mere minutes. Chicken Jerome was good but we did decide to pour off the sauce and thicken it on the stove and wouldn't put scallions on the top next time but instead mix them in--they charred. The third dishe we tried so far, roasted pork chops with apple cabbage slaw was also a real winner and again only took a few minutes. I like how the book is divided up with vegetarain, beef, chicken, pork, brunch, desserts. This really is a new favorite in our house--highly recommended.

There is so much to like about this cookbook. I wish I could have given it 5 stars. But I can't and I'll explain why in a moment. But first, the reasons It deserves a place in your cookbook collection: 1. The recipes are tasty and inventive. And while I haven't tried them all, most appear fairly easy to execute. 2. Throughout the book there are helpful sidebars that explain things like how to supreme an orange or truss a chicken--good for the less experienced cook. 3. The book itself is a work of art with beautiful photographs and artistic typesetting and the author uses light humor which makes it fun to read. 4. The concept of a meal on a half-sheet is a winner for producing a great tasting dinner with minimal clean up. So why only 3 stars? First, and though this may not matter to some it will matter to others, there's no nutritional information per serving for the recipes (calories, fat grams, etc.) As people are becoming more and more health conscious, many of us are keeping track of how much sodium, sugar and saturated fat we are consuming. I was disappointed that that information wasn't readily available from this book. Secondly, and potentially more seriously, the recipe for "Classic Roast Chicken with Mustardy Potatoes" instructs cooking the bird to an internal temperature of 145 degrees. The minute I saw that I knew the temperature was way too low. But someone just starting out might not realize that's a food safety issue. Because the author is apparently so knowledgeable, I assume this is a typo. But it's a serious one in my book. Nevertheless, when I prepared this recipe roasting the chicken to a temperature of 180, it was perfection! My husband remarked that it rivaled the meals his French grandmother used to cook--high praise indeed!

My husband and I love everything I have made from this book. Berry biscuit breakfast cobbler, a pork & vegetables roast, chicken & fennel with oranges, salmon & asparagus. Everything is easy, the pictures are great and what I make comes out pretty as the picture. Love love love. So many recipes involve basics I already own. And it's nice to clean up the veggie prep once the pan is in the oven, and then it's a clean kitchen before dinner. It's just really cool.

We made the dinner on the cover as our first dish to make. Holy amazing! It was SOOOOO GOOD and super simple.