When you're a parent—particularly to young children—mornings, afternoons, evenings, and nights seem jam-packed full of activities, preparing food, cleaning up, learning, playing, reading, nap time, bath time, laundry, chores, and bed time. Add in work for the parents and possibly caring for pets and managing the learning and multiple needs of older children, and it can seem like time can streak by in a haze of to-do lists, tasks that get put off for lack of time, and forgotten coffee waiting to be rewarmed in the microwave. For busy parents, words like meal planning and meal preparation in advance of the moment when your hangry child stares you in the eyes, demanding snacks (notice the plural here, as one snack may not be sufficient to tame the beast), may seem like a quaint notion for people without young children. 

I'm going to level with you: I'm a mom and have a high-needs, endlessly energetic and, as a result, hungry kid, and if I didn't take an hour or so to meal prep at least once every few days, I might feed my son snacks almost exclusively (he'd be happy with this but I wouldn't). While my son is busy playing with a friend in the backyard, building with legos, or playing a math game on the computer, I'll try to sneak in some meal prep. When it's your meal prep moment, this easy chicken dinner recipe, which includes oven-baked chicken, sweet potatoes, apples, and a two-ingredient green salad for parents. This chicken dinner takes less than an hour to prepare and cook, and you can bake the chicken, apples, and sweet potatoes in bulk so you can have leftovers for the rest of the week. Take a look at the section below titled How to Use These Chicken Dinner Leftovers for additional meal planning ideas.

Easy Chicken Dinner Recipe for Kids and Parents

Sliced baked chicken breast, side green salad, baked sweet potato and apple wedges on a white plate

Kids plate with diced chicken breast, diced sweet potatoes, and apple sauce

Time: 55 minutes

Servings: 2*

*Can be doubled, tripled, etc., easily to feed more family members and/or used for meal prep. Note: All ingredients listed are for 2 servings; increase amounts as needed for additional people and/or meal prep leftovers.

Ingredients

For the chicken:

  • 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1 bottle Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing 
  • 1 teaspoon parsley, minced, optional 

For the roasted sweet potatoes and apples:

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 400ºF. 
  • Season both sides of the chicken breast with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Place in an oven-safe casserole dish and cover with 1/2 cup Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing. Cover the dish with foil and set aside.
  • Cut the sweet potato into wedges. Place on a baking sheet. Drizzle with avocado oil and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Toss together to coat; make sure wedges are sitting on the baking sheet in one layer. 
  • Meanwhile, slice the apple into wedges, removing the core, stem, and seeds. Place the apple wedges on a baking sheet in one layer, and spritz the apple wedges with Primal Kitchen Avocado Oil Spray. 
  • Place the casserole dish with the chicken, and the baking sheets with the sweet potato wedges and apple wedges in the oven.
  • After 10 minutes, remove the chicken, and pull off the foil. Turn chicken over and add about 1/4 cup more Caesar Dressing. Remove the sweet potatoes and apples, and turn each wedge over to crisp on the other side. 
  • Slide chicken back in the oven to cook another 10 minutes, uncovered, for another 10 minutes. If the chicken starts to brown too much, place the foil back on top. Slide the sweet potatoes and apples back in the oven and cook for another 10–15 minutes, or until fork tender.
  • Remove everything from the oven. The inside of the chicken breast sound register 170ºF on a meat thermometer when it's fully cooked. Allow the chicken to cool for about 5 minutes before slicing. 

To assemble the plates:

  • Slice one chicken breast into slices and put on parent's plate. Sprinkle the top of the chicken with minced parsley, if desired. 
  • Cube half or one quarter (depending on the age of the child) of the other chicken breast and place onto child's plate. If your child is sensitive to stronger flavors, you may want to use a paper towel or clean kitchen towel to wipe off the Caesar Dressing before serving. 
  • Place half of the sweet potato and apple wedges on the adult's plate. Take a cup of mixed baby lettuce and a few sliced cherry tomatoes on top; drizzle the salad with Caesar Dressing, if desired.
  • Cut a few sweet potato wedges into small cubes and place on child's plate.
  • Place a few of the apple wedges in a bowl, and mash with the back of a fork to create chunky applesauce. Spoon applesauce onto child's plate.
  • Enjoy!

Infographic that illustrates differences between mom's chicken dinner and little kid's chicken dinner

Nutrition info (per adult serving)*:

Calories: 1058

Carbs: 51 grams

Fat: 76 grams

Protein: 45 grams

*Nutrition info includes 1 chicken breast, sweet potato and apple wedges, and simple green side salad with 2 tablespoons Primal Kitchen Caesar Dressing.

How to Use These Chicken Dinner Leftovers

If you decide to make a double or triple batch of the chicken recipe, here are some easy ways to incorporate the leftovers into future meals:

  • Slice or dice chicken, apples, or sweet potatoes, and add to salads
  • Slice chicken, apples, or sweet potatoes, and add to sandwiches, lettuce or collard wraps
  • Dice chicken and use to make chicken salad: Add diced chicken to a bowl with chopped celery, minced shallot, and diced apple. Add salt and pepper, 2 tablespoons of Primal Kitchen Mayo, and 1/2 teaspoon Primal Kitchen Dijon Mustard. Stir to combine.
  • Make a chicken bowl: Use cooked riced cauliflower or broccoli as the base of your bowl and top with diced chicken, any cooked or raw veggies you like, any nuts or seeds (try chia seeds or hemp seeds for a poppy crunch). Drizzle with any Primal Kitchen Dressing.
  • Make a quick pasta dish: Cook zoodles or gluten-free pasta and add to a bowl. Toss with any Primal Kitchen Pasta Sauce, sliced chicken, any leftover sweet potatoes, and wilted spinach or kale. Sprinkle with nutritional yeast or parmesan cheese and any fresh herb you like.  

You might also like these other easy chicken recipes:

IF YOU LIKED THIS...
You'll Also Love These Recipes

Adding this recipe to your rotation? Don't stop there. Keep the deliciousness coming with these other crave-worthy dishes cooked up in the Primal Kitchen.

A white baking dish filled with Easy Buffalo Chicken Dip made with Primal Kitchen Original Buffalo Sauce. Chips, pretzels, and celery and carrot sticks in the background. Easy Buffalo Chicken Dip
5 MIN PREP TIME • 25 MIN TOTAL TIME • 10 SERVINGS
With just four core ingredients, this tailgate-ready buffalo chicken dip is super simple to make! Our plant-based Original Buffalo Sauce is the MVP and creamy mayo backs up this snack play, making it a hearty game-day appetizer your watch party team will go wild over.  
A white bowl filled with an autumn salad of bacon, cranberries, pecans and more, with a bottle of Primal Kitchen Poppyseed Dressing in the background. Autumn Salad with Poppyseed Dressing
20 MIN PREP TIME • 50 MIN TOTAL TIME • 6 SERVINGS
As customizable as it is cozy, this delicious salad combines the season’s best harvest—think crisp apples, buttery pecans, and creamy sweet potatoes—with a savory poppy seed dressing made from real ingredients you’ll love. It’s like a crisp fall day in a bowl!  For a more substantial meal with an extra rich flavor, add goat cheese or feta and top with grilled chicken.
A sheet pan of chicken and vegetables for fajitas Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
15 MIN PREP • 6 SERVINGS • 60 MIN TOTAL TIME
This no-mess, no-fuss chicken dinner is as easy as it gets. You simply preheat the oven, chop some vegetables, season the chicken, then pop it in the oven. It’s the perfect weeknight recipe to make when you don’t want to wash a bunch of dishes or spend a lot of time thinking about what to cook.
BROWSE MORE RECIPES