Every year around now, the light becomes more golden and crisp, the temperature drops, and we fall in love with our ovens all over again. On a cool evening, it’s lovely to open the oven and feel a hot blast of air wash over you, especially if it’s filled with roasting meat and aromatic savories. The fall is such a busy time, too, that it’s great to be able to slide dinner into the oven and forget about it for a while — that’s time for helping kiddos with homework, raking leaves or drinking a glass of wine and catching up with your best friend.

For this easy sheet-pan dinner, we coat chicken pieces, sweet potatoes and fennel in olive oil and salt, bake it for 45 minutes and toss it in a vinaigrette. The chicken is tender with a golden, crackly skin. The sweet potatoes are sweet, a little crispy — and such a nice contrast with the light, earthy licorice of the roasted fennel. The vinaigrette pulls all those flavors together and almost steals the show: it’s a super zippy concoction of garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon and sharp, salty pecorino cheese. We wanted to drink it.

Another thing this dish has going for it is that you can use whatever parts of the chicken you like. We grownups tend to like a juicy, ultra-flavorful thigh or drummy, but our kids will always go for the breasts; it’s great to have both on the sheet pan.

Our tip: You will have leftover vinaigrette. Save it to drizzle over your avocado toast, toss with cheesy noodles and dress your corn on the cob.