This Easy Baked Lemon Chicken is . . . easy! This one-pot paleo dish made with fresh lemons, herbs and garlic is a quick weeknight meal.
Jump to Recipe Print Recipe
Fresh lemons, herbs and garlic make this easy Baked Lemon Chicken dish a quick weeknight meal and will have you dreaming of the sun-drenched Mediterranean.
I’m not always on the lookout for the easiest recipe ever. Just like other food bloggy people out there, I love playing around with food and changing recipes, and tackling something new that might be challenging to me. But if I tried to do that with every dish in a meal, my kitchen (and my meal) would likely be a disaster. So sometimes it’s great to find a short cut to a recipe and whip it up quickly so that you have time to concentrate on making an interesting side dish or salad or dessert.
Such was the case with this easy Baked Lemon Chicken dish. Usually, you would want to brown the chicken pieces in a skillet first before combining them with a sauce and baking them in the oven. Not this one. Simply mix up a little olive oil, garlic, lemon and herbs in a saucepan, pour into a baking dish, place the chicken on top and bake in the oven.
That’s it! Done. The skin turns out nicely browned and crispy, and there is no risk of it coming off and sticking to your skillet.
I adapted this recipe slightly from Ina Garten’s Lemon Chicken Breasts on the Food Network. I’ve made it several times, using both boneless chicken thighs and bone-in thighs. Make sure you keep the skin on to keep the chicken moist and tender while baking. I prefer thighs over chicken breasts for this recipe as the thighs have more flavour and don’t dry out like breasts tend to do, but either will work. If using boneless thighs, you can reduce your baking time. I also used Meyer Lemons for their sweeter, more intense flavour. This easy Baked Lemon Chicken goes well with my Thai Coconut Rice. Or try it with these crispy Apple Cider Roasted Root Vegetables . Bon Appetit!
- 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp minced garlic 6 - 9 cloves
- 1/3 cup white wine, optional, or use white grape juice
- 1 tbsp finely grated lemon zest 1 or 2 lemons
- 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- sea salt and pepper
- 1 whole lemon
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs OR 4 boneless skin-on chicken breasts
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Prepare the sauce. Gently heat the olive oil in a small saucepan over low heat. Add the minced garlic and heat until tender but not browned, about 1 minute. Add the wine, lemon zest and lemon juice, oregano, thyme, salt and pepper and stir.
- Remove from heat and pour into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish.
- Rinse the chicken and pat dry. Place skin side up in the dish. Spoon some of the sauce over top to coat completely.
- Slice the lemon and tuck it in, skin side down (otherwise it will scorch) between the chicken pieces.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, (less for boneless breasts) depending on the size of your chicken pieces. Check for doneness. If the skin isn't crispy, place the dish under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes until browned.
- Remove from oven, cover with foil and let it rest for 10 minutes. Spoon the sauce over top just before serving.
Kitchen tools used to make Easy Baked Lemon Chicken
I used my microplane to zest the lemon. This is a tool I use almost every day for zesting lemons and limes, grating ginger or garlic or even finely grating hard cheese.
If you like easy chicken recipes, try these ones too!
Sheet Pan Chicken with Roasted Vegetables
Honey-Mustard Chicken with Turmeric,
and lots more.
This chicken is making my mouth water and it’s only 8:33am here! Looks like a faaaaaaaantastic recipe for me (a.k.a. girl who’s always in a hurry and happens to be obsessed with chicken). Ina Garten’s recipes are always amazing, so I’m excited to give your version a try!!
Chicken for breakfast? Nah. Save it for dinner. 🙂
Oh my!!! This looks fantastic. I have Meyer lemons in store right now, I must try this.
Regular lemons will work, but Meyer lemons just put this dish over the top! Enjoy.
Sorry to say I am at a loss. What are Mayer lemons?
Hi Elayne, Thanks for asking that question! I’m sure you’re not the only one who is wondering. Meyer lemons are smaller, sweeter and less acidic than regular lemons. They have a thin skin and a deep yellow colour. They have become popular in recent years because of their intense flavour. They are often available in larger stores or those that carry specialty produce. Look for them in the winter months. Here in Canada we get them shipped from California and I can buy them from December through March. But if you don’t have them, don’t worry! I’ve made this Baked Lemon Chicken with regular lemons many times too. It’s good with both types.
Happy cooking!
Thanks for reminding me how much I love lemon chicken. I can’t remember the last time I made it.. and need to make this recipe asap!
That’s the beauty of reading food blogs regularly, as we bloggers do! We get reminders of food we love to eat, and don’t fall into patterns of eating the same old meals every week.
Looks great, I’m going to try this today with thighs. Your recipe mentions placing the lemon slices (thin wedges?) skin-side down, but the pics show the lemon skin-side up. Can you clarify?
Thanks!!!
I sure can! The first time I made this, the lemon skins became scorched when I had them skin side up, likely when I put the dish under the broiler for the last few minutes. The next time, I didn’t use the broiler. Wedges would be a good idea too, as they would hold their shape a little better than slices. Enjoy!
I love this combination, but hardly ever make it – DELICIOUS, will go on my to-make-soon list!!!
It was one I had forgotten about too. Time to resurrect it. A classic dish!
Made this last night… Very good!!!
Seeing that chicken thighs these days are more the size of Pteroctyl thighs, I lined a deep 9 x 13 cake pan with HD foil, nestled SIX thighs (tight fit) in, with a lemon halved and cut into 20+ small wedges and poked in here, there and everywhere. After everyone was comfortable, spooned the sauce over the top.
400 degrees was smoking up the kitchen, so I knocked it down to 350 until the thighs were 165 internal (maybe 6-8 additional minutes). A minute or two in the lower oven under a pre-heated broiler and they were beautifully “ooh & ahh” crisped.
Thanks, these were a big hit. Served them with a small crisped-baked yukon (same oven, plus 10 minutes) and a red-leaf BV&O salad.
Thanks for letting me know, Scott! So glad you liked them as much as we do.
This was absolutely delicious! Usually our lemon chicken is just butter, chicken broth, and lemon juice but this was SO good. We served it on brown rice. Definitely will be including this in our meal plans from now on, thank you! 🙂
Thanks! We love it too and have it regularly. Thanks so much for your comment!
Will this recipe work with skinless chicken breast??
Hi Tiffany,
I haven’t tried it with skinless chicken breasts, but I would think it would be just fine if you just brush the breasts with a little olive oil before baking. You might also try turning them over half way through the cooking time to keep them from drying out. Let me know if you try it!
This recipe is great. The Lemon flavor really comes through.
I used skinless thighs and did a quick broil before removing from the oven. I am going to make this again using chicken breasts then add the meat to an Orzo/Snap Pea salad recipe I have.
Thanks
Hi Whitney,
Thanks for your comment! Great idea to crisp them a little under the broiler. Your Snap Pea salad recipe with this Lemon Chicken sounds fabulous!
This looks amazing! I have chicken thighs in the fridge I need to do this with!….I love your photos btw…do you use natural light for them? I am working on trying to get better photos so would love any tips you have!
Hi Jessica, Thanks for reading and commenting! I hope you do make this recipe with those thighs in your fridge! It’s so good! It makes a great weeknight meal, but is always raved about when we have guests for dinner too.
Food photography is fun but frustrating some times, isn’t it? I use natural light whenever I can, but sometimes it’s just too bright or too dull, so then I’ll use artificial light. The best tip I have is to use a tripod to reduce the camera shake. You’ll get much clearer, crisper photos. Good luck and happy blogging!
Elaine
I was going to make Chicken Picatta for tonight’s dinner, going to make this instead! Sounds wonderful and everyone’s comments are encouraging.
Thanks Mary! Hope you love it as much as we do. It’s an easy one. Mmmm . . . I love Chicken Picatta too!
Elaine
Elaine,
Just had to write you a note!
We just finished dinner and my husband told me this is a keeper!
I only had boneless, skinless breasts, so I put them bottom side down and made sure they were coated, then turned them over to cook. I cooked them 20 mins that way. Then I turned them top side up and finished cooking them (about 15 mins). After that I basted them and turned the oven to broil. Broiled them just a couple mins.
They turned out perfect!
Mary
Hi Mary!
Thanks so much for letting me know how they turned out. That’s so helpful to other readers as well! Isn’t it great when you find a recipe that you’ll know you’ll make again and again?
Happy cooking,
Elaine
Thank you for the info! I was just thinking about making this for a family gathering and wondering about using boneless, skinless breasts. I am vegetarian and not confident in making substitutions without a little direction, so your comments will be very helpful. Hopefully the recipe will double well, too.
These would be great for a family party! Always a popular dish.
Going to try these on sunday for my sisters big birthday celebration, thanks so much, they sound delicious:)
Happy birthday to your sister! I’m sure your guests will love this dish. Have a great party!
Hi there, looks amazing and would love to try this recipe. However, do you have a substitute for the white wine? We don’t use any alcohol in our cooking. Thanks
Hi Sara,
Thanks for a great question! When substituting ingredients, you have to try to determine what purpose the ingredients are serving. In this case, the wine adds a little liquid and some fruity flavour. While I haven’t tried this myself, I suspect you could easily replace the white wine with unsweetened white grape juice. If this isn’t available, I’d add another tablespoon of lemon juice, a teaspoon of honey and about 1/4 cup of chicken stock instead. I’d love to hear your results! It’s a fabulous recipe, as you can tell by the other comments, so I’d be interested to hear how you play around with it. Thanks for your question!
This is definitely a “winner” of a meal and am making it again today!
This looks so wonderful. I love lemon anything at all, and really love them in main courses. Great family chicken dish.
Hi just want to say this is a delicious chicken recipe. I followed the recipe to a T (except cooking the chicken longer) and I was delighted by how it turned out. Will def make this again.
*I just used regular lemons btw. We do not have those Meyer lemons where I’m from.
Hi Sarah,
Thanks for letting me know how much you liked it! I often make this with regular lemons, too. Meyer lemons are only available here for a short time from December through February where I live. Have a great day!
Hello Elaine, this is a great recipe. I have made it twice and my wife and I love it. I thought you’d like to know that your recipe’s are being eaten and enjoyed in Brisbane Australia.
Thanks Steve! It’s always great to wake up to comments from my readers from “down under!” We love this recipe too, and I make it often. Never fails!
I cooked it two days ago. Chicken had the flavor delicious the only thing that I didn’t like was to much oil to be bake. Next time I’ll use so mucho less oil . Thank you for the recipe
Hi Fati,
You’re welcome! Thanks for letting me know how much you liked it. Reducing the oil is certainly an option. I’d just make sure there is just enough to cover the bottom of your baking dish. Thanks for commenting!