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This easy baked lemon chicken breast is a quick chicken recipe you need on a busy weeknight, it is easy, delicious, tender and moist. The baked chicken breasts are marinated with simple everyday pantry ingredients.
It is delicious on its own but I love to serve it with jollof rice, curried rice, couscous or salad.
Easy baked lemon chicken recipe
We have all been there where it seems like the whole day is just flying past you and the last thing you want to do is be in the kitchen for an endless cooking. This easy chicken breast recipe is a 3 step recipe
- Make marinade, this is bursting with citrus flavours
- Pour the marinate over boneless chicken breasts
- Bake in the oven between 20 to 30 minutes
Yes, it is easy as ABC, simple and pretty straight forward. If you have 45 minutes you can add extra step to these steps. You can sear the chicken breasts before baking in the oven for crispy skin. Honestly, it is not needed for this recipe. I do have some other delicious recipe that are seared before cooking.
Check out my other 30 minutes chicken dinner recipes cilantro lime chicken, stovetop chicken and garlic chicken. Today’s recipe is slightly adapted from this instant pot garlic lemon chicken legs, it is one of our favourite recipes.
Why you will love this recipe
This lemon chicken is great with mashed potatoes and you get to make gravy with the pan drippings. Oh, I love making gravy with pan drippings, the flavours are just mind-blowing. I use it on everything, with potatoes, rice and salad. Yes, you read right, salad! I am sure I am not alone on this.
Other reasons why you will love these oven baked chicken breast recipe
- It can be prepped ahead of time, you can marinate the chicken a day before or earlier in the day and cook when you are ready.
- You do not need to brine the chicken breast and the chicken would still come out moist and flavourful.
- You can substitute the chicken breast for thighs, boneless or bone-in, chicken quarters or tenderloins. All you need to do is to adjust the cooking time to suit the cut of bird you will be using.
- This is an easy and healthy chicken recipe, it is low carb and gluten-free.
- It can also be made on the stove top just like this creamy garlic chicken recipe. You may also need to adjust cooking time and cut the breast lengthwise in halves so it is thin, cooks faster and not dry out whilst cooking.
Ingredients needed
Chicken breasts
Herb de Provence: This can be substituted with Italian seasoning
Honey: substitute with brown sugar
Olive oil
Paprika
Lemon juice and lemon slices
Butter: I used slightly salted butter, if using unsalted butter, adjust the salt you would adding to the marinade to taste.
Fresh Garlic cloves
Salt and black pepper
How to make oven baked lemon chicken
Preheat the oven at 200C/400F
Make the marinade: In a small bowl or jar, add olive oil, melted butter, lemon juice, honey, herb de Provence, paprika, salt and black pepper. Mix or shake to combine then crush the garlic cloves with the back of a knife and set aside.
Prep the chicken: Depending on the size of the chicken breast, if the thickest part is more than 1½ inches then you may need to flatten it by pounding it gently with a meat mallet or a rolling pin. Remove any unwanted fat from the chicken and make sure to pat the chicken dry
Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with butter and placed the chicken breasts in it.
Pour the chicken marinade over the chicken, add crushed garlic and lemon slices then bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
To be sure that the chicken is cooked through, stick a knife in the thickest part and the juice from the chicken should run clear. A better and efficient way of checking is using a meat thermometer. Stick it in the thickest part of the breast and the internal temperature should read 165F/63C
Serve and enjoy!
How to store
In the fridge: Leave to cool completely and store in the fridge for up 3 days. My daughter enjoys it in wraps, I shred the chicken and mix with mayonnaise and BBQ sauce and black pepper to taste. It is so good.
To reheat: simply reheat in the microwave, serve and enjoy.
Other chicken recipes
Air fryer lemon pepper chicken wings
Spinach and cream cheese stuffed chicken
If you made this easy homemade oven baked lemon chicken recipe, don’t forget to leave me feedback and rate it 5 stars. Tag me @thedinnerbite on Instagram and save away to your Pinterest. Please subscribe to the blog if you haven’t for free new recipes in your inbox
I had to sneak in the photo of our little guy, his name is Maple and he likes getting the first taste of every dish that comes out of the kitchen. He couldn’t wait to get served!
Baked Lemon Chicken Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts
- ½ tbsp Herb de Provence This can be substituted with Italian seasoning
- 1 tbsp Honey substitute with brown sugar
- 2 tbsp Olive oil
- 1 tsp paprika
- Lemon juice and lemon slices
- 2 tbsp butter melted
- 3 large garlic cloves
- Salt and black pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 200C/400F
- Make the marinade: In a small bowl or jar, add olive oil, melted butter, lemon juice, honey, herb de Provence, paprika, salt and black pepper. Mix or shake to combine then crush the garlic cloves with the back of a knife and set aside.
- Prep the chicken: Depending on the size of the chicken breast, if the thickest part is more than 1½ inches then you may need to flatten it by pounding it gently with a meat mallet or a rolling pin. Remove any unwanted fat from the chicken and make sure to pat the chicken dry
- Lightly grease a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with butter and placed the chicken breasts in it.
- Pour the chicken marinade over the chicken, add crushed garlic and lemon slices then bake in the oven for 30 minutes. to be sure that the chicken is cooked through, stick a knife in the thickest part and the juice from the chicken should run clear. A better and efficient way of checking is using a meat thermometer. Stick it in the thickest part of the breast and the internal temperature should read 165F/63C
- Serve and enjoy!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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