This baked lemon chicken could not be easier to make.
The weather in Minnesota has quickly been getting colder and colder, and I was in need of something a little more hot and hearty than I’d been having the past few months for dinner—salads or veggies with dip.
Lemon is one of those foods that tastes good year round, along with chocolate and bread (whoops). When I was a kid, I can remember not liking lemons very much. Now I often cook and bake with them. What I love about them is their mixture of acidity, bitterness, and sweetness. It’s really easy to substitute lemon for different sweetener, like sugar, in a lot of cooking.
And of course, it wouldn’t be cooking in my kitchen if garlic weren’t involved. I go through a giant jar (like the 24 oz jar) in a month or two very easily. #thisiswhyimsingle
I tested this recipe a couple of ways when it came to the chicken. Ultimately, I decided it tasted better when cooked with skin-on chicken, even though I removed the skin before eating. The skin adds a really nice tenderness to the chicken and packs in a lot of flavor (even when removed). I’m not one to eat the skin on chicken very often (thanks for conditioning me on that one, Mom). But I couldn’t deny the intensity of the flavor versus the skinless chicken route.
This recipe will easily feed 6–8 people, so feel free to cut the ingredients in half if you’re serving a smaller crowd.
Baked Lemon Chicken
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 4 tablespoons minced garlic
- 1 cup dry white wine
- Zest of one lemon
- 3 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
- 2 teaspoons dried oregano
- 2 teaspoon minced thyme leaves
- Salt and pepper
- 8 pieces of chicken (your choice, skin on)
- 2 lemon
Steps
- Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the olive oil and garlic, and cook for 1 minute.
- Turn off the heat, and add the white wine, lemon zest, lemon juice, oregano, thyme, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix well. Divide between two 9x12-inch baking dishes.
- Pat the chicken pieces dry and dip the skin in the sauce. Place them in the pan skin side up. Sprinkle generously with salt and pepper.
- Cut the lemons in 8 wedges and place around the pieces of chicken.
- Bake for 45–50 minutes, depending on the size of the chicken pieces, until the chicken is done and the skin is lightly browned. If the chicken isn’t browned enough, put it under the broiler for 2 minutes.
- Sprinkle with a little more salt and pepper. Serve hot and with the pan juices.