This easy baked Greek chicken and potatoes is a family favorite! The secret is in the lemon-garlic sauce which doubles up as a marinade. Whether you choose to marinate the chicken for a couple of hours (I usually don’t) or cook it right away, the flavors will surprise you in the best way possible.
Greek chicken makes an appearance on my dinner table pretty frequently. In many forms. From tender Souvlaki skewers to Greek chicken gyro or a quick skillet chicken covered in a tasty yogurt chicken marinade.
Ah, but if it’s a special, comforting meal we need, Greek chicken and potatoes it is!
This easy Greek chicken recipe hits all the right flavor notes, thanks to a couple of Greek spices and a tasty lemon-garlic sauce that can also double as a marinade (although, luckily, you don’t have to marinate this chicken for hours, it can go right in the oven)!
Ingredients for this Greek Chicken Recipe
- Chicken- 3 pounds of chicken. For best flavor, use bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. You can also portion a whole small chicken into pieces to use in this recipe.
- Potatoes- 4 gold potatoes scrubbed clean and cut into wedges (Greek-style roasted potatoes are typically cut into wedges).
- Onion- 1 medium yellow onion, halved and cut into wedges to mimic the look of the potatoes
- Lemon-Garlic Sauce- This is where all the glorious flavor in this Greek chicken recipe comes from. The sauce is made of Greek extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, loads of garlic (anywhere from 8 to 12 garlic cloves, minced), 1 1/2 tablespoons dry rosemary (or dry oregano), and a pinch of nutmeg. Tip: this can also act as your Greek chicken marinade, if you want to work ahead and marinate the chicken in the fridge for a few hours.
- Chicken broth- anywhere from 1/2 cup to 1 cup chicken broth poured in the pan helps cook the potatoes to tender perfect and it also keeps the chicken tender and juicy while baking.
- Lemon slices- Can’t have enough lemons in a Greek chicken dinner! Lemon slices act as a pretty garnish but as they bake over the chicken, they also impart great flavor.
- Garnish- fresh parsley and a few pitted kalamata olives two optional ingredients that add a good pop of color and some more Greek flavor are
How to Make Greek Chicken: Step-by-Step
Time needed: 1 hour and 15 minutes
How to make Greek chicken (print-friendly recipe with exact measurements below)
- Heat oven and season the chicken
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Arrange a rack right in the middle.
Season the chicken with kosher salt on all sides. Tip: for best flavor, make sure to lift up the chicken skins and season underneath.
- Arrange potatoes and onions in baking dish
Slice the potatoes and onions into wedges. Arrange them in your baking dish. Season with kosher salt and black pepper
- Make the lemon garlic sauce
In a bowl or a measuring cup, add extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, dried rosemary and nutmeg (you can also use a bit of dried oregano instead of rosemary).
- Add chicken, sauce, and broth to the baking pan
Arrange the chicken pieces in the baking dish or pan. Pour the lemon garlic sauce evenly all over the chicken and potatoes. Arrange lemon slices on top. From one side of the pan, add in about 1 cup chicken broth (but do not pour over the chicken)
- Bake!
Bake in heated oven uncovered for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until the chicken and potatoes are tender. (Chicken’s internal temperature should register at 165 degrees F). NOTE: If the potatoes are not fully done at this point, you can raise the oven temperature to 425°F and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes (make sure to remove the chicken breast pieces that are fully cooked so they don’t get dry). To get more color on the chicken, place the pan under the broiler briefly to allow the chicken skins to gain more color (watch carefully).If you like, place the pan under the broiler briefly to allow the chicken skins to gain more color (watch carefully).
Greek Chicken Marinade Option
Like I said earlier, in this recipe, you do not need to marinate the chicken for hours in advance. But if you like, you can apply the lemon garlic sauce to the chicken a few hours before you are ready to bake it and keep it in the fridge. Marinade ingredients (same as lemon-garlic sauce ingredients used here):
- 1/4 cup Greek extra virgin olive oil (I used Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil)
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 8 to 12 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoons dried rosemary or dried oregano (or if you like, a bit of each)
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
To marinate the chicken, mix all the above together and pour it over the chicken (lift chicken skins up to get some goodness underneath). Cover and leave in the fridge for a couple hours or so.
When ready, add the chicken to the potatoes and onions and follow the recipe for baking instructions.
What to Serve with Greek Chicken?
This baked chicken and potatoes doesn’t require much to turn into a fun Greek feast. Serve it with a side of Greek salad and Tzatziki sauce. If you like, add some warm pita bread. That’s it!
Watch the video for this Greek chicken recipe:
More chicken recipes you might like: grilled whole chicken, and baked cornish game hen.
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Greek Chicken and Potatoes Recipe
- Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
- Yield: Serves up to 6
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
This easy Greek chicken and potatoes recipe is a family favorite. The secret is in the lemon-garlic sauce, which doubles up as a marinade. Whether you choose to marinate the chicken for a couple of hours (I usually don’t) or cook it right away, the flavors will surprise you in the best way possible.
Ingredients
For Chicken and Potatoes
- 3 lb chicken pieces, bone in and skin on (I used 2 smaller breasts and 3 legs)
- Salt
- 4 gold potatoes (about 2 lb), scrubbed clean, cut into thin wedges
- 1 medium yellow onion, halved then sliced
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 6 to 12 pitted quality kalamata olives, optional
- Fresh parsley, for garnish
For the Lemon-Garlic Sauce (can also be used as marinade)
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil)
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 12 fresh garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 tbsp dried rosemary (or dried oregano)
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
Sides (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Pat chicken dry and season generously with salt (lift the skins and apply salt underneath as well). (see optional step in notes)
- Arrange potato wedges and onions in the bottom of a baking dish or pan. Season with salt and 1 tsp black pepper. Add the chicken pieces (see optional step in notes).
- Make the lemon-garlic sauce. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil with lemon juice, minced garlic, rosemary, and nutmeg. Pour evenly over the chicken and potatoes.
- Arrange lemon slices on top. Pour chicken broth into the pan from one side (do not pour broth over the chicken).
- Bake in heated oven uncovered for 45 to 1 hour or until chicken and potatoes are tender. NOTE: If the potatoes are not fully done at this point, you can raise the oven temperature to 425°F and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes (make sure to remove the chicken breast pieces that are fully cooked so they don’t get dry). To get more color on the chicken, place the pan under the broiler briefly to allow the chicken skins to gain more color (watch carefully).
- Remove from heat and add kalamata olives, if you like. Garnish with a little bit of fresh parsley.
- Serve with Greek salad Taztaziki sauce and a side of pita bread, if you like. Enjoy!
Notes
- Optional Step: If you’d like to get even more crisp and color on the chicken pieces, sear the chicken pieces in a bit of extra virgin olive oil before adding them to the potato pan (do this step before step #4). To do this, simply heat about 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat. Add chicken skin-side down to brown (about 5 t0 7 minutes,) then flip over and sear briefly, another 3 minutes or so. Transfer from skillet to the prepared pan with the potatoes. This step is not necessary if you plan to broil the chicken briefly at the end.
- To marinate the chicken in advance: if you have the time and want to use the lemon-garlic sauce as a marinade for the Greek chicken, you can. Simply add the lemon-garlic sauce it to the chicken a couple hours in advance, cover and refrigerate. When you’re ready to bake, add the marinated chicken to the potatoes and onions and follow the recipe from there.
- Visit Our Online Shop to browse quality Mediterranean ingredients including olive oils and spices used in this recipe.
- Prep Time: 20 mins
- Cook Time: 45 mins
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: Greek
This post originally appeared on The Mediterranean Dish in 2017 and has been recently updated with new information and media for readers benefit. Enjoy!
This was DELISH!
My dad is on a salt restriction, so I adjusted that part. I froze in batches so they had easy meals I could pull out of the freezer.
Making batch number three for them this Easter weekend.
Thanks for the great recipe!
Thanks so much, Cindy!
I really wanted to love this because it sounded great and it was easy-but I did not. I had to cook it way longer than the recommended time and the potatoes still weren’t really cooked. It was late so we just ate it as it was, while the chicken was juicy-the skin didn’t crisp up and there was almost no flavor. I followed the recipe exactly and sadly it didn’t taste like much to me.
Love the idea of this but my potatoes weren’t cooked by any means
Made this with chicken thighs – delicious but the potatoes weren’t cooked, would defo recommend partially pre-cooking them before
I followed the directions exactly, but did not do the optional steps. I used chicken thighs, and they were bland. The skin was soggy, and the chicken meat had little flavor. I think they would have benefitted from marinating and being seared/broiled. The pictures made this recipe look great, but my attempt was not successful.
Im making this chicken, but I only had skinless chicken breasts & my son like thighs, so thats what I’m using. Ill let you know how it comes out. Since Im on oxygen Im not always able to go to store to purchase the needed ingredients & use what I have.
Delicious! I made this without marinating, just cooked it all in the marinade. It was also really easy. I have 3 meat eaters and one vegetarian. I made a second small dish of skipping the chicken and swapping vegetable broth, after potatoes were soft I added large slices of feta to the pan to roast in the sauce. everyone raved.
I made this recipe and our family loves it so it’s become a keeper. I don’t use olives, but I do slice up two lemons instead of one. I add an extra half to a full tablespoon of Rosemary. Plus I throw in one to two teaspoons of spicy oregano. It’s so easy and absolutely delicious.
The last time I made it I had some leftover potatoes and a leftover chicken breast. So I scraped up all the rest of the pan drippings along with the leftovers and put them in the fridge. Then I thought maybe this would make a great soup. I pulled away the skin and bones and shredded the chicken. I made sure to scrape all the seasonings and drippings into a saucepan, added my shredded chicken, and then I added all my potatoes cut up a little bit smaller. I also added more chicken stock. As it warmed I scooped all the fat/Olive oil off the top. In a separate pan I warmed tablespoon of the fat and then whisked in a tablespoon of flour. Once I had my roux started, I added cream until I got a creamy consistency but not liquidy. And then mix that into the soup and ended up with A really lovely creamy lemon chicken soup. Instead of soup crackers I used alessi’s garlic breadsticks. It all came out delicious. So basically this recipe turned into two recipes both of which I love immensely.
Wow, that was such a great idea to make broth with the left over chicken and scraps!! Thanks for sharing. Homemade broth/soup is the BEST!!
I have thrown out an entire dinner only once in my life. That was 20 years ago. Tonight was the second time. I could not salvage any part of the dinner…even the chicken for our dog because the garlic was so overwhelming. There are so many garlic lemon chicken dishes that are Mediterranean. This was horrendous. Too much garlic and too much rosemary. I even used less rosemary and added oregano to try to tone it down. The chicken wasn’t cooked and the garlic and rosemary were burned on top. The potatoes never cooked. I have a Wolf oven FWIW.
Not great. I had to cook the chicken and potatoes for almost twice an as long. The chicken was moist but with all the broth, natural juices from the chicken and the lemon garlic sauce…. The potatoes were swimming in liquid. Very soupy. I found everything to be very bland. I won’t make this again.
I love this dish, quick and easy to prepare and tastes delicious.
Absolutely perfect. I haven’t had a Greek chicken dish this good in a long time even from a restaurant. 1 tbsp of rosemary and 1/2 tbsp of oregano leaves. 3 pcs. 1/4 leg chicken and 3 thighs, bone in skin on. I woke up thinking about leftovers lol. Can’t wait to explore the rest of your recipes!
Hope you find many more you love!
Has anyone made this recipe as whole chicken? If so – what temp and how long ?
Hi, Sherri. We have not here at The Mediterranean Dish… but I think it should work! Maybe you can use our Roast Spatchcock Chicken Recipe as a guide and give it a try! I you do, we’d love to hear how it turned out!
Can I use fresh rosemary instead of dried?
You sure can! You’ll need about 5 to 5.5 Tablespoons of fresh rosemary to replace the dried here.
This was absolutely amazing! I did 40 mins at 375, then kind of stirred the potatoes and onions, then made sure to submerge the chicken into the bubbling broth to maintain its moisture, and another 35 min- still at 375. The meat fell right off the bone! The potatoes were fantastic.
Great flavours in this one! Recipe worked for me. Chicken just cooked (as it should be) and potatoes cooked while having a little bit of a bite to them. I added a sprinkling of Feta for the last 10 minutes in the oven because I like cheese and then some fresh oregano at the end. Very tasty.
The recipe offers a vegetarian or vegan option that doesn’t compromise on flavor or satisfaction, making it a delicious choice for plant-based eaters and omnivores alike.