Easy Baked Lemon Chicken
Baked lemon chicken is a simple recipe with on-hand ingredients, easy to put together and comes out tender, juicy and with a swoon-worthy sauce!
Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, or use canola oil
- 1 ½ lbs. boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 1 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup low sodium chicken broth
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- Zest and juice of 1 lemon
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400.
- Season chicken breasts with Italian seasoning, salt and pepper.
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Add chicken breasts and sear on both sides until golden brown, about 4 minutes per side.
- Remove the chicken breasts and place in a single layer in a casserole dish.
- In the same sauté pan, add the remaining ingredients (chicken broth, butter, lemon zest and juice and garlic). Scrap any browned bits off the bottom of the pan and mix everything together. Pour the mixture over the chicken breasts in the casserole dish.
- Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through (and a thermometer reads 160-165), spooning some sauce over the tops of the chicken about halfway through the cooking time.
- Serve chicken with extra sauce over the top.
Notes
Searing: For this recipe, you’ll sear the chicken in a pan and then bake it in a casserole dish in the oven along with the sauce. Searing the chicken really helps lock in the flavor, so don’t skip this step.
Chicken: You’ll want to make sure your chicken breasts are evenly sized so they cook in the same amount of time.
Servings: If you have large chicken breasts, like I did here, you can easily get away with using just 3. Once you slice them to serve, there’s plenty for 4 people. (And even these thick ones were done after 20 minutes in the oven.)
Lemon: Lemon zest and fresh lemon juice are necessary here; this dish won’t taste the same if you use bottled lemon juice.
Herbs: Feel free to sprinkle some fresh chopped herbs, such as parsley, over the cooked chicken if desired.
I highly recommend using a digital thermometer to check the temperature of your chicken.
Shortcut idea: You could technically bake this chicken in the skillet if yours is oven-proof. Just add the sauce ingredients right to it and get everything mixed. Then pop it in the oven to finish cooking.
Leftovers: Leftovers, once cooled, will store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 4-5 months. Store the chicken with extra sauce too!
Reheating: You can reheat the chicken in a skillet over medium low heat. Slice it first so it warms through more evenly and quickly, without drying out. Be sure to add some leftover sauce as well to help keep the chicken moist. Or you can reheat the chicken quickly in the microwave. This helps prevent it from drying out.
Video
Nutrition
Serving: 1serving | Calories: 395kcal | Carbohydrates: 2g | Protein: 53g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 8g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 9g | Cholesterol: 167mg | Sodium: 529mg
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