This easy Greek chicken and potatoes recipe is a family favorite! The secret is in the lemon-garlic marinade.
Why This is My Go-To Greek Chicken Recipe
- It’s easy to make, and you can’t go wrong with chicken and potatoes.
- The lemon garlic marinade can be used right away or, if you have the time let the chicken bask in the flavors for a few hours or overnight.
- The leftovers are even better the next day.
Greek chicken makes an appearance on my dinner table pretty frequently. In many forms. From tender Souvlaki skewers to chicken gyros 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 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)!
Key Ingredients
- Chicken: For the best flavor, use bone-in, skin-on chicken pieces. You can also break down a whole small chicken into pieces to use in this recipe.
- Potatoes: I prefer to use Yukon Gold for color and their tender, creamy texture. Make sure you cut them into thin wedges so they cook with the chicken.
- Onion: I prefer yellow onion, but white will work as well.
- Lemon-garlic marinade: 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, rosemary or oregano, and a pinch of nutmeg.
- Chicken broth: You can use homemade chicken stock or store-bought. If you use store-bought, opt for a low-sodium variety.
- Lemon slices: You can’t have enough lemons in a Greek chicken recipe! Lemon slices act as a pretty garnish, but as they bake over the chicken, they also impart great flavor.
- Fresh parsley: A little green and something bright to finish a dish is always a good idea. Afterall, we eat with our eyes first.
- Kalamata olives: I use pitted olives. They are an optional ingredient, but I love the briny flavor they add to this recipe.
How to Make Greek Chicken
- Get Ready: Arrange a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375°F.
- Season the chicken: Season 3 pounds of chicken pieces with kosher salt on all sides and underneath the skin.
- Prepare the potatoes: Slice 4 large Yukon Gold potatoes and 1 yellow onion into thin wedges and arrange in a 9×13 baking dish. Season with kosher salt and black pepper.
- Make the marinade: In a bowl or measuring cup, add 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, 1/4 cup lemon juice, 8-12 minced garlic cloves, 1 1/2 tablespoons dried rosemary, and 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg. You can use dried oregano instead of rosemary if that’s what you have on hand.
- Put everything together: Arrange the chicken pieces in the baking dish. Pour the chicken broth into the dish, then pour the marinade evenly over the chicken and potatoes. Arrange lemon slices on top.
- Bake: Place the uncovered baking dish in the oven for 45 to 60 minutes, until the potatoes are tender and the chicken is cooked through; it should read 165°F on an instant-read thermometer. Depending upon the size of your chicken pieces and potato wedges, you may need an extra 20 minutes. To get more color on the chicken, place the pan under the broiler briefly to allow the chicken skin to gain additional color. Watch carefully so it doesn’t burn. When finished, remove from the oven, add Kalamata olives and fresh parsley.
Make it a Greek Feast!
In my house, Greek chicken is served with a traditional Greek salad for something fresh. It’s one of the easiest salads to make, which is a win in my book, and everyone loves it. A side of Tzatziki sauce for something creamy and fresh baked pita bread is a must.
You can make it from scratch, but I won’t tell anyone if you pick it up from the store. No judgement here! If you’re gluten-free, and bread is off the table, then serve it with Spankorizo, my Greek spinach rice.
This easy Greek chicken recipe is a family favorite. The secret is in the lemon-garlic 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 pounds chicken pieces, bone in and skin on (I used 2 smaller breasts and 3 legs)
- kosher salt
- 4 gold potatoes, about 2 lb, scrubbed clean, cut into thin wedges
- 1 medium yellow onion, halved then sliced
- 1 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 lemon, sliced
- 1 cup chicken broth
- 6 to 12 pitted kalamata olives, optional
- fresh parsley, to garnish
For the Lemon-Garlic Marinade
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil I used Private Reserve Greek extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 8-12 fresh garlic cloves, minced
- 1 1/2 tablespoon dried rosemary or dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Sides (optional)
Instructions
- Get ready: Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Season chicken: Pat chicken dry and season generously, including under the skin, with salt.
- Prepare the potatoes: Arrange the potato wedges and onions in the bottom of a 9×13 baking dish. Season with salt and 1 tsp black pepper.
- Assemble the dish: Add the chicken pieces to the pan with the potatoes, tuck the lemon slices around the chicken pieces, and pour the chicken broth over the chicken.
- Make the marinade: In a small mixing bowl, whisk together extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, rosemary, and nutmeg. Pour evenly over the chicken and potatoes.
- Bake: Place the uncovered dish in the heated oven and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, until the chicken reaches 165° and the potatoes are tender. Depending upon the size of your potato wedges and chicken pieces, you may need a little more time. If the potatoes are not fully cooked through, raise the oven temperature to 425°F and cook for another 15 to 20 minutes. To get more color on the chicken, place the pan under the broiler briefly, allowing the chicken skins to gain additional color. Watch carefully so it doesn't burn.
- Garnish and serve: Remove from heat and add kalamata olives, if you like. Garnish with a little bit of fresh parsley.
Video
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.
Nutrition
Calories: 194.4kcalCarbohydrates: 26gProtein: 3.4gFat: 9.5gSaturated Fat: 1.4gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1.1gMonounsaturated Fat: 6.6gCholesterol: 1.2mgSodium: 154.9mgPotassium: 573.1mgFiber: 3.8gSugar: 2.6gVitamin A: 26.7IUVitamin C: 38.7mgCalcium: 40.2mgIron: 1.4mg
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This sounds great, will try it soon, and pre-cook the potatoes.
I have to ask though – what are Cornish Hens?!
Thanks
Cornish hens are simply small, young chickens, weighing in at about 1-2 pounds.
Despite that, the little hens are so delicious when roasted. One is usually good for one adult.
I made this for Easter lunch and served with your Crispy Roasted Broccoli. So, so very good! I will definitely be making again! Thank you!
Thanks, Dawn!
Do you think instead of potatoes that you could make something similar to tahdig on the bottom of the pan with the chicken on top? I might play with this, but would like your input, please! It’s yummy with the potatoes, but I do love rice! 😋
Hi, Dawn. I’m not sure that would work well here, but we do have a few great chicken and rice recipes you should look into: Easy Chicken & Rice and One Pan Spanish Chicken & Rice.
Would this recipe work with Cornish hens? I’m trying to make this for a larger group (8 people) along with another meat based dish and sides. . So I was thinking to do four Cornish hens with each split in half.
Hi, Ranya. I think this would totally work with cornish hens. Of course, you may just have to adjust the cooking time a bit. Here is my regular Cornish Hen recipe you can use as a guide.
Hi Suzy
Thankyou so much for all your wonderful recipes you put up on your website for us to try, it is soooo much appreciated!
I have made quite a few of your recipes now and they have been super flavourful and delicious.
I am from New Zealand so I baked this in fan forced oven, 180 degrees C for 60 minutes, came out cooked to 👌, delisimo! so zingy with garlic and lemon.
Thankyou again, my family and I have been enjoying the taste of the Mediterranean even though we are so far away.
Warmest regards, Kirstin
My pleasure, Kirstin! Thank you for taking the time to leave a review!
With so many people stating that their Potatoes weren’t done after an hour, I decided to boil them for 15 minutes by themselves. I then added them with the chicken 30 minutes into the cooking time. After an hour I noticed the chicken wasn’t done, so I ended up putting the chicken in for 10 minutes at a time to check to see if done or not after doing this three time, a total of 30 additional minutes, the chicken was perfect as was everything else. The lemon definitely gave the chicken great flavor.
Potatoes definitely needed longer than 45-60 minutes. We put it in in total around 90 minutes for it to be better. Chicken looked not very appetizing without broiling or roasting beforehand.
I also think the amount of broth was excessive and the flavors weren’t great. Unfortunate.
I also found that the potatoes didn’t cook (despite cooking it for 75 minutes) and the amount of broth was maybe too much – it was very watery in the end. My husband enjoyed the flavour of the chicken and found it to be moist. It looks like you have paprika in your bowl with the rosemary (but not listed in your ingredients) so I added some the last 15 minutes and it made it a more appealing colour without broiling it. I ended up pan frying the potatoes in some EVOO and they weren’t bad. I would make it again but with modifications.
I made this tonight with a few tweaks to fit what items I had on hand. Everyone loved it-even my most picky eater. I always keep slabs of lamb fat in the freezer and roast our potatoes in a combo of lamb fat and butter in the overn so that was one tweak. I only had boneless skinless chicken thighs so that was another deviation. I also cooked the chicken stovetop so there was of liquid as I cooked it. I just cooked the juice down and the bottom of the thighs browned pretty well. The nutmeg was such a nice touch. Super recipe-It got the thumb’s up so I will make it again. I LOVED the marinade-it was wonderful.
Thanks you so much, Linda!
I don’t know what went wrong, but it didn’t turn out this time (my first try). Potatoes were not done. Chicken was okay. I wish I had read the comments and I would have tried 425. The taste wasn’t appealing and I love Greek food. Really? Twelve cloves of garlic? I used less and I still got complaints about the smell while it was cooking. I wonder if there is a typo and you really mean 1 to 2 cloves. Please confirm. I will try it again, I think.
Thank you for the feedback, Kevin. The amount of garlic listed in the recipe is correct, but feel free to adjust to whatever suits your taste here.
Do you think this could be used on boneless skinless chicken breasts and then grilled?
Hi, Rick! Yes! I think that would work for the chicken. I’m not sure about the potatoes, though.
Made this for the first time tonight along with your Crispy Lemon Roasted Broccoli – what a great chicken dish – I put it under the broiler to get a nice crisp in the chicken skin oh so freakin good!!!! A family favorite that will for sure be made again and again lol thanks Suzy!
So glad you enjoyed it!
Should’ve read the comments before making – I cooked at 350 for over 90 mins and the chicken ended up dried out and the potatoes were still raw in the middle. Might try again at the temp others recommended as the flavours were tasty but this was a frustrating recipe to make.
Since a couple people mentioned the potatoes not cooking fully, I thought I would comment. It isn’t specific to this recipe, they just take forever to cook! In general, I pre cook potatoes in the microwave (5-10 min. depending on the cut size and amount, a little water helps), before browning them on the stove, etc.. You will end up a lot less frustrated.
Thanks for the tip, Susan!
Do you pre cook potatoes , then bake them with chicken the full amount of time called for in recipe?
Hi, Linda. With my oven, I don’t find that necessary. However, some other readers have found par-boiling or precooking the potatoes a bit helpful.
This did not turn out well for me at all and I followed the recipe exactly. Very disappointed.
I just made it and it was a hit. I followed the cooking instructions from the comment, 425 for 45 minutes and it came out with the browning on top! I marinated for 4 hours and it came out flavourful! Thank you.
Wonderful! Thanks, Patricia!
Soooooo delicious!! I used 5 chicken legs instead and the meat just falls right off the bone. My whole family loved it. I had no leftovers it was that good. I did it on 425 for 1.5 hours as I also added more potatoes. Will for sure be making again and again.
Thank you for sharing, Melissa!
The recommended baking temperature of 350°F is definitely too low. Baking the dish at 450°F works perfectly. It’s done in 45 minutes. I marinated the chicken about 3 hours beforehand. Asparagus is a great side dish, too. And drizzle some of the lemon sauce over it as well.
Thank you for sharing, Rachel!
This recipe is dead wrong on the temperature and timing. I should have read the comments before making it. I’m an hour in and I’ve increased the temp to 425 and drained a portion of the excess broth in hopes of getting it done. It does smell wonderful. I guess I’ll keep trying to find the right combo for Greek chicken.
Thanks for the feedback. We’ll take another look.