With just a few minutes of prep, you can whip up a bright, fresh, and healthy Dump-and-Bake Lemon Chicken for dinner tonight! Garlic, lemon, and herbs come together in a delicious sauce that delivers maximum flavor with minimal effort. It’s a perfect weeknight dinner to welcome Spring!
How to Make Lemon Chicken | 1-Minute Video
No boring chicken breasts here! By roasting the meat in an herb-infused white wine sauce, your healthy chicken breasts turn out tender, juicy, and incredibly flavorful!
The simple dish looks and tastes fancy enough for company, but it’s so darn easy and can be prepared in advance — making it perfect for just about any night of the week. You’re literally just going to dump-and-bake these ingredients…and the oven will do the rest of the work! You know that’s my favorite way to cook…
How to Make Lemon Chicken:
The key to a perfect Lemon Chicken is all in the sauce!
This light and fresh lemon chicken marinade has layers of complex flavors that are created with some of the most basic kitchen ingredients: olive oil, white wine, garlic, lemon, and herbs! Shake it all together in a jar (or whisk it in a bowl) — you can do this step in advance for convenience, if you’d like.
The sauce is dumped into a baking dish, along with the raw chicken, herbs, and lemon slices.
After about 30 minutes in the oven, you have perfectly juicy, flavorful Lemon Chicken in the most decadent pan sauce.
Oh my gosh, my family LOVES this meal!
What to serve with Lemon Chicken:
I recommend serving the chicken with a side of our favorite Oven Roasted Asparagus — the best spring veggie! The asparagus roasts in a 425-degree oven (just like the chicken), for about the same amount of time.
That means that you can get the chicken and the side dish done side-by-side in about 30 minutes…SO easy!
For a more filling meal, we always have a starch paired with the chicken and asparagus.
Here are a few great options to try:
- Make Ahead Garlic Mashed Potatoes
- Aunt Bee’s 3-Ingredient Buttermilk Biscuits
- Rice, noodles or couscous
- Buttered Dilly New Potatoes
Cook’s Tips and Recipe Variations:
- You can prepare this lemon chicken ahead of time. Assemble the chicken and herbs in the dish. Prepare the sauce in advance. When ready to bake, combine the sauce with the chicken and pop it in the oven!
- I use small chicken breasts that weight about 4-6 ounces each. These only require about 28-30 minutes in the oven. If you use larger chicken breasts, you will need to increase the cooking time to at least 45-55 minutes. For a faster-cooking meal, you can slice large chicken breasts in half lengthwise so that they are thinner and smaller cutlets.
- Cooking Just for Two? Cut all of the ingredients in half and bake the chicken in a small dish. The cooking instructions remain the same.
- Don’t love rosemary and thyme? You can substitute with your favorite herbs. Chives, parsley, or oregano would all work well, too!
Other baked chicken recipes that you might enjoy:
- Dump-and-Bake Chicken Stuffing Casserole
- Dump-and-Bake Chicken and Mushroom Casserole
- Dump-and-Bake Chicken Wild Rice Casserole
- Roast Chicken and Vegetables
- “No Work” Baked Chicken
Did you make this recipe?
If you enjoyed this recipe, please leave a comment with a 5-star review at the bottom of the post. Thank you!
Watch How to Make It
Baked Lemon Chicken
Equipment
- 11 x 7-inch baking dish
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil (or sub with melted butter)
- 2 tablespoons dry white wine (or sub with chicken broth)
- 2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic (about 2 cloves)
- 1 ½ teaspoons sugar
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning the chicken
- Dash of ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning the chicken
- Zest and juice from 1 lemon
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary (or ½ teaspoon minced dried rosemary)
- 1 sprig fresh thyme (or ½ teaspoon minced dried thyme)
- 1 ½ lbs. small boneless skinless chicken breasts or chicken breast cutlets (about 4-6 ounces each)
- 1 lemon, sliced into rounds
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425°F. Spray an 11 x 7-inch baking dish (or any similar size) with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
- Place olive oil, wine, garlic, sugar, salt, pepper, lemon zest, and lemon juice in a large jar with a lid.
- Shake until fully combined, then pour into the prepared baking dish.
- Pat the chicken dry, and season with salt and pepper.
- Place the chicken in the dish. Turn each piece to coat all sides in the sauce.
- Tuck the lemon slices and herb sprigs around the chicken. Note: the lemon slices turn bitter as they cook. Use them for flavor and aroma, then discard before serving.
- Bake uncovered for 30 to 40 minutes, basting the chicken with the pan sauce at the halfway mark, until the chicken reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. For a golden finish, place under the broiler for 2 to 3 minutes at the end.
- Rest the chicken in the dish for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with pan juices spooned over the top. Garnish with fresh herbs and lemon wedges if desired.
Notes
- Chicken size matters. Small breasts (4-6 oz) bake in 28-30 minutes. Larger breasts need 45-55 minutes. For a faster meal, slice thick breasts in half lengthwise to create thinner cutlets.
- For more pan sauce, double the sauce ingredients. The extra is delicious over rice or noodles.
- Herb swaps: Not a fan of rosemary and thyme? Try chives, parsley, or oregano instead.
- Wine substitute: Use chicken broth as a 1:1 swap for the white wine.
- Chicken thighs: Boneless skinless thighs work well. Start checking at 25 minutes. Bone-in thighs will take 40-45 minutes.
- Cooking for two: Cut all ingredients in half and bake in a small dish. Cooking time stays the same.
- Storage: Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 3-4 days or freeze for up to 3 months.
- Make-ahead: Assemble the chicken and herbs in the dish and prepare the sauce separately up to 24 hours ahead. Store in the fridge and combine when ready to bake.
Ooh, I’ve just recently found I can eat citrus again so I need to make this! Yum!
Welcome back to the world of citrus! It’s a great place to be. 🙂
Dropping by to say thank you for this wonderful recipe. This dump-and-bake lemon chicken was a life saver. It was easy to prepare and very delicious. The mixture of herbs and spices made it taste like gourmet.
Hi, Sheila! Thanks for letting me know! I’m so glad that it was a hit! 🙂
This was great!!! I love cooking with fresh lemon. The rating isn’t working for me but 5/5.
Thanks, Angela! 🙂
Love this recipe and so many others you have. This has helped me so much as I just started cooking at age 27 LOL
This was great and so easy
Thanks for the recipe.
PS.Do you have any suggestions for making it with scallops or shrimp? ( ie cooking time and degrees?)
Hi, Nancy! I’m glad that you enjoyed it! I haven’t tested it with scallops, so I can’t give you a specific time for those, but I can tell you that the shrimp would cook really quickly at 425. Roasting shrimp at 425 takes 9-12 minutes. Enjoy!
Just had to tell you how much we enjoy your site. We did the lemon chicken and it was delicious. Can’t wait for next week
Thank you, Terri! I’m so glad to know that you enjoy the recipes. 🙂
I made this for Christmas dinner along with roasted potatoes and a huge greek salad. It was a HUGE hit — deemed the best chicken I’ve ever made. All thanks to you, Blair! This may be our favorite recipe of yours!!
The beauty of this chicken is that it bakes in the moisture of the wine/oil sauce/lemon sauce, so there’s not a huge worry of overcooking. It continuously comes out moist and flavorful. It’s also wildly easy… I cut the chicken breasts thin and baked for 30 minutes at 215 C. Brought them out and they continued cooking in the liquid.
Thank you, Blair! You make cooking easy and fun.
I made this for Christmas dinner along with roasted potatoes and a huge greek salad. It was a HUGE hit — deemed the best chicken I’ve ever made. All thanks to you, Blair! This may be our favorite recipe of yours!!
The beauty of this chicken is that it bakes in the moisture of the wine/oil sauce/lemon sauce, so there’s not a huge worry of overcooking. It continuously comes out moist and flavorful. Thank you, Blair! You make cooking easy and fun.
That’s wonderful, Madison! Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a note!