The Best Easy Baked Garlic Lemon Chicken Breasts Recipe
Jun 11, 2021, Updated Sep 22, 2024
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The Best Easy Baked Garlic Lemon Chicken Breasts Recipe – tender, juicy chicken baked to perfection and bursting with garlic lemon flavor!
I’ve been making this simple Greek Baked chicken inspired recipe for years – it is the perfect baked chicken breast for salads, sandwiches, and wraps for meal prep – and great with a side of fries for dinner.
If you love lemon and garlic, this easy keto recipe is for you – it is packed with flavor and simple enough for any level home cook to make.
This super simple baked chicken is delicious, tender and juicy – loaded with garlic and lemon flavor right out of the pan.
You can add this chicken to wraps, tacos, salads, sandwiches, burritos, and more – or serve with roasted garlic potatoes, cauliflower rice, rice pilaf, cacio e pepe, or in a chicken and fruit salad!
We hope you love this recipe as much as we do.
Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.
At Sweet C’s, I add lots of tips in all of my recipes – because I am a home cook without any formal training, and I find I am more confident making dishes when I understand why it works, and what each ingredient means to the flavor of a recipe – my goal is for even the most beginner home cook to feel empowered in the kitchen.
I want each reader to walk away with a solid knowledge of each recipe, with all of the tips I’ve gathered from extensive testing of each recipe. I also answer questions my friends and family have asked about my recipes, to help everyone better understand the processes we use – and why!
Table of contents
How To Bake Garlic Lemon Chicken Breasts
To make this recipe, we will need the following ingredients:
- 4 chicken breasts, rib meat and extra fat removed: The main protein, offering a lean and healthy base for the dish. Removing the rib meat and extra fat helps create a cleaner flavor and leaner texture.
- ¼ cup olive oil: Adds moisture and richness to the chicken, preventing it from drying out during baking. It also helps distribute the garlic, lemon, and herbs evenly across the chicken.
- 6-8 cloves garlic, with or without peel: Brings a robust, aromatic flavor to the dish. Roasting the garlic with the chicken enhances its sweetness and depth, while infusing the chicken with a savory taste.
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder: Enhances the garlic flavor, giving a concentrated and even distribution of garlicky taste throughout the dish.
- 1 lemon, sliced into rounds: Adds a fresh, citrusy aroma and bright flavor to the chicken. The lemon rounds infuse the chicken while baking, giving a subtle tang and visual appeal.
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice: Provides a strong, zesty acidity that helps tenderize the chicken and balances the richness of the olive oil and garlic.
- 1 tablespoon Italian herbs: A blend of dried herbs like oregano, basil, thyme, and rosemary, which adds an aromatic, earthy flavor that complements the lemon and garlic, giving the dish a Mediterranean twist.
- 1 teaspoon Celtic sea salt: Enhances the overall flavor of the dish. The Celtic sea salt provides a mineral-rich seasoning that brings out the natural flavors of the chicken and other ingredients.
- 1 teaspoon pepper: Adds a mild heat and depth, balancing the tangy lemon and savory garlic. It gives the dish a subtle kick without overpowering the other flavors.
Once you’ve gathered your ingredients, we will use the following method:
- Marinate. Add ingredients to a bowl or plastic bag, covering chicken in marinade. Let sit at least 30 minutes, up to overnight (skip marinating if using frozen chicken breasts.)
- Prep. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. (Also can bake at 350, for 5-8 minutes longer) Add chicken and part of marinade to baking dish that has been lightly greased with a nonstick cooking spray, or lined with foil.
- Bake. Bake, flipping occasionally, until chicken reaches 160 degrees at the thickest part when using a digital meat thermometer.
- Rest. Remove chicken from oven and lest rest 10 minutes before cutting. Discard marinade/cooking liquid.
- Serve and enjoy!
How To Bake Chicken From Frozen
Baking lemon garlic chicken breasts is incredibly easy – just marinate, season, and bake – but there are a couple tips and tricks we use to make sure our baked chicken breasts turn out tender and juicy every time.
Nobody wants dry, tough chicken breasts – so consider some of our following tips:
- Marinate for at least 30 minutes before cooking
- Lightly pound chicken breasts to keep them roughly the same thickness so they can cook evenly
- Use a digital thermometer to gauge chicken doneness instead of going by time to prevent overcooking
We recommend baking fully thawed chicken breasts for the best texture – but we’re adding the method to bake chicken breasts from frozen if you’re in a pinch and need dinner on the table.
This method is safe to use for chicken right from the freezer, with a few basic tips:
- Plan on double the cook time if cooking from frozen.
- Space single chicken breasts out across the pan – do not try to bake a clump of chicken breasts frozen together.
- Use a digital thermometer and make sure the middle of the thickest part of the chicken breast cooks to at least 165 degrees.
- Cover in olive oil – you won’t marinate chicken if it is frozen – but still bake it in our marinade recipe below to help keep chicken juicy and from drying out.
- Flip chicken as it cooks to ensure it is cooking evenly.
How To Bake Garlic Lemon Chicken Without Drying It Out
The two most important tips to baking perfect chicken are pretty simple – marinate first, and monitor cook time with a digital thermometer.
Marinating chicken helps to lock in juices, tenderize meat, and give a great flavor – we’re not only marinating, but baking our chicken in the marinade, for even more flavor!
Using a digital meat thermometer is essential for baked chicken to ensure you’ve reached a safe temperature, and to make sure you don’t overcook your chicken breasts.
Chicken is cooked at 165 degrees – which means removing from the oven at 160 degrees.
Chicken will carryover cook to 165 if you remove from the oven at 160.
Always let chicken rest for at least 10 minutes before cutting to help the juices recirculate and lock in.
How Long To Cook Garlic Lemon Chicken Breasts
Chicken breasts will take about 25 minutes to cook at 350 degrees – 50 if baking from-frozen.
One tip to get extra juicy chicken is to cook it for less time at a higher temperature – around 22 minutes at 400 degrees.
- 25-30 minutes at 350 degrees
- 22-25 minutes at 400 degrees
As always, please go by your thermometer temperature, not your clock, to gauge when chicken is done cooking.
When is Chicken Breast Done Cooking
No matter how much time has elapsed, chicken is considered fully cooked and safe to eat at 165 degrees.
While our cook times are good for a guide to plan getting dinner on the table, please always go by temperature – not by time – when judging your chicken’s doneness.
What To Serve With Chicken Breasts
Lemony garlic chicken breasts go with just about everything – but these easy keto chicken breasts are great with air fried asaparagus, broccolini, farro salad, whole roasted cauliflower, and more!
Recipe FAQs
Chicken breasts are fully cooked and safe to eat at 165 degrees.
Baked chicken takes 20-30 minutes to bake.
Chicken breasts can bake directly from freezer – double the cook time, make sure to still use marinade to bake in (though you’ll skip actually marinating), and spread out on a pan to help cook chicken evenly.
Chicken can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to four days.
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The Best Easy Baked Garlic Lemon Chicken Breasts Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 chicken breasts, rib meat and extra fat removed
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 6-8 cloves garlic, with or without peel
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 lemon, sliced into rounds
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon Italian Herbs
- 1 teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Instructions
- Add ingredients to a bowl or plastic bag, covering chicken in marinade.
- Let sit at least 30 minutes, up to overnight (skip marinating if using frozen chicken breasts.)
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. (Also can bake at 350, for 5-8 minutes longer)
- Add chicken and part of marinade to baking dish that has been lightly greased with a nonstick cooking spray, or lined with foil.
- Bake, flipping occasionally, until chicken reaches 160 degrees at the thickest part when using a digital meat thermometer.
- Remove chicken from oven and lest rest 10 minutes before cutting.
- Discard marinade/cooking liquid.
- Serve and enjoy!
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
