Mediterranean Baked Chicken Dinner – this is a midweek chicken dinner idea that’s one of those “throw it all in a pan” recipes with high returns for minimal effort. With chicken, potatoes, onion and cherry tomatoes, you’ll love how everything sucks up the tasty lemon garlic sauce in this sheet pan dinner!
Mediterranean Baked Chicken Dinner
This is a chicken sheet pan dinner that ticks a lot of boxes for midweek cooking:
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complete meal – no need to bother with side salads
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low effort prep – no finely chopping anything, no fiddly assemble, just throw it all in a pan
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no need to watch over it – pop it in the oven, set the timer and walk away;
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no gourmet or hard to find ingredients – plus plenty of substitutions
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IT’S TOTALLY DELICIOUS!!! The tasty Mediterranean sauce is not only very, very tasty in its own right, it also keeps everything nice and moist while it’s in the oven (you will love how juicy the chicken is).
I especially love how the potatoes suck up the sauce as they bake. It reminds me of Greek Lemon Potatoes (but a lot less effort!).
What you need for this Chicken Dinner
Here’s what you need for this one pan Mediterranean Baked Chicken Dinner:
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Chicken – thighs and drumsticks (bone in, skin on = juicy flesh and golden skin!)
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Lemons, lots of garlic, paprika and oregano – to make the tasty Mediterranean sauce;
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Honey and mustard – to thicken/sweeten/flavour the sauce;
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Potatoes, onion and cherry tomatoes
Customise it!
I’ve used onions, potatoes and cherry tomatoes here but you could really use whatever vegetables you have.
Zucchini, pumpkin, sweet potato, corn cobs spring to mind as ideal substitutions. Rummage around in your fridge and see what you’ve got!
Also, in there spirit of Mediterranean food, I’ve used oregano and garlic here. Try it with rosemary or thyme instead, or give it a Middle Eastern spin by adding a touch of cumin and coriander!
How to make this One Pan Chicken Dinner
Obscenely simple: mix Sauce, toss in chicken, optional marinade, toss it all in a pan and bake.
OK, I skipped one step here. 😇 I add cherry tomatoes partway through the bake time so they don’t turn into unidentifiable mush. But if you’re ok with extremely squishy tomatoes, just add them right in at the beginning!
And here’s what you end up with in this one pan Mediterranean Chicken Dinner:
1. Very, very juicy chicken infused with Mediterranean flavours -the chicken isn’t submerged in sauce because we want the skin to go nice and golden. But the underside is partially in the sauce / steamed which keeps it ultra juicy.
2. Juicy pops of cherry tomatoes and potatoes that suck up the lemon garlic sauce:
Another nice thing about this chicken dinner is that marinating is optional. It definitely adds flavour if you can marinate overnight because then the chicken is flavoured all the way through.
However, there is plenty of sauce in this recipe – enough to mop and dunk and douse every bite you take. So it’s fine to make even without marinating! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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Mediterranean Chicken Dinner
Ingredients
Marinade / Sauce
- 1kg / 2lb bone in, skin on chicken thighs and drumsticks (Note 1)
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) lemon juice
- 6 cloves garlic , minced
- 2 tsp Dijon mustard (Optional - Note 2)
- 2 tbsp honey or 1 tbsp sugar (or maple or other sweetener)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1.5 tsp paprika
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp EACH salt and pepper
Bake
- 5 smallish potatoes (7.5cm/3" wide) , quartered (Note 3)
- 2 red onions , quartered
- 1 cup (250ml) chicken broth/stock , low sodium
- 250g/8oz cherry tomatoes (whole)
- 1/2 tsp EACH salt and pepper
- 1 tbsp Olive oil (or oil spray)
- Fresh oregano , for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- Mix Marinade ingredients in a bowl, then add chicken and toss to coat. If time permits, marinate for 24 hours, otherwise proceed to next step.
- Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
- Place potatoes and onion in baking pan, top with chicken. Pour over the chicken stock then marinade from the bowl.
- Bake for 20 minutes, then remove from oven.
- Scatter over cherry tomatoes, drizzle everything with 1 tbsp olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Bake for a further 30 - 35 minutes until chicken is golden and potatoes are cooked.
- Remove from oven, garnish with fresh oregano if using and serve!
Recipe Notes:
- Marinating - benefits from marinating but not critical. Sauce has so much flavour (and there's lots of it) it compensates;
- Pan size - ingredients should fit snugly. If they are too spaced out, too much of the liquid will evaporate while baking and you won't end up with much sauce.
Nutrition Information:
Originally published November 2015, updated March 2020 with new photos, new video and most importantly, Life of Dozer section added!
More Dinner in One Pot!
Life of Dozer
This is a 3 seater lounge – or one Dozer. 🙄
this was really tasty Nagi! thank you!
Tasty but not for me. Potatoes didn’t cook enough and far too much liquid and onion. Maybe just not for me.
I have spare lemons, left over from making your Lemon Cake with Lemon Glaze for the umpteenth time. It’s such a winner!
I have bone-in chicken thighs defrosting and all the other ingredients, so I’ll give this a whirl! From the comments, I will steam the potatoes first in my microwave rice steamer, before adding to the dish. My family dislike chicken thighs, so I’m hoping to convert them with this recipe!
Thank you, Nagi x
This went down well. I did tweak it to suit my taste. I added mushrooms, yellow capsicum and black olives. I cooked all the vege in the stock for 20 mins in a foil covered tray. Marinade had only half the lemon juice (I’m not a strong lemon fan). Chicken was boneless thighs (halved), no skin. Added chicken and marinade after 20 mins, cooked for another 30mins with no foil on. I then topped chicken with seasoned breadcrumb and added spinach leaves. Cooked for another 5 mins. Thank you for the inspiration.
So delicious! I’ve made this twice now the first time following the full recipe and the second time I didn’t add the chicken stock (by accident) and only had one lemon and cooked it with drumsticks.
I think I’d go the second option from now on! So much flavour and there was still so much sauce to mop up with bread at the end!
I cooked this for my wife and mother in law. We thought it was great . I added one zucchini.
Made this last night for 8 people. Added sweet potato, zucchini & capsicum and served steamed greens on the side. Everyone enjoyed. Was easy to do for a crowd.
100% delish. The smell in the kitchen as this was cooking was divine. Will most definitely make again.
So delicious. I used skin-on boneless thighs that I added 30 mins after I put the potatoes and onions in the oven. It all cooked perfectly.
Will definitely be making this again and trying with different veg
Fantastic meal Nagi!
Marinated for about 6-7 hours and the flavours were delicious. I’ll add a sweet potato too next time.
Can this be made without skin? Any adjustments to cooking time if it’s bone in but skinless chicken?
Easy to make for guests and so very delicious. The chicken bouillon makes it all sk tasty and not dry. Crispy chicken skin.
Wow! This came out amazing my boys, 3 and 7 loved it. Thank you!!!
Excellent! Everyone loved it! Super easy and the overnight marinade was so worth it.
I added fennel to the mix. Divine.
I’ve made this quite a few times exactly as the recipe says. Though I started just eyeballing some of the marinade ingredients. Have to be careful with the honey. I think 2 whole tbsp would make it way too sweet for me.
Last night I added more veggies and that made it even better. Sliced capsicum, parsnip and zucchini. I had marinated the chicken thighs and put them on top of the veggies in the baking tin. Overcooked a bit because the kitchen timer wasn’t on but really lovely.
So yummy!
Soooo good. Easy for a family of 6. Cooked the root veg for 40 minutes before adding chicken. We added dollops of goats cheese before serving. Thanks Nagi your recipes never seem to fail!
This was delicious!!! The only thing I would change is I would cook the potatoes and onions at 425 for the first 20 minutes just to make sure they get cooked all the way. (mine were underdone)
Oh my goodness! This is packed with flavor, super easy to prepare, and best of all, the whole family loved it. This will be a regular in our house. Thanks so much for another brilliant recipe.