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:
complete meal – no need to bother with side salads
low effort prep – no finely chopping anything, no fiddly assemble, just throw it all in a pan
no need to watch over it – pop it in the oven, set the timer and walk away;
no gourmet or hard to find ingredients – plus plenty of substitutions
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:
Chicken – thighs and drumsticks (bone in, skin on = juicy flesh and golden skin!)
Lemons, lots of garlic, paprika and oregano – to make the tasty Mediterranean sauce;
Honey and mustard – to thicken/sweeten/flavour the sauce;
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. 🙄
I have made so many of your recipes over the years and loved them all. This one is my all time favourite, the blend of flavours are amazing, so subtle, so delicate. Yummo! I do have to say the potatoes did take longer, so next time I will pre cook them. Thank you
I’ve fallen in love with your blog — I’m a very finicky eater, but I’ve found so many recipes I plan to make !!!
I’ve found a few (like this one) that use skin-on chicken. I really really don’t like chicken skin.
In a recipe like this one, would it work to use boneless skinless chicken breasts, or would it lack too much flavor?
I’m so glad you’re loving the blog Robin!!! I talk about this cut of chicken in the recipe notes too. N x
Another 5 star recipe Nagi. Those flavours are incredible! I think I did not cut the potato quite small enough as I had to cook about another 20 minutes. I added corn cobs as well. Think this will be on rotation as the family all loved it too.
My 13yo son has taken an interest in cooking and he cooks 2-3 times a week and always comes to your site for recipes as he likes to watch the video first.
We are having this recipe tonight and I look forward to not having to cook!
Hi Nagi,
I made this again tonight. It is always a hit and seems to get better every time I make it. I paired it with Ottolenghiish bean salad and they were excellent companions. Thank you for gracing my table with your terrific recipes.
YUM!!! N x
Just finished this meal, a perfect weeknight one pot dish. Cooked for exactly recommended time but finished off under the grill to help the skin crisp up. Veggies all perfectly cooked. Loved it!
Hi Nagi, is this recipe suitable to freeze?
Great flavors, but it definitely needs longer cook time at that temperature for both the chicken and the potatoes; alternatively, pre-boil the potatoes until just before they’re cooked. I did an extra 25 minutes, including at higher temps and the potatoes still weren’t cooked. Not a great practice either because that starts to dry out the chicken.
Made this today. My “honey” alternative was lemon marmalade. Easy delicious recipe. Thanks Nagi
Delicious flavors. Chicken was superb. Tasted great even with regular onion and tomatoes sliced up. Potatoes weren’t quite cooked though
Made this last night. Delicious! And that sauce, ooof! Thank you for yet another amazing recipe x
This was so incredible! It’s getting added to my meal rotation on a regular basis.
I’ve never liked chicken skin (which I know makes me weird) but I scoffed this down.
Thank you so much!
Made it for dinner tonight Nagi. Absolutely delicious, so quick to prepare and was able to use potatoes, onions, garlic, and tomatoes from my garden..does not get better than that. Thank you!
This was absolutely delicious and so easy. I’ll try it with your suggested other flavourings too. Thank you once again, Nagi.
Wow. This was delicious, reminded us of an old patatas bravas dish from our favourite Spanish restaurant from years ago. Made this using breast fillets as i didn’t have the other cuts, so added them later as suggested, still turned out fine.
next time will serve with crusty bread too!
I followed the recipe to the dot (as I always do for all your recipes) but for some reason, I ended up with more sauce than yours. Nonetheless, I served it, and wow, it was so good. Hub originally thought his portion was too large (he’s trying to lose weight), but he ended up finishing everything on his plate. He loved it and I do too!
Just wondering – does this use regular paprika or smoked?
I made this tonight using turnips instead of potatoes. It turned out very tasty. I had expected complaints about turnips (first time I fed them to the family) but no one complained. (and “why turnips?” — the share box from the farmer’s market included turnips and I needed to use them in something)
Hi Nagi, the last time I made this I felt everything was good BUT the chicken became a little dried out. I got some nice new dutch ovens for Christmas I think will help with that problem vs cooking as suggested in a baking pan, but do you have any tips how how to alter the cooking time? Thanks in advance! Big follower of your blog, first time commenting.
Made this for holidays. Absolutely delicious. I marinated for a day and used boneless skinless thighs. I used cut up red potatoes. The dish took much longer to cook than expected. I think if I made this again I would precook potatoes much longer or boil them a bit first to soften them up.