I want to say the star of this dish is the chicken. But that would be lying. Because this, my friends, is all about the RICE! People have said this One Pot Greek Chicken and Lemon Rice is the best chicken and rice recipe they’ve ever had (their words not mine!). I hope you feel the same when you try it!
This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
Chicken and rice – elevated!
What makes this lemon rice so special, you might ask? Well, it’s like cooking the rice in triple strength chicken stock because the chicken is cooked ON TOP of the rice. So it gets the full benefit of all the juices from the chicken seeping into it while it cooks. Add the fresh flavours of lemon and boom! You will knock the socks off anyone you serve this too!
Big promises I know….but I have third party validation of this. Someone who always tells me the truth about my dishes. Especially “inventions” which I often pass on because I know I’ll get truthful feedback. I do love my friends dearly, but honestly, not everything I make them can be “OMG, this is so delicious!!” (Seriously, I love my friends, love them to bits!)
So in this particular case, her family raved about the rice so I’m just passing on that message. 🙂 (PS She was quick to point out that the chicken was lovely too, she just said that the STAR of the dish was the rice! I’m totally cool with that! 🙂 )
This is not an authentic Greek Chicken recipe (as far as I know!) but it is made using classic Greek ingredients. It uses the same technique I use for my One Pot Mexican Chicken and Rice. There’s nothing tricky or ground breaking, it’s just about getting the liquid to rice ratio right. Rice baked in the oven requires a lot more water than when it’s cooked on the stove. And when you plop chicken on top of the rice, it drops liquid so you need to take that into account.
To make this Greek Chicken recipe in one pot (well, pan – why do I keep writing “pot”??!), the chicken is seared in the pan first, then the rice is added, the chicken placed back on top then it’s popped in the oven. The magic happens while it’s baking. As the chicken cooks, all the juices seep into the rice which are soaked up by the rice and add incredible flavour. INCREDIBLE flavour. It honestly is like triple strength chicken stock.
And now, if you’ll excuse me, I can’t hold back any longer. I need some lunch! – Nagi
More dinner in one pot!
Cheeseburger Casserole (Homemade Hamburger Helper)
Asian Beef and Ramen Noodles – made in one skillet in 15 minutes!
Browse all One Pot recipes
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!
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One Pot Greek Chicken and Lemon Rice
Ingredients
Chicken and Marinade
- 5 chicken thighs, skin on, bone in (about 1 kg / 2 lb) (Note 1)
- 1 – 2 lemons, use the zest + 4 tbsp lemon juice (Note 7)
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 4 garlic cloves, minced
- 1/2 tsp salt
Rice
- 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil, separated
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 cup (180g) long grain rice , uncooked (Note 6)
- 1 1/2 cups (375 ml) chicken broth / stock
- 3/4 cup (185 ml) water
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 3/4 tsp salt
- Black pepper
Garnish
- Finely chopped parsley or oregano (optional)
- Fresh lemon zest (highly recommended)
Instructions
- Combine the Chicken and Marinade ingredients in a ziplock bag and set aside for at least 20 minutes but preferably overnight.
To Cook
- Preheat oven to 180°C/350°F.
- Remove chicken from marinade, but reserve the Marinade.
- Heat 1/2 tbsp olive oil in a deep, heavy based skillet (Note 2) over medium high heat.
- Place the chicken in the skillet, skin side down, and cook until golden brown, then turn and cook the other side until golden brown. Remove the chicken and set aside.
- Pour off fat and wipe the pan with a scrunched up ball of paper towel (to remove black bits), then return to the stove.
- Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in the skillet over medium high heat. Add the onion and sauté for a few minutes until translucent. Then add the remaining Rice ingredients and reserved Marinade.
- Let the liquid come to a simmer and let it simmer for 30 seconds. Place the chicken on top then place a lid on the skillet (Note 3). Bake in the oven for 35 minutes. Then remove the lid and bake for a further 10 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender (so 45 minutes in total).
- Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving, garnished with parsley or oregano and fresh lemon zest, if desired.
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
If you like this one pot Greek Chicken recipe, you may also enjoy my ONE POT BAKED GREEK CHICKEN ORZO (RISONI)!
And if you’re after another Greek Chicken recipe (because let’s face it, the Greeks know how to make GOOD CHICKEN!), I think you’ll enjoy my GREEK CHICKEN GYROS.
The yoghurt lemon marinade for this chicken is incredible!
LIFE OF DOZER
His chest hair bursting out of his sweater…. SO CUTE!!!
Turned out great. Used chicken thighs and jasmine rice. Marinated 15 minutes (any longer than 20 minutes, the lemon will start to cook the chicken) and shortened the cook time by 5 minutes.
I’m so glad it turned out for you!
Hi Nagi
Just made the marinade. Can’t wait to see how it turns out tomorrow!! Someone had posted a question about the marinade but it was not answered. I have the same question. Your directions state to pour the reserved marinade into the pan. Will there be a reserved marinade to pour? It was just lemon juice and oregano. There is no oil added to it so I’m not sure what you mean by pour the marinade as I’m not sure there will be any preserved marinade from the chicken. Can you please clarify? Thanks.
No olive oil or any liquid in the marinade other then the lemon juice?
Made this tonight. Really disappointed. The oregano is all we can taste! And the rice doesn’t look anything like the photo. It’s mushy and chicken is dry.
That’s it ☺️
Hi Nagi,
Quick question when adding the rice, is it uncooked or already cooked?
Uncooked! 🙂
Hi Nagi,
Can I use orzo instead of rice in this recipe? Any special instructions?
Thanks.
I haven’t tried with orzo for this one, sorry Cynthia! N x
No problem, Nagi! I made it with the rice (jasmine) and I’m glad I did. It was really tasty and creamy. I cooked the whole recipe over the stove. I used thick chicken breasts, hoping they wouldn’t dry out – and, of course, they did a little (I need a darn meat thermometer!). I can see how your recommended chicken thighs would be much better and juicier. In fact, during the meal, my mother was saying, “this would be really good with chicken thighs.” And I was like, “that’s what Nagi said!”
All that said, I adjusted the serving “slider” to 4 servings but it made some weird measurements (which I couldn’t entirely figure out no matter how much I googled or did math in my head!). So, I used the original 5 serving recipe as a guide and, kind of, winged it. Somehow, someway, it turned out good!
I made this dish tonight and it was DELICIOUS!!! I will definitely serve it often going forward.
Awesome!!! Glad you enjoyed this Janis! N x ❤️
Hi….Can the recipe be multiplied to make a batch for 25 to 30 people?
Sure thing! Click on servings and slide 🙂 N x
I’ve made this recipe 5 times! My family says this is “Restaurant Quality”! We love it! I’ve used thighs, boneless/skinless breasts, and drumsticks! All are great but having the skin on does make a great flavor! Thank you for posting this recipe! It’s become a staple in my house!
Great to hear you and your family enjoyed this Amber! N x
Hi Nagi,
You say this can be made with breast and as it’s what I have in the fridge, that’s what I will do. Shall I follow the same cooking time?
Thanks!
Hi Lexi! Please see the recipe notes for cook directions for breast 🙂 N x
I too want to know about freezing this? expecting a gang on the weekend and want to cook it on Tuesday (today) will it thaw and warm ok or keep cooking?
Hi Kate! It will freeze ok but make sure you use bone in thighs so they reheat juicy! 🙂 N x
Thanks for this amazing recipe!
Hi Nagi!
Sorry if this has been asked, but is 24 hours in the straight lemon marinade ok? Does it make the chicken (thigh, bone in) mushy?
Thank you! 😁
I left mine in the marinade for 2 days, as I didn’t have time to make it as I planned, and it turned out to be phenomenal.
Glad you enjoyed this one Julia!! N x
Question about the Chicken and lemon Rice recipe. The marinade really doesn’t have any liquid so how can you add the reserved marinade near the end?
Hey!
How does the rice not become stodgy using way more liquid than is usual to cook rice?
More water evaporates when baked. 🙂
Hi,
I have made this a couple of times and served it on the same day. I am planning on using this recipe for a freezer meal cooking day with my sister. I saw that you mentioned you have frozen this meal. Did you freeze it uncooked ( everything sauted but with uncooked rice and liquid in pan) or did you complete baking it in the oven before freezing?
Any input would be appreciated. Thank you. Your recipes are wonderful!
Made the One Pot Greek Chicken and Rice tonight and it was delicious! The entire family agrees, this one is a keeper! Loved the slide tool to change the servings! We bumped it up to nine and everything was perfect! Great idea!
Love that you enjoyed this Diana! Thanks for letting me know – N x
Would you answer the ‘freezing it’ question? that’s mine too!
Oh my goodness. I only skimmed the recipe before heading to the comments to see any suggested changes and totally missed the serving slider feature. How COOL! Thank you, Diana Vilardo, for posting about it so I could go back and check it out. It’s a seriously great feature! (I can math recipes well enough, but it’s far from my favorite part of cooking.)
This page was very well put together, Nagi. Thank you. I really appreciate the numbered notes at the bottom of the recipe since I need to use brown rice. I’m looking forward to giving this one a try.
You’re so welcome Jeanette! I do hope you enjoy it! N x
I used boneless, skinless thighs and doubled the rice and it turned out so great and moist! I used a Dutch oven since I didn’t have a heavy based skillet which worked fine (although doesn’t sear quite as well). I paired it with a Greek horiatiki salad and feta, which was such a good compliment to the dish 🙂 .
Love that you enjoyed this Christine! Thanks for letting me know – N x
Hello Nagi,
I saved your One Pot Greek Chicken Lemon Rice recipe on Pinterest a few weeks ago. Last night I made it using chicken thigh fillets as I didn’t have any bone in chicken thighs. The meal I served up for dinner was amazing, truly delicious. We loved the chicken but the rice was everyone’s favourite. Rice is usually the bland accompaniment to a tasty curry or braised main meal but in your recipe the rice is the star. My teenage son usually sits down and polishes off his dinner without comment. Last night after the first mouthful he said, “Thanks Mum this is really good”.High praise indeed. I made extra marinade so that I could make a separate version of your recipe using a meat substitute product for my vegetarian daughter. It worked perfectly and was delicious.
I can see that I will be using many of your recipes now that I have found you. I had a quick look at the incredible looking range of so many recipes on your website. Thank you so much for sharing such a wonderful resource Nagi.
I have far too many cookbooks because i love reading and looking through them. The collection of recipes on your website outshines most of them.
Thanks and warm regards, Maria from Adelaide SA.
I love hearing that! I’m so glad you found me, I always love hearing from fellow Aussies! N x
Maria, you SO needed to make Nagi’s Baked Chicken & Rice. I was shocked at the amount of flavor that dripped/leached into the rice! Being rather indifferent to the rice in a meal, I found it to be the star of the recipe as well as you did with this Greek rendition. It’s the only way I bake my chicken thighs now!
The marinade seems to be lacking something. Only 4 tablespoons of lemon juice and the spices and then later you say to pour the leftover marinade in something doesn’t seem right. Please clarify
Hi Jamie! I mean use the marinade the chicken was in 🙂 So take the chicken out then pour the marinade into the rice
Can this recipe be doubled and still turn out just as good? I’ve made it twice before and absolutely love it but need it to make a larger meal next time!
Yes! Use a big baking pan 🙂 N x