Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken Thighs Recipe is a quick and easy one-dish oven meal. It consists of three main ingredients: thighs, lemon, garlic. That's all it takes to make this easy low-calorie memorable weeknight dinner with amazing flavors the whole family will insist on having often.
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❤️ Why you'll love this recipe
- satisfying
- appealing
- easy and quick
- little preparation
Your oven does all of the work. How easy can that be?! The oven-baked chicken comes out flavorful and juicy every time. Pollo All'Aglio is what the Italians call this squisito (delicious) dinner.
🛒 Ingredient list
Note: The full list of Easy Baked Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Garlic recipe ingredients with their amounts and options are in the recipe card below.
These are the main ingredients you’ll need for this delicious weeknight chicken dinner. The exact amounts are listed in the recipe card below.
- chicken thighs -- main component of the recipe and the dark meat is easy to cook and keep moist. You may also use skinless chicken breasts with a tablespoon of olive oil drizzled on top.
- fresh lemons -- adds a nice acidity to the dish plus it helps to tenderize the meat.
- fresh garlic -- flavors the thighs without overpowering the taste.
- Smoked paprika (optional)-- enhances the flavor plus lends a smoky layer to flavor combinations to the dish that we really like.
- Italian seasoning -- (optional) we wanted an additional layer of Italian flavor in the juices.
How many times have you come across a recipe and all it asks for are three main ingredients?
For me? Practically never! We always have lemons on hand -- and garlic??
Hello?!! I'm Italian! Our pantry would not be supplied without garlic. . . .it's a staple.
🗒 Instructions
Note: This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions for The Italian Christmas Cookies are in the recipe card below.
- Place chicken thighs in a large bowl. Slice the lemons in half and squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the thighs and add the lemon rinds to the bowl along with the garlic, salt, black pepper, red pepper flakes, and Tuscany seasoning. Mix well.
- Put everything in a large baking dish spreading everything out evenly. Sprinkle smoked paprika over the chicken.
- Put the casserole dish in a 375℉ oven and roast the chicken for 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes.
- The internal temperature should reach 165℉. Remove the casserole dish out of the oven, cover it with aluminum foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Serve the chicken thighs with the natural juices and several cloves of the buttery garlic.
Do you know the saying "If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is?" Well it's not the case here. The ingredients are simple and the instructions are easy. This is a recipe you'll want to keep handy.
🔪 Equipment
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- Large cutting board -- a non-skid one is an absolute necessity for trimming the chicken, cutting the lemons, and peeling the garlic. We hate when our boards slide all over the counter.
- Sharp knife -- we like to use our Santoku just like this one although a good boning knife will work well for the lemon and this type of work.
- Large glass bowl -- used for marinating and easy cleaning. We have a set of 3 from small bowl to large that we use all the time.
- Oven proof casserole dish -- We love our braiser. It holds the entire meal to make an easy chicken dinner plus clean-up. You can cook on top of the stove or stick it in the oven. A glass pyrex dish will also work well, also a large skillet that's oven proof.
👩🏻🍳 Chef tips
If you want to make your own Tuscan Seasoning Blend here are the ingredients:
- 2 tablespoons ground rosemary
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 tablespoons dried marjoram
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon red chili pepper flake
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried ground lemon
Combine all of the spices in a bowl and mix well. If you want them finer put them in a spice grinder. We actually use our coffee grinder. Store in a mason jar with a tight lid. We have a jar with holes to shake out the Tuscan seasoning blend.
If you use boneless, skinless chicken thighs, in this recipe, sprinkle a bit of extra-virgin olive oil over the chicken before roasting for fat and flavor.
🤔 FAQs
These are the questions we are most often asked about this Lemon Garlic Baked Chicken Thighs Recipe.
Chicken thighs should be baked in preheated 400 degrees until skin is browned and the thighs register 165 degrees in thickest portion, about 35 – 45 minutes. If you like a crispy
skin, broil during last 1 – 3 minutes but keep keep a close eye on it.
Baking chicken thighs with bone-in and skin-on will take longer than boneless skinless thighs. These times and temperatures are for bone-in and skin-on chicken thighs.
350°F (175°C)50 to 55 minutes
375°F (190°C)45 to 50 minutes
400°F (205°C)40 to 45 minutes
425°F (218°C)35 to 45 minutes
The chicken thigh should reach the temperature of 165 degrees and the thickest part.
Keeping the skin on the chicken helps the meat from drying as well as rubbing the thighs with a bit of olive oil. Also, using an instant read thermometer is a huge help to in preventing overcooking the meat. At 165℉ the chicken is done.
It will take 25 - 30 minutes to bake boneless chicken thighs at 400F/200C.
It will take 30 - 35 minutes to cook boneless chicken thighs at 350F/175C.
Whenever in doubt, use an instant read meat thermometer.
📖 Related Recipes
If your family likes one pan chicken recipes, the Chicken Vesuvio one is that you're going to love. The side and vegetable cooks along with the chicken.
This Hunter's Style chicken is very famous in Italy. Every nonna has her secret ingredients she adds to the Chicken Cacciatore to make it special.
📞 Chiacchierata
We can honestly say that this tangy chicken recipe with the smoky garlic flavor is now a favorite.
This lemon garlic chicken is juicy and aromatic with just the right amount of Italian seasoning. We can honestly say that this tangy chicken recipe with the smoky garlic flavor is now a favorite.
The secret is all about the lemon garlic marinade that forms and cooks into the meat. We're certain that this basic chicken thigh recipe will become a favorite of yours too.
And if you want to try an Italian Herb Marinade with your chicken, you've got to make the Oven Baked Chicken Breast Recipe, it's out of this world good!
Next time you want to make thighs on the grill, try our spicy Grilled Asian Chicken Thigh recipe. The flavors are so good you will be licking your fingers.
Tutti a tavolo è pronto!
Un caro saluto e alla prossima.
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📝 Lemon Garlic Chicken Dinner Recipe
Sometimes we make this quick lemon and garlic chicken recipe in a glass casserole and put the chicken thighs under the boiler to give them a nice golden skin.
And at other times we make it in our cast iron skillet and brasier. This recipe works fantastic any way you want to make it. . It's all up to you.
To go along with this delicious simple dinner, our savory Sweet Potato Casserole with Bacon would be fabulous. You can make the mashed potatoes in small mounds, which we like, or all in one casserole dish.
We love easy one-pan dinners and I'm sure you do too. Next time try our delicious recipe Creamy Tomato Chicken With Kale.
If you like this recipe please give it a 5-star rating.
📖 Recipe
Baked Lemon Garlic Chicken With Tuscany Seasoning
Ingredients
- 8 Chicken thighs can make them boneless and skinless or 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts.
- 3 lemons fresh
- 16 cloves of peeled garlic left whole
- 1 Tablespoon Tuscany seasoning or Italian seasoning*** see notes
- Kosher salt and black pepper to taste
- Smoked Paprika
- Red pepper flakes optional
Instructions
- Heat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Place chicken thighs In a large bowl. Slice the lemons in half and squeeze the fresh lemon juice over the thighs and add the lemon rinds to the bowl along with the garlic, salt, pepper, and Tuscany seasoning. Mix well, then put everything in a large baking dish spreading everything out evenly. Sprinkle smoked paprika over the chicken. We love the taste of the smoked paprika so we sprinkle quite a bit on the chicken. It's up to you.
- Put the dish in the heated oven and bake the chicken for 30 minutes, basting every 10 minutes. The internal temperature should reach 165 degrees F. If it hasn't reached that point, put it back into the oven for an additional 5 minutes. When it reaches the temperature of 165 degrees F take it out of the oven, cover it with aluminum foil, and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Serve the chicken thighs with the juices -- discard the lemons.
Notes
- When we serve a dish with juices -- we serve a side that will absorb that juice. We certainly don't want to waste a flavorful sauce. With this dinner we served peppery couscous which does soak up the juice if there is any left.
-
If you want to make your own Tuscan Seasoning Blend:
- 2 tablespoons ground rosemary
- 2 tablespoons dried basil
- 2 tablespoons dried parsley
- 2 tablespoons dried marjoram
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons onion powder
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika
- 1 tablespoon red chili pepper flake
- 1 tablespoon dried thyme
- 1 tablespoon cracked black pepper
- 2 teaspoons dried ground lemon
Nutrition
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We'll never share your email or send you spam. Promise⏰ How this quick and easy dinner was born
When you're on vacation and spend the entire day on a pier fishing, you don't feel like coming up with something to cook.
So, once we got back to our rental house, Righteous Oaks, we were hungry.
We wanted something to eat that was satisfying, something that appealed to our taste buds. And most importantly something that was easy to make and didn't take a lot of time.
The chicken thighs were already in the fridge thawing. All we needed was to find a recipe that included the ingredients we had on hand. We didn't have heavy cream, onion powder, or garlic powder. which we found was in the typical recipe. Our recipe had to be easy and have few ingredients.
That's how this recipe was born.
