Lemon Baked Chicken

Made with fresh lemons, onions, garlic, and sprigs of thyme, this Lemon Baked Chicken recipe is so easy to make it’s hard to believe it’s as delicious as it is! Serve it straight out of the oven or add it to wraps, salads, soups, or stews! {Paleo}

Hold the phone and shut the front door! All good things come to those who wait. And that includes this Lemon Baked Chicken dinner recipe! Omigosh. It’s so good. I’ve been dying to share it with you. And today is the lucky day!!!!

Okay, just think FRESH! More specifically, lemons + garlic + onions + thyme sprigs = SAVORY GOODNESS. It also equals tantalizing and salivating and SMELL-O-VISION. This is clearly an ALL CAPS recipe. 

Oh, friends, this one is good. It’s lemony and garlicky and juicy and perfect not only as its own meal but also as leftovers and filler in other recipes. If I had to place a bet on how such a simple recipe could taste so outrageously good, then I think I’ll put my money on all of the fresh ingredients. Fresh lemons, fresh garlic, fresh onions, fresh thyme. The juices from one flow into the flavors of another, and when they get together, the sparks fly. Not literally, of course. We will not be burning our kitchens down for this recipe. Although, I almost did once in high school during a take-home science experiment almost-gone-wrong.

But that’s beside the point.

The actual point? Well, aside from the flavors and the smells that will waft their way through your house, this recipe is versatile. In addition to eating it as a stand-alone recipe, you can get so much mileage out of it by adding the chicken to:

• Salads
• Stews
• Lettuce Wraps
• Stir-Frys

Or you can do what our younger daughter does and nibble on it throughout the day. Because the leftovers, if you have any, are just as good as when it’s fresh out of the oven.

So let’s get baking! Your tastebuds will thank you.

Lemon Baked Chicken ingredients

Below are the ingredients for your own delicious Lemon Baked Chicken! 

• Whole chicken. Skin removed (see notes below for details).
• Lemons. Sliced with as many seeds removed as possible. No need to remove the rind.
• Garlic cloves. Leave them whole. Remove skins.
• Onions. Any color will do. Cut into wedges.
• Fresh thyme sprigs. Several sprigs.
• Olive oil. Drizzle to cover the pan and the top of the chicken (to prevent burning).
• Sea salt and black pepper. The sea salt helps hold in the moisture during baking so your chicken turns out succulent, juicy, and tender. Black pepper, if desired, adds extra flavor on top of that.

How to prepare a whole chicken

For a healthier option, we remove the skin. And below are best practices just for you!

• Ask the meat counter to remove the skin for you. If you don’t want to remove the skin, don’t have the time, or don’t have the tools, then ask someone at the meat counter to remove the skin for you. This may take a while. So it’s a good idea to do this when you first get to the grocery store and then get your other groceries while they prep the chicken.
• Remove the skin yourself. To do this, make a slight incision on the top of the chicken and use your fingers to pull the skin away. You may need to use a cloth to scrub away any portions that you can’t remove by hand. Some of the skin will likely remain in areas around the tail and on the wings. Remove as much as you can. We put the discarded materials in a small trash bag and put it in our bin outside. 

How to make Lemon Baked Chicken

Once you have as much of the skin removed as possible, then it’s time to start in on the recipe! Your house is about to smell wonderful!

1. Set oven to 375 degrees. Drizzle enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a 9×13 pan. Set aside.
2. Insert as many onion wedges, lemon slices, garlic, and thyme sprigs as will fit in the chicken. Using kitchen twine, tie the chicken legs together. To do this, wrap the twine around what was the tail of the chicken and then bring the twine around one leg, criss-crossing it back around the tail (if possible) and then around the other leg in a figure 8 fashion. If you can’t wrap the twine around the tail a second time, then wrap the twine around the second leg, in a figure 8 fashion, bringing the two legs together.
3. Place the chicken in the 9×13 pan and scatter the remaining lemon slices, onion wedges, garlic cloves, and thyme sprigs around the edges of the baking dish. Drizzle olive oil over the top of the chicken, sprinkle with sea salt, and then bake the chicken for 90 minutes or until a meat thermometer reads 165 degrees.
4. Remove pan from oven and let cool slightly before serving. Refrigerate leftovers and eat within 4 days.

NOTE: If you’re curious how long chicken will keep in the refrigerator, here’s a Healthline article, How Long Does Chicken Last in the Fridge?, to answer your questions!

Wait! Don’t throw that away!!!!

Before you throw away all the leftover bones, etc, check out this Homemade Bone Broth recipe first! It is so good, made even better with all the carryover flavors from the Lemon Baked Chicken. Throw the olive oil mixture in there, too, if your palate wishes!

Make a meal of it!

Aaaaannnddd, there are several side dishes and salads that would pair well with your Lemon Baked Chicken:

• Garlic Mashed Cauliflower Potatoes
• Paleo Sweet Potato Casserole
• Easy Paleo Quick-Steamed Vegetables
• Baked Cinnamon Apples
• Pomegranate Pear Salad
• Fresh Mixed Berry Salad

Enjoy every last drippy, succulent, juicy bite, friends! Stay wild and know I’m glad you’re here. ❤️❤️❤️

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