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By Courtney ODell
5 from 5 votes
May 31, 2020, Updated Mar 22, 2024
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This delicious easy lemon chicken has the absolute best quick and easy lemon chicken recipe with simple ingredients and and is naturally low carb and keto diet compliant.
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Best Easy Lemon Chicken
This lemon chicken recipe is a simple, quick, and effortless way to get delicious restaurant-quality lemon chicken at home for a one pot chicken dinner the whole family will love. This recipe is easy enough for a weeknight but decadent enough for a dinner party or Sunday supper.
This lemon chicken recipe is keto diet compliant, making it a delicious low carb chicken dinner to add to your weekly menu rotation. It’s great on its own, fresh from the skillet, or in sandwiches, salads, wraps, and in pasta or rice dishes!
To Make One Pot Lemon Chicken, You’ll Need:
- Chicken Thighs or Breasts
- Lemons
- Garlic Cloves
- Olive oil or butter
- Olive oil or butter and Pepper
- Italian Herb Seasoning Blend
How to Get Crispy Chicken Thighs
If you’re using chicken thighs in the best easy lemon chicken recipe, I am giving my best tips for easy crispy pan seared chicken thighs (skin-on or skin-off).
Don’t crowd the pan
To get a perfect crispy crunch on chicken thighs, cooking them hot and fast is key.
Don’t overcrowd your pan – it will bring down the temperature of the pan, making chicken flabby and not crispy.
Cook in batches if needed to give chicken thighs ample room to crisp.
Pre-sear to crunchy
Don’t overflip chicken, let thighs crisp up before flipping or adding to oven to bake.
Remove excess moisture
When pan frying, chicken thighs do best when they have been patted down with a paper towel to remove any excess water or fluid from chicken.
How To Get Juicy Lemon Chicken Breasts
If you’re using chicken breasts in this quick and easy lemon chicken recipe, I am giving my best tips for easy juicy pan seared chicken breasts.
Marinate at least 4 hours
While this recipe will still taste great without marinating, it is the best when chicken breasts have marinated at least 4 hours and up to one day before cooking.
Marinating helps infuse tons of flavor into chicken breasts, and helps to soften meat and make it more tender and easier to chew and cut.
Cut large chicken breasts down
Grocery store chicken, especially chicken breasts in economic bulk flat packaging (my personal favorite pick to help our family stay in-budget), can be very large.
Extra large chicken breasts require more cooking time – so cutting down the chicken helps to make the chicken cook faster, without compromising the chicken’s tenderness.
Depending on the size of your chicken, slice the breast in half length wise to make two smaller chicken breasts – or if the chicken is very fat, you can “butterfly” the breasts to make two thinner breasts.
Pan-sear chicken
Pre-sear chicken breasts in a pan before baking for the best flavor and a little crunch on the outside!
Let rest before serving
Like meat, chicken needs to rest at least 5 minutes after cooking before you want to cut into it so the juices lock in.
This easy one pot lemon chicken is one of my favorite one pot keto chicken dinners because it doesn’t require a ton of fancy ingredients or equipment. In fact, you probably already have most of this recipe on hand!
If you love this easy lemon chicken you will also love this one pot wonders:
Or you can try my 10 Minute Broccolini Recipe, Roasted Cauliflower with Cilantro Cashew Pesto, Chipotle Knockoff Cilantro Lime Rice, 10 Minute Broccolini Recipe, The Best Easy Air Fryer French Fries Recipe, or The Best Chopped Chinese Chicken Salad Recipe.
To check out my amazingly delicious Air Fried Lemon Chicken Recipe please click here.
To check out more chicken recipes click here!
If you love the best easy lemon chicken recipe as much as I do, please give it five stars and help me share on facebook and pinterest!
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5 from 5 votes
The Best Easy Lemon Chicken Recipe
The Best Easy Lemon Chicken Recipe – the absolute best quick and easy lemon chicken recipe with simple ingredients and TONS of lemon chicken flavor!
Prep Time3 minutes mins
Cook Time18 minutes mins
Total Time21 minutes mins
Course: One Pot
Cuisine: American
Keyword: #ketochicken, #lemonchicken, #onepotmeal, easy lemon chicken, keto, keto chicken, one pot chicken recipes, quick and easy lemon chicken, the best lemon chicken
Servings: 6
Calories: 764kcal
Author: Courtney ODell
Equipment
California Olive Ranch, Global Blend Medium Extra Virgin Olive Oil, 1L
Simply Organic Italian Seasoning, Certified Organic 0.95oz
Food Grade Stainless Steel Kitchen Tongs for Cooking,BBQ – 7 ?9 and 12 Inch,Set of 3 Heavy Duty Locking Metal Food Tongs Non-Slip Grip
Lodge Cast Iron Skillet with Red Silicone Hot Handle Holder, 10.25-inch
Ingredients
- ½ cup olive oil to marinate
- t tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp pepper
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp italian herbs dried
- 6 chicken thighs or 6 6oz chicken breasts
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- ½ lemon sliced into rounds
Instructions
In a large ziploc bag or glass dish, add olive oil, herbs, lemon zest, salt, and pepper and add chicken to bag/bowl to marinate for at least 30 minutes (preferably 4-24 hours.)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In a large, heavy pan, heat olive oil until light and shimmery.
Remove chicken from marinade, shake off excess liquid.
Discard oil and marinade bag.
Add chicken to pan and cook 3-4 minutes until one side is golden brown and crunchy. Flip and repeat for other side.
When chicken is well seared on each side, check internal temperature. Place oven-safe skillet into oven and roast until chicken is 165 degrees internal temperature, about 5-10 minutes depending on chicken breast/thigh size.
Remove from pan and plate with grilled vegetables, topping with sauce.Also great to add to salads, wraps, tacos, or save for meal prep to reheat for lunch.
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Categorized as:
Chicken, Chicken Thighs, keto, Keto Chicken, Lemons, Main Dishes, One Pot, paleo, Recipes
About Courtney
Courtney loves to share great wine, good food, and loves to explore far flung places- all while masting an everyday elegant and easy style at lifestyle blog Sweet C’s Designs. Sweet C's devoted to finding the best food and drinks you'll want to make or find, around the world!
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