The Best Easy Lemon Chicken Recipe (2024)

Home › Recipes

By Courtney ODell

4.66 from 44 votes

May 31, 2020, Updated Mar 22, 2024

Jump to Recipe

This post contains affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.

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.

Don’t want all the extras in a recipe post? We provide a skip to recipe button in the top left corner, as well as a clickable table of contents, just below, to help make this page easier to navigate.

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.

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!

CONNECT WITH SWEET C’S!
Be sure to follow me on social media and get in on all the fun!

Only have 30 minutes to get dinner on the table? Sign up for my 30 minute dinner plans direct to your inbox!
Find and shop my favorite products in my Amazon storefront here!

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!

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

Prep Time 3 minutes minutes

Cook Time 18 minutes minutes

Equipment

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.

Video

Nutrition

Sweet C’s Favorites

If you love this easy recipe, be sure to check out our readers favorites!

All are easy and full of flavor – and most are low carb!

[mv_create key=”1094″ type=”list” title=”Sweet C’s Favorite Recipes” thumbnail=”https://sweetcsdesigns.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Oven-Baked-Garlic-Parmesan-Chicken-Wings-Recipe-Picture.jpg” layout=”grid”]

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!

FAQs

What is lemon chicken sauce made of? ›

Cut the Chicken

Mix well with your hands and let marinate for at least 20 minutes. Next, mix the sauce by combining chicken stock, lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar, honey, distilled white vinegar, and cornstarch. I always like to premix my sauce to have it ready to go during the fast cooking process.

What does soaking chicken in lemon juice do? ›

Here's why: Lemon juice helps to tenderize meat, but when left for too long, it will break down the proteins too much, making the meat tough and rubbery… sometimes even mushy. So, if you want tender, juicy, and flavorful chicken, make sure to only marinate the chicken for 2-3 hours.

What is the secret to juicy chicken? ›

Getting a good sear through medium high heat, then reducing the heat to LOW and COVERING the chicken while it cooks. The butter, oil, and chicken juices create a super flavorful liquid that acts as a way to steam the chicken at a low temperature, ensuring that it is moist & tender on the inside.

Discover More Details ›

What is lemon glaze made of? ›

Lemon Glaze Recipe FAQs

This recipe has 4 ingredients, powdered sugar, lemon juice, whole milk, and vanilla extract.

Know More ›

Why add lemon juice to sauce? ›

A shot of red wine vinegar might do the trick here, but that adds its own flavor; a small splash of humble lemon can brighten the sauce exponentially without stealing the spotlight. That's what a hit of acidity does—it sharpens the flavors, sometimes imperceptibly.

Find Out More ›

How long can chicken sit in lemon marinade? ›

Most recipes for marinating meat and poultry recommend six hours up to 24 hours. It is safe to keep the food in the marinade longer, but after two days it is possible that the marinade can start to break down the fibers of the meat, causing it to become mushy.

See Details ›

What does rubbing lemon on chicken do? ›

Like pickling, smoking, and curing, the practice of rinsing chicken with lemon juice probably started out as a way to neutralize any off-aromas in the meat and cut down on bacteria.

Keep Reading ›

Can you leave raw chicken in lemon juice overnight? ›

Important: If your marinade is full of fresh citrus or vinegar, like the one in this chicken skewers recipe, keep the marinating time below an hour for optimal results. Poultry marinated in citrus, like lemon or lime juices, or vinegars can turn mushy and stringy if left to soak for too long.

How long should you marinate chicken? ›

As a rule of thumb, you can marinate chicken anywhere from 15 minutes to 12 hours for bone-in chicken or 2 hours for boneless. Past 12 hours, you risk the ingredients of the marinade (such as sugar, acid, and salt) breaking down the muscle fibers in the meat, causing it to go overly soft or mushy.

Know More ›

What tenderizes chicken the best? ›

You might have wondered why most chefs or cooks prefer to soak their chicken in buttermilk or yogurt overnight. Well, the answer is simple: they are tenderizing the chicken for cooking later, and that's the secret behind their super delicious, juicy chicken.

How to make chicken extremely tender? ›

The best tenderizer though, is a salted yogurt marinade. The salt has the same effect as in a regular brine, but the lactic acid in the yogurt further tenderizes the meat. A 15-minute marinade with one cup of yogurt and one teaspoon of salt makes for the most tender chicken breasts imaginable.

Read On ›

What is lemon butter sauce made of? ›

Lemon butter sauce is a decadent sauce made from lemon and butter, plus ingredients such as shallot, garlic, chicken stock, and parsley.

Get More Info ›

What is lemon cream sauce made of? ›

In a sauce pan over medium-high heat combine the chicken stock (or base), minced garlic, lemon juice and heavy cream. Stir well and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. After you are satisfied with the consistency of the creamy lemon infused sauce, taste it and season with salt and pepper as needed.

Know More ›

What is lemon pepper sauce made of? ›

The lemon pepper sauce is made with butter, lemon pepper seasoning, lemon (juice and zest), honey, and hot sauce. Then you toss the sauce with your air-fried chicken wings—it takes less than five minutes to whip up this sauce!

What is lemon and herb sauce made of? ›

INGREDIENTS: WATER, LEMON CONCENTRATE (15.2%) [PRESERVATIVE (SODIUM METABISULPHITE (E223))], VEGETABLE OIL (SUNFLOWER SEED) (ANTIOXIDANT TBHQ (E319)), RECONSTITUTED DRIED GARLIC, SPIRIT VINEGAR, SUGAR, SALT, SPICES, THICKENER (E1422), HERBS (0.35%), STABILISER (E415), CALCIUM DISODIUM EDTA (E385), SUCRALOSE (E955) (NON ...

Learn More ›

The Best Easy Lemon Chicken Recipe (2024)

Best Easy Lemon Chicken

To Make One Pot Lemon Chicken, You’ll Need: