Mediterranean Baked Chicken Dinner

This is a chicken sheet pan dinner that ticks a lot of boxes for midweek cooking:

complete meal – no need to bother with side salads low effort prep – no finely chopping anything, no fiddly assemble, just throw it all in a pan no need to watch over it – pop it in the oven, set the timer and walk away; no gourmet or hard to find ingredients – plus plenty of substitutions IT’S TOTALLY DELICIOUS!!! The tasty Mediterranean sauce is not only very, very tasty in its own right, it also keeps everything nice and moist while it’s in the oven (you will love how juicy the chicken is).

I especially love how the potatoes suck up the sauce as they bake. It reminds me of Greek Lemon Potatoes (but a lot less effort!).

What you need for this Chicken Dinner

Here’s what you need for this one pan Mediterranean Baked Chicken Dinner:

Chicken – thighs and drumsticks (bone in, skin on = juicy flesh and golden skin!) Lemons, lots of garlic, paprika and oregano – to make the tasty Mediterranean sauce; Honey and mustard – to thicken/sweeten/flavour the sauce; Potatoes, onion and cherry tomatoes

Customise it!

I’ve used onions, potatoes and cherry tomatoes here but you could really use whatever vegetables you have. Zucchini, pumpkin, sweet potato, corn cobs spring to mind as ideal substitutions. Rummage around in your fridge and see what you’ve got! Also, in there spirit of Mediterranean food, I’ve used oregano and garlic here. Try it with rosemary or thyme instead, or give it a Middle Eastern spin by adding a touch of cumin and coriander!

How to make this One Pan Chicken Dinner

Obscenely simple: mix Sauce, toss in chicken, optional marinade, toss it all in a pan and bake. OK, I skipped one step here. 😇 I add cherry tomatoes partway through the bake time so they don’t turn into unidentifiable mush. But if you’re ok with extremely squishy tomatoes, just add them right in at the beginning!

And here’s what you end up with in this one pan Mediterranean Chicken Dinner:

Very, very juicy chicken infused with Mediterranean flavours -the chicken isn’t submerged in sauce because we want the skin to go nice and golden. But the underside is partially in the sauce / steamed which keeps it ultra juicy.
Juicy pops of cherry tomatoes and potatoes that suck up the lemon garlic sauce:

Another nice thing about this chicken dinner is that marinating is optional. It definitely adds flavour if you can marinate overnight because then the chicken is flavoured all the way through. However, there is plenty of sauce in this recipe – enough to mop and dunk and douse every bite you take. So it’s fine to make even without marinating! – Nagi x