Say goodbye to dry, flavorless chicken! These easy lemon baked chicken breasts are the answer! A simple marinade with fresh lemon, garlic, herbs, and olive oil creates incredibly juicy and flavorful chicken.
We have a lot of chicken recipes on Inspired Taste, and honestly, I love them all! These lemon baked chicken breasts fit right in. Thanks to our lemon chicken marinade, they are super flavorful, extra juicy, and tender, thanks to our easy baking method.
Skinless, boneless chicken breasts are easy to overcook. With our method, you’ll be guaranteed juicy, flavorful chicken! Try our lemon dill chicken breasts for a stovetop method, or for another take on this baked recipe, see these tomato basil baked chicken breasts.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken Breasts: While this recipe features chicken breasts, you can easily adapt it to use chicken thighs. Thighs may require a slightly longer cooking time. In fact, we also a recipe for lemon chicken thighs if you are interested.
- Lemon: I use fresh lemon juice and zest for this. Lemon juice makes the base of the marinade, while the zest gives it an extra lemony punch. I like using a vegetable peeler to make strips of the zest.
- Olive Oil: I love the flavor of olive oil in this marinade. It makes the chicken more delicious. If you plan to cook your chicken over high heat, consider substituting it with avocado oil.
- Dijon Mustard: Mustard and lemon work beautifully together, so I always add a little Dijon to this marinade.
- Garlic: Smashed whole garlic cloves add the right amount of fresh garlic flavor and balance the acidity of the lemon. Keeping them whole also prevents any garlic from burning later on.
- Fresh Herbs: These are optional, but I love adding fresh herbs to this chicken marinade. I use fresh parsley in the photos, but dill, cilantro, and basil are excellent choices.
How to Make Lemon Baked Chicken Breasts
In our recipe below, we share a marinade made of fresh lemon, garlic, and Dijon mustard. It’s best to marinate chicken breasts 1 to 2 hours before baking. There isn’t a need to go longer than that.
After marinating, we add the chicken to a baking dish and loosely cover it with parchment paper (aluminum foil is a good alternative). By loosely covering the chicken, the chicken breasts bake and braise simultaneously, meaning the chicken bakes in its juices. This method of baking chicken breasts keeps the chicken breasts juicy and so tender.
The bake time depends on how large your chicken breasts are. I check for doneness around 25 minutes and then proceed from there. Most chicken breasts take 35 to 40 minutes to bake in the oven (I use 400°F). An internal thermometer is one foolproof way to check whether or not your chicken is ready to come out of the oven. Insert it into the thickest part of the breast and take the chicken out once you see 165°F. Then, let the chicken rest before serving.
Easy Lemon Baked Chicken Breasts
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
For the best, juicy, and tender lemon baked chicken breasts remember these three things: marinate first, bake loosely covered, and use a meat thermometer. Before baking in the oven, we marinate the chicken breasts in a magical mixture of fresh lemon, garlic, Dijon mustard, and parsley. If you’re short on time, marinate as close to an hour as you can. If you’re flexible, go for a whole two hours. And since we want to keep things safe, it’s best to marinate the chicken in the refrigerator (no matter how long you do it for).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)
2 large lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed with the side of a large knife or minced
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Directions
- Marinate Chicken
1Peel or zest the thin, yellow skin (zest) from one lemon, and then juice the lemon so that you have 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice. (If the first lemon was not enough, Use half of the second lemon to make up the 1/4 cup of juice.)
2Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper until the salt has dissolved. Stir in the garlic, lemon zest, and parsley (if using). Refrigerate and use within 1 to 2 hours.
3Add the chicken breasts to the marinade and marinate for 1 hour or up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
- Bake Chicken Breasts
1Position the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 400°F (204°C). Lightly oil one side of a sheet of parchment paper large enough to cover the baking dish. (Aluminum foil can also be used.)
2Transfer the chicken breasts to the prepared baking dish, removing any large pieces of garlic that might be stuck to them. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
3Quarter the second lemon. Scatter lemon wedges around the chicken, then cover with parchment paper, oiled side down, towards the chicken. Loosely tuck the parchment paper around the chicken.
4Bake until the chicken is opaque all the way through and an internal thermometer reads 165°F when inserted into the thickest part of the breast. Check for doneness in around 25 minutes, and then go from there. Most chicken breasts will take 35 to 40 minutes.
5Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes, then serve drizzled with some of the liquid left in the baking dish. You can also slice the chicken and place it back into the baking dish with all the leftover cooking liquid (our favorite).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
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You guys rock! Every recipe I have tried has been amazing. This chicken is delicious and the house smells so good. Having it with the roasted cabbage – so good also! Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it tonight and found it to be easy and delicious! The dish juice is fantastic. Used it to drizzle over the roasted root vegetables I served with the chicken. Will definitely add to our regular dinner rotation.
This dish is perfect! The marinade was fabulous, quick, and easy to make! I let my chicken marinate for a little over an hour! The parchment paper trick kept the chicken so juicy! I made this with a side of asparagus! Will definitely be a biweekly if not weekly go to meal from now on!
I made this tonight, it was absolutely delicious!!! I put it in the pan on the stove top instead of the oven, still turned out perfect… this will be my go to recipe for chicken breasts from now, thank you so much for sharing the recipe 🙂
Sooooo good! I love anything lemon, and this hits the spot. thank you!
I’ve made this recipe 4 or 5 times now. My husband and I absolutely love it! It’s so easy, and the chicken always turns out so juicy and flavourful. I cook only 2 breasts, but use the full marinade recipe. I usually cook roasted baby potatoes and carrots in the oven at the same time and voila! Dinner is that easy! Drizzle a little sauce over the roasted potatoes…yum! It is our new favourite go to chicken recipe! Thank You!!
Great, cant wait.
I made this last week without the mustard, which I didn’t have on hand, and with Thyme instead of Parsley. It was delicious. Today I made it again with tasty dijon mustard and Thyme again and it was unbelievable. My favorite chicken dish ever. Boyfriend loved it and son didn’t hate it (major win here). Thanks for this Recipe.