Need something easy and flavorful to throw on the grill this weekend? This Greek Marinated Chicken is it.
The marinade for this chicken (similar to what I used for this Chicken Shawarma ) takes just a few minutes to stir together and creates an absolute explosion of flavor. It’s incredible. I only marinated my chicken in this magical mix for 30 minutes, but the flavor was still loud and clear. Once marinated, you can grill the chicken outdoors over a gas or charcoal flame, or (if you don’t have a grill) you can bake it in the oven. Either way, you’ll get a super flavorful and moist end product.
I served this Greek Marinated Chicken with my Lemony Cucumber and Couscous Salad, which was the perfect cold summer side, and incorporated both starches and vegetables into the meal. Two birds with one stone!
Greek Marinated Chicken
Greek Marinated Chicken
Servings 8 piecesIngredients
- 1 cup plain yogurt ($0.63)
- 2 Tbsp olive oil ($0.32)
- 4 cloves garlic, minced ($0.32)
- 1/2 Tbsp dried oregano ($0.08)
- 1 medium lemon ($0.49)
- 1/2 tsp salt ($0.02)
- freshly cracked pepper ($0.05)
- 1/4 bunch fresh parsley ($0.20)
- 3 1/2 to 4 lbs chicken pieces ($6.86)
Instructions
- To make the marinade, combine the yogurt, olive oil, minced garlic, oregano, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper in a bowl. Use a fine holed cheese grater or a zester to scrape the thin layer of yellow zest from the lemon skin into the bowl. Also add the juice from half of the lemon (about 1-2 Tbsp). Stir until the ingredients are well combined. Roughly chop a big handful, or about 1/4 bunch, of parsley and stir it into the marinade.
- Add the chicken pieces and marinade to a gallon sized zip top bag. Remove as much air as possible, close the bag tightly, and massage the bag to mix the contents and make sure the chicken is well coated. Refrigerate the bag for 30 minutes.
- After marinating for 30 minutes, either cook the chicken on a grill OR preheat the oven to 375 degrees in preparation to bake the chicken.
- To bake the chicken, place the chicken pieces in a large casserole dish (9×13). Bake the chicken in the preheated 375 degree oven for 45-60 minutes, or until golden brown on top.
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Notes
Nutrition
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Step by Step Photos for Greek Marinated Chicken
First prepare the marinade. Combine the yogurt, olive oil, oregano, minced garlic, salt, and some freshly cracked pepper in a bowl. Add the zest from one lemon and the juice from about half of it (1-2 Tbsp). Stir these ingredients until well combined.
Add a handful, or about 1/4 bunch, of roughly chopped parsley. This is your finished marinade (or a REALLY awesome dip!).
I used about 3.75 pounds of chicken pieces (drumsticks and thighs). You could easily half this Greek Marinated Chicken recipe, if needed.
Add the chicken pieces and the marinade to a large, gallon-sized zip top bag and mix it around to make sure the chicken is well coated. Refrigerate the bag for 30 minutes.
After marinating, you can either grill the chicken or bake it. I don’t have an outdoor grill, so I decided to bake it. Place the chicken pieces in a large casserole dish. I ended up pouring the extra marinade over top, but later realized that this just made it take longer to brown, so I don’t suggest doing so. There is plenty of flavor in the marinade that you won’t need to add the extra.
Bake the chicken in a preheated 375 degree oven for 45-60 minutes, or until it is golden brown. It will smell SO good! Now eat!
I served this Greek Marinated Chicken with my Lemony Cucumber and Couscous salad and it was PERFECT! :D
Mom and I was looking for a quick marinade recipe to go with a package of drumsticks and thighs that she bought. While I thought the flavor “translated” into the chicken rather well, I was a bit disappointed that the chicken did not brown at all. Drumsticks browned only slightly, and probably because we left the skin on. The flavor was nice but both mom and I agreed that it could have used a bit more salt. Maybe I’ll make it again and have it marinate for a bit longer, even though we marinated it for about an hour.
Has anyone ever heard of “salt-licking”? I do this with nearly all of my proteins, especially chicken. It seems the biggest concern here is the lack of flavor to the bone. Salt licking does just that –it not only makes your chicken fork tender, it makes it juicy and flavors it to the bone. I use this technique when I am marinating any type of chicken whether it’s boneless or bone-in. It is magic with baked or fried chicken. I stated using this technique on steaks. It is so simple — just generously salt each piece with Morton’s Sea Salt (the big navy colored box), for bigger pieces up to 2 hours like bone-in chicken breasts, for tenders 30 minutes, for legs about 1 hour, for thighs 2 hours works well. After you have salted your chicken rinse off all of the salt under cool water and set aside on paper towels to give them a gentle dry. The salt changes the composition of the protein itself as it salts from the outside to the bone. I make this special recipe of mine with marinated bone-in chicken breasts, red grapes and pears and the raves come from the presentation and taste but the magic is in how flavored and tender my chicken is. I imagine with the combination of this marinade and having already salt licked your chicken –it would be nothing short of fabulous! I have my entire family salt licking their proteins now.
Interesting! Thanks for sharing that technique, I’ve never heard of it. :)
Thanks for sharing this technique. I am intrigued and will be trying it soon!
A rare failure from budget bytes. Marinated for 30 minutes. Chicken had no flavor after cooking. Also, the texture of the chicken was weird. None if the fat cooked out of the chicken, maybe because of the extra fat from the yogurt. The skin was soggy and the meat had an off putting texture.
Sounds yummy! Could you do this in a slow cooker??
You could, although the chicken skin might get really mushy in the cooker. I think this one is better baked.
Wanting to make this tonight and I noticed on this full recipe it says plain yogurt. On the blip about it it says greek yogurt. What did you all use? I am not a greek yogurt fan, but willing to try cooking with it.
I used plain (non-Greek) yogurt. :)
Delicious and easy to make. I added more salt to the marinade and baked the chicken breast/drumsticks with baby potatoes. Kids (picky eaters) and hubby love it. Will definitely make it again.
I made this last night and it was delicious and I don’t even like yogurt! My roommate’s picky two year old even loved it. I will definitely be making again along with many other yummy dishes from the site!
Followed the measurements of the recipe, but let the chicken marinate over night before cooking. I think the flavors translated well, but would definitely add more salt next time. Very moist and easy!
Just made this tonight and it was phenomenal! I followed the recipe exactly, though I used skinless chicken breasts because that was all I had on hand. The yogurt sauce didn’t smell like much when I first made it, but when I poured the chicken into the baking pan it was clear everything came together. It smelled incredible the entire time it was cooking, and even more so once everything was all done and I pulled it out.I ended up shredding the chicken and stuffing it into pita bread with some slices of romaine lettuce, roma tomatoes, red onions, a bit of kalamata olives, feta cheese, and some crispy bacon bits and it was fantastic! I also made a bit more of the marinade just to use as a sauce for the pitas. I highly recommend this recipe, because I absolutely loved it and so did my family.
House smelled great and chicken looked really good. However, no flavor at all. Very bland. All the flavor was in the skin of the chicken. Very disappointed. Will not make again.
This is one of the best recipes on this website because it’s so quick. With my electronic chopper I was able to cut the prep time down to just a few minutes – chopping parsley by hand takes a while, but with a little chopper its done in seconds. I like to marinate the chicken for longer than the 30 minutes, just to let those flavors really sink in.
The quick prep time on this dish is awesome, the cost is low, and the outcome is amazing. I served this with a side of white rice and some steamed carrots, which complemented this dish quite nicely – and rice and carrots are cheap too!
Thanks for the recipe, I use a bunch of recipes from this site but I am making this one right now and figured I would comment to say thanks!
So, I just tried this. Really good. What I did different, is that I made the marinade by itself earlier, about an hour & just let the flavors merry together. I bake it and we really liked it. Thanks so much for the recipe.
I made this tonight after letting the chicken marinate for two days. I agree with the others who say the chicken was only mildly flavored, but it did brown nicely and was incredibly moist.
The one change I made was lining the baking dish with a layer of crusty bread before arranging the chicken on top, marinade and all. The bread absorbed the extra marinade and savory chicken juices and, after removing the finished chicken to a platter, I ran the flavorful bread under the broiler for a couple minutes to crisp it up slightly before serving it alongside the chicken. Delish!
I love that bread idea! Thanks for sharing!
I made this last night and it was delicious! Threw in a bit of rosemary and marinated in the fridge for 30 mins. Added sliced lemon on top as it cooked on the grill. It had really great flavour and was super moist. It made for really great sandwich meat the next day! I’ll definitely be making this again
This recipe is so good! Have made it at-least 4 times now. What I do different is add more lemon, jalapeno and red crushed pepper. It has a great taste and find yourself wanting more.