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
Tried this tonight with both chicken legs (skin on) and boneless skinless breasts. Both were delicious but the legs were outstanding! Something about the crispy skin and the flavors from the marinade getting in all the nooks and crannies. Definitely adding this to the rotation!
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made this tonight! so good. let the chicken marinate over night cuz i really wanted the lemon to come thru. also i used bonless skinless chicken thighs and baked them for about 1 1/2 hours. i also used greek yogurt and they came out perfect! not sure about all the pricing because i live in hawaii but it was deff a recipie i will keep! my 3 year son ate his whole plate!
Omg I was searching around for dinner ideas for tonight and found this! Chicken is marinating as I type lol. The marinade itself smells SO GOOD. I even dunked a carrot in it as a dip (pre chicken lol) and it was AMAZING as a dip!! I cannot wait to eat it later! Easy yummy and healthy!!
Weeeell, I have some boneless skinless chicken breast in the fridge right now marinating in some balsamic vinegar, spices, an d I can’t remember what else. As someone else said that is probably key to season the chicken before you start, especially for chicken breast. And since there is no skin to brown, I’ll probably end up throwing it into the slow cooker for this recipe. It looks awesome! I think it will work, I’ll let you know.
I made this with thighs, (the chicken breast I had went for chicken yakisoba again:) with more lemon and garlic just as another reader had suggested. My family loved it, loved it, loved it. Since I don’t have a grill, I used the rack from the roaster ovens Walmart has on sale every Thanksgiving for$29.97 and laid it inside of jelly roll pan and the skin turned out nice and crisp. Because of the messy clean up, next time I might line the tray with foil before I lay the rack on it. With the room between the rack and pan I don’t think it will hurt the crispness of the skin.
Absolutely DELICIOUS. Instead of parsley I used Rosemary. Very awesome recepie
In the oven as I type, and dang it smells delicious!!
How long did you marinade it?
About 30 minutes.
Oh YUM! I have a whole chicken for dinner tonight, I might just try this on it! Thanks for sharing your idea. I love that it’s healthy and easy!
I made this last night and it was crazy-good!!
I’ve got a recipe for chicken kabobs that I’ve been making for years that calls for plain yogurt and I always use greek yogurt. It always turns out awesome. Yogurt is a fantastic marinade. Makes the meat super tender! I’ve got this recipe in the oven right now- using the chicken legs! I think it’ll be great! To all those who are not happy with the breast- you are most likely cooking it too long and your breast is too big of a chunk. I’d try cutting it into small pieces and cooking it for a lot less time.
I’ve made this recipe once before in the oven (I only have a small George Foreman) and it came out amazing. The only substitution I made was because we needed this to be non-dairy. For those who can’t do yoghurt because of a dairy allergy or religious reasons, there are dairy free yoghurts out there, but this is a tried and true substitution my mother uses and passed on to me. We use tofu sour cream. I know, sounds odd, but it tastes just like the real thing, and with the Mediterranean flavors, made the marinade very tzatziki like.
I made this for dinner tonight, with variation. I didn’t have any lemon to zest, but I had dehydrated orange, so I used 2 slices of that cut up and I used lemon juice. I put the frozen chicken (just under 2 lbs, I could’ve put in more chicken for the sauce, but was trying to cut cost) in the crockpot and poured the sauce over it. I cooked it on high for 6 hours, shredding the chicken at 4 hrs. It was sooo good. It doesn’t brown this way, but it honestly doesn’t need to. =)
Looks amazing! It’s marinating now and I’m debating if we should grill the thighs or throw them in the oven…any preference out there?
Definitely go for the grill!
Absolutely delicious. I tried it tonight and my teenager could not get enough. Definitely making this again. Thank you for posting.