Everyone needs a classic roasted chicken and potatoes dish in their arsenal. Chicken often gets a bad wrap as being a bland and boring protein. This weeknight roasted lemon and herb chicken with potatoes proves that making a flavorful chicken dish doesn’t have to be complicated or require hours of marinating. In fact, most of the cooking is done in a single cast iron skillet!

The key to obtaining juicy and tender chicken is using bone-in chicken! It’s very challenging to produce this with a boneless skinless chicken breast. In this recipe, we use whole chicken quarters. Since we were making this dish for the two of us, we only used two quarters. but this dish can easily be made for four. Just double everything and use a slightly larger skillet.

One of the other key steps is searing the chicken, skin down, before baking. These seals in the juices and creates and really crispy skin! We season ours with Herbs de Provence, which we always keep in our spice drawer. We buy ours in bulk at Central Market, but you can find it in most supermarkets. It’s a great seasoning for poultry. It is a mix of savory, thyme, rosemary, basil, tarragon, and occasionally lavender. When you combine that with the fresh lemon slices and shallot, the flavors are unbelievable!

Everything gets dumped into the cast iron skillet and baked in the oven. Put it in and forget about it for 40 minutes! Plenty of time to clean up any messes and set the table. We like to serve ours with a basic green salad and vinaigrette (see vinaigrette recipe we used with our Tuna Nicoise salad). It’s nice to have something fresh to pair with the slow roasted lemon and herb chicken with potatoes. This is a great Sunday Supper idea but also is easy to make and walk away on a weeknight!

Weeknight Roasted Lemon and Herb Chicken with Potatoes

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Cook Time 45 minutes mins

Servings: 2 People

Course: Main Dish

Cuisine: American

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

  

• 2 Chicken Quarters
• ½ Pound Red Potatoes Halved or Quartered (depending on how large they are)
• 2 Shallots Roughly Chopped
• 1 Lemon Sliced
• 2 Tbsp Olive Oil
• 1½ Tsp Kosher Salt
• ¾ Tsp Black Pepper
• 2¼ Tbsp Herbs de Provence
• 3 Sprigs Rosemary

Method

 

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Toss the chopped potatoes and shallots with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil, ½ a teaspoon of kosher salt, ½ a teaspoon of the herbs de Provence, and ¼ teaspoon black pepper in a large bowl and set aside.
3. Pat the chicken completely dry using a paper towel. Evenly coat all sides of the chicken with the remaining herbs, salt, and pepper. You may need to press/massage the seasoning into the chicken to make sure it sticks well.
4. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a cast iron skillet or other oven-safe pan.
5. Once hot, place the chicken skin side down for approximately 5 minutes, until golden brown and crispy.
6. Briefly remove the chicken from the pan, add in the herbed potatoes and shallots. Top with the sliced lemon slices and rosemary sprigs before placing the chicken quarters back on top (skin side up).
7. Bake at 400F for about 40-45 minutes or until potatoes are tender and chicken has cooked through.