Recipes For Making Chicken In The Oven

This is themost popular of all chicken breast recipes that I’ve ever published. It’s a JUICY Oven Baked Chicken Breast sprinkledwith a magic simple seasoning, baked until caramelised. It’s simple, fast and incredibly tasty! This is a reader-favourite alongsideHoney Garlic Chicken, this epic Parmesan Crusted Chicken and crispy Garlic Chicken.

Though I always stand firm that brown meat is better than white – more flavour, more juiciness – lean chicken breast is a regular in my shopping trolley, week after week.

As simple as it sounds, if you whack a seasoned breast in the oven without thought, the chances are you’ll be chewing your way through dry chicken, furiously squirting over copious amounts of ketchup to try to salvage it.

Easy Oven Roasted Whole Chicken

A medium chicken breast will take 18 – 20 minutes to bake at 220C / 425F. Cooking it hard and fast at a high temperature is the secret to gorgeous caramelisation and ultra juicy chicken inside. No dried out breast around here!!

My last tip for a truly great Baked Chicken Breast is to pound it to even thickness, either with a rolling pin, meat mallet or even with your fist (very therapeutic). This has the double effect of even cooking as well as tenderising the meat.

Try serving this with a side ofGarlic Butter Rice with Kale, pictured in post. One pot carb + veg side, with kale made delicious! Otherwise, try aflavoured Rice Sidelike Tomato Basil Rice orMushroom Rice.

Easy Pan Roasted Chicken Breasts With Thyme

If you’re in the mood for potatoes, try thisLemon Potato Salad, a classic creamy Potato Salad or a lighter No-Mayo Red Potato Salad with Charred Corn and Bacon.

And for something fresh, Spring Salad or Creamy Cucumber Salad with Lemon Yogurt Dressing would go with the chicken beautifully. Else, simply drizzle steamed greens or a garden salad with Italian Dressing, Balsamic or French Vinaigrette.

This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand!

Oven Baked Chicken Thighs (with Crispy Skin!)

Recipe VIDEO above.My tips for a truly juicy, Oven Baked Chicken Breast: a touch of brown sugar in the seasoning which makes the chicken sweat while it bakes so it creates a semi sauce, and cooking fast on a high temp! Go by the colour of the crust to know when it's cooked through.

1. If your breast is quite large eg 250g / 8oz+ each, cut them in half horizontally to form 2 thin steaks and skip the pounding. Make sure they are no thicker than 1.5cm / 0.6″ thick at the thickest point – if they are, pound using fist.

This can also be made with thigh fillets (boneless, skinless). Follow the recipe but cook for 25 minutes for small / medium thighs and 30 minutes for larger ones.

Baked Chicken {how To Bake Chicken Breasts}

Serving: 158 g Calories: 286 cal (14%) Carbohydrates: 4 g (1%) Protein: 46 g (92%) Fat: 7 g (11%) Saturated Fat: 1 g (6%) Polyunsaturated Fat: 1 g Monounsaturated Fat: 1 g Cholesterol: 127 mg (42%) Sodium: 403 mg (18%) Potassium: 397 mg (11%) Sugar: 4 g (4%) Vitamin A: 325 IU (7%) Vitamin C: 1.7 mg (2%) Calcium: 11 mg (1%) Iron: 0.6 mg (3%)

* The story and details of the Handcrafted Japanese Knife giveaway that originally accompanied this recipe when published was moved into a separate post because the Giveaway has finished.

I believe you can make great food with everyday ingredients even if you’re short on time and cost conscious. You just need to cook clever and get creative!My favorite oven baked chicken breasts recipe! It never fails me, thanks to this simple 5-step method that is easy to make and customize with your favorite seasonings.

Ina Garten's Roast Chicken

A few weeks ago on Insta, I asked if you all might be interested in a back-to-basics series about the best ways to bake proteins (i.e. chicken, pork, steak, seafood, tofu, etc.) in the oven. Your answer? A resounding

 of you had requests and questions about methods for cooking various proteins, plus more than a few tales to tell about proteins gone not-so-right over the years. And oh boy,

My little kitchen has seen more than its share of overcooked steaks, completely dried out pork chops, salmon skin glued to pans, and not-so-crispy tofu over the years too. Which are never fun, especially since proteins can be pricey and intended for special occasions. But hey, it’s all part of the adventure of learning how to cook. And eventually, I’ve trial-and-errored my way to some basic methods for baking proteins that have become super-reliable, super-delicious staples in my kitchen.

Easy Baked Chicken Recipes

So over the next two weeks,  I thought we could work our way through each of them, beginning today with the #1 most requested protein here on Gimme Some Oven…

Over the years, I’ve received countless requests for new chicken breast recipes, and many more for tips on how to bake chicken breasts in the oven. Because anyone who worked with chicken breasts before know that they can be incredibly versatile, yet also incredibly finicky to work with, especially when baked in the oven. Cook them the wrong way and you’ll end up with a dry, rubbery, tough, and flavorless disaster. But cooked the right way?! We’re talkin’ juicy, tender, flavorful,  perfectly baked chicken breasts that you will 

Easy to make with my 5-step baked chicken breasts method. Thousands of our readers have tried it over the years and reported back that this method was a game-changer with cooking chicken. So if you have yet to give it a try, let’s bake some chicken together!

Juicy Oven Baked Chicken Breasts Recipe

Also, if you bake chicken (or any other kind of baked proteins) regularly in the oven, I strongly having a cooking thermometer on hand too. It is the most foolproof way to ensure that your chicken is not over- or under-cooked, and works like a charm. I recommend either this:

 for anytime you want to bake chicken breasts in the oven. Brining chicken is super-easy, it makes your chicken extra juicy, and best of all, it can be effectively done in just 15 minutes. Plus, if you brine chicken in lukewarm water, it also helps bring the chicken to room temperature, which makes for more even cooking. Win-win!

To brine chicken, simply fill a big bowl with lukewarm (not hot) water. Stir in a handful of salt until it mostly dissolves. Then add your chicken breasts and let them sit in the saltwater to brine for at least 15 minutes. If you are doing this in advance, you can cover and refrigerate the bowl of chicken and saltwater for up to 6 hours. But you don’t want to let the chicken brine for much longer than that.

Garlic Butter Baked Chicken Breast

When you’re ready to go, remove the chicken from the brine. Give it a good rinse it with cold water to wash off the salt, and then pat it dry with some paper towels. And voila — your chicken is officially brined.

Note: That said,  some store-bought chicken breasts are now sold pre-brined. So double-check your packaging beforehand. And if your chicken has already been pre-brined in a sodium solution, just move onto step two. :)

Brush (Step 2): Brush your chicken breasts with melted butter. Or at least, I highly recommend using butter. It adds great flavor and helps give a nice golden crust on the outside. But if you’d rather use olive oil (or another favorite cooking oil), feel free.

Oven Baked Chicken Thighs

To prevent the chicken from sticking to the pan, and also to help the seasonings stick. Then place the chicken breasts in a large baking dish or roasting pan

Rub (Step 3): If you’re really wanting to keep things simple, you can simply sprinkle some salt and pepper onto the chicken breasts. But again, chicken will pick up the flavor of whatever seasonings you add. So even if you’re making a simple dish that calls for “plain” chicken breasts, I highly recommend the simple chicken seasoning recipe I have included below that includes salt, pepper, garlic powder and paprika.

Roast (Step 4): So this is the step that causes some squabbles amongst chicken lovers — how long to bake chicken breasts? And what is the correct temperature to bake chicken? Do you bake it low and slow (as in, 30 minutes at 350°F)? Or do you roast chicken high and quick (as in, 15 minutes at 450)? I have tested out both — and just about every interval in between — dozens upon dozens upon dozens of times. And in the end, I fall firmly in the latter camp when it comes to baked chicken.

Baked Chicken Breast

Depending on the thickness of your chicken breasts, roasting chicken at 450°F should require a cooking time of about 15-18 minutes (depending on the thickness/size of your chicken breasts). It’s speedy and it’s easy. But mostly I love it because cooking at high heat quickly develops a nice crispier “crust” on the outside of the breasts, which also helps to lock in those juices and keep the oven roasted chicken perfectly tender on the inside. It’s the best of both worlds.

I highly recommend investing in a small cooking thermometer to measure the cooked chicken temp in order to tell if it is ready to go (the FDA says that the safe cooked chicken temp is 165°F), versus cutting into it with a fork, which lets those good juices seep out. I use this