Greek chicken and potatoes, slowly baked until fall-of-the-bone tender, surrounded by soft potato wedges, melting bits of garlic, and delicious pan juices loaded with extra-virgin olive oil and dried Greek oregano!
This slowly baked chicken is a Greek classic. It's the kind of dish that smells like weekday lunch in a Greek home. It's as simple and easy as it gets to put together and quietly cooks itself while you go ahead and perform your chores around the house.
Table Of Contents
Ingredients
The authentic Greek recipe for baked chicken with potatoes uses only a few basic ingredients. A chicken cut into 4 pieces (aka Greek portions), potatoes cut into wedges, garlic, lemon, oregano, and olive oil.
Slow-Baking
And even though the authentic Greek chicken and potatoes recipe doesn't necessarily require a long cooking time, I came to the conclusion that to bake a really juicy, tender chicken, the secret is patience!
In this recipe, I bake the chicken for 2 hours at a low temperature. Until it gets super moist and tender and perfumed with all the delicious Mediterranean aromas right to its core. Plus, the garlic truly melts during this time, and the potatoes, well, they can't get any mellower than this!
How To Make
Making baked Greek chicken and potatoes is very simple. Add the chicken, skin side up, to a large baking pan. There's no need to turn the chicken throughout baking.
Toss in the pan coarsely chopped garlic. I usually cut a large garlic clove into 4 pieces. However, you can add whole garlic cloves if you like.
Next, arrange the potatoes, cut into wedges, all around the chicken. Drizzle everything with extra virgin olive oil. Squeeze some fresh lemon over the potatoes. I avoid adding lemon juice to the chicken because it softens the skin and prevents it from roasting well later.
Season with sea salt (unrefined is best), ground pepper, and dried oregano (ideally Greek oregano). And add just half a cup of water to the pan. Cover well. Use both parchment paper and aluminum foil on top.
Bake slowly for 2 hours, then uncover, raise the heat slightly, and bake for 30-40 minutes more to roast the chicken skin and the potatoes.
Leftovers
Store leftovers in a food container in the refrigerator for up to 3-4 days. Reheat either in the microwave, covered, or in the oven again, covered at 170°C / 340°F.
You can also turn the chicken leftovers into a delicious pie like this Chicken Leek Pie with Filo.
Serve With
Serve this baked Greek Chicken and potatoes with a Tzatziki dip, and a Classic Greek Salad. The Tzatziki goes extremely well here. If you skip the Tzatziki, please don't skip the piece of feta on the side.
Other fresh and appetizing salads to accompany it with: Marinated Tomato Salad, Greek Cabbage Salad (Vinegar Coleslaw), Maroulosalata (Greek Lettuce Salad).
Recipe
Baked Greek Chicken And Potatoes
Equipment
- parchment paper
- aluminum foil
Ingredients
- 1 large chicken weighing about 1.8 to 2 kilograms (4 to 4.4 pounds)
- 800 grams (1.7 pounds) potatoes peeled and cut into wedges
- 125 ml (½ cup) extra virgin olive oil
- 6-8 large garlic cloves each cut into 4 pieces
- 3 loaded teaspoons dried Greek oregano
- ½ lemon
- sea salt
- ground pepper
Instructions
- Cut the chicken in 4 pieces. Let it sit at room temperature for about an hour before cooking it.
- Preheat the oven to 160°C / 320°F.
- Place the chicken in a large pan, skin side up. I used a round 36 cm (14-inch) pan. You can use a slightly larger or smaller pan as long as there's space to fit the chicken and the potatoes in a single layer.
- Toss the garlic all over the bottom of the pan.
- Add the potatoes all around the chicken.
- Drizzle with olive oil all over on top.
- Season with salt, pepper, and dried oregano.
- Squeeze the half lemon all over the potatoes. You can squeeze up to 1 lemon if you like it a bit lemony. Pour ½ cup (125 ml) of water into the pan through the side.
- Cover the pan with parchment paper and aluminum foil on top.
- Bake for 2 hours. Then take the pan out of the oven and raise the temperature slightly to 170°C / 340°F.
- Uncover and bake for 30-40 minutes more until the chicken looks nicely roasted on top. Turn off the oven.
- Rest the chicken inside the oven with the oven door open for at least 30 minutes. Here's where all the magic happens: the potatoes and chicken absorb all the delicious pan juices as they rest.
- Serve with a Greek salad and/or some Tzatziki.
Lovely flavour, family favourite for 2 years now, recommended