Say goodbye to dry, flavorless chicken! This easy lemon baked chicken breast recipe has a simple marinade that guarantees incredibly juicy, flavorful chicken.
We have a lot of chicken recipes on Inspired Taste, and honestly, I love them all! These lemon baked chicken breasts fit right in. Thanks to our lemon chicken marinade, they are super flavorful, extra juicy, and tender, thanks to our easy baking method.
Skinless, boneless chicken breasts are easy to overcook. With our method, you’ll be guaranteed juicy, flavorful chicken! Try our lemon dill chicken breasts for a stovetop method, or for another take on this baked recipe, see these tomato basil baked chicken breasts.
Key Ingredients
- Chicken Breasts: While this recipe features chicken breasts, you can easily adapt it to use chicken thighs. Thighs may require a slightly longer cooking time. In fact, we also a recipe for lemon chicken thighs if you are interested.
- Lemon: I use fresh lemon juice and zest for this. Lemon juice makes the base of the marinade, while the zest gives it an extra lemony punch. I like using a vegetable peeler to make strips of the zest.
- Olive Oil: I love the flavor of olive oil in this marinade. It makes the chicken more delicious. If you plan to cook your chicken over high heat, consider substituting it with avocado oil.
- Dijon Mustard: Mustard and lemon work beautifully together, so I always add a little Dijon to this marinade.
- Garlic: Smashed whole garlic cloves add the right amount of fresh garlic flavor and balance the acidity of the lemon. Keeping them whole also prevents any garlic from burning later on.
- Fresh Herbs: These are optional, but I love adding fresh herbs to this chicken marinade. I use fresh parsley in the photos, but dill, cilantro, and basil are excellent choices.
Find the full recipe with measurements below.
How to Make the Best Baked Lemon Chicken Breast
Tip 1: Use our marinade. In our recipe below, we share a marinade made of fresh lemon, garlic, and Dijon mustard. It’s best to marinate chicken breasts 1 to 2 hours before baking. There isn’t a need to go longer than that.
Tip 2: Bake your chicken covered. After marinating, we add the chicken to a baking dish and loosely cover it with parchment paper (aluminum foil is a good alternative). By loosely covering the chicken, the chicken breasts bake and braise simultaneously, meaning the chicken bakes in its juices. This method of baking chicken breasts keeps the chicken breasts juicy and so tender.
Tip 3: Knowing when the chicken is done. The bake time depends on how large your chicken breasts are. I check for doneness around 25 minutes and then proceed from there. Most chicken breasts take 35 to 40 minutes to bake in the oven (I use 400°F). An internal thermometer is one foolproof way to check if your chicken is done. Insert it into the thickest part of the breast and take the chicken out once you see 165°F. Then, let the chicken rest before serving.
Baked Lemon Chicken Breast
- PREP
- COOK
- TOTAL
For the best, juicy, and tender lemon baked chicken breast remember these three things: marinate first, bake loosely covered, and use a meat thermometer. Before baking in the oven, we marinate the chicken breasts in a magical mixture of fresh lemon, garlic, Dijon mustard, and parsley. If you’re short on time, marinate as close to an hour as you can. If you’re flexible, go for a whole two hours. And since we want to keep things safe, it’s best to marinate the chicken in the refrigerator (no matter how long you do it for).
Watch Us Make the Recipe
You Will Need
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (6 to 8 ounces each)
2 large lemons
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, crushed with the side of a large knife or minced
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh parsley, roughly chopped
Directions
- Marinate Chicken
1Peel or zest the thin, yellow skin (zest) from one lemon, and then juice the lemon so that you have 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice. (If the first lemon was not enough, Use half of the second lemon to make up the 1/4 cup of juice.)
2Whisk lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, salt, red pepper flakes, and black pepper until the salt has dissolved. Stir in the garlic, lemon zest, and parsley (if using). Refrigerate and use within 1 to 2 hours.
3Add the chicken breasts to the marinade and marinate for 1 hour or up to 2 hours in the refrigerator.
- Bake Chicken Breasts
1Position the oven rack in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 400°F (204°C). Lightly oil one side of a sheet of parchment paper large enough to cover the baking dish. (Aluminum foil can also be used.)
2Transfer the chicken breasts to the prepared baking dish, removing any large pieces of garlic that might be stuck to them. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
3Quarter the second lemon. Scatter lemon wedges around the chicken, then cover with parchment paper, oiled side down, towards the chicken. Loosely tuck the parchment paper around the chicken.
4Bake until the chicken is opaque all the way through and an internal thermometer reads 165°F when inserted into the thickest part of the breast. Check for doneness in around 25 minutes, and then go from there. Most chicken breasts will take 35 to 40 minutes.
5Let the chicken rest for about 10 minutes, then serve drizzled with some of the liquid left in the baking dish. You can also slice the chicken and place it back into the baking dish with all the leftover cooking liquid (our favorite).
Adam and Joanne's Tips
- The nutrition facts provided below are estimates.
I made this recipe tonight and it’s absolutely delicious. The lemon and seasonings pair perfectly with the chicken breast. The meat was very tender. I did reduce the liquid in the pan and it was so good. Thank you for a great recipe!
So glad you gave the recipe a try, Dean! Thank you for coming back and letting us know!
Just made this last night for the first time. Turned out perfect. Breasts were very juicy and flavorful as well as tender. We loved this recipe and will definitely make this again!
Oh that is wonderful, Deborah! Thank you so much for coming back and letting us know!
Delicious, just as written, and so easy!
Second time I’m making this for dinner and it is deelish. A flavourful and easy winner. Thx for another fantastic recipe!
Hello everyone. Making this tonight! Will review for sure when done, but wanted to know if there was any adjustments needed to me made if we cut the breasts into two pieces (down the center) bc they were so big but we didn’t want to make them thinner. So we just halved them. That and we’re going to add a little bit of onion to the mix with the lemon wedges before putting it into the oven. We will tell you how it goes! Thank you!
So happy you loved the recipe. You are so welcome! 🙂
You guys rock! Every recipe I have tried has been amazing. This chicken is delicious and the house smells so good. Having it with the roasted cabbage – so good also! Thank you!!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. I made it tonight and found it to be easy and delicious! The dish juice is fantastic. Used it to drizzle over the roasted root vegetables I served with the chicken. Will definitely add to our regular dinner rotation.
This dish is perfect! The marinade was fabulous, quick, and easy to make! I let my chicken marinate for a little over an hour! The parchment paper trick kept the chicken so juicy! I made this with a side of asparagus! Will definitely be a biweekly if not weekly go to meal from now on!
I made this tonight, it was absolutely delicious!!! I put it in the pan on the stove top instead of the oven, still turned out perfect… this will be my go to recipe for chicken breasts from now, thank you so much for sharing the recipe 🙂
Sooooo good! I love anything lemon, and this hits the spot. thank you!
I’ve made this recipe 4 or 5 times now. My husband and I absolutely love it! It’s so easy, and the chicken always turns out so juicy and flavourful. I cook only 2 breasts, but use the full marinade recipe. I usually cook roasted baby potatoes and carrots in the oven at the same time and voila! Dinner is that easy! Drizzle a little sauce over the roasted potatoes…yum! It is our new favourite go to chicken recipe! Thank You!!
Great, cant wait.
I made this last week without the mustard, which I didn’t have on hand, and with Thyme instead of Parsley. It was delicious. Today I made it again with tasty dijon mustard and Thyme again and it was unbelievable. My favorite chicken dish ever. Boyfriend loved it and son didn’t hate it (major win here). Thanks for this Recipe.
Made this twice and they taste so good! So easy to make. And I love how colourful the marinade is. ;D
Amazing!! Didn’t brine first and didn’t add salt onto the chicken and all came out moist, tender, and super tasty!! Is my new go-to ckn recipe.
We loved this recipe and will make it again.
Made this tonight for dinner. Served it the chicken over rice. Absolutely delicious. Will definitely make it again.
Loved this! Served it over angel hair and once over cheese/spinach stuffed tortellini with pesto sauce on both dishes. Delicious!!!
Delish
This was tender and delicious. A successful recipe!
Getting ready to make chicken. Always like new recipe for tangy chicken. Later.send new recipes to my facebook
Made this a couple of nights ago, it’s very tasty. Thanks!
This was easy to prepare. My husband said it was the best chicken he had tasted in a long while. My teenaged daughter, who usually only eats a few bites of any meat I prepare, ate an entire breast, then she ate half of another. My husband said he wants to have it again next week. Thank you for posting this, it is so hard to find a recipe that satisfies everyone in my family!
I just made this, it was fantastic. I actually just cooked one breast in the toaster oven on a pan, but I covered the chicken in foil after spraying it with oil. Thanks for the recipe!
Amazing !!!!!!! Best chicken I’ve had in a long time
Hi Jason
Rare to come across someone with the name Feeny, which part of our family tree do you come from? Ireland, Birmingham, somewhere else?
I am marinating my chicken now for dinner tonight.
This looks so delish and your recipes have all been successful so I’ll be trying this very soon!
I am going to make this tonight 🙂