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Mediterranean Roasted Chicken Breasts. You're going to love this recipe, because it can all be made ahead and just popped into the oven at the last minute, making it a wonderful dish for guests or for a healthy, easy dinner.
I've made quite a few changes and, though we really enjoyed the original recipe, it's actually evolved into one of our very favorite meals here at The Café. I tinkered around with the spices, cutting back on the smoked paprika and adding crushed (or ground) coriander, oregano and a bit of curry powder. I exchanged the crushed red pepper for a splash of Sriracha chili sauce and layered everything with slices of super thinly shaved fresh lemon.
I love bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. Though we don't eat the skin (as it adds a lot of fat to a very lean protein), it keeps the chicken moist and tender as it bakes and adds a ton of delicious flavor. So for roasting, I always purchase this type of chicken and stock my freezer when one of my local markets has a great sale. The thing I don't like about them is that they're so large and bulky and having to pull the meat off the bone makes for messier eating, not the greatest when serving guests.
Did you know that many butchers at your everyday grocery store will cut the meat off of the bone for you? At no charge? When I'm in a hurry, as is often my dilemma, I'll take advantage of this service. However, whenever possible, I take my sharpest knife and do the job myself. It only takes minutes and the advantage here is that I get to throw the bones (still clinging with meat) in the freezer. When the urge strikes me, I've got the base for a delicious pot of soup!
Don't worry though, you can just as well make this Mediterranean Roasted Chicken Breasts with the whole skin-on, bone-in breast, it just won't be quite as pretty, but still makes a super delicious dinner!
The other changes I made were using cannellini beans instead of garbanzo beans. I love garbanzo beans, but Mr. Café (aka known as my husband, photographer, chief taste tester and cohort in crime) is not so fond of them, and they do tend to get a teeny bit tough as they roast. You could use either, but the cannellini beans took the whole thing up a notch for us.
One last change I made was the sauce. The original recipe called for adding some of the same spice mixture as used on the chicken to the Greek yogurt. I decided to keep it simple, cool and refreshing and added a smashed avocado, the juice of a lemon, a bit of sea salt and a splash of olive oil to my Greek yogurt. To us it's just the crème de la crème for an already delightful dinner.
Oh, and make a little extra, because the leftovers are quite amazing piled into a pita! I love to warm a pocketless pita in a hot pan with a tiny bit of olive oil. I spread a bit of hummus down the center topped with a generous spoonful of the tomato mixture along with some of the chicken, thinly sliced. Shower it with fresh cilantro, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice and a dollop of the avocado and Greek yogurt sauce. Oh my! It's the best lunch EVER!
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Mediterranean Roasted Chicken Breasts
Ingredients
Ingredients for the chicken:
- â…“ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- 4 garlic cloves, pressed
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon coriander
- 1 teaspoon oregano
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon curry powder
- 1 teaspoon sriracha chili sauce*
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 medium lemon, very thinly sliced
- 4 chicken breast halves, boned, but with skin left on (You can use the whole breast with skin and bones, if desired.)
- 2 15 ounce cans cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
- 2 pints cherry tomatoes. I like to use one pint of red and one of yellow or orange just to make it pretty
- 1 cup chopped fresh cilantro, divided
Ingredients for the sauce:
- ½ cup plain yogurt or Greek yogurt
- 1 medium ripe avocado, smoothly mashed
- 1 Juice of 1 lemon
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F. Mix first 9 ingredients in medium bowl.
- Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large sauté pan. Rub each chicken breast with about 2 teaspoons of the olive oil/spice mixture. Place in heated pan, skin side down and sauté for several minutes until skin is golden brown. Remove from pan and place in a large oven-safe dish.
- In a large bowl, combine remaining oil mixture with the beans, tomatoes, lemon slices and ½ cup cilantro, stirring gently to coat. Add to dish with chicken, surrounding chicken, but not covering. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Roast until chicken is cooked through, about 20-25 minutes. Sprinkle with ½ cup cilantro. Serve with Greek yogurt sauce.
Directions for the Greek yogurt sauce:
- Combine all ingredients. If preparing ahead, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate.
Notes
Nutrition
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I will share this in the spirit of you having tweeked the recipe several times and using what I had on hand.
I used boneless, skinless breasts with the tender portion still attached. I used all your ingredients as a marinade, adding some cardomom, thyme, and lemon juice. Then I marinated the chicken (after a 30 minute) for a couple of hours.
I used the cannellini beans, olive oil, salt, pepper, a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes, and lemon slices.
I put the bean mixture in a cast iron brazier, nestled the chicken in the beans and baked at 400 for about 23-25 minutes.
The end result was incredibly delicious - rich and complex flavors - the best thing I've made in weeks. I am thrilled I stumbled into your website while looking for a mediterranean themed dish.
Hi Joseph, Welcome to the Café and thanks for sharing your experience with personalizing this dish! Your tweaks and additions sound delicious, and it's great to hear how much you enjoyed the recipe. We appreciate you taking the time to let us know and would love to hear from you again if you try other recipes from our website!
This is as delicious as it it is beautiful, thank you for sharing this savory recipe!
Thank you for the review, Angelica!
I made this tonight and am so happy with the results! Could I make this with chicken breast filets (no bone). Also, do you have tips for getting cilantro off the stem?
This is a keeper!
Hi Cookie, so happy you enjoyed this recipe!
Regarding you question, you could use chicken breasts (boneless) but I would either cut or pound them thin and bury them uder to tomoato mixture so they don't dry out.
I adapted the reicpe in this post and used boneless chicken thighs - that worked out well! https://thecafesucrefarine.com/mediterranean-sheet-pan-chicken-dinner/
And regarding your question about the cilantro, you don't have to worry about cilantro stems as they are tender and taste delicious. Parsley is different - the stems can be bitter so you only want to use the leaves.
I just love this recipe! I have made it numerous times and always get rave reviews. The sauce is amazing too! I plan on making it for our delayed family Christmas dinner. If i want to make it ahead and pop it in the oven later, do I brown the chicken breasts, then put everything in the pan, ready to go and then refrigerate until I’m ready to cook it?
Hi Netty, we love this recipe too! If you make it ahead, I would brown the chicken but keep them separate. Put everything else in the pan then nestle the chicken breasts in right before baking. Since the chicken is not fully cooked, this would prevent any contamination of the other ingredients.
chicken thighs with skin/bone. marinate 1 hr or so with oil/mixture. 30 mins in oven. Fantastic.
Actually, appreciate all the little tips supplied in other recipes on this website. Excellent.
Thanks, Alex!
Soooooo tasty! Best recipe ever. I opted out of beans and it tasted just great. My boys said juicy, flavor, savory, yummy.
Thanks so much, Cyndi, for sharing your results. I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
I've probably made this dish about 7-8 times. It's perfect! Super low calorie and healthy, EXPLOSION of taste in my mouth, and that lemony avocado dip is the perfect finish. Thank you so much for this recipe! As an avid cook who likes to have friends over for laid-back dinners, this recipe never lets me down.
Incredible!! So flavorful and healthy. Thrilled to discover a winner we will make over and over again!
Thanks, Cheryl. We love this recipe too! Appreciate you taking the time to share your results!
Hello. My daughter-in-law served your delicious recipe to us a few weeks ago. Last night, I made it for a family whose 7 year old daughter just had serious brain surgery. As I followed the recipe directions, I have these questions: 1) Should both sides of the chicken breasts be browned in the saute pan? 2) When placing the chicken breasts in the roasting pan for the oven, should the breasts be placed skin side up? 3) Do you recommend covering the roasting pan partway through the roasting time in the oven, so the contents don't dry out? 4) on the website photo, I'm wondering what the side dish is that is alongside the Mediterranean Chicken--is it quinoa? Thanks so much.
Hi Adrienne, here are the answers to your questions:
1.) No, just brown the skin side of the breasts.
2.) skin side up.
3.) No, don't cover it. There is enough moisture in the pan to keep them moist and tender.
4.) I served it with a lemon rosemary Israeli couscous.
Is there a separate recipe for the lemon rosemary Israeli couscous?
Hi Arlene, this is the closest thing I have to it: lemon rosemary Israeli couscous?
Another family favourite. I LOVE those spices but usually they are too strong/hot for me - this is PERFECT and I plan to make it again VERY soon. What a pretty and delicious meal. You guys just keep getting better all the time! I am doing your crustless quiche for a brunch with friends tomorrow. I hardly ever use my cookbooks any more (matter of fact have passed most of them along) as I always go to YOUR web site to look for ideas. And I never come away disappointed. Have a great day.
This was amazing! It was more an Indian taste to me though. Store was out of lemons so I just threw lemon juice over the chicken.
So glad you enjoyed them Danielle!
This recipe is phenomenal! We decided to have this for our Sunday dinner and the whole family loved it. We will definitely be making this again 🙂 Thank you for sharing!
You're absolutely welcome Shelley! Come by The Café often!
Made this tonight and it came out amazing! Threw together a couscous with pine nuts, peas, raisins, onion and garlic. Thanks for sharing. Oh! And your photo looks 100 times better than the one on Epicurious!
Thanks so much for your comment! It's just such a delicious, healthy comfort food, isn't it?
This is so easy & fantastic! & refreshingly different 🙂
Thanks Haley!
Made this for dinner on Monday. It was such a simple dish to put together and the flavours were incredible!
Oh, thanks for letting us know, I'm so happy you enjoyed it!
Delicious!! I made this last night for dinner. My husband and I loved it. I will definitely be adding this into regular rotations at my house. Especially when I have guests. I made 1 modifications: instead of making your sauce, I scooped 1 tsp of the olive oil/spice mixture in the greek yogurt. Again, delicious.
I cannot wait to make this again!
Ps. It's absolutely beautiful looking when it's done cooking. My instagram photo got a lot of likes.
Thanks Shannon for letting us know. So happy you enjoyed this and had such great results. Love your sauce idea!
This is a fabulous recipe. I've made it three times and there is a pan in the oven at this moment. My frineds LOVED it when they were served this beautiful looking and tasty dish. Thank you, for sharing!
Oh, thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment. Everyone in my family loves this dish too. If by chance, you have any leftovers, try them on pitas with hummus, fresh tomatoes, Feta, cilantro .......... SO good! 🙂
Hi Chris! I love your website, all of your posts and follow on Pinterest. I've been checking periodically hoping to find the recipe for the Lemon, Herb & Pistachio Israeli Couscous you paired with the Mediterranean Roasted Chicken Breasts w/Tomatoes & Cannellini Beans. Any chance it might be up soon? I'd love to make this side dish with the chicken!
Bonnie, You have an amazing memory. I promise I will work on this one. It would be so nice for Easter. I already have the recipe just have to put it together again and get the photos. Thanks for reminding me!
I absolutely love this meal! I've made it several times. I like to serve it with pan fried pita bread sprinkled with sea salt. Delish!
Quite possibly, the best dinner I've ever made! So much flavor!
Thanks so much for taking the time to get back to us. So happy you had such great results!
Chris, as a new follower, I am impressed with your cooking style as well as the gorgeous food photography! I appreciate how all of your recipes come together over time and contain easy-to-find ingredients. Thank you for sharing all of this beauty and goodness!! P.S. I would love to have the Lemon, Herb & Pistachio Israeli Couscous recipe to serve with the Mediterannean Chicken. Any chance it will be posted soon?
Hi Bonnie! Thank you and welcome!! I appreciate your kind words. I had forgotten about that wonderful couscous salad. Yes I will tweak it just a bit and post it soon 🙂
Chris! Anything w/that much color has to be good!! I could eat the photo!! xo ~~ally
Oh wow, that looks amazing! I will definitely be giving this dish a try 🙂
I rarely repeat recipes, but this one I will make again and again! I used a whole chicken butterflied and subbed a few other ingredients based on what I had on hand, but it got rave reviews from my not-easily-impressed husband and my two young kiddos. Thanks so much!
Very cool! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment and your results. It is one of my favorite chicken dishes EVER!
I followed over from Monique's post 🙂 This is both such a beautiful presentation and the ingredients sound so delicious!
I actually made this recipe the day after I saw the photo on Pinterest. It is all that and more! I used a can of can of chick peas and a can of can of canellini beans and it was fine. I sliced the tomatoes in half and had to stop myself from eating all of them right out of the oven because they were loaded with flavor. One thing I didn't like was I used the skin on breasts (and I agree they produce a moister chicken) but I don't eat the skin so I think a lot of flavor gets tossed. Also, the next day, the pan was gelatinous, which leads me to believe there was a lot of fat. Next time, and there will absolutely be a next time(!!), I think I'll use boneless/skinless, rub the spices on them, and layer the tomatoes and lemons on top to keep them moist.
I had to wing the couscous because you haven't posted it yet!! I just put olive oil, fresh lemon juice, finely chopped parsley and S&P. It was excellent but I'd love to hear your version.
Thanks so much for sharing, this is a keeper!!
I'd love to, just tell me how! I didn't know what most of the other profile options meant so I went with annonymous! I have two pics of my version, straight out of the oven! I'd be happy to share!
Oh, thanks so much for getting back to me about your results. I love hearing from people like you! Also love your version, that's what's so fun to me about cooking; the end product can be totally unique, even if you're following someone else's recipe. And thanks for reminding me about the couscous, sometimes I'm such a flea brain, maybe because I always have a zillion culinary ideas swirling and twirling! I will post the couscous, might take just a little bit before we can get photos but I have to say, your version sounds wonderful! Do you want to do a guest post? 🙂
How fun, why don't you send me your photos and we'll add an addendum to the end of the post with your version and your photos.
Hi! I'm making this now with some black cherry tomatoes from my patio plants and can't wait for dinner! To the person who commented about the gelatinous quality of the leftovers I would like to point out that this is more likely from the albumin...a form of protein and not from fat. It makes a delicious stock so don't throw it out! The hard, white film on top of the gelatin is the fat. Skim that stuff off!
Thanks Wendy!
Fantastic. I made this yesterday and when everyone came home for dinner all I heard was " Wow, something smells terrific". It was delicious!
This is such a pretty spring or summer chicken dinner. I make chicken pretty often and I'm trying this one this weekend!
This recipe in our opinion s perfect for entertaining. Looks simple and you are not slaving over the stove for a long time...
This recipe in our opinion s perfect for entertaining. Looks simple and you are not slaving over the stove for a long time...
Your photos are beautiful Chris! Reminds me of a meal I might enjoy somewhere in the south of France..maybe with a small glass of chilled Rose??!! I love the way your blog gets my imagination going---thanks for your inspiration and wonderful recipes;-) ps. the chicken looks amazingly good!!!
Chris, what a fantastic presentation - I read through the original recipe and your changes and your version sound so fabulous that I feel I should serve this for lunch this week! I just have to try out your version of this recipe as it not only looks and sounds delicious but I also really appreciate the fact that it can be prepared in advance! Glorious photography too!
I cannot wait to make this and your photos are stunning:-)
Happy Mother's Day, Chris! As usual, I am in awe of your beautiful photos! Mediterranean roasted chicken breasts - yes please! So tasty...
our butchers here also will help to cut the meat off the bone, thank god cos i'm really not good in doing that. Pita is a wonderful idea too!
Most of my recipes evolve over time - so much fun to change things! This recipe looks like a keeper. And as you say, it's an easy dish. I'd probably not debone the breasts, just because I think the bone adds a bit of flavor. But you're right that it's a bit messy to eat. Good stuff - thanks.
I'm always looking for new and interesting ways to make chicken breasts and this looks like a fantastic one! Thanks for sharing with us. 🙂
This is such a stunning looking dish and it sounds so delicious! Thanks so much for sharing this, I will definitely be saving this recipe!
I love when people take the time to tweak a recipe over and over again - since that is when it is almost perfect. This looks REALLY delicious! I am having a dinner party next week and this might make an appearance. Smile.
Oh, what a killer meal! Fantastic presentation...and it can't be anything less than incredibly delicious. Bill would do better with canellini beans, too. I think you've tweaked it to please our family, too. Wishing you a very happy Mother's Day!!! xo
What a delicious and beautiful dinner! I love the Mediterranean flavors and know that this dish will be gracing our table soon!!
I would definitely switch out the beans as well. This looks so delicious and I am usually not a fan of chicken breasts.
This looks delicious and I'm putting it on the menu for this coming week, but what I'm really interested in is that pan you have it in and the knife you have next to it. I just found you on Pinterest and I think I'm going to love your blog, especially if you continue to make dishes like this and present such awesome cooking tools. May I ask the names of the pan and the knife?
Thanks!
Kim
Thank you so much. That was a great find...both the pan AND the husband!
A one dish meal? Healthy? Delicious leftovers? Sold!
this is such a beautiful dish! I love the flavors - ohh I'd love this for dinner tonight!
Mary x
That is perfect for guests and it's a stunning dish to look at too! I like that you can get it ready early and later just pop it into the oven...my kind of dish! Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Mother's day!
MMM!!! Now this is a meal worthy of guests. Or, the cover of Bon Appetite magazine, for that matter. I'm loving the ingredients, especially the sriracha. My current obsession. And with my love of avocado, that yogurt sauce if the perfect finish!! Definitely putting this on my to do list.
Okay, today you have really outdone your self. What a great dish.
A wonderful summer dish, Chris. The photos are fantastic!
I will be trying this one. Sounds right up my alley.
Your dish is so pretty! Love all the flavors in it and the additon of the beans! Perfect dish!! Have a wonderful Mother's Day weekend!
Chris: What a vivid, beautiful, appetizing dish!!! I so wish I could pick that fork up and eat this delish dish...Wishing you a very happy Mother's Day.
What a pretty dish Chris! I can almost taste the leftovers wrapped in warm pita for lunch. Aren't leftovers the best?!
Chris, this is totally my type of dish - make it once and you can have two meals with it. Love ot! I also pfer to roast the chicken bone in and skin on, so much mor flavourful. Gotta try this soon.
This looks like it should be served at a big family table in Greece! Gorgeous..
This looks soooo good. I tried to get the Printable Recipe, but for some reason it won't work for me - all I get is the recipe title - no harm though, as I've cut and pasted.
Everything about this is so pretty, and I love the beautiful way you have presented it. By the way, KFC has started serving boneless chicken. We tried some today because we had a coupon for a free dinner. It's AWFUL! Their regular chicken is much better.
That is a blockbuster meal, Chris. I love big beautiful platter arrangements like this, it looks like a work of art. I'll definitely give it a try, and in the meantime, it's headed for my Beautiful Food Pinterest Board 🙂
This look really delicious!!
I will try this recipe for sure Chris, it looks perfect for a spring meal!!!!! I do agree with you, chicken breast with skin on are perfect for roasting!
Chris, It must be so fun to eat at your house. Happy Mother's Day, friend.
Fondly,
Glenda
It looks beautiful and sounds so good! Wow! and it's an easy dish too! Winner for sure!
Wow, this looks great! I have no doubt it's loaded with lots of flavor and I LOVE your cast iron pan-too fun:@)
It looks easy to put on the table, as well as delectable.
I love your presentation, Chris! This looks like a must-try recipe with all my favorite things :).