This Mediterranean Chicken and rice is an easy one pan recipe, featuring flavorful Mediterranean flavors: juicy chicken is roasted along Greek style lemony garlic rice, providing the perfect balance of flavors and textures.
Chicken and rice or chicken and potatoes is a classic weekend meal here in the Mediterranean. It’s comforting, easy to make and everybody enjoys it.
Traditionally, when following a Mediterranean diet, meat was consumed once or twice a week and usually one of the meals was chicken.
For this recipe, not only will spend very little time in the kitchen as you basically cook the chicken and rice together in the oven, the result is perfectly roasted chicken along with Greek style lemon rice. It is so good!! Prep is minimal as well; the only prep really is a quick browning of the chicken in a pan for a few minutes. That’s it! Then the chicken and the rice are cooked together, with the rice absorbing all the flavors of the ingredients, and it tastes amazing!
One Pan Mediterranean Chicken and Rice Ingredients
Chicken drumsticks or thighs: Skin on, bone in, best choice for juicy meat and delicious chicken. Skinless chicken breast will dry out.
Lemon-Garlic-Oregano: This is the holy trinity of Greek cuisine especially when making chicken. Lemon gives that tangy flavor we all love, garlic the zestiness and flavor and oregano a touch of freshness.
Long grain rice: I do prefer the classic long grain rice for this dish, as you avoid getting a mushy texture. You can also use brown rice, if you do, you should add a bit more water and cook covered for the first 30 minutes.
Extra Virgin Olive Oil: As always, I use olive oil, provides flavor plus the good fats.
Chicken broth: Even though you will get a lot of flavor from the chicken itself, additional chicken broth infuses even more flavor.
How to make One Pan Mediterranean Chicken and Rice
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C)
Coat the chicken drumsticks with a bit of olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Heat a pan and brown the chicken for about 2 minutes on each side. Add the lemon juice from 1 lemon and sauté for 1 more minute until lemon juice has evaporated. Remove the chicken from the from pan and set aside.
In a 3 qt baking dish (about 13 x 9 inch or 32 x 22 cm), place the uncooked rice, add the garlic, bay leaf, lemon slices, lemon juice,2 tsp oregano, 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 2 ¼ cups of chicken broth. Stir gently. Place the chicken drumsticks on top.
Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove foil, and continue baking for about 20-30 minutes more, until rice is done, and chicken is cooked through. Serve.
*Note you can serve it in the pan you roasted it in, here I transferred it to a round serving dish.
Best Tips for making One Pan Mediterranean Chicken and Rice
- Use the right size pan, if you use a larger one, the rice is spread out more and dry out. If you don’t have a larger pan, bake longer covered with aluminum foil (about 40 minutes).
- Check water levels, if rice is drying out add 2-3 tbsp of hot water at a time.
- Use whole pieces of chicken (either chicken legs or chicken thighs) for a moist, juicy chicken.
Storage and Reheating
- To store: Store chicken and rice in the refrigerator in a covered for up to 3 days.
- To freeze: Freeze for up to 2 months
- For reheating: Thaw and then reheat in the oven at 350 F (175 C), covered for about 30 minutes.
More Mediterranean Chicken Recipes
Authentic Greek Lemon Roasted Chicken and Potatoes – A classic Greek favorite
One-Pot Greek Chicken and Peas: Kotopoulo me Araka – A Complete meal in one pot
Chicken Cooked in Tomato Sauce-Kotopoulo Kokkinisto – Warm and comforting stewed chicken
Quick and Easy Authentic Chicken Souvlaki in the Oven – Recreate this favorite at home!
The Ultimate and Authentic Avgolemono Soup -Creamy Greek Lemon Chicken Soup – The best chicken soup
Quick Sautéed Lemon and Garlic Chicken – Inspired by Spanish tapas, this is delicious!
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One Pan Mediterranean Chicken and Rice (Quick and Easy)
Ingredients
- 6 about 1 ½ pounds or 700 g chicken drumsticks or chicken thighs skin on, bone in
- 4-5 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- Juice from 2 lemons
- 1 cup long grain rice
- 1 garlic clove cut in 4 pieces
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 tsp oregano
- 2 ¼ cup chicken broth
- Garnish
- A few lemon slices optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C)
- Coat the chicken legs with a bit of olive oil (about 1 tbsp) and season with salt and pepper. Heat a pan and brown the chicken for about 2 minutes on each side. Add the lemon juice from 1 lemon and sauté for 1 more minute until lemon juice has evaporated. Remove the chicken from the from pan and set aside.
- In a 3 qt baking dish (about 13 x 9 inch or 32 x 22 cm), place the uncooked rice, add the garlic, bay leaf, lemon slices, lemon juice, 2 tsp oregano, 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and 2 ¼ cups of chicken broth. Stir gently.
- Place the chicken legs on top. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes, remove foil, and continue baking for about 20-30 minutes more, until rice is done, and chicken is cooked through.
- Serve.
Notes
Storage and Reheating
- To store: Store chicken and rice in the refrigerator in a covered container for up to 3 days.
- To freeze: Freeze for up to 2 months
- For reheating: Thaw and reheat in the oven at 350 F (175 C), covered for about 30 minutes.
15 Comments
This will work with brown basmati rice?
This turned out great, rice was cooked perfectly. Didnt expect it to be so easy.
I’m hoping to try this for tonight’s dinner! Do you have the nutritional information for this recipe?
Thank you!
did you find the nutritional informaion?
How did you find the nutritional information for this recipe? Thank you!
Haven’t tried the recipe yet, but would like to try it. I’m diabetic and watch my carb and fat intake. Do you have that info about this recipe?
Made this last night but I used boneless skinless thighs. Because of what type chicken I used I kept the foil on longer so as to not dry out the chicken and cooked it less time without the foil. Turned out marvelous!!
I made this today. I did modify a bit, using a lot less olive oil. It was absolutely delicious. The chicken was very juicy and the rice had the consistency of risotto. Very easy and sooo good!
This sounds great! Any recommendations on doubling it to serve a family? What size pan would you recommend, and should I extend the cooking time? Thanks.
Yes, you can use the same pan if it oven proof.
Had all the ingredients and made it yesterday. It turned out beautifully!
I have the same question as Dolly above. Could I use one or two chicken
breasts in place of the dark meat? Also, the recipe says to use whole pieces of chicken so I’m assuming bone in, skin on?
Hi, yes, bone in, skin on (will clarify that in the recipe). As noted the chicken may come out dry with other cuts.
Would this still turn out the same if I use Chicken strips or breasts? Some family members don’t like the legs and thighs.
You could try it, but the chicken may turn out dry and will not release the same juices as the legs and thighs.