Baked Citrus Chicken with Herbs

This citrus baked chicken recipe is so flavorful and easy to make I think it’s going to quickly become one of your favorite “go-to” recipes.

I love baked chicken recipes like this one because you spend just a few minutes putting it together, then pop it in the oven. Once it’s in there, your time is free to get the rest of your meal together.

I love the mix of herbs and citrus in this recipe. The citrus brings the sunshine right into the kitchen, no matter what season you make it. It’s a great recipe to make in the middle of winter, when it just seems like too long ago that the sun was warm on your face.

I often serve this easy chicken recipe garnished with wedges of fresh citrus. I often use orange, grapefruit and lemon sections to add bright color to the plate.

Easy dinner recipes like this one are great to have in your recipe file.

It’s perfect to serve when you have company, but makes a great family dinner too.

What’s in Baked Citrus Chicken?

The original recipe for this baked chicken calls for chicken breasts, but you can substitute a whole chicken, cut into serving pieces, or use all chicken legs and thighs.

I often use chicken thighs for this recipe.

The part of the chicken you use is totally up to you. If you prefer the taste of a certain part of the bird, or legs and thighs are more in your budget than breasts, that’s just fine.

So once we have the chicken parts sorted out, we just need a few more ingredients.

The star of this chicken recipe is the citrus – the lemon and orange juice and the orange rind. They bring so much flavor to the dish and great nutrition.

They also make this recipe quite low in carbohydrates, so this chicken dinner is great for diabetics and those following a lower carb diet.

It’s also totally gluten free, which is what I need nowadays. (What’s going on that so many people are sensitive to gluten?)

I love that versatility in this baked chicken recipe.

The recipe calls for both orange juice and orange zest or rind. When you need to use the rind and the juice of a citrus fruit always grate the rind before you juice the fruit.

It’s far easier to grate the rind while the fruit is full and intact than it is to try to get rind from the squished up skin of the fruit after it has been juiced. And safer for your fingers.

When you zest an orange or other citrus fruit, you are taking off just the colored part of the outside rind. The white pith below it is bitter, so make sure you just get the orange part of the rind. It should look like this:

So 1/2 cup of orange juice goes in, plus 1/2 teaspoon of the grated orange rind. Feel free to put a bit more rind in if you want, but be careful as the rind can be bitter and you don’t want your baked chicken to be bitter.

The next ingredient is lemon juice, which will bring a bit of tartness and lots of bright flavor to the chicken.

Then we come to the herb part of the recipe.

I am a true believer that almost anything tastes better with garlic added, so of course I added some garlic powder to this recipe. You can use chopped fresh garlic if you prefer but the garlic powder does the trick (not garlic salt, which adds too much salt).

Thyme and tarragon bring the herby flavor profile in this recipe. They make a nice mix of herb flavor and both compliment the chicken really well. I used dried herbs here. A little less of the tarragon, because I find it’s a flavor that can take over everything else if you use too much. So just a 1/4 teaspoon flavors the chicken.

Finally we add a bit of paprika. It adds both flavor and a bit of color to the cooking liquid. You can use hot paprika if you like everything hot. I like the regular paprika myself.

Mix all of the seasoning ingredients (juices, zest and herbs) together in a small bowl and pour it over the chicken pieces that have been placed on a large baking dish.

I would use a glass baking dish or a ceramic one for this one because of the acidic nature of the lemon and orange juices. You can also use enamelware, which I love to cook with.

Just pop it in the oven and go ahead with the rest of your meal. The chicken is on it’s way!

How Nutritious is Baked Citrus Chicken?

The answer to that one is simple – It’s pretty darn nutritious.

Of course, local organic is always healthier, but not always available or in the budget.

I try to buy from local food producers whenever I can. Not only are you helping to support the people in your community, but it’s often easier to see how they are producing that food and know the quality you are getting.

That said, you can use any chicken in this easy recipe.

Chicken is a lean protein so many of us make it often. It’s also a bit lighter on the digestive system than some other meats.

The citrus juices used in the recipe bring lots of flavor to this dish but also lots of nutrition. Citrus is a great source of Vitamin C as well as lots of other vitamins and minerals.

Thyme is a herb that has antibacterial, antiseptic and antiviral properties. It is a wonderful herb to use with chicken, whether you use the fresh or dried form. We’re using dried thyme here. I always have thyme in my pantry.

Tarragon is said to help with blood sugar regulation and improved sleep. Those two things are enough for me to try to get more tarragon into my diet.

Paprika is made from dried pepper plants, so it carries the health giving benefits of peppers. It is said to help with vision, lower cholesterol and help with blood sugar regulation. It also has Vitamin E and iron with helps to keep our blood healthy.

So there are a lot of reason to try this really delicious citrus chicken recipe. The taste and easiness alone should have you trying it.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know in the comments section below.

I love using chicken in my meals. It is a low fat, healthy protein, especially if you use free range organic chicken. Even if you don’t (and many of us can’t afford that), chicken is a versatile, easy to cook meat that lends itself to being used in 1000’s of ways for delicious and easy dinner recipes.

Look here for another very easy baked chicken breast recipe, an orange and ginger chicken.

You can browse all of our meat recipes here.

Don’t forget to Sign up here for site updates and never miss a great recipe. (It’s free.)

If you like this recipe, please take a moment to share it on your favorite social media. You can add your comments below. Thanks a lot.