This is a delicious baked Mediterranean chicken dish with a creamy lemon Greek yogurt sauce that's lighter than a sauce made with cream. When life gives you lemons, make this quick and easy one pot meal. Only 6 main ingredients, and the whole family will love it!
Place the chicken (skin-side up) in a cast iron skillet or wide-bottomed pan (oven-proof). Pour the chicken broth, white wine and lemon juice all over the chicken and into the pan and add the thyme. Grind over plenty of salt and pepper.
4 chicken thighs, ¾ cup chicken broth, ½ cup white wine, 1 small lemon, 1 tablespoon fresh thyme, salt and black pepper
Bake for about 40 minutes or until the chicken is browned and cooked through. If you have a meat thermometer, the internal temperature in the thickest part should be 165F/74C.
Transfer the chicken from the pan onto a plate and cover with foil to keep warm.
Stir the yogurt into the remaining juices and any sticky bits left in the pan. Warm through on the stove-top (either in the same pan if it's cast-iron or stove-safe, or transfer to a saucepan).
½ cup Greek yogurt
If the sauce is too thin (it should be around the thickness of gravy), mix 1-2 teaspoons of cornstarch with water and add it to the sauce little by little (you may not need it all). Heat gently until slightly thickened. Alternatively, if the sauce is too thick, add a little more chicken broth to thin it a little and make it pourable. Taste to check seasoning, and add more salt and pepper if necessary.
1-2 teaspoons cornstarch
Add the chicken back into the pan and heat gently for a minute or two longer.
Serve the chicken immediately with your chosen side dish(es), spooning plenty of the lovely sauce over the chicken. Sprinkle with fresh parsley and add lemon wedges on top if you like.
Notes
Pan: A cast iron skillet or wide bottomed pan that you can use both in the oven and on the stove-top is perfect for this recipe. However, if you don’t have anything like this, just bake in a baking dish and then transfer the juices to a saucepan to make the sauce.Chicken: Use smaller skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs if you can find them. Or a mixture of thighs and drumsticks. The recipe is based on 1-2 pieces of chicken per person. One is OK for me with side dishes, but for larger appetites work on the basis of 2 per person.You can use skinless boneless chicken thighs in this recipe, but if you do, reduce the baking time to 20 to 30 minutes (depending on the size of the thighs).Sauce: The thickness of the sauce can vary depending on your oven/which pan you use/how big the chicken parts are. You want the resulting sauce to be of a nice pouring consistency - a bit like gravy. I get the best results using a cast iron skillet and smaller chicken thighs. However, you can get the perfect consistency (pourable like gravy) by thickening with cornstarch or, alternatively, thinning with a little extra chicken broth.Serving ideas: I love this dish with tagliatelle (or another pasta) drizzled with a little olive oil, rice (try Greek rice), potatoes (try parmentier potatoes) or toasted bread with olive oil. To keep the meal simple, I also serve with sautéed frozen green beans, or sautéed frozen broccoli.