Some evenings call for something that tastes good, fills you up and leaves you with one tray to wash. This is that dinner. Chicken thighs soak up a quick lemon, garlic and oregano marinade, the potatoes roast until the edges are golden and crisp, and a cool yoghurt and mint dip brings it all together.
It uses everyday ingredients you will find in any UK supermarket, and there is a chickpea version further down if you would rather keep it meat-free.
- Serves: 4
- Preparation time: 15 minutes
- Cooking time: 40 to 45 minutes with chicken, or 35 to 40 minutes with chickpeas (plus time for the oven to heat up)
These timings are a guide. This recipe has not yet been tested in our own kitchen, and every oven is different, so go by the checks in the method rather than the clock.
Ingredients
For the traybake
- 750g baby new potatoes
- 600g skinless, boneless chicken thigh fillets (about 8)
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 unwaxed lemon
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 large red onion (about 150g)
- 1 large courgette (about 250g)
- Salt and black pepper
For the yoghurt dip
- 200g fat-free Greek-style yoghurt
- 80g cucumber (about a quarter)
- 10g fresh mint (a small handful), chopped
- 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
- 1 tsp lemon juice, from the lemon above
- A pinch of salt
Method
- Heat the oven and start the potatoes. Heat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan, gas 7). Halve the potatoes, or quarter any large ones, and pat them dry with a clean tea towel. Toss them with 1 tbsp of the olive oil and a pinch of salt, then spread them out on a large roasting tray, cut side down. Roast for 15 minutes.
- Marinate the chicken. While the potatoes roast, finely grate the zest of the lemon into a bowl, then add 2 tbsp of its juice, the remaining 1 tbsp of olive oil, the crushed garlic, oregano, smoked paprika, a pinch of salt and plenty of black pepper. Add the chicken thighs and turn them until coated. Do not wash the raw chicken. Wash your hands, the chopping board and anything else that touched the raw chicken with hot soapy water before you move on.
- Prepare the vegetables. Cut the red onion into eight wedges and the courgette into thick half-moons.
- Bring it together. Take the tray out of the oven and turn the potatoes. Push them towards the edges, then lay the chicken thighs in the middle, flat and spaced apart, with the onion and courgette tucked around them. Spoon any marinade left in the bowl over the chicken only. Return the tray to the oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until the potatoes are golden and crisp and the chicken is cooked through.
- Check the chicken is cooked. Cut into the thickest piece. It should be steaming hot all the way through, with no pink meat, and any juices should run clear. If it is not there yet, return the tray to the oven for 5 minutes and check again.
- Make the dip. While the tray is in the oven, coarsely grate the cucumber, squeeze out as much liquid as you can with your hands, then stir it into the yoghurt with the mint, grated garlic, 1 tsp of lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Keep it in the fridge until you are ready to eat.
- Serve. Squeeze over a little of the remaining lemon if you like, and serve straight away with the dip on the side.
Total oven time for the chicken version: 15 minutes for the potatoes on their own, then 25 to 30 minutes with everything together, so 40 to 45 minutes.
For properly crispy potatoes
- Dry them well. Surface water steams the potatoes instead of roasting them.
- Give them space. If the tray is crowded, use two trays. Crowded potatoes steam and go soft.
- Cut side down, and leave them alone. The flat side touching the hot tray is where the crisp crust forms, so turn them once, not repeatedly.
- Keep the marinade off the potatoes. The lemon juice softens the crust, which is why it goes on the chicken only.
- For extra colour, move the tray to the top shelf for the final 5 minutes, keeping an eye on it.
Prefer it meat-free? Make it with chickpeas
Swap the chicken for 2 x 400g tins of chickpeas (most 400g tins drain to about 240g; check yours). Drain and rinse them, then pat them as dry as you can with a clean tea towel, because dry chickpeas crisp and wet ones steam. Toss them in the same lemon, garlic, oregano, paprika and oil marinade from step 2.
What changes in the method:
- Step 2: marinate the chickpeas instead of the chicken. There is no raw chicken to handle, so the hand-washing and board-washing steps for raw chicken do not apply.
- Step 4: spread the chickpeas in a single layer around the vegetables, and roast for 20 to 25 minutes instead of 25 to 30, giving the tray a shake halfway through so they colour evenly.
- Step 5 does not apply. The chickpeas are ready when they are golden and slightly crisp at the edges, the vegetables are tender and the potatoes are crisp.
- Total oven time: 15 minutes for the potatoes, then 20 to 25 minutes with the chickpeas, so 35 to 40 minutes.
- For a dairy-free dip, use a plant-based yoghurt alternative.
Prefer to watch first?
If it helps to see the idea in action, RecipeTin Eats has a short video of a similar one-pan dish: Mediterranean baked chicken with lemon, garlic and potatoes (YouTube, about 1 minute 20 seconds). It is not our recipe, so the ingredients and timings are different. Follow the method above for this version, and always check the chicken is steaming hot all the way through, with no pink meat, before serving.
Leftovers
Cool any leftovers, cover them and put them in the fridge within one to two hours. Eat them within 48 hours, and when you reheat them, make sure they are steaming hot throughout and only reheat them once.
Allergens
Contains milk (yoghurt). Always check the labels of the products you buy for other allergens.
This recipe is general healthy-eating information, not personal dietary or medical advice. If you have a medical condition, a food allergy or are following a diet set by a healthcare professional, check with them before making changes to what you eat.
Sources
- Food Standards Agency, Campylobacter: advice on handling and cooking chicken (GOV.UK, published 9 January 2018)
- Food Standards Agency, Student guide to food safety and hygiene (GOV.UK, last updated 8 July 2026)
