After a long day on the grind, you probably crave a wholesome homemade meal, but you don’t want to slave away in the kitchen all night. I’m obsessed with cooking, but I too just want to unwind after work, watch Jimmy Fallon and play with my energetic toddler.
This one-pot lemon chicken meal has saved me so much time, yet satisfies our starving appetites in 30 minutes or less. I feel like a Rachel Ray commercial, but once you make this dish a few times, you’ll have dinner down like a boss. Grab the biggest skillet you’ve got and let’s get going my friend!
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This meal is A+ because it’s got lean protein from the chicken breast, hearty red potatoes, fresh mushrooms and crispy green beans. I always like to serve a balance of protein, carbohydrates, and vegetables to make sure we are getting all of the nutrients we need.
If you’re looking for more quick recipes, then you can try my fifteen-minute miso salmon and teriyaki chicken vegetable bowls are a few of my other favorite go-to weekday meals.
Okay, so I fibbed a teeny tiny bit. You actually need another pot to cook the potatoes while you saute the chicken. The potatoes don’t need a lot of attention, so we’ll just still count it as one pot, agreed? Alright, hehe.
Check out that beautiful color in the chicken! Sizzling hot olive oil in a saute pan creates a lovely golden brown color and texture. Just fight the urge to move the chicken during the first sear. Simply let it cook and work it’s magic in the pan. The chicken should easily release from the pan after about 6 to 7 minutes. Don’t touch!
Three things elevate the flavor level and happy belly rating on this dish. Fresh thyme adds beautiful aromas and infuses flavor into the chicken and vegetables. Sliced lemon simmers in the sauce, and the tartness mellows out. I like to serve this dish with the cooked lemon slices and squeeze it on top of the chicken.
Lastly but most importantly, the milk, flour, and broth mixture create a creamy sauce right in the pan. Combine that with all of the yummy juices from the chicken, herbs, and lemon together. Boom! Flavor paradise.
The sauce gets poured over everything, licking the plate clean may happen so watch out. I can’t wait to hear what you think of this easy one-pot lemon chicken recipe. Leave a comment so we can chat and send virtual high fives to each other!
How do you create a pan sauce?
By mixing flour, milk, broth, and the olive oil in a pan, you have the makings of a roux based sauce. A basic roux is equal parts flour and fat and then dispersed in the liquid ingredients. As the flour absorbs the liquid and heats up, it swells and thickens within minutes, creating a rich pan sauce. Just make sure to whisk the sauce to remove any clumps as it’s simmering. Add more liquid if the sauce becomes too thick. Always taste the sauce before you serve and season as needed!
One-Pot Lemon Chicken with Vegetables
Ingredients
- 1 pound baby red potatoes, halved
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- 24 ounces boneless chicken breast, (four 6-ounce pieces) skinless, halves, 3/4-inch thick
- 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground, plus more for seasoning
- paprika, ground, for seasoning
- 3 sprigs thyme, plus 1 tablespoon chopped
- 4 ounces brown mushrooms, quartered
- 1/4 cup whole milk
- 5 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1 3/4 cups unsalted chicken stock
- zest of 1 lemon, then cut into 8 very thin lemon slices
- 8 ounces green beans, trimmed, (1 package)
- 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, chopped fresh
Instructions
- Place cut potatoes in a medium saucepan
- Add water 1-inch above potatoes, and add 1 teaspoon salt.
- Bring to a boil, and simmer 12 minutes or until tender. Drain.
- Heat a large skillet or pan over medium-high heat. Add 1 tablespoon oil.
- Sprinkle chicken on both sides with salt, pepper, and paprika.
- Add chicken and thyme sprigs to pan; cook 6 minutes or until chicken is browned. Turn chicken over and reduce heat to medium.
- Cook for 7 minutes or until chicken is no longer pink inside (reaches an internal temperature of 165°F).
- Remove chicken from pan and transfer to a plate to rest. Discard thyme sprigs.
- Return pan to medium-high heat.
- Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil.
- Add potatoes (cut sides down), mushrooms and 1 tablespoon chopped thyme. Cook 3 minutes or until browned, and then stir.
- Combine milk and flour in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk.
- Add flour mixture, ½ teaspoon salt, ¼ teaspoon pepper and stock to the pan.
- Simmer over medium-high heat for about 1 minute, whisking sauce to thicken and remove any lumps formed.
- Add lemon zest, lemon slices, and beans to pan; simmer 1 minute.
- Add chicken, cover and reduce heat to medium. Simmer 3 minutes or until beans are crisp-tender.
- Sprinkle with parsley.
Recipe Video
Notes
- You can substitute cashew, almond, soy or coconut milk for the dairy if you are avoiding cow's milk. Using all chicken broth also works, it will just be less creamy.
- Use gluten-free flour if you are avoiding wheat flour.
- Sweet potatoes are a great substitute for red potatoes.
- You can steam instead of boil the potatoes until form tender.
Great recipe! I followed it as close as possible, but replaced milk with almond milk, due to an allergy. It came out fine. I also removed the potatoes before the final step to accommodate kiddos not wanting their food “all mixed up”:). This is going into the “rotation”!
Thank you so much for your feedback! I’m glad to hear that the substitution worked out well and the family enjoyed the meal 🙂
Since we are avoiding gluten and dairy in our household, I will substitute with rice flour (Mochiko). Will keep you posted on how it turns out! Excited to try this recipe! Thanks for sharing Jessica 🙂
I can’t wait to hear how it goes for you Dashy! Thank you for your comment 🙂
I needed something quick and easy to make for an impromptu dinner with the inlaws on a weeknight. Once again Jessica Gavin saves the day with a super tasty meal. My inlaws and husband raved about flavor and simplicity of this dish. The chicken was juicy and full of flavor and the fresh green beans and potatoes gave it those elements of comfort food we all love without breaking the calorie bank. Looking forward to working this into my go to weeknight recipes – we are one busy family and sometimes the last thing I want to do after being at school all day is cook. Thanks again Jessica!
Thank you Cristina for the lovely comment, it made my day! It’s a pleasure to share my recipes with my friends and know that they enjoyed it 🙂
This skin on the chicken looks absolutely perfect! wow!
Thanks Ahu! The best part is there is no skin, just lots of yummy spices on the chicken breast so it’s extra yummy and healthy 🙂
Very delicious, this will definitely be on the menu again. However, it took longer to cook than indicated. Next time I will use frozen cut string beans, instead of fresh, because what took so long was getting the beans to cook, or maybe zapping them in the MW, before adding them to the pot would help.
I’m so happy that you liked the chicken recipe Barbara! Did you cover the pan when you were cooking the beans? Maybe cutting them into smaller pieces, or pre-cooking in the microwave or blanching them as you suggested are great ideas 🙂
Yes, I did cover it and cut each beans into 4 or 5 pieces. In our area you can only buy fresh beans in bulk, so you have to trim them yourself. So that also added to the prep time, but I know what to do next time! Thanks for the yummy recipe and answering me so quickly.
No problem Barbara! I appreciate your feedback 🙂
Hi Jessica! This was an easy, delicious, healthy recipe my family loved!!! It’s not always easy to pull together a well balanced meal that tastes this good in 30 minutes. You’re a genius!
Nancy
Nancy you made me so HAPPY! It’s so great to hear that you had success with the recipe and your family loved it, so important! Thank you for taking the time to make the recipe and share you comment 🙂
I love this recipe! I’ve finally mastered it. I also replaced the green beans with rainbow carrots.
Great job Karla! I love the addition of the rainbow carrots 🙂
I used fresh asparagus instead of green beans and it turned out fantastic.
Great idea to use asparagus! I’ll have to give it a try 🙂
Hi Jessica ! Thank you for sharing this delicious lemon chicken with vegetables recipe. Can I use vegetable oil instead of olive oil also any substitue for brown mushrooms ? Thanks and waiting for your reply
Hi Kalpana! Yes you can use vegetable oil instead. I used 1/4 inch sliced carrots instead of mushrooms the other day and it was delicious!
I made this dish over the weekend for Mother’s Day. I added more of each ingredient to feed 6 people. The only change I made that worked well was making a rue first then adding almond milk (due to a dairy sensitive sister) and the lemon zest to make a creamy sauce to drizzle on top. Everyone was happy with the result and I will definitely make this again soon!
Hi Sabrina! Thank you for the feedback, I’m so thrilled to hear that your family enjoyed the meal! Great modifications 🙂
Hi Jessica. I made this last night. It is a keeper. Great recipe! Easy to follow. It tasted like a chef made it. I used frozen string beans but next time I will use fresh string beans and double the amount. Thank you for sharing this recipe.
Yay! That is so great to hear Ed 🙂 Let me know what you think about the recipe with fresh beans.
I came across this recipe while searching online and am so glad I did! Made it tonight and loved it! Youre doing a fantastic job Jessica and the way you and your husband have set up the blog is inspirational. Thank you for sharing your talent!
Thank you SO much for your kind words Staci! Comments like this really motivate me to keep sharing, you made my day! I’m so thrilled you enjoyed the recipe, I can’t wait to share more with you 🙂
My husband isn’t a fan of chicken breasts because he thinks they’re always dry. Well after I made this recipe, he said if chicken breasts would taste like this all the time then he would eat it everyday! Thanks for the recipe, it was a huge hit from my husband all way down to my 18 month old. I used carrots instead of mushrooms.
Ladona you just made my day! I know how hard it is to please everyone, and I’m so glad that you did such a great job recreating the recipe. Cheers!
Made this tonight & it was a hit with everyone. It’s hard to find healthy, good meals. Thanks!
Yay Sgannon! So happy to hear that the meal was a hit!
Loved this recipe. I never would have thought to mix paprika with lemon and it worked SO WELL! My only issue was how long it took those damn potatoes to start boiling lol otherwise it would have taken the half hour you mentioned! Perfect portions for my significant other & me since we always take the leftovers for work. This will be going into our regular rotation, thank you so much!
Thank you Katie! Yes, sometimes those stubborn spuds just don’t want to cook fast enough. So happy to hear that you enjoyed the recipe 🙂
Made this for dinner tonight. Loved the complete meal aspect of this recipe. The chicken browned beautifully. Had parsley and thyme growing in my garden. The flavors were so bright and clean. The ingredients were diet conscious friendly. The chicken was moist. Will make this again because I got rave reviews from husband. Another winner Jessica.
Yay Maria! I love that you add your own garden herbs, I’m sure it was amazing! So happy that everyone enjoyed the meal 🙂
I made this last night. The chicken was phenomenal but the vegetables and sauce were EXTREMELY lemony to the point that it was hard to eat. I only used one small lemon and sliced it into about 5 slices. I reread the instructions this morning and I added them at the correct time and cooked even a few minutes longer than suggested and still the tartness was too much to handle. Any suggestions?
Hi Candace- Thank you for your feedback! I would perhaps serve the lemon on the side for each person to add if cooking with the vegetables was too strong. You could also add just a few slices to back off on the lemon flavor. You’ll get some aromas of the zest without the acidity if you don’t add any/as many lemon slices. I hope this helps!
Tried this today. Came out very well. I used fresh mint and some oregano instead of thyme (latter not easily available in my country) and used sweet potatoes and carrots instead if mushroom.. Came out really good. Thanks!
Thank you for your feedback Richa!
Sounds delicious. Going to make this weekend for my 91 and 89 year old neighbors. I’m hoping they like like the variety of meat and vegetables. For me anything with lemon is wonderful. It brightens up everything! I’ll let you know how it goes!
All I can say is, “Wow!” And thank you. We have two VERY picky eaters, and it’s almost impossible to find something that everyone likes. This dish was an absolute hit! I substituted broccoli b/c I didn’t have green beans. Still delicious, and I can’t wait to try it with green beans next time. We’ll definitely add this into our meal rotation.