Spiced Chicken with Olives and Lemon is super healthy and a quick weeknight meal full of flavor that everyone will love.
Weeknights can get crazy hectic in our house, and sometimes it’s a struggle to get dinner on the table. These are the times I love having one-pan dinners that can be whipped up in no time. Spiced Chicken with Olives and Lemons is exactly what I’m looking for on a busy weeknight. The bonus? Little to no clean up which is my kind of recipe.
It all comes together in one pan. It’s sweet from the caramelized onions, tangy from the lemon juice, and it gets a briney punch from the olives. Chloe and Gemma could and would eat an entire jar of olives in one sitting, so for my girls, I’ve included an entire jar in this recipe. (I just have to make sure I have extra on hand for her to munch on!) As soon as my kids see them they beg to open the container to line their fingers up with olives to munch on as I cook.
If you haven’t yet tasted castelvetrano olives, this is the perfect time to try them. They’re gorgeous bright green and taste like the best parts of a green olive and a black olive mixed together. This dish is perfect on its own, but also goes great with some crusty bread, perfect brown rice, or pasta. If you like a different type of olive don’t be shy. You can mix and match a variety of olives that you love or stick with our family favorite which are super meaty and add a ton of flavor in every single bite.
If you make this recipe, I’d love to see it! Tag @weelicious on social media. And tell me what you think of the olives if this is your first time trying them!
Photos by Gerry Speirs
Spiced Chicken with Olives and Lemon
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large onion, halved, thinly sliced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 teaspoon salt, divided
- 2 lemons, 1 cut into 8 wedges quartered and deseeded and one juiced
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 15 ounce can low-sodium chicken broth
- 4 chicken breasts, boneless and skinless
- 1 10 ounce jar Castelvetrano Olives, pitted and reserving all the juice
Instructions
- Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat, add onion and garlic, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt and saute until golden, about 4-5 minutes.
- 2. Add the juice of one lemon and next 5 ingredients; stir 1 minute. Add broth and reserved olive juice and bring to boil.
- Sprinkle chicken with remaining 1/2 tsp salt add to skillet. Add the remaining 8 lemon wedges and olives. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 25-35 minutes or until chicken is cooked through, turning occasionally. Transfer chicken to platter and serve.
Wow wow wow! This quick dinner was a huge hit with the whole fam! My 2 and 4 year old and hubby gobbled it up (they already love castlevetrano olives thanks to Weelicious’s skillet chicken breast, olives and tomatoes that I started making 2 years ago). I added some dried apricots and served over TJ’s rice medley for some healthy grains (also super quick). Thank you for continuing to deliver not only healthy but super tasty recipes for my whole family to enjoy!!!!
This was delicious and so easy.
I hope you love it!
Looks fabulous! Can’t wait to try!
Just ate dinner and I can tell that the dish has some great flavors but it was so bitter from being cooked with the lemon wedges that it was inedible. Did I misread the recipe or is there a trick for this? I would definitely make it again, but would not cook with the lemon wedges in it.
The recipe has been updated. Simmer 25-35 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through!
Is something supposed to happen between simmering for 10 minutes and cooking it for 25 minutes until the chicken is done? I’m making it now and it smells great. Will just keep checking it to see when the chicken is done.
I found the Castelvetrano olives in the olive bar at my regular grocery store. Just be sure to get some juice too. They’re much less “olive-y” then the pimento stuffed, but as an olive lover I would try it with whatever you can get!
oops I meant pimento stuffed.
You could use any olives you love, they will just have a different flavor 🙂
Has anyone tried this with pamento stuffed olives?? can’t find the other ones at my regular grocery store…