Garlic Lovers’ Baked Chicken

This Garlic Lovers Baked Chicken recipe is easy to prepare, baked with a delicious lemon-butter sauce, and made with 40 — yes forty! — cloves of roasted garlic. It’s also naturally gluten-free, and SO delicious.

Fellow garlic lovers! ?

I have a new recipe to add to our delicious little collection today. Because while we’ve got a good thing going with my favorite garlicky salmon, shrimp and spaghetti recipes here on the blog, I realized the other day that we were missing a recipe with the #1 most requested ingredient here at Gimme Some Oven.

Chicken!

Literally tens of thousands of you have made and loved my foolproof recipe for tender and juicy Baked Chicken Breasts, and are often requesting new variations to try. So today’s recipe seemed like a win-win for my chicken and garlic lovers all around. It’s quick and easy to prep (especially if you buy some pre-peeled garlic cloves), it’s baked up with a heavenly lemon-butter sauce, it’s naturally free of dairy and gluten, and — get ready — because this recipe is fabulously garlicky.

Garlic Lovers’ Baked Chicken Recipe | 1-Minute Video

Actually, I was extra-excited to post this recipe because I’ve always wanted to do a riff on the classic “Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic” recipe, which I’ve made and loved for years. But instead of babysitting a skillet on the stove, this recipe requires that you simply roast everything together in one big baking dish in the oven. Which means less prep time for you, yet still an ultra delicious dish for everyone to enjoy.

Here’s how to make it!

To begin, brine your chicken breasts in a bowl of saltwater while you whip up the sauce. This will keep them extra juicy and tender while baking.

Then while the chicken is brining, whisk together some white wine, melted butter, lemon juice and thyme for your sauce. And as you can see, I’m once again using my favorite little Land O Lakes® Salted Butter in Half Sticks here. They’re the perfect size for this recipe (4 tablespoons). And with so few ingredients in this simple sauce, good-quality butter really does make a big difference in the flavor here, so I highly recommend it. ?

Once the sauce is ready, toss it together with all of that delicious garlic. Then pour the garlic and sauce into a baking pan with the chicken breasts, and nestle the garlic around the chicken so that the garlic is not sitting directly on top of it. (<– Otherwise, it will burn more easily.) Season the whole pan with some salt and pepper, and pop it in the oven to roast until the chicken is cooked through and the garlic is nice and tender. Just keep a close eye on the garlic cloves so that they do not burn. (And if they do start to get a little browned, just flip them over a bit.)

Once the chicken is ready to go, remove the pan from the oven and let the dish rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

Then sprinkle with your desired toppings…and serve!

Feel free to keep things simple with just some chopped fresh parsley sprinkled on top…

…or go big by also adding on some freshly-grated Parmesan and crushed red pepper flakes. (I kind of went big with the pepper flakes. ?)  I also highly recommend an extra sprinkle of fresh lemon juice before serving, just to liven things up a bit.

Also, if you’d like a creamier sauce, feel free to remove the chicken and then stir a half cup of heavy cream into the sauce, which I tried once and tasted sooo wonderfully decadent.

I served my chicken over pasta with our family’s favorite artichoke salad on the side plus some roasted asparagus. But it would also be delicious with rice, quinoa, potatoes or crusty bread, and whatever salad or veggies you happen to have on hand.

However you serve the chicken, though, just don’t forget to load it up with some of those tender cloves of roasted garlic, and drizzle it with a few spoonfuls of that heavenly lemon-butter sauce. That sauce is a must.

Oh, plus maybe a few mints after dinner. ?

Enjoy, everyone!

(This post contains affiliate links.)

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Garlic Lovers Baked Chicken

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.6 from 7 reviews

• Prep Time: 12 minutes
• Cook Time: 18 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 4 servings 1x

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Description

This Garlic Lovers Baked Chicken recipe is quick and easy to prepare, it’s baked in the oven with a delicious lemon-butter sauce, and it’s made with 40 cloves of garlic that are roasted to perfection. Feel free to serve with pasta, rice, quinoa, or whatever sounds delicious.

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Ingredients

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• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, that have been pounded to even thickness and brined in saltwater (*see easy instructions below)
• 1/3 cup dry white wine
• 4 tablespoons salted butter, melted (I used Land O Lakes® Salted Butter in Half Sticks)
• 2 tablespoons freshly-squeezed lemon juice
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves
• 40 whole cloves garlic
• Kosher salt and freshly-cracked black pepper
• optional toppings: finely-chopped fresh parsley, freshly-grated Parmesan cheese, crushed red pepper flakes, lemon slices

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Instructions

1. *To brine your chicken breasts, simply fill a large bowl with 1 quart of warm water and 1/4 cup kosher salt.  Stir to combine until most of the salt is absorbed.  Add the chicken breasts and let them sit in the mixture to brine for 15 minutes.  Or you can also also cover the bowl and refrigerate for up to 6 hours.  Remove the chicken breasts from the brine, rinse them with cold water, then pat them dry with some paper towels.  (Again, though, if your chicken breasts are sold pre-brined in a sodium solution, skip this step.)
2. Heat oven to 450°F.
3. Place the chicken breasts in a single layer in a large baking dish.
4. In a separate large bowl, whisk together the white wine, melted butter, lemon juice and thyme leaves until combined.  Transfer 1 tablespoon of the mixture to a separate small bowl, and set aside.  Add the garlic cloves to the large bowl, and toss until they are evenly coated with the butter mixture.
5. Pour the garlic and butter mixture into the dish with the chicken, and spread the garlic around so that it is nestled around (and not on top of) the chicken breasts.  Pour the reserved tablespoon of the butter mixture evenly on top of the chicken breasts, and brush until they are evenly coated.  Season the chicken generously with salt and pepper.
6. Bake for 15-18* minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through and no longer pink.  If you use a cooking thermometer to measure the temperature thickest part of the breast, it should be between 160-170°F.  (The FDA recommends 165°F.)  *Or, if you want the chicken to be a little bit browned and crispier on top, you can turn the broiler on high for the final 3-5 minutes and broil the chicken until it is cooked through and extra browned on top.  Keep a close eye on the chicken and garlic cloves so that they do not burn.
7. Once the chicken is cooked, remove the pan from the oven and loosely cover the baking dish with aluminum foil.  Let the chicken rest for at least 5-10 minutes.
8. Serve immediately, spooning the extra lemon-butter sauce spooned on top of the chicken, sprinkled with your desired garnishes.

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