Paleo
Dairy Free
Quick MealsThis One Pan Lemon Sage Baked Chicken with Green Olives is a quick healthy recipe to make over and over again. A zesty lemon sage marinade makes for a tender and juicy baked chicken dish! Plus the olives and onions give it a boost of nutrition and flavor! A paleo and whole 30 friendly recipes that’s great by itself or serve with extra veggies, rice, etc.
One Pan Lemon Sage Baked Chicken and Olives. Aka, the most flavorful juicy one pan baked chicken recipe you’ve ever laid eyes on. Or so I like to think. I wish I could just pass you a fork (virtually) so you could taste . One day we will be able to do that. But for now, I will do my best to describe every burst of flavor that saturates this paleo dish.
Let’s begin with an overhead snapshot. Mmmk?
You see, this baked chicken is one of the very few chicken recipes I actually like. If you know me, you know chicken is like the least favorite dishes for me to eat. Not make, to eat. I am picky. So when I DO make chicken, it has to be … what’s the word I am looking for? Um… EPIC. Or it has to be so stinkin’ flavorful that it doesn’t taste like dry bland chicken.
Here are my very picky chicken favorites. Yes, I am allowed to be bias 100%.
- Cranberry Balsamic Roasted Chicken
- Honey Cumin Roasted Chickpea and Chicken
- Drunken Chicken Zoodle Casserole
- Chili Lime Mango Baked Chicken Bowls
- Crock Pot Garlicky Green Chicken and Lentils
- Panko Paprika Crusted Chicken
And as you can see, every chicken recipe listed as some sort of marinade or topping to it. Yep, it’s all because of that saucy sauce (marinade). This One Pan Lemon Sage Baked Chicken and Olives is no different. That zesty lemon sage marinade is so heavenly and refreshing. It’s like Spring flavors “on fleek” and in a bowl. Well, almost spring that is. . so to speak.
Now, let’s dive deep into detail about this springy marinade.
First of all, it’s SOOOOOO easy to make; simple ingredients, paleo and whole 30 friendly without effort. Yea to making food simple and healthy.
Sage leaves, salt, pepper, paprika, onion, mustard (honey or dijon), olive oil, garlic, and lemon!
Blend it all together, pour over skinless chicken thighs or chicken breast, marinate for 15 minutes (or skip), and bake with green olives and extra onion slices! Then garnish with extra sage leaves, because they are so pretty.
Yep, that’s about it.
You’ll get a superfood dish that’s rich in healthy fats, protein, vitamin C, vitamin E, and rich in anti-inflammatory properties.
Fun Nerdy Fact about Sage, Sage tea, and Sage oil. Did you know that research has shown that this beauty of an herb can increase brain performance and concentration? It’s also great for soothing digestion and boosting immunity (source). Ya, all the things I need on a Monday. Would you agree?
Notes about the recipe and lemon sage marinade:
- This marinade is quite tasty on many things! Pork, salmon, veggies, etc. Stay tuned for another lemon sage marinade recipe coming up!
- Serve this baked chicken with roasted veggies, gluten free pasta, spiralized veggie noodles, quinoa, rice, or even broccoli rice.
Okay my little Spring chickens, let’s get cooking. Your new favorite baked Chicken Recipe awaits. And so does my brain power!
One Pan Lemon Sage baked Chicken & Olives
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
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Pin RecipeDescription
One Pan Lemon Sage baked Chicken with Olives is a flavorful paleo dinner ready in under 40 minutes.
Ingredients
For the Lemon Sage Sauce (Marinade)
- 1 to 2 tbsp chopped sage
- 1 tsp grated lemon
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp minced garlic- 2 cloves
- 1 tsp onion powder or 1/4 c chopped yellow onion
- 1/4 to 1/3 c olive oil. If you are using fresh onion, use the 1/3 c oil to blend more evenly
- 1/4 tsp kosher salt or fine sea salt
- Crushed black pepper to taste
- 1/4 tsp paprika – optional for kick of spice
- 1 tbsp dijon mustard or honey mustard
For the Pan:
- 1.15 lbs or 16-17 ounces skinless chicken thighs (see notes if using chicken breast)
- 1 to 2 ounces green olives
- Handful of sliced onion
- Lemon slices to place on chicken
- Black pepper to season on top
- Extra Sage leaves to garnish
- OPTIONAL Vegetable boost – 1 cup chopped vegetable of choice. Toss in 1 tsp oil, pinch of salt/pepper and add to the pan or on separate pan to bake/roast with chicken.
Instructions
- Preheat Oven to 400F.
- First blend your lemon sage marinade. Blend marinade ingredients all together in food processor or blender until a creamy yellow sauce is formed. (see notes doubling recipe).
- Place cleaned/trimmed skinless chicken in large bowl or casserole dish.
- Pour the marinade over the chicken thighs or chicken breast. Place chicken in fridge to marinate 10 to 20 minutes. This is optional but gives it more flavor. If you are using chicken breast, you might want to marinade for 15 to 25 minutes in fridge first.
- Next place all the marinated chicken in an oven safe skillet or keep in a large casserole dish.
- Add your olives and onion slices around the chicken and lemon slices on top of each chicken.
- Season with extra salt/pepper.
- Bake/Roast for 20-25 minutes, checking internal temperature at 20 minutes to see progress. If you are using thick chicken breast, you might have to bake longer.
- Broil last 2-3 minutes to create a crispy outside on the chicken and lemon slices on top.
- Remove and let cool for a few minutes before touching chicken after broiling.
- Serve baked chicken with the marinade and garnish with sage leaves.
Serving suggestions – Feel free to add seasoning os choice, extra veggies, salad, cooked gluten free grain of choice (omit grain for paleo, whole 30 option).
Notes
Depending on the thickness and size of your chicken, the baking times might vary. If you use chicken breast, the cooking time will be closer to 25-30 minutes. Still check at 20 minutes for doneness. If your chicken thighs are larger than the palm of your hand, you can double the marinade and use enough to coat chicken and more. Save the marinade for dressings, dips, etc.
Estimated Nutrition with Marinade: Feel free to skip extra marinade on top when serving. This will reduce the fat content if needed:.
- Category: Dinner
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 ounces
- Calories: 250
- Sugar: 1g
- Fat: 13g
- Saturated Fat: 2g
- Carbohydrates: 2.5g
- Fiber: 1g
- Protein: 25g
- Cholesterol: 80mg
Keywords: baked chicken, paleo, gluten free, low carb
Oh, final tid bits.
Research has shown that burning sage removes a whopping 94% of harmful bacteria in the air. It’s called smudging. Have you heard of this? Haha I dare not attempt it yet, but it does sound enticing for Spring Cleaning. Haha!
Favorite Chicken Marinade?
Cheers!
Hi, I’m Lindsay! Gluten Free Nutrition Specialist, food photographer and author of 
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What a delicious dinner any night of the week!
I’m loving the flavors of this dish Lindsay! On my list!
This looks fantastic! I can’t wait to make it! 🙂
★★★★★
My kinda ingredients in here!! I love a good lemon chicken recipe.
me too friend!
I’m always down for a one pan meal! This looks SO flavorful!
This reminds me of the bean recipe you did, which we LOVED. Pinning to try… I actually pinned it to my new board “Recipes I’m Actually Going to Make.” Not kidding. 🙂
Which bean dip? Haha now I am curious! p.s send me your new address! Do you have one yet?
This looks so incredible and tasty! I so love the addition of the green olives! what a great recipe 🙂
Thanks Albert! Definitely a must make dish!
I have a mild obsession with olives, so gimme!!
Me too friend, me too!
May dis Valentine bless uz wid da cupid of love & warmth of romance.
Happy Valentines Day my dear!
Ryoma.
Thank you so much friend!
I’m totally in love with this meal! Bright, colorful, and tasty!
What a stunning gorgeous dish, and the ingredients sound amazing!
Such a perfect weeknight dinner!
Thank you for your sharing. Thanks to this article I can learn more things. Expand your knowledge and abilities. Actually the article is very practical. Thank you!
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Thanks for sharing.I hope you continue to have such quality articles to share with everyone! I believe there will be many people who share my views when they read this article from you!
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I enjoyed cooking and experimenting with new recipes. I will try the way you suggested. It’s not like I do. thank you for sharing. It will be better than what I do.
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Thanks for your post! I think there are many other people who are interested in them just like me! How long does it take to complete this article? I have read through other blogs, but they are cumbersome and confusing. I hope you continue to have such quality articles to share!
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Thanks for the information your article brings. I see the novelty of your writing, I will share it for everyone to read together. I look forward to reading many articles from you.
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wow, the food is really good, i also want to try this, thank you for sharing.
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Good article and knowledge for me! I found a lot of information here! This article is really good for all newbie here. Thank you for sharing with us!
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Hi! Thanks for sharing. Tastes and smells delicious, however, it took about 45 minutes to reach 160 degrees internal temp.
Flavor is op-ed better if you marinate longer. However, the loooong preamble to the actual recipe is absurd and I don’t think there could be want more ads. Are these really cooking instructions? “Blend it all together, pour over skinless chicken thighs or chicken breast, marinate for 15 minutes (or skip), and bake with green olives and extra onion slices! Then garnish with extra sage leaves, because they are so pretty”. Marinate, or skip??? Breast or thigh?? Those are almost different animals! Cook, or eat raw?
Absurd. Lazy. If you’re going to play foodie, respect your readers, this is just an ad page
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I’m sorry you feel that way Todd. I enjoy what I do and was conveying that message to my readers. It’s a simple recipe that many of them have made and enjoy. I respect your opinion but please do it tactfully.
Hi! Thanks for sharing.
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This turned out great. I like the olives. I used skinless chicken thighs. I served it with corn on the cob and green beans, and the corn was good dipped in the sauce. I will be making this again.
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Oh yay! And I’m so glad you added the extra veggies! Sounds perfect bill ?
I really enjoyed this recipe. I did make a few changes like omitting the olives and salt (a family member has kidney disease so I have to limit sodium). I also used lemon sage from my herb garden and a bit more lemon juice (because I love lemons).
I’d been looking for a recipe that I could use my lemon sage in and this one is a keeper. Thank you
I LOVE the extra lemon…lemon is the best! I’m glad it was a hit for you, thanks for the feedback:)
The chicken is in the oven, and I’m sure it will be great, but the MARINADE! Oh my goodness, I am going to put this on everything! So sage-y and fragrant and awesome. Is there anything in the world that smells as good as lemon zest and sage?? Thank you so much!
Oh i know!! I love that marinade. It’s so good in pasta too!
Really simple recipe, came out great! I had to leave my chicken in a little longer because they were bone in chicken thighs.
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Thanks for the feedback Fernanda!
Do u remove chicken from marinade before cooking- which is what you do when marinade something. If you do how can you serve marinade with the cooked chicken if it had raw chicken sitting in it??
This is my question as well. Do you add the marinade in with the chicken to cook, or reserve some that you didn’t use to marinate raw chicken?
Thanks
Marinated first. Then reserve some do cooking. Does that make sense? Either way can’t go wrong ?
I would love to use the marinade in my dish because there wasn’t enough to cover the chicken breast and reserve. You say “either way, can’t go wrong” so I am pouring some of the marinade on top to cook with the chicken and we will see how it turns out. Excited because it smells lovely!
★★★★★
Oh yaayy! Sounds perfect! Hope you enjoy!
Hi Lindsay – by grated lemon, do you mean to zest the peel, or do you mean to literally grate a bit of the fruit?
Shanna
either really! I just grated the lemon peel to create a zest on top. Does that make sense?
This was delicious! Used some chicken breast tenderloins and bought a few fancy-pants from the grocery store olive bat. Even using breast meat, the chicken was tender and the entire dish was full of flavor. Thanks, Lindsay!
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Oh I love it! Thanks for feedback Shanna!
The marinade barely made enough to coat the chicken. I would double it to actually cover and have enough juice to cook any veggies you add.
Oh no, really? Did you use larger chicken thighs? You can totally double it if needed. I’ll make sure to add that in the recipe notes!
THanks!
6 small ones. 1.8lbs… it didn’t turn out very flavorful so I’m not sure what happened.
Delicious. Used skinfree chicken thighs and baked with carrots and onions instead of olives. Used extra marinade and chicken stock to make pan gravy. Served with steamed peas and beans. Thanks for recipe will be one of my regular monthlies now. Will try your other recipes also. Cheers
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Thanks so much, Paul! So glad you loved it and that it will be on your rotation!