Garlic Yogurt Baked Chicken is a flavorful, delicious baked chicken recipe perfect for weeknight dinner. These chicken breasts marinated in yogurt with garlic and thyme are so good they’re bound to become your new favorite din din!
AN EASY AND FLAVORFUL BAKED CHICKEN RECIPE
Baked Chicken can often be dry, but thanks to my wonderful yogurt marinade with garlic and thyme, our chicken breasts are not only moist and tender, but they are also super flavorful!
The marinade takes just a couple minutes to put together and creates an absolute amazing flavor. I like to marinate the chicken breasts anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, but even 1 hour is good enough. Also? See my Beer Battered Yogurt Fried Chicken.
Where are my manners?! Forgot to wish you a Happiest of Sundays! Hope you are doing grrrreat!
How was Valentine’s Day? Everything you expected? Was he a gentleman?! DID HE PROPOSE?!? Do tell!
I stayed in with mah lil’ girlz. My buddy, the hubby, had to work. It’s all good, though. The babes and I ate chocolate covered pretzels, Heart-Shaped Cinnamon Rolls (again), and big slices of that Black Magic Chocolate Cake. We had a blast! Sugar-high at its best!!
Not to worry. Before attacking the chocolate, and to enhance the spirit of Valentine’s Day, we had this lovely Garlic-Yogurt Baked Chicken for dinner. I treat my girls very well.
Gonna let you in on a little secret. I like chicken, a lot. It could be the only reason why I haven’t gone the vegetarian route. If you look around zee bloggy, you’ll find a bunch of vegetarian-friendly meals, but very, very few meals that involve meat.
This is a serious, melt-in-your-mouth chicken dinner. I can’t even begin to tell you how often this appears on our table.
HOW TO MAKE GARLIC YOGURT BAKED CHICKEN BREASTS:
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Combine yogurt, garlic, and thyme in a bowl and mix until combined.
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Combine yogurt mixture with chicken and refrigerate anywhere from 1 hour to 6 hours.
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Transfer chicken to a baking pan.
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Sprinkle panko bread crumbs over chicken breasts. As in, don’t dredge the chicken breasts in crumbs – a little bit is plenty for a nice and light crunch.
- If you want to get fancy with quartered red onions and lemon slices, add those to the baking pan as well and bake for around 40-ish minutes, or until chicken is done.
If you’ve got some chicken on hand, and if you have a whole lotta garlic… please. Please do yourself a favor and go to that kitchen. Putting dinner together is a juggling act, I know, but it’s Sunday. Let’s do this. Don’t forget the yogurt.
P.S. All I really, really want to say is – Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!! 😛
MORE CHICKEN RECIPES:
- Baked Chicken Parmesan
- Grilled Chicken with Orange, Grape and Feta Salsa
- Slow Cooker Buffalo Chicken
- Baked Chicken Meatballs with Garlic Dill Yogurt Sauce
ENJOY!
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Garlic-Yogurt Baked Chicken
Ingredients
- 4 (16 ounces) chicken breasts
- salt and fresh ground pepper , to taste
- 6 garlic cloves , minced
- 1/2 cup plain yogurt
- 1/2 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 1/4 cup panko bread crumbs
Instructions
- Lightly pound chicken just enough to even it out; do not pound it thin.
- Place chicken in a large bowl and season with salt and pepper; set aside.
- In a separate bowl, combine garlic, yogurt, and thyme; mix until combined.
- Pour yogurt mixture over chicken; mix until chicken is thoroughly coated.
- Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 4 to 6 hours.
- Preheat oven to 375.
- Grease a baking pan with cooking spray.
- Remove chicken from bowl and shake off any excess; discard yogurt mixture.
- Transfer chicken to prepared baking pan.
- Sprinkle panko bread crumbs over chicken breasts.
- Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until chicken is done.
- Remove from oven.
- Serve.
Notes
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
30 Min
Slow Cooker
Freezer Friendly
One Pot
Instant Pot
Keto
Beef
Bone-In Chicken Thighs were on sale today, in preparing, I removed the skin from 4 thighs and slashed the meat to the bone in a couple of places for the marinade to penetrate the meat. Used a generous ½ cup of yogurt, juice of one lemon, at least 6 cloves of garlic (maybe a smidge more to keep the vampires away!), and used McCormick Greek Seasoning which in includes a bit of mint, and finished with salt and pepper. I marinated the thighs for 2 ½ hours, baked off at 350F until chicken temp with a probe thermometer reached 160 degrees F. Removed from the oven and let the dish ‘rest’ for 5 minutes or so while mixing the salad. Temperature on the thighs came up to 165, safe for serving and was nóstimos (Greek for delicious!). Accompanied with your recommended rice and a nice Greek Salad with feta, kalamata olives, and dressed with a lemon vinaigrette using a fruity olive oil..
Can I make this with cherry flavored yogurt? I don’t have any plain.
Hi!
Well, if you don’t mind cherry-flavored chicken, sure, go right ahead. 😊
How can this possibly be only 3 WW points!?!?!?! When I was in turkey I remember a friend marinading chicken in yogurt. This was absolutely delicious and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you!
Can I leave out the breadcrumbs?????
Sure, but it will be without that bit of crunch 😀
The chicken was tender and delicious! I did add onion quarters and lime slices. I devoured it with rice! Thank you.
I really love yogurt but I ‘ve never tried it with chicken before.So I made it last week. So delicious :).
This is the perfect combination. Thanks for sharing.
had something this past week that was just about like this. My friend said to look it up online and this is what I found. I’ve babied the chicken all afternoon and will be ready to bake it in about 2 hours. I expect it to be just about what I’m looking for. I’m serving fresh summer squash with it…
WAAAYYYY TOO MUCH GARLIC. ANYONE ELSE???
Nope! We loved it with 6 cloves of garlic and ours were large cloves too.
Hi Katerina!
Your recipe of Garlic Yogurt Baked Chicken looks amazing! i have already bought chicken thighs not breasts though.. so think they would work out with the recipe? Also it calls for yogurt but it doesn’t say if its greek or not..any recommendations? Thank you!!
Hi
Looking forward to trying this at the weekend, however, may sound a stupid question but what did you serve this with? I’m unsure between rice or potatoes?
Thanks Mel
x
Hi Mel! I almost always serve it with rice and a big salad on the side. 😀
that sounds interesting. could i get your big salad recipe? I think I’ve perfect the garlic chicken . 🙂
Ok maybe it was just one or two cloves two many garlic. anyone else?? pls don’t delete me
Flavors were fantastic! Super easy. One of our new favorites. Would love to add the sliced lemon, did you cook on top or bake separately? Thanks!!!!
I messed up, lol. My chicken breasts have been marinating all day but now I just realized I used 4 whole chicken breasts instead of the halves. So they’ve been marinating in half the marinade required (I was wondering why it barely seemed to cover the surface of them) and they’ll probably cook all strangely, too. Sigh.
I guess I’ll just double the cooking time and panko crumbs and hope for the best.
OH! haha 🙂 It might not take double the time to cook, but I hope that the marinade will be enough and the chicken won’t be dry! Let me know! Fingers crossed, it will be amazing! 😀
I tried lowering the temperature to 350 and went up to a cooking time of an hour. It may need to cook longer than that but I hope the lower temperature will keep it from drying out as badly. I will let you know how it turns out!
It turned out okay, but it definitely would have been tastier with less chicken! 😀 Can’t wait to make it again the right way!! Thanks for the awesome recipe. Went great with panko-parmesan-zucchini crisps!
Stumbled across your site and this recipe while searching for a split pea soup recipe, of all things. [It was in a side-bar link.] This looks so good, I wish I could make it tonight! Unfortunately, no yogurt in the house. But this will be made and devoured soon, I promise! With some herb-seasoned rice and a nice, big green salad on the side, this will make a great meal.
I noticed that you cooked it with carrots and ? is that orange or lemon slices?
Hi Joann! Yes, those are lemon slices, I also added some sliced carrots and red onions… mostly for color, but they taste great, too! 🙂
Hi!
I had my heart set on making this (Garlic-Yogurt Chicken) tonight but missed the part about having to refrigerate 4- hours before cooking. Is that a requirement? I can place in fridge for about an hour only. If that wont work, ill have to make it another night.
Thanks for your help. Your site is fantastic!
XX
Jessica
Hi Jessica!! So, if you allow it to marinade, the flavors will be deeper and more distinct. If you can let it sit for at least one hour, then I’d go ahead and make it. It’s delicious no matter what! 😉 THANK YOU!!
Can it marinate overnight?
Hi Jo! Chicken can get mushy if left in marinades too long so a couple of hours is enough… overnight can be too much.
I need to try this recipe, saving it for later!
Diana.
Hi Diana!! Yes, it’s really, really good! I hope you have a chance to try it!
Amazing! Seriously I’ve already made this recipe and just checked to see if I can cook with yoghurt and I can’t believe I’ve cooked it with the exact same ingredients! This doesn’t happen to me often and just wanted to say thanks for.the reassurance. 🙂
The garlic yogurt chicken recipe was so easy and yummy. Thank you so much for sharing.
That’s great!! I’m so happy you enjoyed it! Thank you!
Looks delicious and i am gonna try this out today, Hope it will look delicious as your dish looks.
I made this tonight and it was so good! My boyfriend liked it a lot, too, even though we got a little thyme’d-out a few months ago–this was a great way to bring thyme back into our cooking! I didn’t put any garnish in with the chicken; I just baked it alone with the bread crumbs (regular, not panko), and then I squirted a little lemon juice on top when I took them out of the oven. Delicious–thanks so much for sharing!! 🙂
YAY! I’m so glad you enjoyed it!! Thank you! And I’m lovin’ the “thymed-out”!! hahaha 🙂
Made this for dinner last night and had to use two substitutes: greek yogurt and regular breadcrumbs as this was what I had in stock. Came out great, only I would suggest that if using regular bread crumbs to use half of a 1/4 cup suggested for the panko because mine didn’t seem get the “look” like the ones pictured here. Delicious meal and my husband LOVED it.
That is great, Ruthy!!! I am SO happy you all enjoyed it! THANK YOU!
What is the spice sprinkled over the lemon?
Thanks! Looks amazing!
HI! Sometimes, to make the photo work, I start throwing things on there to add contrast, color, etc… SO, I’m thinking it’s probably a bit of red paprika? 🙂
Can I use a different brand name bread crumbs? I have Progresso Italian Style bread crumbs in my house… Or will that throw the flavor off?
Hi Jaclynn! Yes, you can definitely use those bread crumbs – it will still taste just as good.
Bone in chicken breasts? Or boneless?
Hi Laurie! That would be, boneless. 🙂
So do you mean two whole chicken breasts cut into four halves or four whole chicken breasts cut into eight halves? I’m trying to double the recipe
Hi Michaela!
Yes, two whole chicken breasts cut in half. And, yes, double it – the more, the better! 😉 ENJOY!
I made this for dinner. Wow!! Loaded with flavor. I did use Greek yogurt & dried thyme as that is what I had on hand. May cut back 5 min on cooking time, otherwise very happy. Extremely flavorful even my 4 yr old asked for seconds 🙂
Hi Katerina, just made this for dinner along side Foxes love lemons loaded potatoes recipe and salad. It was amazing. The thyme in it brought everything together nicely. Thank you for sharing 🙂
Gorgeous, girl!! This needs to go on my menu plan. 🙂
Are those oranges or lemons? And how long do you cook the veggies and citrus? Skinless chicken? Looks great!
Hi! Yes, the chicken is skinless. The citrus is actually slices of lemon. Put everything in at the same time – together with the chicken breasts. Roasted veggies are the best! 🙂 Let me know how it goes! Have a great day!!
I love it, we’re preparing it tonight!
ENJOY!! 🙂
So yum looking, and your food photography is exceptional.
I love marinating chicken in yogurt… it’s way to tenderize the meat. 🙂 Looks yummy. 🙂
We stuffed our faces with enchiladas on V-Day. Best. V-Day. Ever! I fell in love with this dish as soon as I saw it float across my Pinterest page. It looks rustic and comforting.
I’ve tried this garlic-yogurt chicken Kate.
It’s delicious!
Thanks!
Kate, only you can make chicken look sexy. You slay me woman. This is spectacular.
Yum! It’s not easy to make chicken look pretty – you pull it off brilliantly.
This chicken is perfection, just what I need in my life!
This chicken looks absolutely fantastic!
This looks great! Do you use Greek yogurt ?
Hi Zelda! That’s too thick … I just use plain yogurt. The brand I use is “Dannon”. Hope that helps!
Baked lemons do me in every time. These photos are gorgeous!
One peek and this dish needs to be mine. I can only imaging how flavorful this chicken is.
This is stunning! This chicken and that Black Magic cake of yours would be my ideal meal!
Gosh, that’s a perfect meal for anytime of the day or week. Love it.
Not very often do I look at something and want to make it immediately but I do right now! That chicken looks purely scrumptious. I can’t wait to feed it to my family.
I love chicken dishes! I have yet to try and bake it in yogurt. Looks amazing, Kate!
I LOVE this!!!
Marinating the chicken in yogurt makes it so moist and tender and combined with the other flavors I am sure this chicken must have been amazing.
I too enjoy chicken, esp. low fat chicken breast. Your baked chicken breast halves look amazing, Kate.
Such a simple yet great looking meal!
Delicious looking chicken. I’ll have to give it a try the next time I’ve got some breasts on hand.