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I hit the jackpot when I was a foreign exchange student in Greece. As a food-obsessed high school kid, I was placed with the best possible family—my hosts, the Kritharelis, were a retired pastry chef and an excellent home cook. Notepad in hand, I spent the summer in their kitchen learning Greek home cooking. One of the best lessons I learned was how to make the juiciest, tastiest chicken I have ever had.
My host mother Despina’s secret was marinating chicken in thick, full-fat Greek yogurt mixed up with a generous amount of smashed garlic, oregano, lemon juice, and plenty of black pepper. It’s just a few ingredients, but the results are always remarkable—delicious chicken flavored throughout with tangy, garlicky goodness and a crispy, burnished skin to boot!
Full-fat yogurt doesn’t contain stabilizers and gums like low-fat and non-fat yogurt can, and it’s thick enough to stick to the meat well while it is marinating and roasting so all the yummy flavors in the marinade stay on the meat. You can use 2% yogurt in a pinch, but the results won’t be quite as juicy.
My host mother marinated a whole, trussed chicken overnight in her yogurt marinade and roasted it for our Sunday lunch. She would serve it with what Americans call Greek salad (they call it horiatiki) and plenty of sesame-crusted bread to sop up the juices.
Instead of whole chicken, I usually make the dish with quicker-cooking bone-in chicken thighs and drumsticks. The chicken pieces are ready to roast after as little as 4 hours in their yogurt-y bath, though they can go for as long as 24 hours without becoming mushy.
Bone-in meat stays moist (especially chicken legs) when roasting, while the skin acts as a blanket, basting the meat with fat and flavor. If you’d prefer to use boneless, skinless chicken, I would recommend grilling it instead of roasting for the juiciest results.
Simply Recipes / Mihaela Kozaric Sebrek
Roasting a Whole Chicken
If you’re using a whole chicken instead of pieces, remove the giblets and neck from the cavity and reserve them for stock. Make the marinade as directed and coat the whole chicken in the marinade. Gently slide some marinade under the skin of the breasts and rub some into the cavity. Place the spent lemon in the cavity and truss the chicken. Marinate for 24 hours.
If you’re adding potatoes (see below), keep fingerling potatoes whole or cut Yukon or red potatoes in half. Roast as directed, until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thigh registers at least 165°F, about 1 hour and 10 minutes. Cover the bird with foil towards the end of roasting if the skin begins to brown too much. Skip the broiling.
Make It A Meal With Potatoes
This yogurt marinade not only makes the chicken delicious, it also produces plenty of zesty pan juices. To soak up all that sunny-flavored goodness, I often add potatoes to the pan. I’m partial to slender fingerling potatoes, which I cut in half lengthwise, but you can also use bite-size (1-inch) chunks of Yukon gold or baby red potatoes as well. Toss them once while roasting.
When roasting a whole chicken, the skin will turn a deep burnished brown in the time it takes to cook the meat through. When roasting thighs and drumsticks, I like to broil the chicken for just a few minutes at the end of cooking to make sure I get the crispiest bits of skin possible. It’s optional, but the crunchy, marinade-flavored skin really does add a delicious textural counterpoint to the extra-juicy meat.
Simply Recipes / Mihaela Kozaric Sebrek
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1 large lemon
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1 cup full-fat, plain yogurt, preferably Greek-style
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3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
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2 large garlic cloves, finely grated or pressed
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2 teaspoons dried oregano
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1 teaspoon salt, plus extra for seasoning
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1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
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4 bone-in, skin-on whole chicken legs (3 1/2 pounds)
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1 pound fingerling potatoes, halved lengthwise, or baby Yukon gold or red potatoes, cut into 1-inch chunks, optional
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Marinate the chicken:
Start marinating the chicken at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours before roasting. Finely grate the zest from the lemon and then juice it into a large non-reactive bowl or baking dish. Add the yogurt, olive oil, garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper and whisk to combine.
Cut the chicken legs through the joint into thigh and drumstick pieces using a boning knife or poultry shears. Add the chicken to the yogurt mixture and rub it into the meat. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours.
Simple Tip!
You can swap the chicken legs for a mix of drumsticks and bone-in, skin-on thighs, or use all drumsticks or all thighs.
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Preheat the oven to 400°F.
Place one oven rack in the center and another rack in the top third of the oven (so it is about 6 inches from the broiler element). Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
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Prepare the chicken and vegetables:
Arrange the marinated chicken pieces skin side up on the baking sheet with space between them, leaving any clinging marinade on the meat. Discard any remaining marinade in the bowl. Tuck the potatoes around the chicken pieces, if using, and sprinkle everything with salt.
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Roast:
Transfer the baking sheet to the middle rack of the oven and roast, stirring the potatoes once, until an instant-read thermometer registers at least 165°F when inserted into the largest thigh, 35 to 40 minutes.
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Broil the chicken:
Move the baking sheet to the top third of the oven and turn the broiler on high. Broil, rotating the baking sheet once and stirring the potatoes until the chicken skin is deeply browned in places, about 3 minutes.
Remove from the oven and transfer the chicken and potatoes to a large serving dish. Pour any pan juices over the top and serve.
Store leftover chicken in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. To reheat, place on a microwave-safe plate, cover, and cook on 60% power until piping hot throughout. To crisp up the skin, broil the chicken after reheating, arranging it on a foil-lined baking sheet 4 inches from the broiler element until the skin is sizzling, 2 minutes.
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| Nutrition Facts (per serving) | |
|---|---|
| 475 | Calories |
| 24g | Fat |
| 18g | Carbs |
| 48g | Protein |
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| Nutrition Facts | |
|---|---|
| Servings: 4 to 6 |
|
| Amount per serving | |
| Calories | 475 |
| % Daily Value* | |
| 24g | 31% |
| Saturated Fat 6g | 29% |
| 237mg | 79% |
| 563mg | 24% |
| 18g | 6% |
| Dietary Fiber 4g | 14% |
| Total Sugars 8g | |
| 48g | |
| Vitamin C 72mg | 360% |
| Calcium 131mg | 10% |
| Iron 3mg | 16% |
| Potassium 802mg | 17% |
| *The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice. | |
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.
