Mediterranean Sheet Pan Chicken with marinated chicken thighs, fresh vegetables, olives, and chunks of feta cheese makes for the freshest, most flavorful easy dinner recipe! This simple healthy meal is easy to prepare for busy weeknight dinners.
Hot take, but I believe sheet pan meals are the golden ticket to keeping weeknights both easy and nourishing!
Just think: all we’re doing is tossing some ingredients onto a baking sheet, popping it in the oven, then BOOM dinner is served!
Well, this Mediterranean Sheet Pan Chicken recipe checks all of the boxes!
We’re left with perfectly tender chicken with the most amazing crispy skin al dente vegetables, and delicious hunks of feta cheese and olives to give the whole meal amazing complex flavor.
I engineered this recipe to ensure both the chicken and the vegetables turn out perfectly cooked.
This requires the chicken goes into the oven first for a little extra time before the rest of the ingredients get added to it.
Let’s discuss the simple ingredients needed to make this amazing sheet pan chicken thighs recipe.
Ingredients for Sheet Pan Mediterranean Chicken:
Bone-in Chicken Thighs: Bone-in skin-on chicken thighs get marinated in a delicious Mediterranean style marinade for crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, juicy chicken.
Chicken Marinade: Avocado oil, fresh garlic cloves, lemon zest, lemon juice, paprika, sea salt, and black pepper. This combination of ingredients makes for a delicious zesty marinade with lots of lemon and garlic flavor.
Zucchini, Cherry Tomatoes, and Red Onion: The fresh veggies used in this meal! You can use grape tomatoes instead of cherry tomatoes if you’d like.
Olives: Use any kind of pitted olives for this delicious sheet pan meal. I use castelvetrano olives, which are a green olive, but pitted kalamata olives of black olives work great too.
Feta Cheese: Pick up a block of feta cheese (not feta cheese crumbles) and chop it into cubes for tangy bites of creamy melted cheese bliss.
Avocado Oil: Because we’re roasting at a high temperature, we need a quality cooking oil with a high smoke point. That’s avocado oil! Skip the extra virgin olive oil, as it burns at around 350 degrees F.
Recipe Adaptations:
- If you have fresh parsley on hand, garnish everything with chopped parsley just before serving.
- Mix up the vegetable selection using your favorite vegetables. Broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, root vegetables, baby potatoes, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, butternut squash, and carrots are all great options. Just note that you’ll need to increase the bake time for these heartier vegetables.
- Use boneless chicken thighs and cut the bake time down to 20 to 25 minutes total.
- Boneless chicken breasts work too – the exact baking time varies depending on how thick the skinless chicken breasts are and their temperature going into the oven. Rely on a thermometer to determine the final cooking time.
- If you love spicy food, add red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper to the marinade.
- Add 1 to 2 teaspoons of Mediterranean spices like Sumac or a homemade spice mix to the chicken marinade.
Now that we’re familiar with the fresh ingredients, let’s make this sheet pan chicken recipe in a few simple steps!
How to Make Mediterranean Sheet Pan Chicken:
Step 1: Marinate The Chicken
Mix all of the ingredients for the chicken marinade in a small bowl or measuring cup.
Transfer the raw chicken thighs to a large zip lock bag, pour in the marinade, and seal. Marinate for at least 15 minutes, ideally several hours.
When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Step 2: Bake The Chicken
Transfer the marinated chicken thighs to a large rimmed baking sheet without the vegetables.
Bake chicken for 15 to 18 minutes or until the skin is golden brown and crispy.
Step 3: Get the Vegetables Involved
While the chicken is baking, chop the zucchini, red onion, and block of feta cheese. Transfer to a large bowl along with the cherry tomatoes, olives, avocado oil, dried parsley, dried oregano (and any other dried herbs you like), salt, and pepper. Toss everything together until everything is coated with oil and seasonings.
Spread this vegetable mixture around the sheet pan in a single layer. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
Chicken thighs are fully cooked once they reach an internal temperature of 170 degrees Fahrenheit. However, I think bone-in thighs have the best taste and texture around 180 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the largest thigh to check for temperature.
Serve Mediterranean chicken and veggies and enjoy! Feel free to serve with extra side dishes. Crusty bread, a side salad, or steamed rice are great!
Refrigerate leftovers in an airtight container for up to 1 week.
The next time you’re looking for a quick and delicious dinner recipe that the whole family will love, try out this super flavorful meal!
For those of you who follow a Mediterranean diet or simply enjoy a clean eating lifestyle, fresh and easy meals like this are paramount!
I’m betting you’ll put this sheet pan chicken dinner on repeat! It requires such minimal effort and results in a next level meal.
Looking for all-star delicious recipes that can be prepared any night of the week? Try these gems!
More Quick, Easy, Healthy Dinner Recipes:
- Sheet Pan Salmon and Vegetables
- Sheet Pan Chicken Fajitas
- Turmeric Chicken Sheet Pan Dinner
- Crispy Baked Ground Beef Tacos
- Quick and Easy Chana Saag
- One-Pot Lemon Garlic Rosemary Chicken and Rice
- Orange Ginger Shrimp Stir Fry
- Crock Pot Mexican Shredded Beef
- Ground Turkey Taco Soup
Mediterranean sheet pan chicken, coming right up!
Mediterranean Sheet Pan Chicken
Ingredients
Chicken Marinade:
- 3.5 lbs bone-in skin on chicken thighs
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil
- 1/2 tsp paprika
- 2 tsp lemon zest
- 2 Tbsp lemon juice
- 5 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp sea salt
Sheet Pan Meal:
- 1 zucchini chopped
- ½ red onion sliced
- 10 ounces cherry tomatoes
- 1 (8-oz) block feta cheese chopped into cubes
- 5 ounces pitted green olives ¾ cup*
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- Sea salt to taste
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 3 Tbsp avocado oil
Instructions
- Mix all of the ingredients for the chicken marinade in a small bowl or measuring cup.
- Transfer the raw chicken thighs to a large zip lock bag and pour in the marinade. Seal the bag and shift everything around until the chicken pieces are well-coated with marinade. Marinate for at least 15 minutes, ideally several hours.
- When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Chop the zucchini, red onion, and block of feta cheese and transfer to a large bowl along with the cherry tomatoes, olives, avocado oil, dried parsley, dried oregano (and any other dried herbs you like), salt, and pepper. Toss everything together until the ingredients are coated with oil and seasonings.
- Transfer the marinated chicken thighs to a large baking sheet (without the vegetable mixture)
- Bake chicken for 15 to 18 minutes or until the skin is looking golden brown and crispy, then remove the sheet pan from the oven.
- Spread the sliced onion, chopped zucchini, tomatoes, olives and cubes of feta cheese (the remaining ingredients) around the sheet pan in a single layer. It's okay if there's a little overlapping. Bake for another 10 to 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Chicken thighs are fully cooked once they reach 170 degrees Fahrenheit. I find they have the best taste and texture between 180-200 degrees F, so I give them a little extra time. To verify the temperature, insert a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the largest thigh.
- Serve Mediterranean chicken and veggies and enjoy! If you’d like to serve the meal with extra side dishes, such as crusty bread, a side salad, or steamed rice, feel free to go wild!
Notes
Nutrition
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Does this recipe really have 804 calories per serving? I’m doing keto and want to confirm calorie count before making. It sounds delicious!
It’s very possible that I made a mistake in my calculations, but I’m typically pretty thorough. I usually base number of servings off of what I would eat, which can be more than the average human. You could plug the ingredients you use into a macro calculator and base it on the serving size you typically think is suitable. That said, the chicken and feta contain a lot of calories, so depending on what you’re looking for, it may not be a suitable recipe 🙂
This was so delicious. Wonderful flavor. No changes except used boneless, skinless chicken breasts and marinated a few hours.
I love that! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! xo
So, I can see by the pictures that you cook the chicken, then add the veggies to the tray, cook again, but there were not any instructions for how long for each segment. Would you please elaborate? Thank you,
Hi Dawn! My apologies for the confusion – the recipe is fixed now! I’m currently in the process of switching recipe plugins, which has caused some of the recipes to not translate over fully. It isn’t affecting very many recipes, but the ones that do get affected lose important information. I’m currently making my way through each one 🙂 Hope you enjoy the meal! xo
This was so easy and so tasty. This will be in my rotation. I will admit that I took full advantage of my spices. Garlic in the marinade and garlic in with the veggies.
I love hearing that, Grace! Thanks so much for the sweet note! xo
can you use chicken tenders or chicken breast?
Hi Kristina! Yes, you can use any type of chicken and the recipe will turn out great! Just note that chicken breasts will take a little more time to bake if they are very thick. So it’s best to use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature to be sure it reaches 165.
What a fun, tasty recipe! My husband said he liked it best of all my chicken dinners. I used free range boneless, skinless breast, which I marinated for a couple of hours. Thank you for including this recipe -it is a winner!
I’m so happy to hear you and your husband enjoy the recipe, Sarah! Thanks so much for sharing your experience! xoxo
Excellent recipe. Well liked by all. I did use boneless chicken thighs. I left out the olives and feta cheese. I added asparagus to the vegetables and had to substitute limes for the lemons, because I ran out of lemons making the almond lemon cake. It will still deliciaous and very flavorful.
Love all these changes! Sounds so delicious! xo
If you add Sumac which I will how much?
Hi Gloria! Use 1 teaspoon of Sumac 🙂
“Ideally several hours.”
NOW you tell me.
Hi there. It’s not a problem at all if you only marinate the chicken for a few minutes. While it will have deeper flavor if you marinate it longer, it will still taste great. As a side note, it’s always best to read a recipe all the way through before starting it. Let me know if you have any questions.
Is it ok to substitute black olives such as kalamata ? Not a fan of green olives
Hi Victoria! You can use any type of olives you like 🙂
We are not big zucchini fans. Any good ideas for substitutions?
Hi Margaret! My top recommendations would be carrots, broccoli, or cauliflower 🙂 Hope you enjoy! xo
I’d like to use skinless chicken thighs. How long do they need to bake by themselves before I add the veggies?
Hi there! No need to bake the boneless thighs by themselves. They will only need about 15 to 20 minutes to bake at 400 so you can toss everything on the sheet pan at the same time 🙂 Hope you enjoy!!
@Julia, 400? Or 425?
Hi Monica! 425 🙂
It looks like paprika is in the marinade, but there’s no mention of paprika in the marinade recipe. If it’s not paprika, what gives the marinade its color?
If it is paprika, how much? 1/2 tsp?
Thanks for catching that, Linda! I use 1/2 teaspoon 🙂 Fixed the recipe!
@Julia, awesome! Thank you!