This – is – the – easiest – dinner – ever. We’re talkin’ ONE pan, THREE ingredients, 20 MINUTES tops on your prep + cook time. It is so easy you guys, and it’s SO GOOD! The chicken is juicy, the sauce is delicious, and it is extra perfect served over rice with tons of sauce spooned over top.
When we make this, we serve it with a side salad + throw some rice in the Instant Pot when the chicken is cooking, and it’s crazy simple and crazy satisfying. And full of healthy fats!
For the chicken, we use our tried and true cooking method (from this post) – the easiest and best way to cook chicken! It’s basically a 3 minute sear on each side of the chicken in a HOT pan with oil. Then you throw it into the oven to bake for 8-10 minutes.
We make one simple change here for this recipe: when the 3 minute sear is done, we remove the chicken breasts to a plate, throw a can of coconut milk + the juice and zest from one lemon into the pan and whisk to combine. Add your chicken breasts back in, and then continue with the normal bake step!
Serve it over rice with TONS of sauce spooned over top, and proceed to die and go to flavor heaven. I love easy dinners like this, and 99% of the time I have these ingredients on hand. I always have lemons, I often have coconut milk (when I need one can I buy several because I use it so much), and I often have chicken in the freezer. I always have rice! So it’s a perfect meal for a busy night, a night when you forgot to go grocery shopping, orrrr – you know – a time when you are quarantined and don’t feel like cooking an extravagant meal every night of the week!
How is your quarantine going, by the way? The challenging part for me is the loooong morning stretch to nap time. The afternoons are great, the nights after the kids go to bed are great, but that morning stretch from wake up to the kids’ nap time can really drag. Pregnancy exhaustion doesn’t help that morning stretch one little bit, either 😴. But we’re hangin’ in there – very lucky to have the job stability we have right now in particular. How are you doing?
Here’s the recipe for ya, friends!
PrintOne Pan Coconut Lemon Chicken
This crazy easy, crazy delicious, 3 ingredient, 1 pan dinner is whole 30 and keto friendly! Perfect weeknight dinner!
- Prep Time: 5 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 3 servings 1x
Ingredients
- 3 chicken breasts (there’s enough sauce for 4 if you’d rather have more leftovers)
- 1 can coconut milk
- 1 lemon, zested and juiced
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Heat an oven safe skillet (cast iron is perfect!) over medium high heat with a high heat oil (avocado oil is great!) until the pan is very hot
- Season your chicken breasts well with salt and pepper on both sides, and sear for 3 minutes per side. Remove the chicken to a plate
- To the same pan, add your canned coconut milk, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Whisk to combine (don’t season with salt and pepper – the seasoning from the chicken will most likely be enough)
- Add your chicken back to the sauce and throw in the oven for 8-10 minutes (8 minutes for small to medium chicken breasts, 10 minutes for large)
- Let the chicken rest for 5 or so minutes before serving!
Notes
The BEST way to serve this chicken is over rice. I start with a bed of rice, put the chicken breast on top, and spoon lots and lots of sauce over the chicken and rice to flavor both. There’s plenty of sauce to spoon plenty over top!
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 chicken breast + 1/3 of the sauce
- Calories: 480
- Sugar: 2 g
- Sodium: 310 mg
- Fat: 28 g
- Saturated Fat: 21 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 4 g
- Fiber: 0 g
- Protein: 48 g
- Cholesterol: 150 mg
If you make this or any of my other recipes, be sure to Instagram it and tag @thegarlicdiaries so I can see!
Very good! My brother and sister in law came to visit; they had a long drive, and it wasn’t clear exactly when they would get here, so I wanted to make something quick, convenient and easy to serve. This was perfect; everybody loved it, and it was the ideal thing to make in this situation. I followed the directions exactly; the only small difference was that I served it topped with a little bit of fresh cilantro. Very nice! Very easy1
I’m so glad you enjoyed this, Lisa! That is my favorite thing about this recipe – how easy it is!
I never comment on recipe blogs, that being said, I love you. Lol but seriously SO good. I added more lemon juice, and added a couple handfuls of fresh spinach to the sauce at the end, served over white rice cooked in bone broth. Only upset that I have no leftovers. Haha!
Thank you for the comment, Candice! It is such a yummy and simple recipe, right?? Perfect for those busy week nights.
This was so good! Will definitely be making again!
I just made this and really enjoyed it! I didn’t know how to zest a whole lemon, and I didn’t have a zester, just a fine cheese grater, so I added the squeezed lemons to the pan and I think that added more lemon flavoring.
For future clarification, when you say the zest of a whole lemon, does that mean like the whole surface of a lemon
That was a great idea to add the whole lemons! Yes, when I say “zest of a whole lemon,” I mean the whole surface of the lemon.
This is DELICIOUS! My 6 year old loved the sauce and husband thought it was fantastic! I’m a saucy mama, so I LOVED this. Def. a keeper for a quick meal with very little prep. I served with a side of zucchini/squash/onion…the sauce was great with this, too.
SO glad you guys liked it, Stephanie! I love hearing when my recipes are kid wins too – I’m the mom of 2 picky-ish eaters, so kids eating my recipes, whether it’s my kids or others’ gives me lots of satisfaction 😂!
Can’t wait to try this one!
It’s a winner!!