Here’s a fabulous chicken and potato dish that comes together quickly and is all baked in one pan! It’s a Portuguese flavoured chicken that’s roasted on a bed of garlicky lemon potatoes that soaks up all the glorious chicken drippings. Fast prep. Big flavours!
One-pan Portuguese Chicken and Potato Bake
Last year I shared a Nando’s Portuguese Chicken and Rice recipe that was such an unexpected hit, it was only a matter of time I did a potato version. And here it is – only took me a year!
The chicken is slathered in a Portuguese Peri Peri spice rub that only calls for pantry staples, then it’s roasted on a bed of sliced potatoes tossed in a good amount of garlic and lemon. The chicken bakes up beautifully golden and the potatoes soak up the chicken juices and end up tasting like Greek Lemon Potatoes!
I really hate to play favourites with food…..but I really think this might trump the chicken and rice version…..
Ingredients in Portuguese Chicken and Potato Bake
Here’s what you need to make this chicken and potato bake.
1. The CHICKEN, potato AND VEGETABLES
Chicken cut – The chicken I’ve used is bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. The skin helps the spice paste caramelises beautifully in the oven, and chicken releases a good amount of juices that gets absorbed by the potatoes and makes the tasty sauce too.
Other suitable cuts – Drumsticks and Marylands (chicken leg quarters) are also ideal, quantities and adjusted bake times are in the recipe card. Boneless cuts – Breast and boneless thighs also work, but need less oven time and a quick blast under the grill/broiler to brown. Directions for these are in the recipe card too!
Potatoes – Use a waxy variety if you can, the washed potatoes sold in Australia are typically all-rounders that lean towards waxy, or red potatoes or baby potatoes (new potatoes). That supermarkets don’t usually specify the variety does my head in! But white washed = waxy and dirty = starchy is a good general rule of thumb.
Yukon Gold are ideal if you’re in the States. Waxy potatoes hold their shape better so they won’t break as easily when you scoop them up. But actually this recipe will work just fine with starchy potatoes too, the potatoes will just be a little more delicate.
Don’t use sweet potatoes though, they will turn into mush!
Red onion and capsicum – Bringing some vegetables into the dish, along with flavour. I especially love what capsicum brings into this dish! If you want to dial up the vegetables, you can reduce the amount of potato and add carrots instead.
2. THE FLAVOURS
The Portuguese Chicken is flavoured with a spice blend rather than the pureed type of Peri Peri marinade (like in this one). Quicker and pantry friendly, it’s a shameless copycat of the Nando’s Peri Peri dry rub and also the Portuguese seasoning from Herbie’s. 🙂. 🙂
Simple Portuguese seasoning for chicken (Nando’s copycat) – Pantry staples!
Herbs and spices – Paprika, garlic powder (substitute fresh garlic), dried oregano, coriander, brown sugar and cayenne pepper for touch of warmth (feel free to omit). The brown sugar is a bit of a secret ingredient here, makes the chicken caramelise beautifully!
Wet ingredients (to make a paste so it coats the chicken) – olive oil and lemon juice (substitute with white or red wine vinegar, or apple cider vinegar). I add the lemon juice to cut down on the oil, and also a bit of tang balances the flavours.
Lemon juice, dried oregano and garlic (lots!) – For flavouring the potato bake with a tasty garlicky lemony flavour. Greek Lemon Potato vibes! Plus, it gives the potatoes their own flavour rather than everything in the pan tasting the same.
Olive oil – I like to use extra virgin olive oil here, as it adds flavour. But it’s ok if you just use regular olive oil.
How to make One-pan Portuguese Chicken and Potato Bake
This recipe has a nice flow to it – chop the veg, pile into the pan, toss with seasonings. Then give it a head start in the oven while you prepare the Portuguese spice mix and coat the chicken. Once the chicken is in, there’s nothing to do except put out plates for dinner!
Potato bake first – Slice up the potatoes, capsicum and onion, and put them straight into a roasting pan. Squeeze over lemon juice, drizzle with olive oil, mince the garlic straight on using a garlic press, sprinkle with dried oregano, salt and pepper. Give it all a good toss with your hands.
25 minute head start – Then pop it in the oven to give it a head start. Because we’ve got a fair volume of potatoes here, they take longer to cook than the chicken.
Portuguese spice blend – Mix the Portuguese spice blend, olive oil and lemon juice in a large(ish) bowl. Then add the chicken and use tongs to turn and swipe, to coat all sides of the chicken with the bright red paste.
Top with chicken – Pop the chicken on top of the potatoes. I like to tuck the flappy skin under so the thighs are bundled up into a neat shape. This helps them cook more evenly, holds the juices in a bit more, plus it leaves more potato surface exposed so they can get a bit of colour on them.
Bake for 40 minutes or until the surface is beautifully caramelised, or if you have extra large or extra small ones, you might want to check the internal temperature – 76°C/161.6°F is what it should be (it will climb higher as it rests).
Note on baking time – I know 25 minutes plus 40 minutes sounds like an unusually long time for the potatoes to cook, but because of various factors (using quite a bit of potato, waxy potatoes take longer to cook than starchy ones and chicken is added partway through cooking), they really do take this long.
Dinner, ready! Pull the pan out of the oven, and serve! Chicken, potatoes and vegetables for everyone, with plenty of the tasty lemon sauce to spoon into bowls and mop up with bread!
Serve this with some regular bread or pita bread to dunk into the sauce, or just slurp it up like soup (it will surprise no one I did the latter).
And as I briefly mentioned in the ingredients section, if you’d like to add extra vegetables into this (ie. the non starchy kind) rather than making a separate side salad, you can swap out some of the potato with carrot. Otherwise, scatter over a punnet of cherry tomatoes for the last 15 minutes of baking, or when it comes out of the oven litter it with a handful of rocket lettuce (that’s arugula, for those of you in the States!). Double duty – garnish and salad in one! 🙂 – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
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One-Pan Portuguese Chicken and Potatoes
Ingredients
- 5 chicken thighs , bone-in, skin-on – about 1.2kg/2.4lb total weight (Note 1)
Portuguese Seasoning:
- 3 1/2 tsp paprika , sweet/regular or smoked
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper , optional (for faint spiciness)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar (tightly packed)
- 3/4 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
- 1 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice , or white or red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
Potato Vegetable Bake:
- 700g / 1.4lb medium waxy potatoes ("washed potatoes", red potatoes, US: Yukon) , skin-on, cut into 5 mm / 0.2" slices (Note 2)
- 1 large red onion , cut into wedges
- 1 large red capsicum / bell pepper , deseeded, cut into large 3.5cm / 1.5″ squares
- 6 garlic cloves , crushed using a garlic press
- 2 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt (halve for table salt, +50% for flakes)
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 2 1/2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
ABBREVIATED RECIPE:
- Toss Potato Vegetable Bake ingredients in a roasting pan. Bake 25 minutes at 200°C/390°F (180°C). Coat chicken in seasoning, place on potatoes. Bake 40 min. Serve!
FULL RECIPE:
- Preheat oven to 200°C/390°F (180°C fan-forced).
- Vegetable bake head start– Put all the Potato Vegetable Bake ingredients in a large pan. Toss well to coat, separating the potato slices. Bake for 25 minutes while you prepare the chicken.
- Portuguese Chicken – Mix the Portuguese Seasoning ingredients in a bowl. Add the chicken and turn to coat.
- Bake 2 – Place the chicken on top of the potatoes, tucking the excess skin under to form bundles. Bake for 40 minutes or until the chicken is golden and cooked through.
- Serve the chicken and vegetables with the tasty lemony garlic broth. Bread for mopping is encouraged!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Jaffle
Scenes from a Jaffle weekend. Still small enough to forcibly cuddle (just):
Mother and son (Yes, at 5 months old, son has outgrown mother):
Contemplated swimming:
Ready to work:
Not ready to leave:
Found a restaurant that recognises his importance:
Sat for a portrait that made him look like he’s never dug a hole in his life:
And took a moment to remember the legend that came before him. Here he is, on this day, 12 months ago:
I still miss you Dozer, every single day. The chaos that is Jaffle will never heal the hole in my heart that you left, but he’s brought smiles back into my life. I will love you forever – your mum. xx
So easy and delish! When i used thighs the first time i cooked this they didn’t cook through properly but i HIGHLY RECOMMEND USING DRUMSTICKS. They cooked through perfectly in 40 mins.
What a banger!
Made exactly as is… This is probably now in my top 5 of Nagi’s recipes. Maximum flavour, minimum effort, it’s a no brainer. The “sauce” is just a flavour bomb! 😋
Oh my goodness, Nagi!
I am not sure how I missed your posting in my inbox last Friday!
This recipe looks delicious, and I’ve just pulled out some thighs from my freezer and into the fridge. I have everything else except a red capsicum which I’ll get at the grocers tomorrow.
And wee Jaffle is adorable, and such a handsome boy! I am so happy he has brought love, light, and smiles back into your life.
Seeing your snap of Sweet Dozer, you admittedly had tears welling up in my eyes, but thankful ones that your shared your beautiful boy with us for so many years. Dozer was a joy! 💞
Yes, wee Jaffle will never take Dozer’s place in your heart, but he will move into it and fill you with a new love in his own way while always leaving Dozer’s occupancy forever untouched in that precious space.
Now that the weather is changing into fall here, I am looking forward to getting down to business and tackling the many recipes I have on my “to-do” list offered by yourself and JB! I can’t wait!
Please take very good care, Nagi, and please know I am sending Love and Hugs from
A Lass on The Canadian Prairies
🦄
what a great meal! So easy! I loved the spices and the chicken was so tender and flavorful!
thank you for another great recipe to add to my rotation!!
Cooked this tonight. Only had boneless thighs but it turned out beautifully. Followed exact recipe (except only half the cayenne pepper) and there was plenty of sauce. I love your 1 pot recipes Nagi…thank you! 🩷
Hi Donna. How long did you cook the thighs for please? Did you follow Nagi’s note for boneless thighs?
Hi Helena
I actually didn’t see Nagi’s note about the boneless thighs until afterwards! 🙈 So I used the same directions as in the recipe and they cooked just fine. 😊
Fresh and tasty! I did add a garden carrot to the veg mix, because it’s harvest time here on the west coast of Canada. Might substitute a bit of lemon with balsamic next time. Delicious as always madame! Smooch to the pooch.
Made this with boneless, skinless chicken breasts (all I had on hand). It was really, really good! Nice kick without being too overpowering. My only problem was that there wasn’t any sauce left at the end of cooking! I was so sad because I had bread all ready for sopping up!! Maybe because I used the skinless chicken breasts???
Made this tonight and it was absolutely gorgeous, myself and my husband both really liked it and will definitely make again. I used new potatoes sliced long ways in half and chicken breast as we prefer that. Served with shop bought crusty bread. Thank you for another great recipe
Thank you Nagi once again for a fabulous recipe. Quick and easy – all the family loved it. Used thigh fillets and stuck to the recipe. Perfect.
Deeee-licious ! Made it last night. Super tasty & thighs were not dry at all. Have my evening work dinners sorted
Deeee-licious ! Made it last night. Super tasty & thighs were not dry at all. Have my evening work dinners sorted
Making this recipe for the second consecutive day. So easy and both the chicken and potatoes were perfectly cooked!
Easy and very tasty
Lovely
I have this in the oven right now and it smells amazing! It was so easy to make x
Delicious! I made this today, exactly as the recipe stipulated, and it was a huge success.
Super easy and delicious
Thanks Lori in Canada for confirming that sometimes
Potatoes just don’t seem to want to soften.
I made this Portuguese chicken dish last night and loved it – especially how simple it was. I used chicken drumsticks and gave the chicken another 10 mins as I like it falling off the bone. I also gave the potato baking time an extra 10 mins – it was just cooked enough.
There was plenty of juice in mine which seemed to materialise as it cooked. Thanks Nagi for a tasty easy one pot meal.
This is a lovely dish but it didn’t have the broth it was supposed to. I checked the recipe half way cooking but it was a bit dry. The chicken was moist and delicious. I wondered if my baking dish was too big. I watched the cooking because my chicken didn’t have bones. Was there supposed to be more liquid added?
Hi Sarah. How strange! I made this last night and thought there was too much cooking liquid for my taste.
I used a large baking dish (28x35cm) in fan oven (180C). I used new, salad type potatoes freshly pulled from the garden.
A lot of the liquid would have come out of the potatoes because they weren’t par boiled. In addition, I am guessing bone in chicken (and skin) would also produce more liquid. I also added 2 onions and 2 peppers because they weren’t that big. Impact on the juice quantity would have been minimal in comparison to the potatoes. Dry potatoes? Don’t know if there is such a thing.
Personally, we loved the taste of the recipe, and the simplicity but didn’t think the tatties (potatoes) did the recipe justice.
Next time I am going to par boil floury tatties (Maris Piper etc), crush them down and add the vegetables and seasoning before putting in the oven. That way all the juice (and flavour) will get soaked up into the tatties and it won’t take as long to cook.
I had the same experience. No broth. I had to make gravy separately. Not sure what I did wrong.
I don’t understand either. My thoughts were to add a chicken broth ( not stock) which we can buy. However, I really don’t want to mess up a good recipe.
Another fantastic meal. Thanks again. Allergic to onions so leek substituted and was a delicious meal. Great flavour and texture and easy to prepare. I made the chicken and paste in the afternoon and kept in the fridge until the veges went in and were ready for adding the chicken.
ggrwtgvdvd v
Wow, Nagi! I have another staple for our dinner table, thanks!!
I swapped out half the potatoes for green beans. The kids finished all the veggies (Mmm… golden-brown potato skins) and slurped up the sauce.
Next time, I’ll just add more beans and keep all the potatoes as the recipe calls for. 😋