Lemon Pepper Chicken is the perfect combination of juicy chicken, tender veggies and a tangy flavorful lemon pepper sauce that everyone loves! This easy recipe starts with high quality spices and a quick homemade lemon pepper seasoning!
Serve this dish over easy Garlic Butter Rice or mashed potatoes for the perfect meal!
This Lemon Pepper Chicken recipe is sponsored by McCormick and inspired by my behind-the-scenes experience with the flavor experts at McCormick.
How to Make Lemon Pepper Chicken
I love chicken – it always makes for an easy meal and everyone loves it! Here’s the thing about chicken: it can be delicious, juicy and flavorful, or just ho-hum.
The great thing is that you don’t need a lot of fancy or weird, unusual ingredients to make a great dish! This recipe uses a simple blend of lemon, McCormick Ground Black Pepper, salt, and a few spices to create an easy meal so flavorful, it’s restaurant-worthy!
In early October, I was fortunate enough to spend time with the McCormick flavor experts (and their most amazing chef Kevan) and learn a ton about the spices I know and love.
McCormick spices are what I grew up with and what is in my cupboard now, so I was excited to get great tips and learn even more to really become a flavor expert.
McCormick spices are truly top notch (spoiler: the care and details put into everything they produce is second to none). The best part is that I can take what I’ve learned and pass it on to you, so you can easily create crazy good food in your own kitchen!
I’m obsessed with good flavor just as much as McCormick is! We learned so much but my favorite (of course) was the tasting we got to do! The first thing we learned was the physiology of flavors … and how our bodies process flavor (plug your nose and eat a jelly bean, there will be no flavor)!!
My fave was learning why McCormick’s spices have so much flavor (it’s the commitment to where and how they’re sourced plus the care of the spices until they’re bottled). While we did taste a lot of comparison/competitor products, the black pepper (and taco seasoning) truly was the most amazing difference to me!
Use High Quality Spices
Black pepper is black pepper right? Sorry, wrong! Dollar store pepper is the same ol’ thing anyhow right? Wrong again!
This was shocking to me! The two piles of pepper on our spice cutting paper (above) look so similar to me but the flavor wasn’t even close. The McCormick Black Pepper had such a huge difference in the depth of flavor and spice that it wasn’t even comparable.
When cooking, we’re adding pennies worth of spices to each meal so making sure those spices really have all of the flavor we’re looking for is essential. On average, a bottle of spices lasts me anywhere from 6 months to 2 years… so spending the extra dollar or so for a quality product is one place I splurge.
For a dollar or so extra, you’re adding HUGE flavor to countless meals.
How to Make Lemon Pepper Seasoning
I have to admit this is my favorite part of this recipe! I love the flavor of lemon pepper but usually find it quite salty. Making it homemade with high-quality ingredients means that I get the most delicious seasoning while being able to control the sodium!
Homemade Lemon Pepper Seasoning
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 1/2 teaspoons McCormick Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- 1/2 teaspoon McCormick Onion Powder
- 1/4 teaspoon McCormick Garlic Powder
Combine all ingredients for use in this lemon pepper chicken recipe. Leftover lemon pepper seasoning can be left on a plate to dry at room temperature for about 24 hours, stirring occasionally. Once dried, store in a cool airtight container.
DIY Lemon Pepper Seasoning is great for chicken, fish, shrimp or pasta. The possibilities are endless!
How to Cook Lemon Pepper Chicken
Recipes like this Lemon Pepper Chicken start with the simplest of ingredients but create the most amazing meal! Adding high-quality spices and a fragrant ground black pepper means that, for only pennies per meal, you’re getting the best flavors with everyday ingredients. This lemon pepper chicken recipe is crazy easy to make at home.
- Mix homemade lemon pepper seasoning.
- Dredge chicken and brown on each side.
- Place over sliced zucchini (or mushrooms) in a casserole dish.
- Create a quick lemon sauce to spoon over top.
- Bake until tender.
What Goes with Lemon Pepper Chicken
Lemon Pepper Chicken is a great meal on its own. I add veggies under the chicken and it all cooks in one dish! When serving, spoon the lemon sauce over top of the chicken for a deliciously zingy flavor!
This lemon pepper chicken can be served with:
- Mashed Potatoes
- Pasta or Egg Noodles
- Homemade Biscuits or bread
- Easy Oven Roasted Potatoes
- Mashed Cauliflower Potatoes
- Caesar Salad
Lemon Pepper Chicken
Ingredients
- 2 ½ teaspoons lemon pepper seasoning divided, recipe below
- 3 tablespoons olive oil divided
- 6 green onions sliced
- 1 medium zucchini sliced (or 8 oz mushrooms)
- ⅓ cup flour
- 4 chicken breasts
Sauce
- ½ cup chicken stock
- ¼ cup white wine
- 1 small lemon juiced
- 1 tablespoon flour I use flour from the dredge mixture
- ½ teaspoon McCormick Ground Black Pepper
- ½ teaspoon McCormick Garlic Powder
- parsley for garnish
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350˚F
- Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a skillet. Fry zucchini, 1 teaspoon lemon pepper seasoning and green onion about 2-3 minutes. Place in bottom of a 2 qt casserole dish or dutch oven.
- Mix together flour and 1 ½ teaspoons of the lemon pepper seasoning. Dredge chicken breasts in flour mixture (reserve remaining mixture for sauce).
- Add olive oil to a skillet and brown chicken over medium high heat until golden, about 3 minutes per side. Place on top of zucchini
- Place wine, broth, lemon juice and 1 tablespoon of the leftover flour mixture and garlic powder in a jar and shake well to combine.
- Pour into warm skillet while whisking and bring to a boil. Simmer 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Spoon sauce over chicken breasts.
- Cover and bake for 20 minutes. Remove cover and bake for 10-15 minutes longer or until internal temperature reaches 165°F.
Notes
- 2 tablespoons lemon zest
- 1 ½ teaspoons McCormick Ground Black Pepper
- 1 teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ½ teaspoon McCormick Onion Powder
- ¼ teaspoon McCormick Garlic Powder
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Main Course
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I will be making this tomorrow…wondering if this can be made the night before?
I haven’t tried it so I can’t say for sure Maria, but it should be just fine. If you try it I would love to hear how it turns out!
Are the chicken breast skinless or with skin on
For this recipe, we use skinless chicken and dredge it in a flour mixture for the perfect coating.
Great flavors, but struggled to get the sauce to thicken. I added a little extra flour to try and thicken, but it didn’t seem to work for me. I will definitely try this recipe again and see if I can get it to work. I love your site, and I have cooked numerous meals that my husband and I love!
So happy to hear that these recipes are a hit with you and your husband Shae. If the sauce isn’t thickening you can definitely add in more flour or try simmering it a little longer to reduce the liquid. Let us know how it goes!
So delicious! I used sumac because I didn’t have lemon pepper and sumac is quite lemony as well. And added some peppers to the vegetables. The chicken was amazingly tender! Thanks.
Those sound like great additions Adina! Thanks for sharing.