
Sometimes you don’t mess with a classic, but in this case, we think it's worth your while. Smashed potatoes and an herby feta and olive topping lend an exciting spin to one of our most beloved recipes: lemon-butter chicken. In this recipe, an extra-crispy texture on the potatoes and a briny herbal finish (thanks to the olives) amplifies all the classic flavors without taking away from the goodness of the original recipe. You can’t go wrong with either, but if you want to serve it often, get both in the chicken dinner repertoire.
To make this, start by boiling the potatoes until tender and smashable. This allows for the already cooked potatoes to just focus on crisping up in the oven rather than cooking and then crisping. For the crispiest potatoes, coat them in butter before smashing them. It’s much easier to toss the whole potatoes with butter than the already smashed ones, which would fall apart.
When you’re shopping for this recipe, here are some tips: Look for chicken thighs that are roughly around the same size so they all cook evenly and are done at the same time—the sweet spot is 6 ounces per thigh. Mini red, mini Yukon gold, or mini creamer potatoes all work in this recipe. For the parsley, curly or flat leaf both work here. For the olives, Castelvetrano olives are the sort of olives that can turn an olive hater into an olive lover (trust me, I know a few converts), but Kalamata, black, or whatever olive suits your fancy can be used.
If you love-lemon butter, then don’t stop here at chicken and potatoes. Try it on pasta, steak, salmon, gnocchi, and even baked into cookies.
If you made this, let us know what you think!
Ingredients
- 1 lb.
baby mini potatoes
Kosher salt
- 1
small red onion, halved, cut into 3/4" wedges
- 4 Tbsp.
unsalted butter, melted, divided
Freshly ground black pepper
- 1
lemon, thinly sliced into rounds, seeds removed
- 2 1/4 lb.
bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 6)
- 1 tsp.
dried oregano
- 1/2 cup
Castelvetrano or other olives, pitted, halved
- 1/2 cup
packed fresh parsley leaves, chopped
- 2 oz.
crumbled feta
Directions
- Step 1Preheat oven to 425°. In a large pot, cover potatoes with water and add a generous pinch of salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Drain and let sit until cool enough to handle.
- Step 2On a large rimmed baking sheet, toss potatoes and onions with half of butter. Using the bottom of a small glass or mason jar, press down on potatoes to smash into flat patties; season with salt and pepper. Nestle lemon slices into potato mixture.
- Step 3Pat chicken dry with paper towels; season with salt and pepper. Drizzle remaining butter all over chicken. Sprinkle skin of chicken with oregano. Nestle chicken skin side up in potato mixture.
- Step 4Roast until potatoes and chicken are golden brown and an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of chicken registers 165°, about 45 minutes total.
- Step 5In a small bowl, combine olives, parsley, and feta. Sprinkle over top of chicken right out of the oven. Serve warm.

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