Forget store bought Lemon Pepper seasoning. The best way to make homemade Lemon Pepper Chicken is with lemon zest (no juice!), black pepper, garlic and olive oil. Simple, fragrant and delicious. Make this with any cut of chicken you want, grill it, bake it or sear it.
So simple and easy to make, you can make this tonight!
Sometimes, the simplest of ideas turn out to be annoyingly difficult to achieve. All I wanted was to make a homemade Lemon Pepper Chicken i.e. without using a packet of Lemon Pepper seasoning.
Making a homemade Lemon Pepper seasoning to sprinkle onto chicken requires slow baking lemon zest to dry it out before mixing with salt and pepper. So essentially making a flavoured salt.
But I wanted something I could make tonight, any night, on a whim. Because Lemon Pepper Chicken is definitely a midweek-meal-type-food, don’t you think? Something you should be able to make right now.
As it turns out, finding a short cut way of making a chicken with a real lemon flavour (i.e. not just lemon sour flavour) wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be because the actual lemon flavour in lemons is not in the juice, it’s in the zest. The juice is a bit lemony, but mostly it is sour. But Lemon Pepper Chicken is not sour or even tangy.
So anyway, I won’t take you through the various methods I attempted before landing on “the recipe”. Suffice to say the challenge was figuring out an easy way to get the zest and pepper to actually stick to the chicken, along with garlic (or onion) powder for extra flavour.
So this is how I do it: mix zest and olive oil to make a rub, slather it onto the chicken, then dip into flour seasoned with pepper, garlic (or onion) powder and salt.
Not a drop of lemon juice in sight. Only because I wanted to replicate store bought lemon pepper seasoning which is not tangy. You can definitely add a squeeze of lemon juice into the lemon zest slather (is that what it’s called??). But just a bit. Because I find that the key to getting the lemon zest to stick to the chicken is to only use a bit of oil. Too much oil and the zest just runs off.
I don’t use the lemon juice for the seasoning but what I like to do is slice it up and pan fry it, partly for garnish and also to give people the option to squeeze some over the chicken.
Got lemons? Got chicken? Then try this for dinner tonight! – Nagi x
A homemade version of lemon pepper chicken made without store-bought lemon pepper seasoning. It tastes incredible - fresh, fragrant with lovely pops of heat from the pepper. No marinating time required. Great for pork and seafood too! RECIPE VIDEO BELOW.
- 2 chicken breasts (~250 - 300g / 8 - 10oz each)
- 2 lemons (Note 1)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 3 tbsp flour
- 1/2 - 3/4 tsp salt
- 2 1/2 tsp cracked black pepper (adjust to taste) (Note 2)
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder (or sub with onion powder) (Note 3)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- Fresh parsley , for garnish
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Cut the chicken in half horizontally to make 2 steaks. Optional: pound to make them even thickness around 1cm / 2/5" thick (I do this).
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Zest the lemons to make 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp lemon zest. Avoid grating too much of the white part - it's bitter.
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Place zest into bowl with 1 tbsp olive oil and mix to combine. Add chicken and use your hands to slather oil mixture onto chicken.
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Mix flour, salt, pepper and garlic powder in a shallow bowl.
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Dip chicken into flour mixture, shaking to remove excess.
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Heat oil in a skillet over medium high heat. Cook chicken for 2 minutes on each side, or until golden.
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Optional: Slice zested lemon and cook the slices, like pictured.
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Serve chicken, garnished with fresh parsley if using.
1. You need enough lemons to make around 1 1/2 - 2 tbsp of lemon zest. 2 medium size lemons is usually enough.
2. I make cracked pepper using my mortar and pestle to roughly crack whole peppercorns because I like large pops of black pepper. You can just use a coarse pepper grinder. If you only have fine ground pepper (like the pepper that comes pre-ground), only use around 3/4 tsp.
3. Option to mix minced garlic into lemon zest slather instead of using powder. I prefer powder because it has a smoother flavour finish, more akin to store bought seasoning.
4. This recipe also works great with pork and seafood. It's a little too delicate for lamb and beef, in my opinion.
Homemade Lemon Pepper Chicken nutrition per serving, assuming 4 servings.
WATCH HOW TO MAKE IT
LIFE OF DOZER
T’was a lovely weekend for tea in the sun. Dozer is an excellent cafe dog!
Hi Nagi,
I was just wondering if this recipe would still work as well if i used smaller cuts of chicken.
Thank you, Nicola x
Absolutely Nicola! Even tenderloin will be great 🙂 N x
Made this recently as a week night meal for the family. Very quick, easy and tasty so I will definitely make this again. Thumbs up from the family too 🙂
Thanks Nagi
I LOVE hearing that Karen! Thanks so much for letting me know! N xx
Hi Nagi,
We are always looking for healthier dinner options, so I decided to try this for dinner tonight. I knew by the way it smelled cooking, that it would be good. It was actually better! I made it just as you described, including pounding out the breasts after cut in half. My wife snagged the 2 extra pieces and put them in her lunch meal preps. Thanks for sharing this delicious recipe.
Love hearing that Steve! so glad you enjoyed it! N x
This recipe worked incredibly. I did not use the garlic powder but it is a great recipe. Thank you so much !! I’m passing this over to my mom.
🙌🏻 I’m so glad you enjoyed this Melanie, thanks for letting me know! N x
You are a genius! My husband and I had this for lunch. We ate the whole thing. I like that I had all the ingredients on hand already. No special trips to the store for esoteric ingredients. I like that there was just enough coating for the one pound of chicken breast. No waste. I like that this is a “healthy” fried chicken. My husband loves fried chicken. And I could serve this to guests, too. But I’d better make a triple recipe!
This was very very good! I worried it wouldn’t have enough lemon flavor so I added a squirt of juice from my zested lemon and I think it was probably a little too much lemon. Follow the recipe! Yum!
I’m so pleased to hear that Ashley!! Thanks for sharing that! N xx
How does chicken cook in two minutes?
On each side 🙂 N x
Will limes work?
YES!!!
Hi Nagi,
Stumbled on your site searching for a turkey breast, slow cooker recipe. (excellent, simple and delicious). Since then I have tried many of your recipes and LOVE them all.
With the lemon pepper chicken recipe: After the chicken is done, I place the sliced lemon in the pan and let them simmer for a bit along with the the remaining flour (I use rice flour due to a gluten issue) and a bit of veggie stock and it makes a wonderful sauce.
I’m all about sauce and simple, healthy comfort food. Another reason why I love your site.
I’m so pleased to hear that Susan, thank you for letting me know! And what a fabulous tip for making a sauce, thank you for sharing! N xx
HI Nagi,
you got crazy delicious recipes here. Just the pictures make my mouth watery.
i have two questions:
1. What camera are you using for photos?
2. Can I add some of your delicious dishes to my menu and provide a link to your website? I don’t mind giving full dish credit to your website/you. My restaurant is still in works but i think my future customers will love it. 🙂
thanks in advance.
without people like you the internet wouldn’t be the same.
Thanks,
Patel
Hi Kunal! I use a Nikon D750 🙂
Nagi!
It was 430pm mid week. My husband had been at work for 12 hours. Our 9 month old twins refused their naps all day and were cranky. I still had to think about dinner. I needed something quick. I browsed your site under chicken and saw this required minimal ingredients. I did not expect it to be such an amazing flavour explosion!! My husband thought I cooked for hours! I used the chicken and made caesar wraps and they were the best chicken caesar wraps we had ever had, all thanks to your chicken recipe! Thank you SO much, yet again. This has gone into my favourite folder! I don’t know where we would be without your trusted recipes these past few years. Everything I make is from you and we love it all. You’re the best.
Much Love,
Nina
Aww Nina! This message is literally everything that I hope my site to be ? Thank you so much for sharing this message for me 🙂 I’m so glad everyone enjoyed it, thanks for letting me know! N xx
OMG- I am down on “bed rest” after a medical procedure. I came across your blog and have been stalking your blog, youtube for the last few hours! My printer has been hard at work printing your recipes. I have already decided I need a special “NAGI” folder! You are AMAZING!!! I am SO blown away by your recipes! I can’t wait to try, but I am having a hard time deciding what to make first! The self saucing BBQ chicken is in the lead, but I do love lemon chicken and can’t wait to try this! Not to mention the others! I admit, I don’t like to cook, but I do cook for my family. Your recipes look easy and so DELISH! Nicely done!
Hi Deena – I’m sorry to hear you’re on bed rest, I hope you recover quickly. 🙂 Thank you for your lovely message, I do hope you make and enjoy some of my recipes!!! N xx