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 (creme gold) for those of you in Australia, or red potatoes or baby potatoes (new potatoes). 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 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
Hi Nagi. I would like to voice my frustration that in Australia the big supermarkets often dont tell you what variety the potato is and they just label it white. I bought dirt potatoes from Aldi and made your cubed potato bake and despite hours of cooking they were still a bit crunchy. Very frustrating. I am hoping the potatoes I buy suit this recipe. Love all your helpful hints.
Oh Nagi, you and JB are on a roll. Delicious recipe after delicious recipe. Love that this is a one pan dinner too! And lemon potatoes! I just saw a recipe for them elsewhere and thought they sounded good, and then you share your recipe! Another double yum!!!
Even more I love the photos of Jaffle and Dozer. Just as we all miss Dozer and now love Jaffle too, I’m still missing my big Riley guy but loving my little Eddie. Life brings us great losses and also new loves. Thanks for all the great pics! They tug ar the heart strings. And so glad your new, not so little guy, is bringing you joy!!
Nagi, I can’t remember if you have, but I certainly hope you have a dog bathroom with shower. Both the 2 whippets and I loved the mushroom ragu. I could swear I am looking at Dozer, but Jaffle is truly beautiful, Gail.
I too will never forget Dozer. I must add that your love for Dozer and now Jaffles shines through so brightly. It gives me joy to see you with another son. B
So glad to hear you have dog friendly shops over there.
I still remember the day I was in a bank here in Havelock North, NZ when an elderly gentleman tied his elder dog up to a post outside, but as he came in the bank the worker there said no, bring him in, he’s welcome here. The look on the old dude’s face was amazing! We now have more and more dog friendly businesses…. and your boy is growing up sooooooo fast!!!!!!! cheers
I’d like to make this with salmon but obviously the cooking time would be different. I’m thinking add the salmon in the last 20 min? So cook vegies 45 min and then add salmon and cook for further 20 min. Would that be about right? Or would I have to also mess with the oven temp?
I must say the satay drumsticks were delicious you evil genius Nagi……Jaffle looks too clean 🧡💛😅 ….Dozer will never be forgotten, nearly 2 years on I think of my Pixie everyday and it would have been her 10th birthday in September 🥲 we love our Tommy but it’s still incredibly hard ❤️🩹
Will I ever not cry when I see a post about Dozer? Thanks for your yummy new recipe, the portugese chicken and rice is one of our favourites so I can’t wait to try this one. Currently cooking your Pot Roasted Coconut Chicken for dinner. Felt much more summery with this gorgeous weather in Sydney than a full English style roast! And my gosh Jaffle has gotten big so fast!
We really seem to have come to appreciate Portuguese cooking here ’cause your beauty is the third recipe I have been offered today! Similar to the one my long-term Portuguese housekeeper taught me way back! Truly yummy and so easy to make even if I am not the friendliest cook where potatoes are concerned. Like your seasoning and shall copy even tho’ I normally buy Herbies’ 🙂 ! And like the thighs. You are being practical!!! Jaffle – well the photo I am going to keep is that gorgeous resting pose in the furniture shop . . . he looks too serious and trying to act grown-up on the others 🙂 !
This is a bit of a general question. Hubby and I are not coriander fans at all, so is there a substitute or just leave it out of the recipe,
thank you in advance.
Thank you for your wonderful recipes, so easy to follow.
Very generous of you to share.
Love Jaffle!
I miss Dozer too
Hi Ive never hsd an issue saving your recipes to my Recipe Tin, but for the life of me I cannot get this one to save! When I save it and then search it, it brings up the nandos one. This one looks delicious! Ill keep trying to save it! Anyone else have any issues?
Yes, I have the same problem. Saved it but it’s not coming up in Recipetin. Very strange!
I didn’t know you could save – how do you do so?
I’ve just joined and I have trouble just trying to save a receipt. 😁
Oh my oh my that looks delicious – currently cooking your satay chicken legs recipe so this recipe is in the holding pen 😂
This is very similar to one of my staple recipes – though I also add chunks of chorizo which adds a wonderful smokey flavour.
Same but I use oranges
That’s a fabulous idea with the chorizo!
❤️🐾🐾🐶
I keep forgetting to ask what does Jaffles name mean ???
A jaffle is a uniquely Australian toasted sandwich made in a special gadget that seals the edges and the middle to keep the filling in. You can get jaffle makers that cook over/in fire, and electrical ones for the kitchen. The edges get so crispy and delicious!
Thanks I was wondering before & forgot to ask .
Interesting to live different countries culture, foods etc
Jaffles is going to be a BIG boy..So cute !
Where do you take them swimming fresh water or ocean …. Sharks around anywhere 🫣😳
so cute 🥺🥰