Mrs. Crafty Cook: Greek Marinated Chicken (Freezer Friendly Recipe)

It’s no surprise that I love Greek food. Hummus, tabuleh, feta cheese, greek salads, all of it! This Greek marinated chicken recipe is an easy way to get my Greek fix anytime! It can be frozen after prep for an easy freezer meal that is at your service when you most need it.

As far as freezer meals go, this one is about average for prep time. I’ve had some that are ridiculously easy and others that make me question why I’m doing it in the first place. This one falls somewhere in the middle, but I’m telling you it was so nice to have it at my disposal… especially since I haven’t been to the grocery store to get any entrée worthy foods lately.

To start this meal gather up all your ingredients. I love that we aren’t working with too many items for this recipe. It really makes prep fly by. If you visit the blog where I found this recipe (Budget Bytes) you will find prices for all the items used to create this recipe. And as the blog title suggests, it’s a budget friendly meal, which is always a plus in my book. I went ahead and made two freezer meals (doubling the recipe), it just seemed like a no brainer.

For the marinade mix together, yogurt, olive oil, minced garlic, salt, and freshly cracked pepper in a medium sized bowl. Next take your lemon and zest the top layer of skin. If you don’t care for lemon I’d suggest zesting half. If there was one prominent flavor in this recipe it’s definitely the lemon; although, I didn’t feel like that was a bad thing… it’s just that if I made it for company I would tone down the lemon. You also add the juice from about half of the zested lemon to the yogurt mix (again use less if you aren’t into lemon). Go ahead a give it a stir before you add the chopped parsley, then stir again.

Next add your chicken pieces into a gallon sized freezer bag that you have dated and labeled (include oven temp and cooking time). Equally divide chicken pieces if you double the recipe. Join the marinade to the bag(s) and remove as much air as possible before sealing the bag. You can massage the chicken if you’d like to make sure all the pieces are coated.

I put my bags in the freezer, but you could use this recipe as soon as 30 minutes. Just keep it in the refrigerator while waiting. Viola! You have a wonderful freezer meal to use when you slack on grocery shopping. ;)

To cook: thaw overnight in refrigerator. Preheat oven to 375 degrees, add chicken to a 9 X 13 baking dish, and cook for 50-60 minutes, or until chicken registers at 165F on a meat thermometer. But feel free to cook a little longer and get the tops of your chicken golden brown. Nothing better than that crispy skin… even if I only eat a tiny tiny sliver.