Last Updated on June 9, 2022
Baked Garlic Chicken and Potatoes Recipe
“Toum, zait w haamid” is a phrase that one would tend to overhear repeatedly from mom while giving cooking advice to friends. In Arabic, Toum = Garlic, Zait = Oil (Olive Oil here), and Haamid = Lemon. This is a tangy-garlicky combination that is the flavoring base of many traditional Lebanese dishes, including the Baked Garlic Chicken and Potatoes featured in this post.
Garlic Sauce For Baked Garlic Chicken Recipe
The success of this recipe is directly correlated to how well you make the garlic sauce. Traditionally the sauce is made by crushing garlic with a pestle in a wooden mortar while slowly adding the salt and olive oil thus turning it into a paste. And finally once you start adding the lemon juice all while continuing to stir and crush with the pestle, the paste turns into a beautiful sauce with a balanced garlic and lemon flavoring.
Important Notes For Making Baked Garlic Chicken and Potatoes
If you don’t have a mortar, using a food processor or blender gets you a good sauce as well. Make sure you use freshly squeezed lemon juice as it makes a difference. Â Finally an important note here is that if the chicken isn’t too fresh it tends to have a “chickeny” smell. So to help remove it, you can rub or soak the chicken in a bit of vinegar for a couple of minutes, then rinse them really well with cold water prior to baking. And after the chicken is cooked, and right before you add the garlic sauce, if you notice any excess liquids on the bottom of the tray scoop it out or drain it away as this is fat/water from the chicken that may ruin your dish.
FAQs
Is it safe to bake chicken and potatoes together?
Yes, baking chicken and potatoes together are safe to cook together.
How do you bake garlic chicken with potatoes?
The complete procedure of baking garlic chicken with potatoes is mentioned below.
Recipe: Baked Garlic Chicken and Potatoes – Djej w Batata Bil Sayniyyeh
Summary: A traditional garlic chicken dish from Lebanon.
Baked Garlic Chicken Ingredients (4 servings)
- 4 lbs of chicken legs/quarters/breasts
- 5 medium potatoes
- 20 cloves of garlic (or 1.5 heads)
- 1 cup of freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 4 table spoons of olive oil
- salt to taste
- A pinch of Lebanese 7-spices
- Vinegar (optional)
Baked Garlic Chicken Preparation Method
- Soak chicken in vinegar for 2 minutes (to help remove the “chickeny” smell), rinse them well with cold water then dry them with paper towels.
- Make cuts in chicken in order to allow for garlic sauce to seep deep inside.
- Rub chicken with a table spoon or two of olive oil, a pinch of salt, and a pinch of Lebanese 7-spices.
- Peel potatoes then cut them in disks of about 1/2 inch, salt lightly.
- Place chicken on bottom of baking tray (preferably metal), place potatoes on top, and bake at 400F (medium heat) for about 40-50 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked.
- Meanwhile place the garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon of salt and 2-3 table spoons of olive oil in a blender/food processor and spin for 4-5 minutes, add the lemon juice and spin for another 4-5 minutes until you have a nice lemony-garlicky sauce.
- Once the chicken has baked, take the tray out of the oven and very carefully drain any excess liquids/fat/water that you see on the bottom.
- Pour the garlic sauce all over it while mixing it well with the potatoes, put back in the oven and  broil for another 5-10 minutes until the potatoes turn reddish
- Serve warm.
- Note: You may need to consume an unusually large quantity of toothpaste afterwards.
Preparation time: 15 minute(s)
Cooking time: 1 hour(s) 5 minute(s)
Number of servings (yield): 4
Copyright © Mama’s Lebanese Kitchen.
For the baked garlic chicken, it looks like the skin was removed in the pictures. Is that correct?
Nancy you’re right the skin was removed
Hi. I was wondering what is traditionally served with this dish. I plan on making it for my friend who is missing his moms cooking. She won’t be here for a visit for several months
Hi Sandy – the chicken and potatotes with garlic is typically served simply with pita bread, and a side of salad. An ideal salad would be something with a tangy dressing, like vinegar + lemon + salt + lemon
Mama HELP why did my garlic sauce turn green when it was in the oven for broiling? What did i do wrong?
Omg i love this stuff! 🙂
Can I make this dish a few hours in advance and then pop it in the oven before eating? Or can I better make the dish in advance up untill step 7. and finish the rest of later? Any quick advice (it is for tonight) is welcome! 🙂
Hi Julia – the only concern with cooking this in advance and reheating it later is the risk that the chicken may get dry unless you use mostly chicken legs/thighs which are more moist. If you are to cook it in advance, I’d bake it and mix it with the half of the garlic and when you reheat it you can add the other half of the garlic.
I use cardomam (hail) with a lot of things, maybe it’s a Falasteeny thing?
Yeah I think it could be. It is delicious. I love with with Coffee and with some marinated meats.
I stumbled on your site, thank you! I’m going to be making your beef and potato stew tonight. The 7ashweh roz that I make, or we called it 7ashwet oozi/roz bel khalta this is what I do:
sautee chopped onion, add ground beef, peas and carrots, sautee and cook until beef is cooked, I add the following spices:
1 cinnamon stick
cloves whole
cardomam whole
7spice
salt, pepper
and cook it all together, then I add premeasured water for the rice to the beef mixture, 1 cube chicken bouillon, let boil, then I add my premeasured rice, bring back to boil, then drop the temp to Lo and cover, until cooked. Just before serving I decorate it with toasted pine nuts, almonds and cashews, it’s deliciuos and a hit everytime!
Thank you Nansi for sharing the Hashweh recipe it looks delicious – I never tried it with cardamon.
Making this tonight but with a variation of frying the spiced chicken first then covering with foil after putting with sliced potato, garlic sauce and a tad bit of water (to help the cooking of potatoes along and dilute the garlic for the kids) Then when potato is cooked I let the foil off for a few minutes to get the color… The smell throughout the house is heavenly 🙂
That’s a nice way of doing it Zainab I can definitely see how good it’ll be. The foil should capture the moisture inside the pan and make the chicken very moist. Right on… I can smell the garlic here 🙂
Made this tonight… i scored big with the husband, and myself!
Thanks Mama!
Your welcome 🙂
Thank you for the detailed recipe and the keys to success that you highlighted . Ill be checking your site more often for sure ! PS
I have more than ten cooking books at home but not one presented the recipe as you ! Cheers
Marcia, Edgard, and Cindy thanks, yep that’s what I was looking for, my Mom rounded up a couple recipes that she thought match her mother’s so I’ll be making it soon, once our Pacific NW Snowmageddon melts away, clearing the roads. Thanks to you all, kind diners, cooks and purveyors of good taste, good tasting. Tom
Tom/Edgar,
The Hashwee i grew up on was ground lamp or beef sauteed with onions in olive oil, salt, pepper and allspice (or 7 spice). Cook rice in butter on the side and then mix the two when piping hot. Make sure you keep the rice a bit moist so the dish isn’t too dry. Tom, is this what you were looking for?
Hi Marcia – actually this sounds very good. I am pretty sure I’ve had it before but I don’t recall that we called it that way. I’ll ask the boss (mom) and get back with you guys. This would be nice to feature here one day.
That is the basic Hashwee with the meat,onion & spices with pine nuts.
You can always cook this with rice too.
this sounds absolutely delicious!
I have a question though. I had bought commercial garlic sauce that the specialty markets now carry (it is the Lebanese sauce)….can I use that and bake it with chicken breasts (as someone mentioned above)
I would bake it at 400? You mentioned baking and broiling
Caren commercial garlic pastes from Lebanese stores typically have citric acid as well as vegetable oil, so I don’t know how that would react with the baking. You could try it if you want but I wouldn’t, I personally prefer to make it fresh. Yes the process is to bake the chicken + potatoes first at 400F, for about 40-50 minutes, and then once cooked you discard any liquids on the bottom of the tray (chicken fat) add then and mix the garlic sauce with the potatoes/chicken and broil for 5-10 minutes.
If you ended up trying that commercial sauce with this recipe let us know how it goes I’d be curious to know.
Oh boy does this sound great! Edgard, please find the recipe 🙂
If what I have in mind is indeed what Tom is referring to, we’ll do that very soon. It’s called Riz 3a Djej (Chicken and Rice) and it’s basically lightly spiced rice (7-spices, cinnamon) with chicken and sauteed pine nuts/almonds.
Hi Edgard, my grandmother used to make it. A rice dish with sauteed pine nuts in it and really buttery and delicious, like a pilaf, but better flavored, and oh yes and cinnamon was an ingredient too.
Ok we’re zooming in. Did it have chicken in it by any chance or was it meat-less?
I love easy recipes, deep flavors and heaps of garlic. That said, this recipe is on the menu for Friday night supper with friends. I would love to make it with rice sometime, too. Do you have a recipe for Hashweh (hush-wee)? Forgive my spelling.
Heya Tom good hearing from you. I hope this turns out nice on Friday. Hashweh means “stuffing” in Arabic, are you looking for a stuffing recipe or is that the name of the dish? If so, what are its ingredients to see if that would ring a bell? take care