Baked Bone-In Chicken Breast

This Baked Bone-In Chicken Breast gives you juicy, tender, white meat with a perfect light seasoning.

Without a doubt, you’ve picked up some boneless, skinless chicken breasts at the grocery store before—and I wouldn’t blame you! Skinless chicken is healthier than skin-on chicken, generally speaking, and boneless chicken is undeniably easier to eat. But without skin and bones, you might not know just how much flavor you’re missing out on!

Since there’s a thin layer of fat just underneath the skin on a bird, cooking your chicken with the skin on means that this fat (and its moisture and flavor) can seep right into your chicken breast, and if you’re browning the skin on your chicken, you’re technically frying it in its own natural fats. That, combined with the extra flavor and moisture you get from cooking it on the bone, results in some of the tastiest white meat you can imagine.

That’s why this recipe for baked bone-in chicken breasts delivers the best of both worlds. You keep the healthy, protein-packed white meat, without sacrificing moisture or flavor. Plus, you don’t have to worry about pulling off the skin or deboning the chicken, which saves you time—and buying bone-in, skin-on breasts is generally cheaper than the boneless, skinless option.

Is Baked Bone-In Chicken Breast Healthy?

Chicken breast is fairly healthy, generally speaking. It’s packed with protein, and it’s full of essential B vitamins and other nutrients like choline, phosphorus, and selenium. Skin-on chicken breast does have more fat content than skinless chicken breast, but it’s about equal to the fat content of skinless chicken thighs per ounce of meat. In other words, skin-on breast is still fairly lean. Chicken skin, despite its fat content, also contains some goodness. For example, it’s a source of collagen, an essential protein.

Overall, this recipe is suitable for gluten-free and keto diets.

Season Your Chicken To Perfection

Chicken breast is quite neutral in flavor without any seasoning, so it’s a great blank slate to play around with flavors. The simple blend of seasoning in this recipe works great, and many other flavor combos work just as well. Here are a few suggestions for seasoning blends for your chicken breast to get you thinking!

• Lemon-Pepper Chicken: Instead of the black pepper in this recipe, replace it with tangy lemon pepper. Lemon pepper usually contains a fair bit of salt, so you may want to omit or reduce the amount of salt in the recipe.
• Shawarma Chicken: Craving a meal with warm spices? Try sprinkling some shawarma seasoning on your chicken. A mixture of black pepper, allspice, garlic powder, ground cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, chili powder, oregano, and salt will leave everyone talking about your chicken shawarma dish!
• Cajun Chicken: If you enjoy a spicy piece of chicken, you’ll love incorporating a Cajun seasoning blend into this recipe. If you go this route, be sure to omit the salt and pepper; there’s plenty of both in most Cajun blends.

Serving Suggestions

Nothing pairs with baked bone-in chicken breast quite like colorful vegetables! Brighten up your plate with a side of Parmesan Brussels Sprouts, Oven-Roasted Vegetables (since your oven is already hot!), or this Vegetarian Succotash. If you’re looking for a rustic and wholesome meal, serve up a baked chicken breast with a side of this Simple Kale Soup. Then, polish all of it off with a light, keto-friendly dessert like our favorite Sugar-Free Low-Carb Keto No-Bake Cookies.

Recipe