Za’atar Chicken Breasts with Chickpeas
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This quick and easy recipe for spiced-up za’atar chicken has layers upon layers of flavor. Serve it family-style on a platter with chickpeas, pearl couscous, and a creamy lemon-tahini sauce.
This recipe takes your everyday chicken breast recipe to another level — thin-cut boneless chicken breasts are marinated in za’atar spices, garlic and lemon and quickly broiled. The chicken is perfect to serve family-style on a nice big platter (which is the subject of the cookbook I wrote!)
Why You’ll fall for za-Atar chicken
- You’ll taste a mega hit of Mediterranean flavors, with chickpeas, pearl couscous and a zippy tahini sauce.
- The secret ingredient: Za’atar (zahtar) a/k/a “magic dust,“ is both an herb and a seasoning blend that tastes like no other everyday herb blend.
- The other secret ingredient: Fresh lemon — including the zest and juice, for maximum brightness.
- Minimal prep and maximum flavor: Those two things are the top of any busy (and hungry) person’s priorities!
Key ingredient rundown
This is a fantastic recipe to make with pantry staples like canned chickpeas and tahini and it doesn’t require much time to put it all together.
- Za’atar: A Middle Eastern spice blend native to Syria and Lebanon. The plant is a variety of oregano that grows wild in the Middle Eastern regions of Lebanon, Syria and Israel, as well in Mediterranean areas of Southern Europe.
- Chicken: Boneless, skinless chicken breasts cook quickly and really soak up the flavors in the marinade. Try to find “thin-sliced” breasts at your supermarket — they’re basically whole breasts that are sliced in half horizontally.
- Lemon: You’ll need both the zest and juice of 1 lemon (or enough for 2 tablespoons fresh juice).
As a regional spice blend, za’atar has varying components depending on where it’s made. For the most part, it’s a mixture of the dried za’atar herb, thyme, sesame seeds and sumac.
How it tastes: Za’atar is deeply aromatic in a way that will remind you of oregano times ten, and tastes like it has a splash of green grass, pepper and a hint of smoke. You find za’atar in the spice section of large supermarkets, spice shops and on online.
Recipe steps:
1. The seasoning for the chicken is a simple mixture of lemon, garlic, olive oil, za’atar and chopped parsley. 
2. Pour over chicken boneless, skinless chicken breasts and marinate 15 minutes or 1 day ahead.
3. Arrange the chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet. 4. Broil about 12 minutes total, then slice. Serve over cooked couscous or rice and drained canned chickpeas and drizzle with the tahini sauce.
Serving ideas:
- You can serve the chicken for a casually elegant family-style meal — the sliced chicken, chickpeas and couscous look great piled on a large platter.
- I love to toss more parsley leaves over the top, and have extra lemon wedges on the side for people to squeeze over their plate.
- Add a few more vegetable salads on the side to round out the meal, like a colorful chopped vegetable farro salad and room temperature marinated white beans.
Homemade za’atar spice
If you can’t find za’atar and want to make this recipe, here’s how to make a quick homemade blend:
- Combine equal amounts of crushed or ground dried thyme, dried oregano, ground sumac and sesame seeds in a small jar.
- Shake together and store up to 3 months.
Note: If you can’t track down sumac, you can omit it, or try using ground coriander instead. It will still taste delicious, even if it’s not one hundred percent authentic.
Za’atar Chicken Breasts with Chickpeas
Recipe Video
Ingredients
Tahini Sauce:
- 1 garlic clove, grated or put through a garlic press
- ½ cup (10 g) Italian parsley leaves, finely chopped
- ½ cup (120 g) tahini paste
- ¼ cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup (60 ml) cold water, plus additional as needed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
Za’atar Chicken
- Grated zest from 1 lemon
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) fresh lemon juice
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup (5 g) chopped Italian parsley, plus a handful of leaves
- 1 tablespoon (12 g) za'atar seasoning
- 1 garlic clove, finely chopped or pressed
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ pounds thin-sliced boneless, skinless chicken breasts , 2 or 3 chicken small breasts
- 1 tablespoon (15 ml) extra-virgin olive oil
- 1½ cups pearl couscous
- 1 14-ounce (400 g) can chickpeas, drained
Instructions
Tahini Sauce
- Pulse all the ingredients in a small food processor or whisk in a bowl until smooth. Add more water if necessary to achieve a loose mayonnaise-like consistency. Taste and season with more salt to taste. The sauce keeps in the refrigerator up to 3 days ahead.
Za'atar Chicken
- Mix the lemon zest and juice, olive oil, parsley, za'atar, garlic and salt in a large bowl. Add the chicken breasts and toss to coat. Set aside to marinate 15-30 minutes or cover and refrigerate up to one day ahead.
- Cook the couscous in boiling, salted water according to package directions. Drain and toss with the chickpeas in a bowl.
- Preheat a broiler to high, with an oven rack arranged closest to the heat source. Put the chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet.
- Broil the chicken 5-6 minutes per side, until the meat turns golden brown feels firm to the touch. Let it rest about 10 minutes, then slice into ½-inch thick pieces
To serve
- Spread some of the tahini sauce over the bottom of a large serving platter. Spoon the couscous mixture over the sauce. Arrange the sliced chicken on top and sprinkle with the remaining parsley leaves. Serve warm or at room temperature, with additional sauce on the side.
Karen’s Notes and Tips
- Look for “thin-sliced” chicken breasts at your grocery store, or slice a boneless breast in half horizontally.
- Marinate the raw chicken up to 24 hours before cooking.
- Cooked za’atar chicken can be refrigerated 3 days.
- The tahini sauce will keep about a week. Before serving, whisk in some cold water if it has thickened.
Nutrition per serving
Nutrition facts are calculated by third-party software. If you have specific dietary needs, please refer to your favorite calculator.
Hey, I’m Karen
Creator of Familystyle Food
I’m a food obsessed super-taster and professionally trained cook ALL about creating elevated dinners with everyday ingredients. Find simplified recipes made from scratch and enjoy incredibly tasty food! Read more about me here.
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I really enjoyed the recipe but agree that it’s salty. I’ll definitely make it again but will withhold the salt. One can always add salt but one has a difficult time taking salt out of a recipe. ❤️
Karen: First, I appreciate you because this is really good. I made it yesterday for my wife and I. The tahini sauce might be a bit salty. I did indoor-grill the chicken. To ensure tender breasts, I “velvet marinated” (Barbara Tropp) them for six hours before putting them in your marinade for 4 hours. The flavor of the chicken is out of this world. Thanks again. Well done.
Swen
Swen, thank you so much for sharing your tweaks and kinds words! Wow, I love that you are a fan of Barbara Tropp. Her books played a big part in my culinary education too. Her velvet marinade technique is brilliant, and I’m sure it made the chicken extra tender and juicy.
Absolutely delicious. My whole family wants it put in regular rotation after tasting it tonight! I was gifted a lot of quality za’atar seasoning, so have been experimenting w/different za’atar recipes. This one is definitely a keeper.
Is the chicken marinade 2 or 3 tablespoons of olive oil? It’s listed twice in the ingredients under “za’atar chicken” but I don’t see separate instructions for each one.
Hi Elle – The marinade uses 2 tablespoons of olive oil. You can also drizzle over another tablespoon when you’re serving.
I love Middle Eastern food and often I cannot get the flavor profiles just right. This recipe was excellent since I didn’t have bone-in breasts on hand, and was thrilled the boneless breasts didn’t dry out. I have an amazing Z’atar from Burlap and Barrel I have been wanting to use and this was perfect. And…miracle..the whole family loved it!
This was super delicious, especially the chicken.
Family fav! I serve it with lemon pepper couscous and triple the herb tahini because it’s SOOO yummy. Couldn’t find prepared za’atar so I made my own and it turned out delicious. Thanks for this!
So happy you enjoyed this Alicia! Herb couscous sounds like a perfect choice.
this is totally going on the menu this month! I can’t wait to try!
Yay! I hope you love it!