This high-protein chicken dinner is a wonderful paleo one pot meal. Chicken with Cauliflower and Olives is also bursting with the gorgeous flavors of lemon and thyme.
This hearty, grain-free, savory paleo dinner recipe is a hit with our entire family, and as you can see is an all time fan favorite. I often serve this with a Spinach Salad for a filling, vegetable heavy dinner.
While we eat chicken once or twice per week, I also try to serve the boys (all 3 of them) steak each week as that is their favorite dinner. They are more than happy when I serve them grilled steak with a side of Mashed Cauliflower and Carrot Fries, which also go very well with this paleo chicken recipe.
Chicken with Cauliflower and Olives
Ingredients
- 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast
- 1 bunch fresh thyme sprigs
- 1 head cauliflower, cut into florets
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- ½ teaspoon celtic sea salt
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- zest of 1 lemon, use a microplane zester
- ¼ cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 cup kalamata olives, pitted
- 5 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
Instructions
- Rinse chicken breasts and pat dry with a paper towel
- Spread thyme sprigs evenly in the bottom of a 9 x 13 inch baking dish
- Place chicken over thyme sprigs and scatter cauliflower around chicken
- In a small bowl, combine shallot, olive oil, salt, pepper, lemon zest and juice, olives and garlic
- Pour mixture over chicken and cauliflower
- Refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight
- Bake at 400°F for 45-55 minutes, until chicken is cooked through and cauliflower is well browned
- Serve
I combined and adapted recipes from Real Simple and food.com to create this easy paleo chicken dinner recipe. I hope you love this dish as much as we do. It’s so festive that I think it’s perfect for the Jewish holidays. I serve it over the High Holy Days, as well as Passover. It’s a great holiday dish because it’s so easy to prepare, but makes such an impressive presentation.
Here are some of my other favorite paleo chicken recipes!
chris says
This looks good, I love cauliflower & I love chicken! Have you ever made it with broccoli instead of cauliflower? Maybe I’ll try both! What does putting it in the fridge overnight do, like would it make much of a difference if I skipped that step if I wanted to make it right away?
Elana says
Chris, thanks for your comment! I haven’t made this with broccoli, feel free to experiment with the recipe :-)
Cris says
Thanks for your site and recipes. This chicken dish and the scones are my favorite so far. This was so easy (used frozen califlower!)
Elana says
Cris, thanks for your wonderful comment!
Kirst says
This is one of our favourite dishes. Fresh, quick and a one bake wonder. We have this almost once a week. Also great the next day too. Highly recommend.
Elana says
Kirst, thanks so much for letting me know this dish is a one bake wonder!
Beh says
Thank you so much for your site. I am not ready to divoluge my illnesses, BUT I made this today, used a few less olives, added some grape tomatoes and served it over fresh baby spinach. It is FANTASTIC! ?
Elana says
Beh, I’m so happy to hear this was FANTASTIC!
Josh says
Was linked to this recipe by a friend. I’m trying to cook a brand new dish every week and I’m eyeing this up for next week!
Elana says
I hope you love it as much as we do Josh!
Susan says
Fantastic!!! I made this last night using skinless, boneless chicken thighs, and substituted sprigs of fresh oregano for the thyme. It came out perfectly. I just need a bigger pan so I can make more in the future!! Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe, Elana.
Elana says
Susan, you’re welcome! Glad to hear this was fantastic :-)
Heidi Harris says
I’m using skinless, bone IN chicken breasts. Does that change the cook time?
Elana says
Heidi, I haven’t tried that so not sure. If you do experiment please let us know how it goes :-)
Michele says
Bone in meat always takes longer but it would be hard to guess how long to add exactly. My guess is an additional 15-20 minutes at 400F.
The problem I see using bone-in breasts with this dish is that the cauliflower is browned a bit at the end of the normal cooking time. It definitely wouldn’t need an additional 15-20 minutes to cook alongside the bone-in chicken. So you might have to add in in part the way through (maybe reserving half of the liquid for the cauliflower/olive mix) so it doesn’t get overcooked. Or you could just cook in two separate pans. But that would take up more space in your fridge for the marinate.
catharine says
Can I make this with chicken thighs?
Elana says
Catherine, I haven’t tried that so not sure.
Jennifer says
One of my new favorites!
I substituted French green olives and added a TBS of Dijon mustard.
Love, love love.
Elana says
Thanks Jennifer!
Susan Scoffin says
This has fast become one of my favourite recipes of all time…my daughter pretty much follows a Paleo diet and loves your website and has made number of the recipes. She suggested we try this recipe…it is absolutely delicious and the textures and aromas of ingredients are a pleasure to work with even before it goes in the oven. I love that the olives come out a bit roasted and are amazing!
Elana says
Susan, thanks for letting me know this is one of your favorite recipes of all time!