Chicken thighs, one pan, no thermometer
chicken40 minone pan
The only chicken recipe I have fully memorised.
What goes in
- 6 bone-in, skin-on thighs
- Salt, applied at least 40 minutes ahead
- A lemon, a head of garlic, whatever hard herb is in the fridge
- Potatoes, halved, if you want the meal to be finished
Method
- Salt the thighs and leave them uncovered in the fridge. An hour is fine, overnight is better. Dry skin is the whole trick.
- Cold pan, skin down, medium-low. Walk away for fifteen minutes. The fat renders out slowly; if it sizzles hard you are too hot.
- Flip when the skin lifts off the pan without arguing. If it sticks, it is not ready.
- Potatoes cut side down into the rendered fat, garlic cloves in their skins, into a 200 °C oven for 25 minutes.
- Lemon over everything while it rests.
No thermometer: thighs are forgiving. Ten extra minutes makes them better, not drier —
the opposite of breasts, which is why I stopped buying breasts.
Written