I am a huge, huge fan of boneless skinless chicken thighs. They are inexpensive, tasty, and easy to cook. In fact, I find it difficult to mess up chicken thighs. They are just dark enough to stay tender, but not so dark as to put off people who prefer white meat. In the summer I grill these babies every week, especially when I have a big table of people to feed. Everyone who eats regularly at my house has eaten chicken thighs! But in the winter, when I don't feel like stepping outside to the grill, I bake the meat, and it's easy as 1-2-3. Here's what I do.
I just love how quick these are. They are truly a weeknight meal. You can come in the door with a package of meat, throw off your coat, pop these in the oven and make a salad, and by the time they're done you'll have just finished opening the wine.
How To Cook Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs in the Oven
What You Need
Ingredients
1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
Sauce or additional seasonings (optional)
Equipment
Bowl
Spoon
9-inch or 8-inch baking dish
Instructions
1. Buy boneless skinless chicken thighs. I mention this as one of the steps here because I think it's always worth talking about where you get your meat. And I certainly don't mean to be didactic — I think meat is something most of us are conscious of, and we all try to get the best stuff we can. My point is really to say that chicken thighs are one of the cheapest, easiest things to buy organic or pasture-raised. Even at a high-end butcher counter, these only cost me $4/pound, for instance.
2. Heat the oven to 425°F. Put the chicken in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. The most basic seasoning that this meat really needs is salt and pepper. At this point, if I'm not adding another sauce, I drizzle a little bit of olive oil over the meat too, to help it brown well in the oven.
3. Make a baking sauce (optional). If you want to add a little more punch to the chicken, you can make a quick sauce of nearly any oil, acid, and spices. Here, for instance, I combined a couple tablespoons olive oil and about 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar with 1 teaspoon brown sugar, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 4 garlic cloves, and a dash of red pepper flakes. I often make Asian-inspired sauces with sesame oil, rice vinegar, and lots of chili garlic sauce. You can also pour pre-made salad dressing over the chicken.
4. Toss the chicken with the baking sauce. Coat the chicken with the sauce.
5. Spread the chicken in the baking dish. No need to grease the dish. Just lay the chicken inside.
6. Bake for 20 minutes or until the chicken has an internal temperature of 165°F. Boneless skinless thighs cook quickly. Check after 20 minutes, and if they are not quite up to temperature, put back in the oven and continue cooking and checking the temperature in 5-minute increments.
7. Remove the chicken from the oven and rest the meat, covered, for 10 minutes. Cover the baking dish with foil and let the chicken rest. This will help it be more tender. Eat and enjoy!
Another Favorite Recipe: Recipe: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Fennel & Lemon
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(Images: Faith Durand)
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so easy! oil + acid + spices = delicious!
Brilliant. Thank you!
I think my baked chicken thighs would taste much better if I had that pretty dish.
What is that mixer/chopper thing in the fourth photo?
looks delicious
Having been a breast man all my life, this recipe may well have changed my life! Made 'em yesterday for dinner, and already looking forward to leftovers for lunch today! Thank you!
@KrisTor it's the VeggiChop from Chef'n.
I love dark meat, and this is elegantly simple. BUT why worry about the "boneless" part? The bone adds a great deal of flavor and cuts the price down. Thighs are easy to remove the skin from, too. With the bone, they'll take a little longer but the method won't change.
Where did you get the lovely dish?
These are so delicious. I've made them twice now according the instructions. The first time I just used olive oil, salt, and pepper. The second time I added lemon juice to the olive oil and salted and peppered the thighs in the baking dish. Even in a plain old Corningware glass dish, the thighs were delish! Thanks, Faith. So easy!!
We love boneless skinless thighs in our house, they are so much more flavorful than breasts and completely versatile. My teenager loves to make friend chicken with them-- it takes her less than 20 minutes. She slices them into finger-sized pieces, dips them in egg and milk, then breadcrumbs, and fries them in a bit of oil. They are completely irresistable to everyone.
My favorite way to make them is to pound them thin, and roll them up with a slice of proscuitto inside with a piece of Italian fontina cheese. Secure with a toothpick. Roll in beaten egg and bread crumb and fry in butter. I made three dozen of these for a party and there wasn't a single one left to enjoy after. The chicken, proscuitto and fontina are just a perfect flavor combination.
We've made this twice and it's great. My very picky children like it, and I love it. Easy, tangy (is there another word for that yet?), and tender. Thank you!
This is a wonderful recipe. I agree with the commenter above that bone adds a lot, but this has ease of cooking and eating going for it. i used this as a basis to develop a recipe for pulled chicken bbq, which is a cinch (in contrast to how I used to make it was was a bit of a pain in the neck), and is kosher to boot. Check it out at : http://alandivack.blogspot.com/2012/12/pulled-barbecue-farkashert-simplified.html .
This was fantastic. Easy, versatile, inexpensive and delicious. Thanks!
Yum! I made this for dinner last night and am about to enjoy the leftovers for lunch. My boyfriend had never tried chicken thighs before and was rather skeptical, but I'm happy to report he loved it and couldn't believe how tender the meat was.
Can you give us more seasoning/sauce examples?
I tried this tonight using bone-in skinless thighs (with the sauce recipe), and everyone loved it. For anyone else wanting to use bone-in thighs, in a 425 oven it took about 45 minutes to reach 165 degrees. My thighs were on the larger side, so smaller might cook faster.