We should all get down on our knees and thank the food Gods for allowing our species to co-exist in a world where the chicken thigh is present. Yes, the often misunderstood and poorly utilized chicken thigh is a home cooks secret weapon given flavor, cost, and easy preparation. You can purchase a whole chicken and butcher your own thighs or buy pre-processed thighs (including with or without the skin and bone or boneless).
Chicken thighs contain tremendous flavor (given the higher fat content of the dark meat) and are difficult to overcook (making them the chicken part of choice for home cooks and, in our view, the clear winner over the ubiquitous chicken breast).
Our favorite way to prepare chicken thighs is via an outdoor grill and with a simple marinade of lemon, garlic, extra virgin olive, and parsley; however, we also enjoy making Lemon Thyme Chicken Thighs with Mushrooms.
- 1-2 pounds of chicken thighs (with or without the bone and preferably with skin)
- 4-5 cloves of garlic
- 2 lemons
- ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil
- Parsley
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
- In a large Ziploc bag, add the zest of one lemon, the juice of two lemons, ¼ cup of extra virgin olive oil, 4-5 cloves of crushed garlic, and some roughly chopped parsley (you can also chop up the two lemons used for zest and juice and include in the Ziploc bag). Place the chicken in the bag and let marinade in the fridge for 4-6 hours.
- Remove the chicken from the bag and season both sides with Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. Preheat and outdoor grill and place the chicken thighs on the grill (with the skin facing up). Grill for 4-5 minutes on the non skin side (depending on the strength of your fire) and then another 3-5 minutes on the skin side. Thereafter, keep on turning on the thighs (about a 1-2 minutes a side) until they're completely cooked (technically, 180 degrees F).
Won’t the denaturation caused by the lemon juice toughen the chicken if it marinates that long?