How to bake chicken with bone is a question every home cook should know. Who doesn’t like juicy whole chicken? Who doesn’t like healthy dinner that you can make at home?
Baking Chicken with Bone is a great way to cook chicken without the skin. This method is good for people who don’t like to remove the skin with their fingers or those who didn’t get a chance to clean the chicken properly before roasting.
HOW TO: ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS (BONE-IN)
I’M SHOWING YOU HOW TO: ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS (BONE-IN) TO SIMPLIFY A KITCHEN STAPLE AND GIVE YOU AN EASY, HEALTHY MEAL. THE JUICIEST CHICKEN EVER!
SO, YOU FIND SOME CHICKEN THIGHS ON SALE…
You’re meandering through the grocery store, and eventually, you make your way over to the meat aisle. You scan the cases for the hottest deals and $1.99lb chicken comes into your peripheral view. You all but run over to see what you’re going to score for dinner and then you see it “BONE-IN chicken thighs”. Umm…gross. What are you supposed to do, touch bones or something? You don’t know how to butcher a chicken. You pick up a pack of boneless, skinless chicken breasts for double the price and leave the store feeling defeated.
Sound like you? That was me, too!! For some reason, whenever we see bone-in anything it automatically triggers anxiety for some of us. I get it! Are you supposed to remove the bone before cooking? Leave it in? When do you take it out? How do you know if it’s cooked?! The questions are honestly endless. Try my Instant Pot Chicken Thighs for another easy way!
Okay everybody – take a deep breath. I’m going to show you. Even if this is your first time cooking with chicken, you can totally do this. The secret to cooking wonderful roasted chicken thighs (or breasts) is to roast them with skin on and bone in.
WHY BONE-IN, SKIN ON ROASTED CHICKEN THIGHS?
Because this literally traps the flavor and the moisture so when you’re through cooking, you have an incredibly flavorful piece of meat that is anything but ordinary. When it’s time to eat the chicken, I simply remove the skin and eat around the bone, or, I wait for it to cool and remove the bone and skin by pulling on each gently.
One more thing before we begin – DO NOT THROW AWAY THE BONES AND THE SKIN (if you choose not to eat the skin, which is delicious). I repeat, do not throw away the bones and the skin. Because if you set them aside, you can literally toss them into your slow cooker with scrap veggies, onions, and garlic, fill to the brim with water, add a dash of ACV, and let it sit on low for 24 hours to make chicken bone broth. Like, is that a LIFE HACK or what, people?! Here’s the bone broth recipe I use by Danielle Walker with Against All Grain. This will make about $15 worth of chicken bone broth.
Fall-Off-the-Bone Chicken
A dry brine combined with low and slow roasting, produces some seriously succulent and juicy meat. A quick flash under the broiler at the end turns the skin crisp and golden.Save Recipe
- Level: Easy
- Total: 6 hr 20 min (includes brining time)
- Active: 20 min
- Yield: 4 servings
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 teaspoons packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 8 bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs (about 3 pounds), patted completely dry
- 2 tablespoons chopped chivesAdd to Shopping List
Directions
- Combine the sugar, paprika, garlic powder, 1 tablespoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon black pepper in a large bowl. Toss the chicken in the spice mixture until coated. Arrange the chicken in a single layer in a flameproof 9-by-13-inch baking dish. Cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.
- Bake until the chicken is super moist and falling off the bone, about 2 hours. Remove the baking dish from the oven and remove the foil. Use a spoon or ladle to remove as much liquid from the dish as possible and reserve. Turn the oven to broil.
- Broil the chicken until the skin is golden brown and slightly crisp, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle the chicken with the chives and serve with the reserved pan juices.
Baked Bone-In Chicken Thighs
Making baked bone-in chicken thighs is super quick and easy! It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3! The chicken will be juicy and have great flavor with some crispy skin!
You can use this as your main course or pull the meat off the bone and use it in a salad or over rice.
This recipe is cooked in your oven. The benefit of using chicken thighs is that added fat and flavor you get from the dark meat. They by far are one of my favorite cuts of chicken.
Baked Bone-In Chicken Thighs Video
Ingredients
- 1 lb bone-in chicken thighs
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp granulated garlic
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
- 1 tsp salt
Equipment
- cutting board
- chef knife
- oven pan
Oven Baked Chicken Thighs In 5 Steps
Follow these 5 steps to get crispy juicy chicken thighs. You can also get all the steps in the video. This is by far one of my favorite go-to recipes during the week.
Create A Rub
In this recipe, I have mixed together 1 tsp of granulated garlic, 1 tsp of onion powder, 1 tsp of paprika, and 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper.
Mix them together in a small bowl. I like to use an old spice bottle for a container to be able to spread the rub over the chicken. I would give this a try because it makes it so much easier.
Trim Excess Fat
The first step is always to trim the chicken and get all of the unwanted skin and fat off of each piece.
Make sure to leave the skin on top because that is what is going to crisp up and give great flavor to your chicken thighs.
This is also a good time to look for any broken bones or shards of bones that you want to remove.
Prepare The Chicken
Add the chicken to a bowl to be able to spread the oil and spices on. Now if your chicken is really wet, you can dry it with a paper towel to help the oil and seasoning to stick better.
Pour 1 tbsp. of olive oil onto our thighs and spread it all over, coating all the chicken.
Shake the seasoning liberally all over the chicken. You won’t get all sides of the thighs. This seasoning is going to help dry out the skin to be able to give it a chance to crisp up.
Sprinkle with coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper all over the chicken as well. I like to use kosher salt for this.
Place the chicken onto a pan spaced out a little so they can cook evenly. If you have an oven pan as you see in the video this will help with pulling the moisture away as it cooks so you get a crispy chicken.
Bake The Chicken Thighs
Last step! Now, we are going to place the thighs into the oven at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes.
Temps can vary so much between different ovens so you really want to concentrate on the internal temp.
Cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
Rest And Enjoy
Now that your chicken thighs are cooked to 165 degrees go ahead and take them out of the oven and let them rest for at least 5 minutes. This allows the juices to soak back up into the meat.
What To Serve With Baked Chicken Thighs
- Rice Pilaf
- Broccoli
- Roasted vegetables
- Garden salad
Boneless Baked Chicken Thighs Vs. Bone-In Baked Chicken Thighs
For me, I feel you can not beat the flavor from chicken that is on the bone. Now boneless also carries all kinds of flavors.
Bone-in chicken does add a lot more flavor when it is cooked low and slow like braised chicken thighs.
Also, try breaking down your own chicken! I have a full breakdown on how at how to cut up a whole chicken.
What pan should I use to bake chicken thighs?
Use the pan that came with your oven. These are great because the meat does not sit in the liquid that drips off.
You can also use a sheet pan with a wired rack. This will elevate the chicken to the bottom of the pan and allow the chicken to get crispy all the way around.