How to Cook Chicken Thighs

Article by Susan Vu

How to Cook Chicken Thighs Like a Pro

Buy evenly sized thighs: Try to shop for chicken thighs that are about the same size to ensure that they cook around the same time. We found that chicken thighs that weighed around 8 ounces each worked well, but a little smaller or bigger is fine as long as they are mostly uniform in size.

Let the chicken dry out, uncovered, if time allows: If possible, season your chicken and let it dry out, uncovered, in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours and up to 48 hours prior to cooking it. While we loved the flavor of the chicken when it was seasoned and cooked right away, seasoning it beforehand allows the salt and pepper to penetrate the skin and meat more making the end product more flavorful. In addition, the salt helps to draw out the moisture from the chicken which results in even crispier skin.

Budget some time to let the chicken sit at room temperature: This helps the meat to cook more evenly.

Cook chicken thighs in a cast iron skillet: After multiple tests in a stainless steel sauté pan, we brought in the workhorse: the tried-and-true cast-iron skillet. Once we tried pan-frying the thighs in it, there was no turning back. Whereas starting the chicken in a cold stainless steel sauté pan resulted in the skin sticking, when done in a cast-iron skillet, the skin released itself after the fat had perfectly rendered out. A well-seasoned skillet is pretty much a non-stick pan but heats much more evenly and holds its heat like a dream once it gets hot.

Weigh the Chicken Down: Speaking of skillets, we used a second smaller cast-iron skillet to weigh the chicken down during the fat-rendering/skin-crisping process and found that it really helps to press the skin down into the skillet, making sure that it cooks as evenly as possible. If you don’t have a smaller cast-iron skillet, you can grab any type of skillet you have that is slightly smaller than the larger skillet, but you will also need to grab a couple heavy canned items to help weigh the skillet down.

Use the leftover chicken fat: There will be a good amount of chicken fat left behind in the skillet, which is perfect to make an easy pan sauce to drizzle over the chicken. Or save it for later and use it to fry eggs in.

Why Do We Cook These Chicken Thighs on the Stove Instead of Baking Them?

After several tests where we seared the chicken on the stove-top then finished it in a hot oven, we found that any residual moisture in the chicken made for a slightly steamy environment and caused the chicken skin to lose some of its crispness. Although good results can come from the stove to oven technique, it isn’t fool-proof like doing it start to finish on the stove-top.

How Long to Pan Fry Chicken Thighs

Many recipes for pan-fried chicken thighs call for the thighs to be finished in the oven, but we cook them start to finish on the stove-top here. Starting in a cold skillet allows the fat from the skin to render out more gradually and evenly, which results in super-crispy and golden-brown skin, but also takes a little longer. The trade-off for the slightly longer cooking time is that the chicken meat has more time to cook on the stove-top while the skin is rendering. After the fat has rendered and the skin is crispy (this usually takes about 15 minutes), the chicken gets flipped over to finish cooking the meat through, but this only takes about 5 minutes so only about 20 minutes of total cooking time.

Cook the meat until the internal temperature reaches 175 degrees F. Most chicken thigh recipes call for the internal temperature to be 160 to 165 degrees F, but the collagen in thigh meat breaks down at a higher temperature so by cooking it to 175 degrees F., the resulting chicken is succulently tender and juicy.

Bone-In Skin-On Chicken Thighs vs. Boneless, Skinless Chicken Thighs

For super juicy chicken thighs, start with thighs that are both bone-in and skin-on. You can remove the bone if you prefer, but most skin-on chicken thighs come bone-in so, which is why it is our preference here. The skin and bones insulate the meat as it cooks, yielding juicier, more flavorful results than cuts where both have been removed.