Skillet-Fried Chicken Thighs
These Skillet-Fried Chicken Thighs are the best. Just amazing. While not expressly necessary a splatter guard and working kitchen fan are a good idea. In fact, if you have an outdoor burner you may prefer to cook these in the great outdoors because they tend to smoke…a lot. But, they’re worth it!
Skillet-Fried Chicken Thighs
Serves/ Yield: 4
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Cook/ Assembly Time: 32 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
- 2 1/2 lbs. bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs
- 1 Tbsp. Kosher Salt
- Fresh ground pepper, to taste
- 2 tsp. lard, tallow, or ghee
Recipe:
Preheat the oven to 475°F. Lay the chicken skin-side-up and sprinkle salt evenly. Top with fresh ground pepper, to taste.
Heat fat of choice in a large (12”) cast iron or other heavy oven-safe skillet over high heat until shimmering hot, but not smoking. Place all the chicken thigh skin-side down in the hot pan. Nestle them all in—it’s okay if they are touching, in fact, it will help cut down on oil splatter. Cook for two minutes. Reduce heat to medium-high and continue cooking until fat renders and skin is golden brown, about 12 minutes. Rearrange and rotate the pan as necessary to ensure even cooking.
Transfer the skillet to the preheated oven and cook for an additional 13 minutes. Flip the thighs skin-side up and continue cooking about 5 minutes more. The skin will look perfectly crispy.
Let rest for 5 minutes and then serve.
Options and Notes: A splatter guard and fan are going to be handy.