Selecting and preparing the chicken
This recipe calls for chicken thighs, the most juicy and flavorful part of the chicken. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you chicken thighs is where it’s at. Baking chicken is a bit of a healthier way to cook it than my previous fried chicken recipes, like tori karaage, chicken katsu, or Korean fried chicken although those are delicious in their own right. When selecting chicken thighs for this recipe, I always try to find organic chicken from a local grocery store with the skin intact (because it’s so much more tasty with the skin on). Typically, chicken thighs come in two versions: bone-in with the skin or boneless and skinless. You’d be hard pressed to find a combination of the two for some odd reason. After testing out this recipe with various types of chicken, I prefer boneless chicken thighs with the skin intact. The skin on the chicken helps a little to keep the thighs moist and juicy during cooking but it mainly allows for more Maillard browning action, more fat, and therefore more flavor. This leaves me with buying organic, bone-in chicken thighs with the skin on and deboning it myself at home if I care to have it boneless.
Marinade and herb variations
I like to add a little more flair to this easy baked chicken by making an Asian influenced marinade with soy sauce, rice vinegar, and sesame oil among other ingredients. Its light umami flavor has just a hint of savory flavors, but you do have the option of bringing more sweetness to the chicken by topping it off with Asian soy glaze sauce. If you want a little more “Asian” inspired flavor try experimenting with other flavors in the marinade like lemongrass, Thai basil, miso, five spice, or ginger.
How long to bake chicken thighs
Before you even place the chicken thighs in the oven, take them out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature so they can cook evenly in the oven. Putting cold chicken in the oven can cause it to cook unevenly–faster on the outside (and potentially dry the skin) than the inside. In other words you’ll run the risk of having dry chicken on the outside if you cook until the center hits a safe temperature to eat. This oven-roasted chicken takes about 25-30 minutes in my oven cooking at 400 °F. I found that baking at this temperature and timing gives me a nice golden brown skin without needing to broil the chicken. I use an instant read probe thermometer to measure the center of the chicken at 20 minutes into baking just to check its progress. If the skin is getting too brown at this point, you can cover it with foil. While the FDA states that the threshold to cook and consume chicken is 165 °F, I take it out at about 155 °F because it will finish cooking as its resting.
Is it better to bake chicken thighs at 350F or 400F?
Most of the time when you’re cooking chicken, low and slow is the way to prevent your chicken from drying out while cooking (and reaching the safe temperature of 165 °F). However, since we’re using the juiciest part of the chicken plus marinating it for so long, I bake the chicken thighs at 400 °F for 25-30 minutes–sometimes quicker if the piece of chicken is small. If you’re cooking chicken breast, you would want to cook it at a lower temperature like 350 °F to prevent moisture loss.
Should you cover chicken thighs when baking?
From my experience, these chicken thighs bake evenly especially if you bring the chicken to room temperature before putting them in the oven. Chicken thighs are also some of the juiciest parts of the animal, so they won’t dry out faster if you cook it at 400 °F for 25-30 minutes uncovered. I would recommend taking the temperature of the chicken thighs at about 20 minutes into baking and observing the chicken skin color. If it’s browning too quickly, you can cover it with foil for the last five to ten minutes.
