Do you like to cook with chicken thighs? The only thing better than juicy, flavorful chicken thighs is chicken thighs with perfectly crisp, golden-brown skin. If you love crispy chicken thighs then you’ll appreciate knowing about a common mistake folks make when trying to get this sought-after crispiness.And I’ll get right to the point. Cooking thighs with a lid on the pan is just about the worst thing you can do if your goal is crispness.

While cooking chicken in a lidded pan can help ensure it cooks evenly, it also traps steam inside the pan. A steamy cooking environment isn’t an inherently bad thing, but it will make it nearly impossible to achieve any sort of crisp exterior.

And another thing to know: searing the skin beforehand won’t help, either. In a steamy pan, all roads lead to soggy chicken skin.

So what to do instead? The preferred method professional chefs love involves a combination of pan-frying and oven-roasting. Start by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. They say you should then pat the thighs dry with a paper towel.

Next, heat a thin layer of oil in a cast-iron skillet on your stovetop over medium-high heat until shimmering. Once the oil is ready, add the thighs skin-side down. Cook them for 10 minutes without moving them, then flip — they should lift right off the pan, and the skin should look perfectly browned and crisp.

Then just transfer the skillet to your oven and roast your chicken until the center of one of the thighs reaches an internal temperature of 165°F. This should take about 15 to 20 minutes. Wait around 12 minutes to start checking the temperature for best (i.e. juiciest) results.

Now that you know the secret to making perfectly crispy chicken thighs, put it to good use by trying a crowd-pleasing recipe shared by Jillee of www.onegoodthingbyjillee.com. This Honey Garlic Chicken is a favorite at our house, too. See what you think.




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    Alice Osborne
    Weekly Newsletter Contributor since 2006
    Email the author! alice@dvo.com