Baked Crispy Chicken Thighs! A simple rub of garlic, green onion, lemon and olive oil is all it takes to bake up these crispy yummy chicken thighs!
Be still my fried chicken loving heart! Check out these crispy little beauties! Baked on a rack to ensure that every last bite is all crispy and crunchy! And did I mention Paleo and Whole30 compliant? Yay!
I wanted to find a crispy chicken recipe that didn’t have to marinate over night. The trick is to combine all your marinating ingredients in a blender or food processor. It makes a super amped up marinade that only needs to sit for about 20 minutes while your oven preheats.
After mixing up your magical marinating brew, get your hands in there! I mean rub a dub dub all over and under the chicken skin. Then just let it hang out for about 20 minutes and off to the oven it goes!
Don’t you love pics of raw chicken with green flecks on it? Yumbo! But I wanted you to see how easy this is, and how just a few ingredients can turn regular chicken into wow chicken!
Not a great pic…some bloggers might not even put it on their site…mmmm, well, I’m doing it for your own good, taking one for the team!
Some Tips to Make Crispy Oven Baked Chicken Thighs:
- If you don’t have a wire rack, don’t sweat it, simply lay it right on a foil lined sheet pan.
- Expect a bit of splatter with this. Just until the fat renders, then it all settles down while it gets all crispy and stuff. I love crispy and stuff…
- I borrowed this technique from nomnompaleo.com. She uses it for her Lemongrass Chicken…but alas, no lemongrass in my fridge so I adjusted the recipe to use what I had on hand. You could easily add grated ginger, rosemary or other herbs to change it up a bit.
Looking for more uses for your sheet pan? Check out my favorite 6 Sheet Pan Dinners!
More Whole30 Recipes! Even if you are not on the plan you will enjoy the freshness of all my Paleo and Whole30 recipes! Who says healthy has to taste like healthy food!
…To healthy meals that don’t taste like healthy meals!
Clink!
Kathi
Oven Baked Crispy Chicken Thighs with Garlic, Lemon and Scallion
Ingredients
- 8 in chicken thighs skin on and bone
- 5 cloves of garlic
- 1 lemon - zest and juiced
- 4 scallion - green onions rough chopped
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon chili flakes optional if you like a bit of heat
Instructions
- Line large baking sheet with foil for easy clean up and set rack on top.
- Add garlic, zest of one lemon and juice of one lemon, along with scallions, olive oil, salt and pepper to food processor or blender.
- Blend for about 20 seconds until well combined and a paste forms.
- Pour into large bowl.
- Rinse and pat dry chicken thighs.
- Add to large bowl with marinade and rub into chicken. Getting under skin.
- Cover and let rest while oven preheats.
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Use convection feature if you have it. No sweat if you don't, just increase cooking time by 5 minutes.
- Lay chicken SKIN SIDE DOWN ontop of rack.
- Cook for 20 minutes and turn chicken over.
- Cook for an additional 25 minutes or until internal temp of chicken reaches 165 degrees.
- Let rest for 5 minutes and serve!
Heidi says
Made this tonight and it was delicious , restaurant quality ! The only issue I had was I made this with my convection oven setting as recommended and it really smoked up my whole house . Has this happened to anyone else ?
Christen says
I’m trying them on convection bake right now. So far, no smoke, but we’ll see when I open the oven to flip them!
CINDY says
Do I keep them covered since I’m using a baking sheet?
Kathi @ LaughingSpatula.com says
No. Leave uncovered or they won’t crisp up. Warning – it splatters a bit while the fat of the skin is rendering…:).
Emily says
So delicious!! I let the chicken marinade for about an hour and let the chicken cook about 10 minutes longer skin side up to get that extra crunch. Thank goodness chicken thighs are a forgiving cut!
Kathi @ LaughingSpatula.com says
Thank you Emily! I am so glad you liked them!
Erin says
Holy moly! I’ll be making it this way from now on. Worth smoking up my apartment for!!!
Kathi @ LaughingSpatula.com says
LOL thank you, Erin!! 🙂 Post a pic and tag us on insta so we can see how it comes out! #laughingspatula
Michelle says
I made this last night and it was delicious. Couldn’t believe how crispy the chicken was! Making it again this weekend for my niece who is doing the Whole30! Thanks for posting.
EasyRoasted says
I absolutely LOVE how delicious this Chicken looks! A simple rub of garlic, green onion, lemon and olive oil is all it takes to bake up these crispy yummy chicken thighs!
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Mark Pasch says
I was looking for a crispy fried chicken this evening and when I saw this recipe cooked in a convection oven…I said no way. I never had a recipe cooked in a convection oven that made the meat crisp. So I tried the recipe and followed the directions to the tee and it confirmed that convection cooking does not crispen. The seasoning on this recipe was very good as well as the cooking time. The chicken was moist, tender and seasoned wonderfully. But I am not sure how you could claim the chicken was crispy. I had to put it in the broiler in order to finish cooking it. I would rate this recipe as a 2 because you claimed the chicken was crispy.
Kathi @ LaughingSpatula.com says
Hi Mark, Convection ovens move hot air around the oven which creates better browning and a faster cooking time. It’s the entire purpose of the oven feature. I only use it when I need a crisper or browner exterior on the food. I am so sorry it didn’t work for you but it sounds like the chicken was still pretty good ! Thank you for your note!
Winnie says
I tried these and the flavor was great! Only the skin wasn’t crispy when the thighs were put on the rack skin side down–all the juices flowed down into the skin. Maybe I’m misunderstanding what skin side down means? In the pics the thighs are clearly skin side up (in my interpretation). Can you please clarify? Thanks!!
Kathi @ LaughingSpatula.com says
Hi Winnie – You start the chicken skin side down (sorry no photo of that). I think you missed step #10 where you turn the chicken skin side up after 20 minutes. Glad you like them though!
Sarah says
Thanks! My husband, son (16 months) and I all loved this.
Jamie Ferrandi says
I’m so confused as to why people didn’t get the turn part, it clearly says cook 20 min and turn (maybe flip chicken to skin side up would help clear it up?)… anyway, I just put ingredients in my blender and it looks like more of a green puree… and smells like all green onion so I’m praying the other flavors come through! Oven just finished reheating, wish me luck! 🙂
Britt says
I made this recipe for dinner last night it was sooooo delicious!! I only had 6 chicken thighs and followed the rest of the recipe exactly and it was perfect!
Sherry says
This is now one of my top favorite chicken thigh recipes! AMAZING! This was extremely yummy and really easy to prep. I just made it tonight and I’m planning on making it again in a few days.
Kathi @ LaughingSpatula.com says
Thank you Sherry! I am so glad you loved it and took the time to write such a nice note!
plasterer bristol says
we made these last night, they tasted just perfect. Thanks for sharing.
Simon
Lily says
Beyond phenomenal
toni rose says
I ended making the full marinade recipe, while only using 4 chicken thighs. I’m only cooking for myself, so I wanted to have 2 for the night, and 2 for my lunch bag the next day. I knew it would be extra marinade, and figured I wouldn’t use it all. I ended up slathering it all over my 4 pieces of chicken and underneath the skin. It was still perfect 🙂
Kathi Kirk says
Thank you for the note Toni! I am so glad you liked it!
Michelle says
We had this tonight. It was so crispy and delicious. Thank you for the recipe! I followed it exactly.
I am wondering if anyone has cooked this recipe on a gas BBQ and had success?
Kathi Kirk says
Hi Michelle – Thank you for the nice comment! I have not tried this on a grill but it would be good!