Honey Spice Chicken Thighs

By Paul Briand

I had some chicken thighs in the fridge, and did an online search on how I might prepare them.

Here was the most interesting of what I saw: Honey Spice Chicken Thighs from the BudgetBytes blog.

I did not add the heat of the cayenne as indicated, bowing to my wife’s palate, which tends toward less heat than I might normally add.

What I liked about this blog was how it broke the meal down by ingredient to cost. In total, according to its calculations, this meal cost a total of $5.13

Ingredients
8 chicken thighs (about 4 pounds worth)
1/3 cup honey
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon chili powder
1/2 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon salt

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and in a small bowl, combine everything except the chicken thighs until combined;
2. Remove the skin from the chicken thighs if desired. Place the chicken thighs either on a roasting pan or a baking sheet covered with foil;
3. Brush the honey spice mixture over the surface of the chicken thighs, using about half of the total honey mixture;
4. Roast thighs for about 20 minutes;
5. Remove thighs from oven and brush on remaining honey spice mixture;
6. Return chicken to oven and roast for another 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Click here for recipe card.

Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano

By Paul Briand

One of my favorite iPhone apps is something called Flipboard, which enables me to literally flip through a variety of news and information.

And one source of information that I keyed into my Flipboard preferences is a Recipes category, which is where I stumbled across this recipe for Roasted Chicken Thighs with Lemon and Oregano from Bon Appetit..

A couple of notes on this recipe: I didn’t use fresh oregano; I used what I had in my spice rack. Also, it seemed that the caramelization of the lemon rind added some bitterness to the dish, at least that was the sense that my wife and I had.

Ingredients
1 lemon
4 large or 8 small skin-on, boneless chicken thighs
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 teaspoons olive oil, divided
3 sprigs oregano
1 tablespoon minced shallot
1/2 garlic clove, minced
1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 cup dry white wine (such as Sauvignon Blanc)
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth

Directions
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.. Very thinly slice half of lemon; discard any seeds. Cut remaining lemon half into 2 wedges. Season chicken thighs with salt and pepper;
2. Coat a large room-temperature skillet with 1 teaspoon oil. Add chicken, skin side down;
3. Place skillet over medium heat and cook, letting skin render and brown, and pouring off excess fat to maintain a thin coating in pan, until chicken is cooked halfway through, about 10 minutes;
4. Scatter half of lemon slices over chicken and half on bottom of skillet (the slices on top of the chicken will soften; those in the skillet will caramelize);
5. Transfer skillet to oven, leaving chicken skin side down. Roast until chicken is cooked through, skin is crisp, and lemon slices on bottom of skillet are caramelized, 6-8 minutes;
6. Transfer chicken pieces, skin side up, and caramelized lemon slices from bottom of skillet to a warm platter. (Leave softened lemon slices in the skillet.);
7. Return skillet to medium heat. Add oregano sprigs, shallot, garlic, and red pepper flakes; cook, stirring frequently, until fragrant, about 1 minute;
8. Remove skillet from heat. Add wine; cook over medium heat until reduced by half, 1-2 minutes;
9. Add broth; cook until thickened, about 3 minutes;
10. Squeeze 1 lemon wedge over and season sauce with salt, pepper, and juice from remaining lemon wedge, if desired;
11. Drizzle with 2 teaspoons oil. Return chicken to skillet, skin side up, to rewarm. Serve topped with caramelized lemon slices.

Click here for recipe card.