Chicken Recipes, Part by Part: The Thigh

Chicken. We all cook it, but sometimes rely too much on one part. Give the other bits a chance! Every day this week, we’re sharing the definitively best recipes for chicken, part by part. So far, we’ve talked about the whole bird and the breast. Today: the thigh. 

Photo credit: Stock Food

A well-proportioned chicken thigh is an undeniably seductive bit of bird, and food writer Melissa Clark has developed the best chicken thigh recipe around. Make it on a weeknight; one of its best aspects is that the chicken and its vegetable side dish nestle together in one sheet pan. After seasoning the thighs, you simply place them atop thin slices of delicata squash, which have been tossed with a maple syrup-butter reduction.

In case you missed that: Maple. Syrup. Butter. Reduction.

This sauce of the gods has a pinch of chile powder and another of salt, which brings it into oh-my-gosh-why-didn’t-I-think-of-that territory. The chicken is no slouch, either; Clark adds blanched slices of lemon, for punch, and a handful of scallions at the end of the cooking process, which add a charred note. The result is a gorgeous meal of fat chicken thighs sitting on top of jewel-hued squash that tastes like vegetable candy.

(Pro tip:  Make as much of that maple syrup butter as you can, because you will find something—anything, whether a crust of baguette or your own hand—to swipe in it.)

Get the recipe: Roasted Chicken Thighs with Delicata Squash