Deviled Chicken Thighs

In our household, as with many households, chicken makes an appearance on our table at least once a week.  The trick is keeping it interesting. 

This recipe came to me one morning while walking on the treadmill and watching the today show.  I had some chicken thighs in the refrigerator that I knew I would be cooking that evening.  I am sure I had some plan for them such as my over used oven fried chicken recipe, but the cooking segment gave me a fresh idea.  A chef was making a chicken dish and I would link to it, but I can't find it. Anyway this isn't her recipe, she used different ingredients, but it is her method, which I thought was genius. Now I know stuffing seasonings under the skin of the chicken isn't a new thing, I 've done it for years with the whole bird. But I have to confess, as much as I like cook and experiment, I never thought about stuffing seasonings under the skin of individual chicken pieces.

I started to think about a wonderful deviled chicken recipe that I used to make. I stopped making it because it contained tons of butter, plus it required several trips to the oven to baste the chicken during the roasting time. I decided to utilize the method I had just watched on the Today Show to recreate the essence of the deviled thighs recipe without all the butter and forget the basting!

This is a great go-to dinner party dish to have in your back pocket.  It is an attractive dish that is quite tasty, it allows for easy serving since it is individual pieces, most of the work (what little there is) can be done early in the day, and it can be mostly ignored while you are entertaining your guests.  Really, it is EASY and DELISH, great qualities for a dinner party dish or a even a quick week night supper.

When it comes to chicken pieces, unless I am specifically making spicy wings for football snacking, I tend to gravitate to thighs. I find them easy to deal with and I like the meat better than breasts. So many of the chicken dishes I post here will be made with thighs. For the most part, if you prefer breasts you can easily swap them for the thighs.

Deviled Chicken Thighs

5-6 chicken thighs

Marinade:
3/4 cup fresh parsley, chopped
juice of 1 lemon
3 cloves garlic, pressed
1 tablespoon grainy mustard
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper

Mix marinade ingredients in a bowl.

Wash thighs and trim excess fat and skin.  Find a spot on the thigh and carefully run your finger under the skin to create a pocket. 

Put about a tablespoon or two of the marinade in each pocket.  Then put the thighs in a zip lock bag and pour in any remaining marinade. 

Refrigerate for at least a half an hour, but several hours is even better.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Arrange the chicken thighs in a roasting pan. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 400 degrees and cook another 25 minutes.

A quick weeknight supper:  Deviled Chicken Thighs, Sauteed Fresh Spinach and Oven Baked Sweet Potato Fries