This is a very easy weeknight dinner with an insanely delicious pan sauce. We're cooking the chicken thighs and making the sauce in the same pan. The sauce is made from pan drippings, shallots, garlic, herbs, wine, butter and chicken broth. These are items you probably already have in your pantry. So let's make fantastic crispy chicken thighs with pan sauce.
First Things First: You Need to Trim the Fat from the Chicken Thighs
Some people avoid eating chicken thighs because of the fat alone. I get that. There is a ton of fat on chicken thighs. I usually leave the top layer on the thighs for most recipes so the chicken doesn't dry out when cooking.
There is still a ton of other fat hiding underneath and THAT is that fat I cut out every.single.time I cook bone-in or boneless chicken thighs. I made a post with step-by-step instructions, as well as a tutorial video about how to trim the fat from chicken thighs. If you have time, I think it would be incredibly helpful to watch it.
In the video, I go through all the problem areas of the chicken thighs. It's not just about trimming all the hanging skin around the edges. There is a lot of fat on the other side as well. And much of it is hiding and you've got to dig into it with kitchen shears and get.it.out.
Cooking Bone-IN Chicken Thighs on the Stovetop
I usually cook chicken thighs one of two ways:
- First, trim the fat (obviously), season it and throw it in the oven.
- Next, if I'm craving that crispy skin (I don't usually eat the skin, but sometimes I do!!), I'll cook them skin-side down on high heat in a large pan for 7-10 minutes, turn them, and finish in the oven.
However, I've been trying a third way to cook bone-in chicken thighs and have been thoroughly enjoying it.
- No oil in the pan and cook skin side down on medium heat for 20 minutes. Turn and cook another 10-15 minutes. When you remove them from the pan the fat, the brown bits left behind sets up the perfect scenario to make an incredible pan sauce.
How to Make a Fantastic Pan Sauce:
Guys - this pan sauce is so easy it's stupid. For some reason, in the cooking world, sauces sometimes have a stigma attached to them. They're... intimidating? Or you have an instant mental response that a sauce will take too long and you can't be bothered.
Well, I'd like to remove that stigma from your mind with this ridiculously easy pan sauce. One of the keys to the pan sauce is the brown bits left behind in the pan from cooking the chicken. We're relying on the salt and pepper used to season the chicken and the fat and brown bits left behind in the pan. It's kinda the base of the sauce. After that, it's shallots, garlic, herbs (rosemary and sage), white wine, chicken broth and butter. That's it.
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It's worth repeating: Brown bits are the key to the Sauce
- Cook the chicken for 15-20 minutes on each side. The skin will get nice and crispy.
- Remove the chicken from the pan and leave those brown bits right there. INSANE flavor. 🙂
- Add shallots and cook a couple of minutes, then add herbs, garlic - cook a minute or two.
- Add white wine and reduce by half, then add chicken broth and do the same. This is a small batch of sauce so should take long to do that.
- Last step is adding that butter to thicken the sauce a bit.
- You'll get about ½ a cup of sauce which is perfect for four chicken thighs.. But if you want more sauce, just double the sauce recipe!
Crispy Chicken Thighs are Best Served Fresh
This is the kind of dinner where leftovers are not going to be as good as eating it fresh out of the pan. Though I try not to eat too much chicken skin, a recipe like this is kinda designed to indulge with the crispy chicken skin. And you're only going to get it THAT crispy right out of the pan.
You can pair this with any side you want. If you want to balance the indulgent chicken skin, then pair this with a nice salad. Your favorite steamed veggie will work great too. Rice pilaf, baked potatoes - a lot of directions to go here.
Why You Should Make the Time to Cook at Home
Even though we're seeing grocery bills go up quite a bit, it's still cheaper than eating out. For me, I'm finding it harder to justify spending $16-18 for a burger (!!) at pretty much any restaurant out there. I mean, burger night shouldn't be something you save up for. Eating out, in general, shouldn't feel like a burdensome expense. For many people that's what it's turned into.
So let's talk. You've got to make a plan for your meals that fits with your budget. Shop the sale. I've hit TWO butter sales recently where Cabot butter (and that is a fantastic butter) was $2.99 a pound. The second time it was actually $2.50. That's four sticks of high-quality butter. I bought 8 packages. Freeze them - save them for your holiday baking!
Tips for Grocery Shopping for the Week:
- Plan your meals for the week and plan to use a bunch of ingredients for more than one recipe.
- Shop the sales (see butter example above) the right way. Shopping the wrong way is buying things you don't really need and buying too many of them. Buy what you need. Don't buy what you don't need.
- Cook more than you need for your meals. Cooking with leftovers in mind is so important. Eating out lunch every day is a BUDGET KILLER. Be careful not to get caught in that trap. Make a little extra and bring your lunch to work.
Easy Steps to Making Crispy Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce
Crispy Chicken Thighs with Pan Sauce
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 40 minutes
Description
Crispy chicken thighs in a pan sauce is a quick, weeknight gourmet win. An easy dinner in about 40 minutes.
Ingredients
- 4 medium/large bone-in, skin on chicken thighs (fat trimmed)
- Salt
- Pepper
For the pan sauce:
- 2-3 tablespoons shallot rings (use reg. onion cut in thin slivers if you don’t have shallot)
- ½ teaspoon fresh herbs, I used rosemary (See note 1)
- 2 fresh sage leaves, optional
- 1 med-to-large clove of grated or minced garlic
- ½ cup white wine (any kind - I used the cheap stuff)
- 1 cup low sodium chicken broth
- 2-3 tablespoons butter
- Salt and pepper, if needed
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Instructions
- First trim the fat from the chicken thighs with kitchen shears. I have a video tutorial on how to trim the fat from chicken thighs that might be helpful.
- Season the chicken on both sides with salt and pepper.
- Slice one small-to-medium shallot into rings.
- Pull rosemary leaves from the sprigs and chop finely. Use thyme if you prefer.
- Place chicken thighs skin side down into a pan and then turn the heat to medium. These will cook for about 20 minutes before turning. Times will vary – all our stovetops are different. The goal is crispy skin so don’t move the chicken thighs around. You can prod them gently half way through, but they will still be sticking to the bottom of the pan. Once they are NOT sticking to the bottom of the pan, it’s time to turn them. That will be at around 20 minutes.
- Once the chicken thighs are turned, let them cook another 10-15 minutes or until the internal temperature is 165 degrees. Remove from pan when done and leave all the juices, fat and brown bits.
- Add the shallots to the pan you cooked the chicken in and cook with the brown bits and chicken fat for a couple of minutes.
- Add two small sage leaves (optional, but if you bought the poultry pack of fresh herbs, why not?) to the pan along with the finely chopped rosemary. Give it a stir for a minute then grate the garlic with a microplane right into the pan. Cook another minute or two.
- Add the cheap white wine and turn the heat to medium-high. Bring to a slight boil, stir it a few times. Adjust heat a little lower as needed. Then let the wine cook off and reduce by about half. My video shows this progression well. It should only take a few minutes.
- Once the wine is reduced, add the chicken broth and do the same. Bring it to a slight boil, then let it reduce by about half. Again, a few more minutes to reduce it down.
- Once the sauce is reduced, add one tablespoon of butter and let it melt into the sauce while stirring. This will help thicken the sauce. Add another tablespoon of butter and let it melt. The sauce is done and ready to be served. Yield is ½ cup of sauce. Plenty for one big spoonful over each chicken thigh.
- Don’t add the sauce to the top of the chicken until you are ready to serve this or it will make the crispy chicken skin soggy. Serve with you favorite salad or veggies.
Notes
- When I buy fresh herbs for something like this I tend to buy the "poultry" pack which has three herbs: rosemary, sage, and thyme. You can use one or all three for the sauce. I used a little finely chopped rosemary, plus two whole sage leaves.
- Category: Dinner
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