If you are a regular reader of my website (which of course you are), you know I love my chicken thighs. There is something so satisfying about dark meat chicken. It is the main protein I eat more than any other. I mean, you know I love a good, marinated chicken breast too, but my culinary heart belongs to chicken thighs. And these grilled chimichurri chicken thighs are my newest obsession.
The Smell of Chimichurri Sauce Will Drive You Crazy
I love marinades and I especially love when the smell of a marinade makes me weak in the knees. Chimichurri sauce made me barely able to move. I was paralyzed by smell. This sauce is something you can slather onto an already-cooked piece of chicken, steak, pork and probably even fish.
I loved marinating my chicken thighs in it. I reserved some of the sauce to drizzle on the chicken after it's cooked for extra flavor too. It gave the chicken a one-two punch of flavor that made it difficult to stop eating.
I do enjoy making a marinade the day before and letting my chicken soak up all those flavors in the overnight hours. Then when it comes time to cook it feels like everything is almost finished. The only thing left to do is fire up the grill and cook the chicken for a few minutes on each side.
Easy Steps to Put Together This Incredible Chicken Dish
Chimichurri Chicken Thighs Are My New Favorite Lunch
As many of you know, I tend to cook with leftovers in mind. I love making this dish for dinner, then eating the leftovers for lunch for a few days. When I filmed this recipe, it was the first time I made it. I have prepared it several times since. I absolutely love this recipe. The chicken tastes great hot, cold, or room temperature. This is a fantastic option to add to a salad for your weekday lunches. As I write this blog post - here is my truth. I just made this recipe AGAIN and am currently eating it for lunches this week. I made a batch of my marinated tomatoes from another chicken recipe and spooned those over my CSA romaine lettuce. Reheating the chicken is easy. Simply wrap it loosely in foil and heat for maybe 10 minutes in your toaster oven.
Are You Craving More Chicken? Me Too!
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I hope you give these grilled chimichurri chicken thighs a try because they are seriously delicious. I loved eating them right off the grill and on top of my salads. So much flavor and so tender and juicy.
It is a great feeling to cook food for your loved ones. To gather around a table and break bread. To put aside the rest of the world and all its craziness and just sit with the people we care about the most. No phones or tablets - just people, good food and good conversation. It's an incredibly sacred part of the human experience. I hope we can all enjoy and appreciate it whenever possible.
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Grilled Chimichurri Chicken Thighs
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 8 minutes
- Total Time: 23 minutes
- Yield: 6-8 portions 1x
Description
Marinating the chicken is the key to incredible flavor with these incredible grilled chimichurri chicken thighs. A weeknight staple!
Ingredients
10 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (see note#1)
10-15 cherry tomatoes, halved, optional garnish
The chimichurri sauce: (makes about 2 ¾ cups) (see note #2)
1 cup cilantro, finely chopped (about 2 bunches)
1 cup parsley, finely chopped (1 ½-2 bunches)
1 ½ tablespoons garlic, finely diced (4-5 cloves)
½ cup onion, finely diced (about ½ of a medium onion)
1 cup red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
½ teaspoon red pepper flakes (see note#3)
2 tablespoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
NOTE: COOK AND PREP TIME ABOVE DOES NOT INCLUDE MARINATING OVERNIGHT.
Instructions
- Chop the cilantro down fine and add to a mixing bowl.
- Chop the parley down fine - same as the cilantro. Add to bowl.
- Finely dice the garlic. I like to slice my garlic cloves into rounds and then dice it down into smaller bits from there. Add to bowl.
- Finely dice the onion. Cut one medium onion in half (you’ll only need about half the onion). Cut into thin strips, then dice into smaller pieces from there. Must be finely diced. Video shows this well.
- Add red wine vinegar, olive oil, oregano, red pepper flakes, salt, and pepper.
- Whisk the chimichurri sauce together until well combined. At this point, you should set aside about ¾ cup of the sauce to spoon over the cooked chicken later.
- Take a few minutes to trim the fat from the chicken thighs. I always make sure to get the obvious flaps of fat hanging off the sides, but also the fat on the underside as well.
- Add the trimmed chicken to your marinade bowl. Make sure all the pieces of chicken are fully coated in the marinade. Poke them with a fork for a minute as well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let it marinate overnight in the refrigerator. You could also use a ziplock bag if you prefer.
- After chicken has marinated overnight, turn your grill on high and let it warm up for 10 minutes.
- Add the chicken pieces to the grill. The marinade is drippy so let it drip a bit in the bowl before placing on grill. Close the lid and cook for four minutes.
- Turn the chicken over, close the lid again and cook another 3-4 minutes until chicken is cooked through and internal temperature is 165 degrees. Remove chicken from grill and let cool a few minutes.
- While the chicken is cooling you can cut your cherry tomatoes in half.
- I placed all the chicken on a plate and garnished with the halved cherry tomatoes then spooned some of the extra chimichurri sauce over the chicken. Serve any additional chimichurri on the side.
Equipment
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Ball Wide-Mouth Mason Jars (pint)
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- The marinade can hold about 12-14 boneless, skinless chicken thighs if you want to add a bit more. Also, you can use boneless breast of chicken too – just cut the chicken breast in two or three pieces depending on the size of the chicken breast. That would be approximately 6 chicken breasts cut in half. I’ve done a combination of thighs and breasts and that works well.
- You can add more red pepper flakes if you want it spicier – mine is a mild version.
- Sauce makes 2 ¾ cups and I reserved ¾ cups to spoon on finished product. So the chicken thighs were marinated in 2 cups of chimichurri sauce.
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