Over the course of a week back in November we had our 3 favorite couples over for dinner on 3 different nights. The weekend before Thanksgiving we topped off the run with our forever friends the McDonnells. I had seen a recipe on my favorite cooking blog Dad Cooks Dinner for these breaded chicken thighs. The recipe is stupid simple but so, so good.
I like chicken thighs so much more than chicken breasts; the thighs are so much more forgiving of temperature and have enough fat to yield a tasty dish. Breasts by contrast can dry up in no time and have little flavor regardless.
This recipe has only six ingredients counting the eight chicken thighs. Don’t go for regular bread crumbs; get the panko for the crunch.
Mix the salt, pepper, and thyme with the panko break crumbs in a pie plate or something similar. Trim the fat off the thighs, smear with mustard, then coat with the crumbs on both sides. Put the thighs on a wire rack inside a sheet pan.
Bake at 400° for about an hour until they get to at least 175° internally. Mine got much hotter and still tasted fantastic; I suggest checking after 45 minutes or based on your knowledge of your oven.
Take them out and let them rest for a few minutes before serving.
While they were cooking we made a salad and cooked up some cheezy orzo. Dinner is served.
I rank this as a 5 star dish. Unless your a vegetarian or don’t have an oven, there is not reason not to try this simple, delicious way of cooking chicken thighs. Dianne, who taught me how to make apple pie a few weeks prior made a pie for dessert.
For the previous two meals with friends I caught a couple of pics of our guests. Ironically, I missed the opportunity here. I say ironically because Herb is one of my main photography mentors so I should have leapt at the chance. But I was so busy working with my new remote flash and softbox set with the food that I simply spaced it out. Herb helped me with the final picture above by having me move my lightbox a little higher and pointing it down.
I’m getting closer to proper lighting in these pictures. A couple are on the dark side, but using the lightbox finally captured the real color of our granite counter tops. Most of the time it shows up way, way to orange. They aren’t the perfect food pictures but I feel like I’m another step closer on my journey.
Check out Mike Vrobel’s Dad Cooks Dinner site for more information on this dish; my printed recipe can be found here.
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