Baked Bone-In Chicken Thighs

Making baked bone-in chicken thighs is super quick and easy! It’s as simple as 1, 2, 3! The chicken will be juicy and have great flavor with some crispy skin!

You can use this as your main course or pull the meat off the bone and use it in a salad or over rice.

This recipe is cooked in your oven. The benefit of using chicken thighs is that added fat and flavor you get from the dark meat. They by far are one of my favorite cuts of chicken.

Video – baked bone-in chicken thighs

Ingredients

• 1 lb bone-in chicken thighs
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp granulated garlic
• 1 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp salt

Equipment

• cutting board
• chef knife
• oven pan

5 Steps for oven baked chicken thighs

Follow these 5 steps to get crispy juicy chicken thighs. You can also get all the steps in the video. This is by far one of my favorite go-to recipes during the week.

Create a rub

In this recipe, I have mixed together 1 tsp of granulated garlic, 1 tsp of onion powder, 1 tsp of paprika, and 1/2 tsp of cracked black pepper.

Mix them together in a small bowl. I like to use an old spice bottle for a container to be able to spread the rub over the chicken. I would give this a try because it makes it so much easier.

Trim excess fat

The first step is always to trim the chicken and get all of the unwanted skin and fat off of each piece. Make sure to leave the skin on top because that is what is going to crisp up and give great flavor to your chicken thighs.

This is also a good time to look for any broken bones or shards of bones that you want to remove.

Prepare the chicken

Add the chicken to a bowl to be able to spread the oil and spices on. Now if your chicken is really wet, you can dry it with a paper towel to help the oil and seasoning to stick better.

Pour 1 tbsp. of olive oil onto our thighs and spread it all over, coating all the chicken.

Shake the seasoning liberally all over the chicken. You won’t get all sides of the thighs. This seasoning is going to help dry out the skin to be able to give it a chance to crisp up.

Sprinkle with coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper all over the chicken as well. I like to use kosher salt for this.

Place the chicken onto a pan spaced out a little so they can cook evenly. If you have an oven pan as you see in the video this will help with pulling the moisture away as it cooks so you get a crispy chicken.

Bake the chicken thighs

Last step! Now, we are going to place the thighs into the oven at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes. Temps can vary so much between different ovens so you really want to concentrate on the internal temp.

Cook until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.

Rest and enjoy

Now that your chicken thighs are cooked to 165 degrees go ahead and take them out of the oven and let them rest for at least 5 minutes. This allows the juices to soak back up into the meat.

Serve on a plate with rice, veggies, or whatever side you want. These are so easy and more importantly very tasty!

Also, try breaking down your own chicken! I have a full breakdown on how at how to cut up a whole chicken.

FAQ

Are Chicken thighs better for you than breasts?

Chicken, in general, is a great source of protein. Thighs are a darker meat than breasts and are high in healthy monounsaturated fats. There is a higher fat content in thighs but its a good fat.

The days of fat being dangerous are over. We need fat in our diet.

How long does it take to cook chicken thighs at 400?

If you are baking your chicken thighs with the bone in at 400 degrees you want to cook them for 30-35 minutes.

Boneless chicken thighs will cook a little faster so more like 20-30 minutes. When cooking chicken you want the internal temperature to be 165 degrees.

A benefit of cooking at a hot temperature like this is an opportunity to get a crispier skin.