Tray-baked chicken thighs with potatoes: crisp skin, potatoes in chicken fat
A Sunday dinner that fits on one tray: thighs rubbed with paprika, marjoram and garlic, laid skin up on potato wedges. In the oven the fat from the thighs runs onto the potatoes; the potatoes crisp from below, the skin crisps from above. Twenty minutes of work, then the oven does the rest.
Your own work in that: 20 min.
- Rub and potatoes 20 min
- Baking 55 min
- Resting 10 min
Step by step
0 / 6 done
Rub the thighs
Heat the oven to 200 °C. Pat the thighs dry with paper towel. Mix the oil with the paprika, marjoram crushed between your palms, crushed garlic, salt, pepper and the grated zest of the lemon. Rub the thighs all over, including under the skin wherever you can lift it with a finger.
Ingredients: 8 pcs chicken thighs · 3 tbsp oil · 2 tsp sweet paprika · 2 tsp dried marjoram · 3 cloves garlic · 1½ tsp salt · 1 tsp black pepper · 1 pcs lemon
TipDry skin is crisp skin. Dry the thighs thoroughly, and if you have time, leave them rubbed and uncovered in the fridge for an hour or overnight: the skin dries out and browns even better.
Paprika, marjoram, garlic, under the skin too
Prepare the potatoes
Scrub the potatoes (no need to peel) and cut into wedges, quarter the onions, leave the garlic in its skins. Toss in a bowl with the oil, paprika and salt until every piece is coated.
Ingredients: 1000 g potatoes · 2 pcs onions · 6 cloves garlic · 2 tbsp oil · 1 tsp sweet paprika · 1 tsp salt · ½ bunch flat-leaf parsley
Wedges in oil, garlic in its skins
Arrange on the tray
Spread the potatoes, onion and garlic on a large tray in one layer. Set the thighs on top skin side up, spaced apart, so each sits on potatoes rather than beside them. Halve the lemon and tuck the halves between the thighs.
TipSkin up, because the skin is what browns in dry hot air; the underside of the thighs braises in juice and fat that runs onto the potatoes and fries them. Space between the thighs: crowded, everything steams instead of roasting.
Potatoes below, thighs skin up, loosely
Roast
Roast 50–55 minutes on the middle shelf, uncovered. Halfway through pull the tray out and turn the potatoes in the fat that has already run down; leave the thighs alone. Done when the skin is deep golden and crisp and the potatoes have browned edges.
Uncovered, potatoes turned halfway
Check the temperature
A thermometer in the thickest part of a thigh next to the bone should read 80 °C; thighs, unlike breast, like to be well done, when the meat pulls away from the bone. Without a thermometer: pierce by the bone, the juices should run clear, not pink.
TipThighs are safe at 74 °C but stringy at the bone. At 80–85 °C the collagen turns to gelatine and the meat is juicy and tender. That is why dark leg meat is worth cooking longer than breast.
80 °C at the bone, clear juices
Rest and serve
Leave on the tray 10 minutes. Squeeze the roasted lemon over the thighs, squeeze the garlic out of its skins onto the potatoes, sprinkle with parsley. Serve straight from the tray, with cucumber salad or sauerkraut salad.
Lemon from the tray, garlic from its skin, parsley
Before you start
With vegetables
Add carrot batons, pepper strips and thick courgette slices to the potatoes, thrown in halfway through roasting: a whole dinner from one tray.
Spicier
A teaspoon of smoked paprika and half a teaspoon of chilli in the rub, plus a spoon of honey for the last 10 minutes: barbecue-style thighs.
Pale, soft skin
The thighs weren't dried, sat crowded, or the tray was too low. Dry, spaced out, middle shelf; finish with 5 minutes under the top element or on fan.
Nutrition
per 100 gStep photos are computer-generated from the recipe.
