Crispy & sticky chicken thighs | Jamie Oliver chicken recipe (2024)

FAQs

How do you cook Jamie Oliver chicken thighs? ›

Spread out in a single layer in the roasting tray, and bake for 40 minutes in the preheated oven until golden. Lovely served with a rocket salad dressed with some lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil, and a nice glass of white wine.

If you find the chicken thigh skin isn't as crispy as you would like, it could mean the skin may not have been dry before you added it to the oil.

Unlike chicken breasts, chicken thighs and drumsticks actually become more tender the longer they cook. That's because of their makeup. Dark meat has an abundant amount of connective tissue, which dissolves into gelatin as the meat cooks, rendering it juicy and tender.

When paired with all-purpose flour, cornstarch helps prevent gluten development, which makes the flour coating crispier, and absorb moisture (from the frying and the chicken), which also means a crispier coating. If you already have a favorite fried chicken recipe, try replacing a quarter of the flour with cornstarch.

With its slight alkaline level, baking powder reacts with the proteins in chicken skin, accelerating the dehydration process, which—as we learned above—produces a nice, crisp skin.

The chicken is then air-dried for 10 to 12 hours before being flash-fried, then oil-poached. The skin gets its signature crispiness from 10 to 12 minutes of basting with scalding hot oil right before serving.

Again, the chicken is technically cooked through and safe to eat at 165 degrees, but we're tacking on extra baking time to render the thighs extremely tender and juicy. There is no need to rotate the pan or flip the chicken thighs at any point during the baking process.

But I know you are wondering– should you cover chicken thighs when they are baking? The simple answer is, no. We don't cover our skin-on chicken thighs because we want that skin to get nice and crispy!

Pat the chicken thighs dry with paper towels and allow to come to room temperature (about 20 minutes). Spray with the EVOO cooking spray and season with salt and pepper. Bake until the skin is golden brown and crispy, 25 to 30 minutes, and a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part reads 165 °F.

How do you keep chicken crispy when baking? ›

We like using a rack instead of simply plopping the chicken on a foil-lined baking sheet because the rack allows the oven's hot air to reach and crisp-up every single nook and cranny in the chicken skin. A quick word on whether or not you should cover the chicken in foil.

Bake in the oven, turning the chicken after 30 minutes. After another 30 minutes, drape the pancetta or bacon on top of the chicken and return to the oven for 15 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and falling off the bone. Lovely with a crisp green salad.

While chicken thighs only need to be cooked to an internal temperature of 165 degrees as read by a meat thermometer, I recommend you bake them until they reach 180 – 190 degrees. This takes 30-40 minutes at 400 degrees.