Crusted Chicken Thighs

So good!!

I still don’t think Greg knows he’s eating chicken thighs.. I’ve been disguising them the best I can. He doesn’t ask, I don’t tell. We are a chicken breast family, but thighs are REALLY juicy and if cooked right, they even better I think! This recipe is from Bobby Parrish from Flavcity.com!

I would have taken a picture of them cooking in my number 12 Lodge, however, it was sort of a grease spattering mess under my screen and I only took it off once to flip these babies..  Bobby is right, cast iron is the only way to go with this (or anything for that matter!!)

Here’s his seasoning. Use it all. I only used half and was immediately sorry, as I would have had a better crust had I used it all. (I thought it was a tad hot, but it’s fine once it’s cooked onto the chicken.)

4 boneless & skinless chicken thighs (I used 5 thighs)
½ teaspoon each smoked paprika & cumin
1/3 teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper & dried thyme
Kosher salt
Avocado or grapeseed oil (I didn’t have either of these oils and used vegetable oil)

Sprinkle with kosher salt on both sides.
Put have the rub on one side, flip, salt and the rest of the rub goes on that side.
I put some olive oil on one side to rub into the chicken with the seasoning.

Meanwhile my cast iron pan is HOT. I added the oil, and waited until it’s hot. Add the chicken and don’t touch it for 4 minutes. Yes, you should time it. Keep that spatter guard on! Flip. Cook for another 3 minutes (I did 4 minutes, 3 was likely fine.)
Remove from pan, I covered it loosely with tin foil and let it rest for 5 minutes while I got the rice and coleslaw plated. (The coleslaw had blue cheese dressing and crumbled blue cheese, and both this, and the rice were great with this chicken!

Enjoy!

UPDATE!
I made this again… using the remaining spices. This time I managed a couple of pictures despite the grease spatter! (Don’t let that stop you from cooking your chicken thighs like this. It’s worth a bit of extra cleanup time!)

When they were resting I added a sauce:
1 TBSP balsamic vinegar
1 TBSP dijon mustard
chopped garlic
chopped pecans
1 TSP packed brown sugar
Some balsamic glaze from Costco