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Chicken thighs recipe roasted with red onions

a dish of chicken thighs with roasted vegetables

Chicken thighs with roasted vegetables

Roast chicken thighs were never something I looked forward to, or could ever countenance as I prefer white chicken meat and always avoid brown. That was a fact until we tried this amazing recipe that was posted on the forum by Shereen, who lives near Belfast. She credits her sister in law, JennyB.
Well congratulations to you both because you have converted this chicken thigh hater to a chicken thigh enthusiast.

This is really is a wonderful and economical recipe that punches way above its weight. The thighs magically convert to white meat rather than brown and I enjoyed having it twice in the past week. We forgot to take a photograph the first time, which was the perfect excuse to try it again last night. In fact this photo doesn’t do the dish justice.
“Danny, are you planning to visit Waitrose this week? The photo makes them look a bit charred”
“Yes, if it’s for chicken thighs,” he shouted from the upstairs Velux window in the Rat Room.

Shereen says that she has tried it successfully with thighs, drumsticks and chicken breasts. It seems that Tesco only sell mixed packs of drumsticks plus thighs, so we bought the pack of four thighs in Waitrose for £2.75 which represents real value for the generous meat content of this succulent dish.

Danny cooked it both times and, like every foodie, likes to tweak things.  Such as adding Balsamic vinegar to provide some added depth to the juices while the acidity evaporates during cooking. You can read Shereen’s original recipe here.

Absolutely delicious. Thank you Shereen.

Check out a summer vegetables variation of this recipe.

 

Chicken thighs recipe roasted with red onions
Recipe Type: Main
Author: Fiona Nevile
Prep time: 15 mins
Cook time: 50 mins
Total time: 1 hour 5 mins
Serves: 4
Smear the contents of the baked garlic cloves on the roasted thighs and pour over lashings of the lemony garlicky juices. Serve with the baked onion and roast potatoes + veg (Shereen had asparagus in season and corn. We had chips (fries) and asparagus – as this is in season in May).
Ingredients
  • 4 chicken thighs (approx 0.750 kg or 1.65 pounds)
  • 2 red onions, peeled and quartered (white onions do not work half as well)
  • Juice of 1 small lemon and zest from half of it, pips removed
  • 5 or 6 unpeeled cloves of garlic (or more if you love roast garlic)
  • 1 clove of garlic peeled and finely chopped
  • 2 tablespoons Balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons fresh thyme (stripped from approx 12 sprigs) or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
  • 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt (such as Malden)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 190c/375f (175c/350f fan)
  2. In a roasting tin (the smaller the better, we used a circular ovenproof dish) pour in the olive oil and Balsamic vinegar.
  3. On the fleshy underside of each thigh, sprinkle the thyme and chopped garlic and fold over the flaps of skin to form a parcel..
  4. Place the thighs flap side down in the roasting tray and stuff the quartered red onions in between.
  5. Pour over the lemon juice and zest
  6. Sprinkle over the salt and black pepper
  7. Scatter the unpeeled cloves of garlic over the thighs
  8. Cook for 50 minutes and make sure that the juice from the thighs is clear when pierced with a fork.

 


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11 Comments

  1. I have made this quite a few times now. It’s really really really delicious! Thank you!

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