These spicy roasted chicken thighs are smothered in chorizo butter and baked on top of golden potatoes that soak up all the flavour. Juicy, crispy skinned chicken and buttery potatoes make the ultimate one pan dinner!
About These Spicy Roasted Chicken Thighs
These spicy roasted chicken thighs are made with just a few ingredients for the perfect one pan dinner. Chicken thighs are smothered in a delicious chorizo butter and then baked on top of parboiled potatoes that soak up that delicious butter. With around 10 minutes prep time, let the oven do all of the work here! Make your Sunday roast spicy and delicious with this chicken bake. I promise this is one delicious, crispy tasty chicken dinner.
Tips For Making Spicy Roasted Chicken Thighs
1 - One or two days ahead: Upgrade this to crispy skinned chicken by taking the chicken out of the packaging and pat the skin dry with paper towels and season with salt. Place the thighs skin side up and leave uncovered in the fridge to allow the air to circulate and dry out the skin. The skin will become dry and waxy, even overnight, and this means crispy skin!
Waxy and dry finish to the skin means crispy skin!
2 - Another tip for crispy skin: I use ghee rather than butter for crispy chicken skin. Ghee has significantly less water in it because it has been clarified so this allows the skin to crisp up instead of "steam"!
3 - Always salt the water to boil potatoes. This allows the salt to penetrate through the potato right to the centre.
4 - Peel the skin off the chorizo before blending it. I used the chorizo by Miguel Maestre.
5 - I like using gloves to spread the chorizo butter on the chicken as it is spicy and you don't want to accidentally touch your eye. I use these disposable gloves. But if you don't like spicy just leave the chilli out!
6 - If you use boneless chicken thighs you can reduce the cooking time by 10 minutes. You can also do this with chicken breasts but I recommend brining them first (see how to quick brine in this baked chicken breast recipe).
Spicy Roasted Chicken Thighs Recipe
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4 x 210g/7.4oz chicken thigh cutlets (bone in) see note above about crispy skin
70g/2.5ozs chorizo, skins removed
70g/2.5ozs ghee (or butter), softened
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 teaspoons white vinegar
2 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 small red chilli (optional)
4 slices lemon (optional)
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Step-By-Step Instructions
Step 1 - Wash potatoes (no need to peel) and place in a pot of cold water. Add 1 tablespoon of salt and bring to a boil. Par boil for 15 minutes. Preheat oven to 170C/230F fan forced or 190C/375F conventional.
Lifting up the skin to add butter directly onto the meat
Step 2 - While the potatoes are boiling take the chicken out of the fridge to let the chill come off the chicken at room temperature. Pat them dry with paper towels and have a tray ready. Blend the chorizo and ghee together with the garlic, sugar, vinegar, lemon zest, smoked paprika and chilli. Don latex gloves and using your forefinger lift the skin separating it from the meat. Place a teaspoon or so of the chorizo butter here and spread it out. Then spread butter on the top of the skin and under the chicken thighs.
Step 3 - Place the potatoes on the bottom of a casserole or oven proof dish and press down gently with a potato masher. Place the chicken pieces on top as well as slices of lemon. Drizzle with olive oil and roast for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and baste with the chorizo butter and then increase heat to 190C/375 fan forced or 210C/410F conventional and roast for another 10 minutes or until browned on top. Optional: remove the chicken thighs and lemon slices and baste the potatoes with the butter and roast potatoes uncovered for another 5-10 minutes.
Substitution notes and ingredients:
Chorizo is a Spanish pork sausage from the Iberian peninsula. It's flavoured with smoked paprika and garlic and is a powerhouse of flavour. It's sold ready to eat. You can also use nduja or sobrasada which are spreadable salamis.
Other cuts of chicken like drumsticks or wings can be used and skinless chicken thighs can also be used.
You can sub baby potatoes for larger ones, just cut these in half. Low carb potatoes are also good in this.
Personal Note
I love roasting chicken. It's literally one of the easiest meals you can make and it pays off so well as roast chicken is such a crowd pleaser. I sometimes cook a double lot of this so that we have enough for a few days ahead of time, especially if I am going out or going to be away and Mr NQN is going to be at home alone.
One afternoon we were talking about having his family over for pizzas as they really enjoyed our last pizza party and it's always fun being able to try lots of new things. They're great guests because they eat with gusto and the happily devour all of the practice cakes that I make in order to perfect the recipe. There are no leftovers as they happily take food with them.
"Maybe we should do something else as well as pizzas," I mused out loud.
"Yeah pizzas are so easy," said Mr NQN.
I almost spat out my drink. Yes pizzas are easy for him because I basically do all of the pizza. I make the dough, shape and prepare all of the toppings and then top it. He slides it into the oven but let's just say that his part takes around 2 minutes while the rest takes much longer-anything from 3 hours to 3 days!
"What. Did. You. Say?" I said looking at him seriously, with a measure of malevolence reserved for my worst enemy.
His life flashed before his eyes and I could see the regret straight away. "Never mind!" he said, and quickly walked back his comment.
That day Dear Reader, he chose peace.
So tell me Dear Reader, do you find that people underestimate what you do? do you prefer to use bone in or boneless chicken? Would you eat this as is or would you add another side?
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