The two pots of jambalaya required one chicken thigh each. Naturally, the supermarket sold their boneless, skinless thighs in packages of ten. I tightly wrapped each of the remaining thighs in Saran Wrap, put them into a gallon-sized zip-top bag and squeezed the air out, and put them in the freezer.
I like chicken thighs as ingredients. They’re moister and more flavourful than breasts. Just eating fried or roasted chicken? I like more variety. So aside from using the thighs, cut into chunks, as ingredients in other dishes, what else can I do with them so as to use them up more quickly?
You don’t want to overdo it. Four ounces per four-serving batch – eight ounces per batch since I made double-batches – is enough. Even if I’d added more, I’d still have six thighs left.
Thaw slightly and dice a couple of them. Cook with cayenne, cumin, garlic, pepper. Eat in tacos with other delectables of your choice.
Thaw a thigh. Pound it flat with a meat tenderizing hammer. Cook in a pan with some butter and onions, and use them together in a chickeny version of a patty melt. yum.
Dust the chicken thighs with flour and put them in a greased baking dish, as many as will fit. Sprinkle on a generous amount of Italian herbs or herbs de Provence. Fill in the gaps with some lemon quarters, shallots cut into quarters, and LOTS of whole garlic cloves (at least three or so per thigh). Pour in a little white wine, about 1/4 cup or so.
Bake at 400 for about 25 minutes, then spoon up some of the liquid from the bottom of the pan and pour it over the top of the chicken. Then put it back in the oven for another 25 minutes or so. The chicken skin should be all brown and crispy on top by now, and the shallots and garlic thoroughly roasted. This is best with some crusty bread to soak up the extra liquid.
If you’re good at souteeing and lightly braising chopped chicken in a pan, that’s when you can put in a whole load of extenders that I love: green peas, or mushrooms, or asparagus. You’ll need to thicken the sauce with corn starch, of course.
Actually, I thought about pounding them flat and coating them with panko bread crumbs and frying them. Sort of like chicken-fried chicken, only not ‘fried chicken’.
That looks tasty.
That also looks good, but my chicken thighs are skinless.
I can’t do soup. I do like soup, but my wife makes soup more often than I care for.
That looks like the kind of thing I’m looking for!
This recipe for Halal Cart Style chicken is a big winner in my house. Even my notoriously picky 10 yo daughter likes is.
I usually break up the prep a bit. I’ll prep the chicken a day in advance or on a weekend if I have the time, keep it in the fridge, and warm in a frying pan during the last stages of cooking the rice. I’ll also make the white sauce a day in advance to allow the flavours a chance to combine a bit more.
You like things hot & spicy, right? Just get yourself some Walkerswood jerk paste (or make your own), marinate overnight, and roast or grill. Makes for great tacos, too.
Plus I agree with the Halal Cart Style chicken above. It’s become somewhat of a staple at our house. Plus any kind of curry. Or the aforementioned paprikash, which is dead simple, with just onions, paprika, maybe a little bit of chopped banana pepper, salt, black pepper, sour cream. Serve with noodles/spaetzle.