Meals · Skillet & sheet-pan mains
Crispy salt-and-pepper chicken thighs
Bone-in chicken thighs with nothing on them but salt and pepper, left uncovered in the fridge so the skin dries out, then roasted hot on a rack. The chicken's own fat does the work, so the skin turns thin and crackly with no oil or butter at all.
- Time
- 110 min (70 prep + 40 cook)
- Servings
- 4
- Per serving
- 448 kcal
- Protein
- 45 g
Ingredients
- 8 bone-in, skin-on thighs (about 3 lb) chicken thigh (with skin), the weight is the meat and skin you eat, about 130 g a thigh
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper, freshly ground
Steps
- Pat the thighs very dry with paper towels, top and underside, and trim any skin that hangs well past the meat. Any water left on the skin has to steam off before the skin can crisp, so take your time here.
- Set a wire rack on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet. Sprinkle the salt and pepper over both sides of the thighs, lifting the skin to get a little underneath. Lay them skin side up on the rack and refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 1 hour and up to 24 hours. The longer they sit, the drier the skin gets.
- Heat the oven to 450°F with a shelf in the upper middle. Put the chicken in straight from the fridge and roast 30–35 minutes without turning, until the skin is deep golden and crackly and the thickest part, away from the bone, reads at least 165°F. Thighs are at their most tender at 175–185°F.
- Rest 5 minutes on the rack so the skin stays crisp. Leftovers keep 3 days in the fridge; reheat on a rack at 400°F for 10–12 minutes to bring the skin back.
Good to know
Do I really not need oil or butter?
No. A thigh carries enough fat under its skin to fry itself, and the rack lets the rest drip away. Brushing on more fat makes the dish richer and does not make the skin any crisper.
Not eating strictly carnivore?
A squeeze of lemon over the hot skin is the classic finish, and a little garlic powder or paprika goes in well with the salt.
Alternative
Per
- Calories
- 228
- Protein
- (41%)
- 23 g
- Fat
- (59%)
- 14 g
- Carbohydrates
- (0%)
- <1 g
- of which sugar
- <1 g
- Fiber
- <1 g
- Sodium
- 694 mg
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Computed from the ingredients with our published formula, not yet kitchen-tested. How
As written, 1790 kcal goes into the pot and 1054 g of ingredients comes out as about 784 g of food: 228 kcal per 100 g. Cooking moves water and energy density is the score's biggest lever, so the dish is scored as cooked, not as an average of its parts. Every ingredient links to its food page, with the same data and score. The label's percentages are each macronutrient's share of the calories. The full formula.