Oven-Baked Chicken Thighs

I'm cookin', good lookin!'s Note:

Chicken thighs have been the real bread and butter of my diet since my second year of college, when I started having to cover my own grocery bills :) This has become my all-time favorite way to spice them. If I need a side dish, I usually chop up an onion, sautee it for 30 seconds in the pan, and toss the onion and a handful of cherry tomatoes on top of the thighs and bake everything together.

• Total Time: 50 mins
• Prep Time: 5 mins
• Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 2

Yield: 4.0 chicken ...

• 4 chicken thighs

Spice Rub

• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 2 teaspoons ground turmeric
• 3/4 teaspoon garlic powder (can go down to 1/2 - I looove garlic..)
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil (enough to coat the bottom of a skillet and a 9x5 baking dish)

Directions:

1. In a shallow dish, stir together all spices and 1 teaspoon salt. Coat chicken thighs with spice mix.
2. Warm the oil in a skillet and pan-fry chicken thighs, making sure each side is nicely browned.
3. Transfer chicken thighs to a greased (butter or olive oil) 9x5 baking dish. If you have any remaining spice mix, feel free to sprinkle it over the thighs, as this will reduce to a nice gravy. Put in pre-heated oven at 375 for 45 minutes, or until juices run clear.
4. Serve with basmati rice or couscous.

Reviews

[Okra]

Oh wow! I really enjoyed this! Reduced the recipe to use just one thigh but otherwise followed the recipe, including the cinnamon. Baked in my toaster oven. Will definitely be making this again.

[rusticgirl]

Beautiful flavour combination! I made a simple gravy using the spice mix - I started with olive oil, added lemon juice, a bit of white wine and the spices. I coated the chicken with this sauce, then poured the whole thing on top of a bread stuffing I made really quickly - olive oil, onions, garlic, parsley, white wine and a whole grain baguette cut up into bite size pieces. An outstanding one-pot meal! I served it with a cucumber raita, and that really made the dish perfect. Thank you!

[sloe cooker]

I have always been a breast or wing gal before but I wanted to find a good recipe to try for thigh meat. I didn't have the cayenne pepper or tumeric, used dry mustard in place of the tumeric. I did use cinnamon and think that it is essential to the wonderful taste of this recipe. I did take the skin off the chicken, saute' onions after frying the thighs, and baked in my toaster oven. My apartment smelled so delicious while this was cooking, ha, probably the whole building!! Oh, and this was so very easy to make. This was enjoyed leftover the next day (I do not eat leftover chicken usually) and lost no flavor! Thanks I'm cookin', good lookin! for posting this recipe. I will have some tumeric and cayenne next time this is made.