The Best Chicken Thigh Recipes, According to Eater Staff

Make chicken teriyaki, a one-skillet pasta dish, halal cart chicken and rice, and more

Kat Thompson is the associate editor of Eater at Home, covering home cooking and baking, cookbooks, and kitchen gadgets. Her freezer is never without chicken thighs.

Chicken thighs are one of the most versatile proteins you can cook with. When the skin is on, they can be pan-fried until crispy, the rendered fat perfect for frying potatoes or brussel sprouts or turning into a pan sauce. When boneless, they can be chopped into chunks, dredged, and deep-fried for karaage, or grilled for a salad or a rice bowl. In other words, there’s a reason I always keep chicken thighs stocked in my freezer — there are so many recipes where they slide in perfectly. Here are some of the favorites from Eater staffers, from a classic chicken teriyaki recipe to an easy sheet pan weeknight dinner.

One-Skillet Chicken with Buttery Orzo

Claire Saffitz, Bon Appétit

If I had to pick one pandemic hyperfixation meal that carried into my day-to-day life post-Covid, it would be this one-pan chicken and orzo masterpiece. There’s so many things to love about this recipe: the way the fat rendered off the chicken skin toasts the orzo, how the fennel softens in the braising liquid, the brightness of lemon zest that finishes off the dish. It’s savory and comforting and easy to pull off. And, of course, you can’t beat the fact that everything comes together in a single pan. — Kat Thompson, associate editor, Eater at Home

Chicken Teriyaki

Namiko Chen, Just One Cookbook

Namiko Chen’s Just One Cookbook remains my go-to for Japanese recipes, and it’s unsurprising that her chicken teriyaki recipe is a keeper. Requiring just four main ingredients in addition to chicken thighs, the dish is simple enough for a weeknight, well-balanced, not too sweet, and even a little elegant. It also led me to make an exciting discovery: the fact that my local Wegmans carries notoriously tough-to-find boneless chicken thighs that still have the skin on them, which means I don’t have to spend a weeknight deboning a chicken thigh. Which yes, I was willing to do before this discovery. — Missy Frederick, cities director

Freestyle Roasted Chicken Parm

Sam Sifton, NYT Cooking

I don’t always like a no-recipe recipe, but as someone who loves chicken Parmesan sandwiches, this Sam Sifton guide to a roasted chicken parm caught my eye a few years ago. I sometimes get nervous cooking meat, but this turned out really well even without specific directions, and was a great approximation of chicken parm, with the crispy thigh, bright sauce, and melted mozzarella. It’s an easy, crowd-pleasing weeknight meal made with ingredients most of us always have on hand — and even easier if you happen to have leftover tomato sauce. — Stephanie Wu, editor-in-chief

Chicken and Chickpea Tray Bake

Yotam Ottolenghi, NYT Cooking

We do not cook much chicken in my house, we make an exception for Yotam Ottolenghi’s sheet pan roasted chicken with ras el hanout. I love this recipe because it’s the kind of meal that we have unfortunately come to call a Kendall Roy (I’m so sorry, but it’s because it’s “shit in a sheet pan”), the kind of thing you can throw together in a couple minutes and shove into the oven. It has the bright flavors and abundance of vegetables that have made Ottolenghi recipes so popular, with great texture, richness from olive oil and schmaltz, and the fun extra step of smashing together roasted garlic and tomato to form a simple pan sauce. It is also a durable recipe — go ahead and swap ingredients in and out, add spicier peppers or lemon, or throw it over pasta if you’re particularly famished; you will not fuck it up. — Ben Mesirow, associate editor, Eater Travel

Halal Cart-Style Chicken and Rice with White Sauce

Caroline Russock and J. Kenji López-Alt, Serious Eats

I am not a meal prep kind of person, but I am always thrilled to have a leftover batch of this halal cart chicken and rice from Serious Eats waiting in the fridge. In fact, they’re the only leftovers I’m really ever excited about. The chicken thighs just need a quick marinade in herbs and lemon juice before they’re grilled to juicy, charred perfection. The toasty, buttery yellow rice makes for an excellent bed on which to pile tons of that chopped herby chicken, shredded lettuce, and good tomatoes. Then comes a ridiculously generous drizzle of the copycat white sauce, which really does come incredibly close to the sauce at the halal carts that are my first dining destination upon landing in New York City. — Amy McCarthy, reporter