The Only 3 Chicken Thigh Recipes You’ll Ever Need

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Rosemary Salt Recipe:
1 cup Kosher salt
14 sprigs of rosemary stripped
8 sprigs sage stripped
3-5 cloves of garlic (3 if they are big and 5 if small)
1 lemon zested

Rosemary salt weighted recipe:
250 g Kosher salt
16 g fresh rosemary leaves
8 g fresh sage leaves
20 g fresh garlic
3 g fresh lemon zest

Curry Powder Video- https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Js41UPsJUTM

Madras Curry Powder Recipe:
3 tbsp coriander seeds
3 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp fennel seeds
2 tbsp black peppercorns
2 small pieces of cinnamon stick
2 tbsp fenugreek seeds
15 curry leaves
7 cardamon pods
2 star anise
1 tbsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp Kashmiri chili powder
2 tsp ginger powder
1 tbsp hot chili powder

Shoyu Chicken Recipe:
4-6 chicken thighs
1 1/2 cups water
1 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
5 garlic cloves
7 spring onions
Garnish with sesame seeds

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What’s up, dude? If you asked me what my personal favorite cut of chicken was, I would definitely answer with thighs. They’re cheap, they’re forgiving, they’re flavorful, and they’re just really hard to mess up. But if you’re one of those people who only cooks chicken thighs one way for like the last 10 years, we’re going to change that today because in this video, I’m going to show you three completely different techniques that all bring something unique to the table. And whether that be super crispy skin or bold flavors or just melt inyou mouth fall apart chicken meat, there really will be something in this video for everyone. Now, let’s go. The first technique you’re going to learn today is a way to get crispy skin that actually stays crispy. Emphasis on staying crispy. Because if you know when roasting a whole chicken or breast or thighs or whatever, you pull it out of the oven, you’re like, “Wa, that skin feels really nice and crispy.” And then 10 minutes later after a rest, it’s full sogg. Full sogg. Sogg was here. Sog’s here. Now, I can’t even get up there. It’s so sogg. Well, believe it or not, there actually is a way to do this with great results. Here’s how you do it. And another thing I can mention here when it comes to actually choosing your chicken is to always buy chicken that says air dried or air chilled, it can be hard to find. But when you’re doing this technique, it makes a world of difference. You can see the chicken thighs on the left have much drier skin than the chicken thighs on the right. And so when it comes to achieving really golden brown, actually crispy skin. The drier the skin, the better. And another little trick I like to use is just to blow a little fan on this chicken skin while you prep or do whatever for about an hour or even 30 minutes would be good. And that really does sort of mimic an air dry in the fridge. And I’ve experimented with this method lots of times and it really does work well. So I’m just starting with one big juicy bone in thigh. You can see the bone just runs this way like that. And getting the bone out of a thigh is actually extremely easy. All I’m going to do is simply slice down right along this bone. Right? So, I’m just cutting along either side of it, just like so. And then once I’ve made a few slices, I’ll grab it down here and I’ll run the knife underneath and then just up and out, right? And so, now you’re left with that bone just sort of popping out like this. All I’ll do then is grab the top and just begin scraping this down. And trust me, once you do this just a few times, you’re going to be like, “Oh, this is way easier than I thought.” And by the way, if you don’t have a bon knife like this, just use whatever knife you got. Now, there’s all these little cartilage pieces in here. If you want, you can take out the bone really cleanly like this. And then come back in and just feel for that cartilage and cut it out. It’s really just this one piece right here. And that’s it. That’s the thigh completely deboned. I’ll do a couple more in real time so you can see what that’s like. After this, I’ll just cut away a little bit of the fat if need be. And I’m just left with this big nice juicy piece of thigh, which you can set aside for now. And on another note, save all these bones. There’s no reason to throw this away. We’re going to use this to make a really, really simple pan sauce. So, let’s just grab another thigh here. And right, we just slice down along this bone. Seeing it in real time. Slip underneath. Pop that out. Hold it up. Scrape it down. And then just slice that off. It really is that simple, my friends. There’s nothing to it. But of course, if you’re doing this for the first time, take your time. And again, just a little trim of any of that excess fat is all you need to do. Debbone thigh. And really, there are two main reasons I buy thighs with a bone in. And here they are. The first reason being, it’s extremely hard to even find boneless thighs that have the skin on. And also, at least where I live in Austin, Texas, all the boneless thighs are just so skimpy and poorly butchered. I mean, they’re sad little things. So, I find when I buy my own thighs with the bone in and the skin on and take out the bones myself, I just get a much better product. It’s as simple as that. And the second reason, and especially for the technique we’re using today, it’s really nice to have those bones to make a really simple sauce out of. I’ll show you how to do it. And of course, if you’re going for max flavor, you can roast these first, but I’ll tell you why we don’t really need to do that. And you’ll see by the time we finish the sauce. So, bone straight into a little pot. Then, simply just cover with water. You can throw aromatics in if you wish. I just have some shallot scraps. You could put carrots or celery or peppercorns or herbs or whatever you wish, but I’m just going to keep it really simple. Then, we’ll just set that over the stove. Heat a touch over medium. The next thing I’ll do, and you don’t have to do this, but I like to make these little scores through the flesh side of the thigh. That’ll help even it out a little bit, as well as help the seasoning really get in there, which is the next step. And I’m going to be doing rosemary salt. If you know, you know. And if you don’t know, it’s just a homemade herb and garlic seasoning we make on this channel. I suggest you learn how to make it. It’s super easy to do. I will put the recipe down in the description. I’ll also put a gram weighted version if you’re watching from across the pond. But you just take kosher salt. Then add a whole bunch of fresh stripped rosemary and sage along with a little bit of fresh garlic and lemon zest all in a food processor and then blend it up for about 1 minute. And what you’re left with is this absolutely aromatic, herbaceious, green, sandy, beautiful, amazing seasoning that goes good on so many things. Just read the comments below this video and you will see what I mean. And we’ll go ahead and do that on both sides. Just make sure your thigh is really as dry as possible. I just used a paper towel to do that. Good little seasoning just like so. Nothing to it. Do some pepper too if you like. And we’ll just repeat that process with our other thighs. Simple as can be. And on another note, if you want really crispy skin, you could actually season them like this and then put them on a rack in your fridge uncovered for like a day. My god, that will really give you the best results possible. But obviously guys, this is YouTube and pro cooking techniques are generally not wellreceived. Well, the techniques are wellreceived, but like the time frames, people don’t really like to wait. So, we’re just going to do them right away cuz that’s still going to be really good. Good amount of seasoning. Easy as can be. Another thing you need to know, if you season your thighs and let them sit for any amount of time really, these have been going for about 20 minutes as I’ve been doing other things in the kitchen, you’ll notice all this moisture coming out, right? And that’s because the salt is literally drawing the moisture out of the chicken. So, if you were to pan fry these right now, it would not be a good situation. So, what you want to do is just take some paper towel and redry. Now, if you season them right away and cook, you’ll be fine. But, if you have to wait any amount of time, this is really the move. And trust me, the salt’s gotten in there. It’s not like you really need to reseason these. Now, you can see all of that salt still on there. Now, here’s where it gets interesting because we’re starting with a cold pan that’s just ever so lightly oiled. And what I’ll do here is just drop in a few of these sides. But be sure not to overcrowd and always leave a little space in between, just like so. Then I’ll just kick the heat on a touch under medium. And I’m going to drop a little weight on here just to start the process. This is just really going to help it keep a good contact to the pan. And now all you need to do is nothing. And by the way, if you don’t have one of these weights, you can just use a little pan or a little pot or what have you. And so after this has been cooking for five minutes, I’m going to go ahead and remove this weight because it’s really done its job to seal that skin down on the pan so it gets nice and crispy. And the reason you don’t want to leave it on is because it traps a lot of steam, which will then drip back down and ruin your skin. It’s really just to start that process. Now, at this point, the chicken has been going for 7 or 8 minutes. Heat’s on medium. And the beauty of this recipe is that we’re going to cook these chicken thighs almost entirely on the skin side. We’ll just give them a little kiss on that other side near the end. But it’s just a foolproof method. And so what I’m doing now is just peeking at this chicken just to get it exactly where I want. It’s looking really good. But I’m going to take it a touch further. And if you feel like one of your chicken pieces is thicker, concentrate fire with the basing, obviously. And this may go without saying, but if you see your chicken is not getting brown fast enough, turn up the heat. And if for some reason your skin is like getting dark brown when the chicken’s still really raw, obviously turn the heat down. My god, this is looking glorious, my friends. And so that’s it. 10 minutes total, at least for this size thigh. And I’ll just go ahead and flip these over. Just kiss the other side with the heat. It’s almost completely done from the basing. Basically is, but just to be sure. And my god, that feels crunchy. Now, let’s take these off to rest while we build an incredible pan sauce. The next thing I love about this technique is the pan sauce you can make with all that fond. And we’re going to use that chicken stock we made from the bone. Super simple. Pan on medium high heat. And I’ll just go ahead and strain all that stock in. It reduced down by about 65 70%. And the reason I didn’t roast those bones is because we’re already getting all that roasty flavor from all the fawn that was left in this pan. So, it just kind of seemed like overkill. Although, you could definitely do it if you want a more intense sauce, but this should be intense enough. And I’m just using my little wooden scraper here to get all that fond off the bottom. And then all we’ll simply do is reduce this down. And then add a few simple ingredients most people have in their fridge to make a really nice sauce. And if you’re feeling extra fancy and want to put in the time and effort before adding the stock, you can add some minced shallots, some garlic, some dry white wine, reduce that down, and then add the stock. Having said that, there’s definitely a beauty in keeping it simple. And I really enjoy this kind of sauce just as much. But for now, all you got to do is keep the heat nice and high and begin reducing this down. And now once that has reduced by about another 70%, I’m going to go ahead in a separate bowl here. I’ve got a little Dijon mustard. I’m just going to add a little bit of that sauce to the mustard. And then just using a little spatula here, I’m going to work that together really nicely. For some reason, when you add Dijon straight to a sauce, it’s just really hard to mix it in. So if you do this first, you’ll end up with a nicer and smoother sauce. Just add that all straight back in. And honestly, I am freestyling here, but a little splash of worcershir sauce. Why not? A little more pepper. I’m going to be really careful not to add any salt until the very end if it needs it because of the Dijon and because there was a lot of salt in that fond on the pan. Now, once I got it reduced to about this level, I’m going to turn that heat all the way down to low. And I’m going to add just a few little pieces of cold unsalted butter just to make it rich and luscious. Little squeeze of lemon just to brighten that up. Don’t want it to be too flat. And that’s it, man. Really simple pan sauce. Absolutely done. Of course, if you like it thicker, you can reduce it more, but for me, this is perfect. I really don’t like overly thick sauces. To me, that’s going to go down nice and easy. It still coats the spoon nicely. It’s not overly thick. And as it sits here in the pan, if you don’t serve this right away, it will really continue to thicken up. Even though I just turned that heat off a minute ago, you can see that this is already thickening up, right? So I would say call that a little early. Man, something so simple can be so good. Might just put a tiny little pinch of rosemary salt right in the end. Make it a little herbaceious. And that’s a happy sauce. And after a few minutes of resting, we’re ready to slice. And you can Oh my, did you see it juice? Who saw that? If we could get a slow-mo replay, that would be amazing. And I like to cut it with the skin side up because if I flip it over, the juices are going to run into the skin. You just need a really sharp knife. I mean, just listen to this, my friends. That wasn’t a potato chip. Insane. Actually, crispy skin. So hard to do. Now, let’s lay a little sauce down. I like to puddle it underneath so I don’t ruin that crispy skin. I’m not going to do all that work and then just destroy it. Little chicken right on top. Like so. And there you go, my friends. Happy days. I mean, who’s going to be disappointed with that? Holy moly. Again, let’s try a piece of that skin. Look, anybody who cooks will know that when you roast a whole chicken and then you let it rest, that skin goes from crunchy to soggy. like it just doesn’t stay crispy. This is one of the only techniques I found when it comes to chicken where you actually can retain crispy skin, man. I mean, like enough said, right? The sauce is banging. The chicken itself is actually just so freaking juicy. Like, in terms of cooking thighs, you either cook them just through like this or you take them to a further temp, 190 beyond, nowhere in between. Now, before the next recipe, one of the things I miss most about being a kid is enjoying cereal. I really did love cereal. And back then, I didn’t just have it for breakfast. I would eat it for lunch. I would eat it at night. I would eat it whenever I was hungry. I just freaking love cereal. But unfortunately, on becoming an adult, you sort of realize that cereal is just a big bowl of toxic, crunchy sugar. It’s not exactly the fuel you need to get through the day. And that’s where the sponsor of today’s video, Magic Spoon, comes in. Because this is cereal with grownup ingredients. It’s packed with protein, has zero sugar, and is perfect for keeping your carbs in check. It’s filling, it tastes awesome, and it doesn’t feel like you’re having dessert first thing in the morning. My personal favorite flavors are fruity and frosted. Their cereal is 13 to 14 g of protein per serving, zero sugar, and just 4 to 5 g of net carbs. And if you love snacks on the go, Magic Spoon also makes these crispy treats that are kind of like cereal bars, but just way better. And I’ve grown quite fond of the marshmallow one. It is very tasty. And Magic Spoon is so confident in their product. It’s backed with a 100% happiness guarantee online. So, if you don’t like it for any reason, they’ll refund your money, no questions asked. Just click the link down in the description and use code that duke can cook or scan the QR code on screen to save $5 off Magic Spoon cereal or treats today. You can also find Magic Spoon on Amazon or in your nearest grocery store. Thank you, Magic Spoon for sponsoring this video. Now, let’s get back to the recipe. The second thigh recipe I have for you today is the easiest on the list. I mean, there is no skill in this, and I mean no skill. You do not need any skill. A potato could do this. The only skill you’ll actually need is the ability to choose some spices that aren’t complete garbage. And I think you can do that. This literally could not be any easier, right? I have two bowls cuz I’m going to do two different styles. And all I do, a little bit of olive oil. And keep in mind here, you can use whatever spices you like. I love smoked paprika, pimenone. In the other one, I just have some homemade curry powder. Another one of my favorites. But one word of caution when you’re actually going to choose your curry powder, just check the ingredients. If the first ingredient is tumeric, just throw that at the wall because in my experience, the ones that are really turmeric heavy just suck. All right, they they suck. They do. If you really want to go out, I’ll put a recipe for my own homemade curry powder down in the description. You don’t need to use that, but man, it does make a world of difference. It is very good. And of course, salt, little bit of pepper if you like. And rather than using a whisk, I actually will use this little spatula because those spices tend to clump up a little bit. So, I’m just pushing down and sort of just smashing out any lumps. And what I’m going for here is a sort of paste, if you will. Like, as you can see, it’s a little runny, but it’s very pasty. That’s what we want. Do the other one. Then all you got to do is take a thigh and we just do a little dippy dippy like so. And because this is so freaking pasty, it really just sticks so nicely. Can drag the side a little bit. And then you’ve just got this really nicely piece of coated chicken. The spice is really on there. Straight onto a sheet pan lined with parchment paper. And repeat with the rest. You can also just totally throw them all in at once like so to make sure they’re all coated up nice and even together. I mean, it really is unbelievably easy. And just the way this sort of oil slurry coats the chicken, you know they’re going to have some flavor. And once they look good, straight onto the parchment. Simple as that. And same exact deal with our curry seasoning here. Toss them up. That coated everything so nicely. Straight onto our sheetpan. Bowls basically cleaned out. And that’s your curry thighs and smoked paprika thighs totally done and ready for the oven. Oven’s preheated to 400 and in they go. On a quick side note, enjoy this cool wavy hand thing while I tell you about my gaming channel. It’s linked down in the description. Please subscribe. Subscribe. Also, after these have been in the oven for about 20 minutes, it’s definitely not a bad idea to just mop up a little bit of that olive oil and chicken juices and chicken fat. It’s all a mix of all three. And just sort of dab it back on. Can only do them a lot of good. Again, you don’t have to do this, but why not? On another note, it’s always a good idea to sort of rotate your chicken in your oven because the ones on top always get a little more crispy. And there is my chicken completely done after 55 minutes. And after temping it, it’s almost coming up to 200 internal. That’s really the beauty of thighs. They’re impossible to overcook. And in fact, I think they’re best at that temperature. Anywhere from 190 above. And wow, it really melts in your mouth. Also, just check out that skin, right? It’s got this light little crispy crunch to it. Of course, as it rests, you’ll lose a little bit of that. But right now, listen to that. I mean, that’s feeling good. And here’s our little smoked paprika thighs. I’ll tell you what, man. That looks like smoked barbecue or something. It looks so good. I love this dark red color. You can really never go wrong with smoked paprika and chicken. It’s just a fact. The only thing you need to do now is wait and let these rest for at least 10 minutes. These thighs are pretty big. They have that bone in there. They really need to rest, okay? You don’t want to just break into these things right away. But if you’re really hungry, I guess take a bite and burn your mouth. I mean, look at the way that this chicken just kind of shreds and pulls apart. It’s so unbelievably tender in the inside. The way it’ll just like fall off that bone. And for the amount of work that you have to do to make this, that’s truly some like unbelievably succulent chicken. It’s just falling apart. Oh man, this thing feels so juicy. Time to give it a taste. Starting with the smoked paprika. [Music] You know, I haven’t made chicken thighs like this for a minute. And I’ll tell you what, I used to do this all the time, and now I remember why. That’s so good. You get that hit of smoky flavor on the edge, and then the inside is just like literally melt in your mouth, kind of like barbecue. It’s insane. And what do you do? Nothing. This requires zero skill. Pan frying a perfectly cooked chicken breast, that requires skill. This jamming some thighs in the oven, literally. I mean, it’s it’s ridiculous how easy it is. Let’s try the curry, bro. With homemade curry powder as well. Holy God, man. It’s crazy. What if I just grab the bone of the one I was eating and I just push it down? I mean, look, my friend. Like, do you know what I’m saying? That’s like barbecue, dude. Except you did it in your oven. Extremely simple. Extremely good results. The third recipe I’m going to show you today is one of my favorites and it’s showy chicken. If you like saucy brazed meaty chicken thighs, then these are the ones for you. They’re really good. Start with a mediumsized pot and add one cup of your favorite soy sauce. I personally love this Wash Sea brand soy sauce. I learned about it from my Chinese friend Vivien, who’s an incredible cook here on social media under the name Cooking Bomb. Then just add 1 and 1/2 cups of water and 1 tbsp of rice vinegar. If you don’t have rice vinegar and you don’t have brown sugar, just sub it out with something else. You could definitely just use white sugar or any other sweetener or just use another kind of light white looking vinegar that will work just fine. Then all you need to do is add some simple aromatics. Here I have green onion, ginger, and garlic. And I really love peeling my ginger down with a spoon. Any kind of blunt object will do, but it just does a great job of peeling away only the peel and nothing else. And with all the aromatics today, we’re going to be leaving them in large chunks. These are just made to flavor your sauce, your brazing liquid. Having said that, you can eat them if you want, but they really are meant just as a flavoring here. And at this point, all you got to do is drop all your aromatics into your brazing liquid. And then take your bone in, skin on chicken thighs. And if you need to clean up some of that excess fat, go ahead and do it. And then just go ahead and lower those straight into your brazing liquid. It’s as simple as that. Over medium low heat, bring this mixture to a light simmer. You don’t want a rolling boil here. You just want a nice light simmer. And then I put a cracked lid on this and let it go for about 30 minutes. And I also like to give them a little flip halfway through cooking. So around the 15minute mark will do. Temperature- wise, somewhere around 185, 190° is just perfect for this dish. They are going to be melt in your mouth tender. Now, one of the best pro tips I can leave you with today when cooking this recipe or any recipe really where you’re brazing meat under a bunch of liquid is that after you turn off the heat, you need to let this rest in the liquid it cooked in for at least 30 minutes. But honestly, if you’re asking me, I would go for an hour with this recipe. If you want to get real crazy with it, make this the day before and then slowly heat it up the next day. And my god, is that the best way you could ever make it. And at this point, all we need to do is thicken up our sauce. To do this, I start by removing all those aromatics. They’ve done their job now. Then just take 1 tbsp of cornstarch and 2 tbsps of water. And I just use my finger to mix that in. Then little by little, pour that into your simmering liquid. You need to get the boil back before you see how thick it got from the amount you added. And then just keep adding little by little until you get that sauce to a consistency you really like. I don’t like it on the thicker side, so I go a little bit thinner with it. And you don’t have to do this, but the last thing that I like to do is just to throw my chicken under the broiler, skin side up. I’ll leave it there for a couple minutes until it gets a light crisp. And then I’ll just serve this up with some white rice and some vegetables if you want. And my friends, this is happy days. It’s always going to hit. Well, thanks for watching today, my friend. I really hope you learned something. I hope you feel inspired to go and get some thighs and make one of these recipes or just make your own thigh recipe. I don’t really care. I just hope you cook. And if you’re a fan of written recipes, check out my Master in the Making ebook that will be linked down in the description. Has 55 of my personal favorite recipes. They’re all just true hits. My gaming channel will also be linked below if you want to subscribe. And if you want to keep this party going, here are two more of my personal favorite chicken recipes from my channel, Perry Perry Chicken. Holy smokes, that’s good. Until next time, you know I love you when I’m out. [Music]