dijon roasted chicken thighs.
tender, juicy chicken thighs and softened potatoes with a bright and buttery dijon crust make a perfect weeknight dinner to pair with your favorite vegetables.
Makes: 4 servings Prep time: 10 minutes Cook Time: 50 minutes jump to recipe.
Alright, no-fuss lovers, this one’s for you. It’s the fastest prep and a hands-free meal ready in under an hour. Sounds like a long time, but if you pop it in the oven right as you get home, you can kick off your shoes, take a shower, pour some wine, and relax a bit while it cooks. The butter melts into the skin and drips onto the potatoes, making everything super soft, moist, and rich. The pan sauce that’s leftover? It’s delicious drizzled on top. And pairing options shouldn’t be difficult at all — carrots, spinach, zucchini, you name it, it goes well here.
Using chicken thighs
The recipe can be used for just about any cut of chicken you love, including a full fryer.
Chicken thighs, in my opinion, are the elite cut of chicken. They are always tender and juicy, and with the skin-on, get super crispy on the outside, too. If you insist on using breasts here, you’ll want to temp the chicken a bit earlier to prevent it from drying out and over-cooking. Alternatively, if you use the recipe for a full fryer, temp the chicken at about the hour mark and adjust from there. For me, a 4 pound fryer took about 1 hour, 20 minutes. And it was amazing, by the way.
Other cuts I’d recommend are chicken drumsticks and airline chicken (the breast with the drumette attached) Roasting bone-in gives flavor and moisture to the chicken. The amount of butter and Dijon will work for just about anything you roast inside of 4 portions. Making 6 thighs? Maybe add a little more butter. It doesn’t hurt to double the butter spread, by the way.
dijon roasted chicken thigh ingredients
chicken: As I rambled on about above, I recommend bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs. If you use boneless thighs or breasts, adjust the cook time down. If you use a whole chicken or legs, adjust the time up. At the end of the day, you’ll want any chicken you roast to temp at 165F.
potatoes: This is confusing to say because I used red potatoes for these photos, but this recipe is as perfect as it gets with Yukon golds. They get all creamy and buttery and delicious — the reds work fine, they just end up a little “starchier” if you know what I mean. Sorry, the original photos with the yellow potatoes didn’t work out.
butter: I try to use as little butter as I possibly can without compromising flavor and moisture. For this, that means 4 tablespoons, or a half a stick. It should cover even large thighs completely. I use unsalted.
dijon: Don’t skip this, you’ll regret it. It adds a savory tang to the butter and tastes amazing. You just need regular old Dijon, not yellow or stone ground or anything else. Just Dijon.
olive oil: I know, sorry to make you use EVOO and butter in one dish. This just helps the potatoes live their own life, separate from the chicken.
rosemary: I like using fresh herbs, but if you don’t have any on hand, just add a few shakes of dried. It’ll be just as flavorful (the fresh just adds that sharp herby flavor).
thyme: Again, if you can use fresh, you should, but dried will work fine. Eyeball it — if you’re not into guessing, I’d recommend a 1/2 tablespoon on the chicken.
onion: The world is your oyster here, but I have some recommendations. You want a subtle onion, nothing too sharp tasting. I used pearl onions in these photos, and I love bulb onions when in season (which are basically the same thing, without the hassle of peeling). Shallot will work really well if you can’t find the circular onion varieties.
garlic: Grate or press a garlic clove into the butter mixture for that extra bit of flavor. If you don’t have the tools for that, very finely mince the garlic to avoid burning the little bits in the oven.
salt and pepper: Just hit everything with a couple pinches’ worth, for good measure (and flavor). The herbs and butter and mustard do the heavy lifting, but you’ll need some salt to make it stand out.
toss the potatoes and onions with olive oil and herbs.
coat the chicken as much as possible, then add any extra butter directly on top. it’ll melt into the skin quickly.
dijon roasted chicken pairing options
This is easy to pair with. Salads, veggies, apps, you name it - you could even double up the carbs if you wanted to. Here are my suggestions for an easy, full meal:
creamed spinach
roasted broccoli, zucchini, Brussels sprouts, carrots
shaved Brussels sprouts salad
kale Caesar salad
foccacia
white wine, like sauvignon blanc or chardonnay
when plating, spoon some of the pan sauce over the chicken and potatoes.